Chinese in Space, Golden Week

Recently a few of my classmates and I have taken a liking to a local cafe owned by an outgoing Buddhist man, Mr. Zong, for studying and tea.  He loves talking about religion, politics, economics, and anything under the sun, and it seems like he's discussed these things with many a patron over the years.  Tonight we watched the launch of China's third manned space mission (this time to feature the first Chinese spacewalk).  The patrons, and especially Mr. Zong, were very excited, and it was a very cool experience to share with them as they all waved goodbye to the astronauts on the screen.

Tomorrow we begin our 10-day independent travel break (5 of which occur during China's Golden Week holiday, during which roughly 300,000,000 people will be traveling; this should make things more interesting).  My friend Natan and I are hitching a night train to Beijing, where we'll be seeing the sights and sipping the tea for four days or so.  Then, after consultation with Mr. Zong and the internets, we'll be heading on down to south-central China to visit Luoyang, a several-thousand-year-old city and former capital of China (Eastern Han dynasty, if you were curious), and a site famous for a network of thousands of caves and rock faces filled with ancient Buddhist stone carvings (around 470 C.E.) , ranging in size from an entire cave full of fist-sized buddhas to a cliffside with stories-high bodhisattvas.  Natan and I are both somewhat of Eastern religion enthusiasts, so we're pretty psyched.  

I'll probably be more or less out of contact for a while (though Natan and I are making every effort to see the Presidental Debate in Beijing, if it happens), but should have some great pictures for my next post.