Smuggled out of China

Yo. Can't access my blog (or Facebook, or any number of other sites) from China, where I am now, so this post is being smuggled out of the country encoded on the wing feathers of migratory birds…

Great country, but if the term "bureaucratic overreach" did not exist, you'd want to invent it for China. You have to get fingerprinted just to get into a national park. Driving through Tibet requires a fistful of permits and standing in line at interminable checkpoints. And God forbid that you should have a picture of the Dalai Lama on you, or take one of some village people, or of the omnipresent military who have turned the whole place into an armed camp, or try to discuss politics with anybody - not that they know much about it, because the media is so censored. But it's all worth it to see scenes like this - here's Mt. Everest on a rare, clear day:

And here's a picture of the restaurant in my most, uh, memorable hotel / flophouse: no running water, no doors on the rooms, no sheets on the beds, no sanitation of any kind, about an hour of electricity at night, but surprisingly, the food wasn't all that bad…