So I'm on vacation. Thank God. It couldn't have come fast enough. I made the decision to head south, back down to Guilin, where I lived when I first traveled to China in 2002.

I brought "Red Dust" with me. It's a novel written by a political outcast here in the 1980's. He left under duress Beijing and walked across the country to Tibet, then back. I read it the first day I came to China in 2002. The title is taken from the Chong Yu "Kan Puo Hong Chen" - "See, break, red dust." It describes the moment of realization, the moment of seeing through the illusion of reality in which we all live.

Reading it again now brings back memories of the first time I came to this country. I sat in my room and read the entire book in a day, waiting for my friend Dan to show up. Sometimes I really want to do what Ma Jian did, just take the Buddhist vows and give up everything, just walk until I find reasons for things.

I don't know. But it's been nice, being back here, reading the book again and walking the streets that I used to walk, six years ago. Sometimes I think I'm too trapped in the past. I spend my time going over things I've already done instead of making new experiences to go over later.

Still, though, sitting on the stone stool outside my girlfriend's old one-room apartment really brings back some memories. A lot of the places I used to go are gone now. Progress and all that. But this place still has a magic to it. It's like a breath, filling up an emptiness that I didn't realize was there.

I don't mean to say I don't like in Beijing. There are creature comforts there that Guilin still doesn't really have. Pizza delivery, for example, is something I take for granted in the north. But maybe pizza delivery doesn't make up for a city full of people too busy to take the time to say hello.

Anyway, I'm happy to be here. One of these days I'm actually going to wake up early enough to get out and do something. For now, though, I'm happy to sit in Adam's apartment, watching TV and working on my websites.

I've posted a few pictures I took over the last few days, and I'm going to post another bunch once I've taken them. Still haven't found filters to cut through the Guilin haze, but I'm starting to like the hazy mountains. Wish me luck, people; I'll be back in Beijing in a week or so.