I'd been toying with the idea since Pingyao. It was after watching the sunrise from Huangshan, however, that I knew I was ready for it. So on Monday evening, I showed up on my doorstep in Chicago four days ahead of schedule, much to Melissa's surprise.

"This stuff's got a 1000% mark-up," whispered a Canadian expat as the shopkeeper moaned that she was losing money on the item that she was nevertheless packaging for him. Apparently, he was a frequent patron of the Yu Gardens Bazaar, the buzzing tourist trap of China paraphenalia surrounding Shanghai's beautiful Yu Gardens. I'd passed through here the other day on my visit to the Gardens, but now I meant business.

"In heaven," goes an old Chinese saying, "there is paradise. On earth, Suzhou and Hangzhou." I've now been to both, having spent the day in Suzhou, which is about an hour's train ride northwest of Shanghai. Personally, I think I might pick different cities as earth's answer to paradise, but I must agree that both are beautiful places. Suzhou's main attraction is its collection of exquisite Chinese gardens. I only managed to visit three of them, but I'm glad I went.

Bustling cosmopolitan metropolis though it is, Shanghai doesn't seem to have that much to offer the solo backpacker. Its tourist attractions are relatively few. What makes it stand out from China are precisely the things of least interest to me right now -- shopping and nightlife.

So I ended up teaching English in China after all. It wasn't quite how I had originally envisioned it, though. Instead of teaching structured lessons to a classroom of university students, I taught an old man how to say a handful of sentences in English while sitting on the banks of the Grand Canal in Hangzhou, where I've just spent a rather unusual day and a half.

After climbing up and down approximately a billion stone steps, I've just come down from Huangshan. I think the Canadian girl that I met in Xi'an summed up the mountain more concisely than I could: "Go!" This is absolutely one of the most fantastic places I've ever been.

I spent about 12 hours on Chinese buses today. I'll take them over Greyhound any day.

The bad news about the Three Gorges is that they seem to be mostly submerged already. The good news is that they still make for a great boat ride. The two days I spent on the boat between Chongqing and Yichang were among the best on my trip so far. Forgive the long narrative, but there's much to tell.

It wasn't an accident, just a sudden recalculation of priorities. And based on everything I knew at the time, it should have worked out just fine.

En route to the bus station in Chengdu, where I intended to buy a ticket on the next bus to Emei Shan, I began to fear that the expedition could balloon way past the three days I was planning for. It might have been another six days before I left on the boat for the Three Gorges. At that pace, I might have to skip Huangshan, the Yellow Mountain, recipient of gushing reviews from other travelers and reputed to be one of the most scenic spots in China. Whereas my trusty Lonely Planet guide said that the new highway made the bus trip to Chongqing, point of depature for the Three Gorges, down to a brief two hours. The boat leaves at 6:00 pm every evening, so if I caught a bus at noon, I'd have four hours to buy my boat ticket, poke around Chongqing a bit, and hop aboard to head down the river.

I haven't really seen many "sights" in Chengdu, but I've been spent a great day and a half relaxing here and hanging out with some fellow travelers.

The city, perched on a broad plateau in central Sichuan province (home of kungpao chicken and other spicy dishes), is one of the nicer, more relaxed cities that I've seen. There's not much in the way of tourist attractions, but the various parks are a great place to slow down and unwind mid-trip.