today, i woke up at 6 because my mother called me; she still isn't good at the whole time zone thing. since i was already up, i hit the sauna (again) in order to prepare my body for the day.

then i returned to my slumber for a few minutes and was awoken by ms. helen, who was waiting at my door (i had given her my room number the night before).

i quickly threw on some business casual attire and set off with her. what followed was a typical day in the hands of a local government, eager for foreign money.

the highlights:

-an hour of skiing to start the day (chinese ski areas are really lame, but there is some entertainment value)
-a walk in a treeless park that gets 12 million visitors per year
-an hour of paintball
-a really wierd lunch (not as bad as the stuff the guys in the south like to feed me, but plenty of unidentifiable dishes), which included copious amounts of baijiu
-a visit to the new aquarium; i love aquariums, even smelly ones; the most interesting part of this one was the snake room because, rather than feeding those guys at set intervals, they give them an extra supply of mice to devour at will; those mice were living in fear
-another aspiring resort was next on the agenda; we rode bicycles
-a formal meeting; nothing was really accomplished, but i liked one of the guys so it's conceivable that future business will result
-a banquet. i tried my best to get out of this without being rude; the best i could do was a 7p deadline. the food was ok --way better than lunch-- and i was impressed by the room.... santa scene using actual stuffed reindeer, manmade snow falling from the ceiling, waitresses adorned in santa mini (or maybe "micro") dresses.
-later, the guy that i liked brought me to his favorite bar (Party), which was ten-fold better than babyface

regarding the hotel; i really like it. however, no less than 3 of those guys told me it's a bad hotel. when i asked them why, they were at a loss for words. in any case, i extended and have no idea how much the second night's going to cost me.

i took lots of pictures throughout the day, which i'll try to incorporate into this when i get a chance.