Pitfall #1

On the way from the airport to the hotel, after travelling for 25+ hours, I lost my camera...I guess that was China's way of welcoming me? I have been taking my iPhone out with me to take pictures but I finally decided it was time to buy a real camera because losing my phone in China would be devastating. I went to a place down the street full of technology stands. There's Nikon, Canon, Apple, everything. So I went to the Nikon area and spent 30 minutes using sign language to buy a camera. It's actually the older version of the one I lost and it's definitely good enough for my purposes! He charged me 600 yuan, which comes out to ~$97 and my friend here has an extra SD card that he's going to let me borrow. Then he gave me a free case and a free USB converter that I can plug all sorts of memory cards into. Pretty sweet deal. Sometimes people here hate me because I'm so ignorant and sometimes they think it's funny. I always hope for the latter. Well, crisis averted everyone. I am glad I got it before the great wall trip!