Chengdu
Sichuan Province
China

June 15, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

The Chinese media reported that at the popular east coast tourist sites, the normally large summer crowds had increased by twenty percent because of the tourist onslaught to the Shanghai Expo.  I decided to fly west to Chengdu (pop 4.1 million). 

I landed in the middle of yet another onslaught.  Who knew?  Apparently everyone but me knew that this weekend is the Dragon Boat Festival, one of the most important holidays on the calendar.