We sequestered ourselves in the Beijing office today to prepare for a big presentation tomorrow (Thursday). It is for a new project. The pictures are all from in and around the Beijing office.
Wednesday/ Beijing office
Tuesday/ Beijing bound
Here are my pictures from today’s trip to Beijing. The flight from Shenzhen to Beijing is almost three hours to the north, but that did not make much difference in the weather : Beijing seems to be as warm as Shenzhen is this time of the year.
Monday/ martini glass
It’s Monday and the hotel shows its appreciation for the long-term guests (me) on Mondays by leaving some treats in the room. Alas, I have to check out in the morning since I will go up to Beijing for a day or two to attend a presentation.
Sunday/ weather report
It is very warm here. We’re at the bottom of the lower red blob; just outside of it right on the coast. So we’re not quite up to (35°C/ 95°F), but almost.
Saturday/ shopping in Shenzhen
Two colleagues and I took a taxi out to Shenzhen late morning for some shopping at Luohu Commercial Center and the Coco Park mall. We encountered heavy traffic on the way back : it’s weekend and the Dameisha streets and beaches were overflowing with Shenzhen city-zens that wanted to enjoy the hot summer weather.
it’s Friday ..
.. and that means some of our colleagues go back to Beijing and Shanghai – and those of us ‘left behind’ get to walk to the Dameisha Sheraton to make our bellies happy with a beer and a burger, or British-style fish and chips. The lobby was quiet this time except for the band downstairs that we could hear. They billed themselves as ‘Taste of Thai’ but nonetheless sang the John Denver classic ‘Country Roads (Take Me Home)’. Aw. For me it is one more week before I get to check up on my home and my friends, and the summer that Seattle has been having while I have been away.
Thursday/ watch out for the bus!
This is the street corner in Da Peng just outside the gate to the nuclear power plant .. busy with pedestrians, traffic and an impromptu street market of sorts. We had a little accident on Wednesday morning with the bus. A car driver tried to overtake us from behind on the inside. Trouble was, the bus was already starting to turn its nose into the open lane, and there was also oncoming traffic. So the car driver could not get out of the way or stop in time. In the end there was just a bad scape on the big fender of the bus but a big dent in the rear door of the car.
Wednesday/ team dinner in Shenzhen
The project team went out to dinner on Wednesday night in Shenzhen. All told, we were only 4 Americans in the party of almost 30 people – but we did clink our glasses of beer and wished each other Happy Fourth of July.
Happy Fourth of July !
Happy Fourth of July! Here is the famous preamble which includes the ideas and ideals that were principles of the Declaration of Independence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Monday/ crane on a coaster
I love the colors on my coaster for the green tea that we were served in a meeting I attended on Monday. The color of the yellow ring is a little washed out. The bird symbol in the center is a crane, probably a red-crowned crane. We may have some here in the green areas around the nuclear power station, but I have not seen any.
Sunday/ the Минск (Minsk) aircraft carrier
Three colleagues and I finally – after all this time in the area! – went to check out the retired Russian aircraft carrier, the Minsk. It is a stone’s throw away from Dameisha, in the Yantian port area.
From Wikipedia : Named after the capital city of Belarus, the Minsk was laid down in 1972, launched on 30 September 1975, completed on 27 September 1978, and decommissioned on 30 June 1993. The Minsk operated with the Pacific Fleet. She was retired as a result of a major accident (details not known) which required the facilities at the Chernomorskiy yard, in Mykolayiv, located in the newly-independent Ukraine (the reasons for not attempting a repair are not known). In 1995 she was sold to a South Korean businessman, and later resold to Shenzhen Minsk Aircraft Carrier Industry Company Limited, a Chinese company.
Saturday/ baseball in Japan
I thought the long pink balloons (see picture) at a baseball game on Japanese TV was just for the visual effect and waving back and forth, but no : at a given signal everyone let go and up and away the balloons went, and plopped (deflated) back onto the spectators – that was part of the fun. Baseball is very popular but not the national sport (sumo wrestling is). of the league can be traced back to the formation of the “Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club” in 1936. (In the USA, Major League Baseball traces its history back to 1869, the year the ‘Cincinnati Red Stockings’ was established as the first professional team).
The teams all have their fan clubs and websites and each team is a franchise that endorses or markets all kinds of products and events.