Ron’s China trip October 28, 2007

My trip to China is now a set of memories. It was a combination business and pleasure trip and full of fantastic experiences. Of course IBM paid most of the freight. The route was St. Louis to Chicago to Shanghai to Beijing. The business and sightseeing were in and around Beijing. Not so sad to say, I missed the experience of lugging my luggage long distances, up mountains.

I went to teach local IBMers about the product I support, the DR550. The business portion was Monday through Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were sightseeing days. A friend from the Bay area and I visited the Forbidden City (where the Ming and Qing Emperors, Empresses, royal concubines, eunuchs, and other royal personages lived), Tiananmen Square, and a market called Silk Street (best described as a 5 story, massive bazaar) on Thursday. On Friday we visited the Great Wall (man, are portions of it steep!), the Ming Tombs, a jade working factory and outlet store, and a vase factory and outlet for the vases, more jade goods, silk, and many other types of goods all at a great prices. Unfortunately, it was very foggy for most of the time we were at the Great Wall so most of the pictures are so-so. I got over 150 pictures from the sightseeing excursions. Pictures are:

1) One of the larger of many palaces in the Forbidden City, 2) Tiananmen Sq., 3) Great Wall, and 4) One of the Ming Tomb buildings.

Beijing is safe, and the people very courteous. Of course it’s crowded as you’d expect of a city with 17 million people. There’s very little litter but the air quality is terrible. I wouldn’t want to be an Olympic athlete competing here next year unless they really get some control of the pollution. I would recommend Beijing as a great place to visit but not during the Olympics and at a time of year when pollution is not so bad (if there is such a time).