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I arrived yesterday afternoon from Beijing, with a connection at Tokyo's Narita airport. It's cold and gray in Houston today.

Anyway, here are some pictures from this latest trip:

1. Dinner
The team took us for dinner on Thursday evening at a fancy restaurant. There was a lot of food on the table. I was asked if I could recognize this particular plate and I couldn't until I took a close look.

The plate consisted of meatballs and scorpions. I tasted the meatball and it was good. I was asked to try the scorpions. I took one and tried it. The texture was like sand and I couldn't finish nor swallow it. So here it is:



2. Customs at Beijing Airport


3. Beijing airport: waiting for my connection to Tokyo


4. One of the duty-free shops at the Narita airport


5. This was the NWA Airbus that I took from Beijing to Tokyo.


6. The flight to Houston was delayed because the plane was coming from Newark was delayed due to the winter storms in the US east coast.


7. At the arrival area in Houston

Back In Beijing

It's 5:40 am Monday in Beijing. I arrived at the hotel late last night - close to midnight after my 14-hour flight from Houston to Narita was delayed.

When I arrived at Narita, the passengers disembarked and either you go through immigrations or you proceed to your connecting flight. The names of people who were arriving from late connections were posted. I guess I was the only person from the Houston flight (Continental Airlines) who was going to Beijing as I saw only one name listed on the board - mine.

I go through another security check and made my way to the Northwest flight, which by this time was already delayed. The Houston flight landed at 5:10 pm, the Beijing flight was supposed to board at 5:15 pm and as of 5:17 pm, I was still going through the security line.

The good thing is that when I arrived at the hotel, I was informed that I was getting an upgrade room. During my previous stay, the room was already great, the hotel being rated 5-star. The major difference, I guess, is that this upgraded room has a bigger seating area than my previous one. It has a couch, a coffee table and another chair on one end. The work desk looks the same.

I'm looking forward to breakfast. I was hungry when I arrived but I was too tired even to order room service. I have to shower now and get ready. I'm taking a cab to get to work but I'll take the hotel shuttle on the way back.

I'm on Skype but my family's offline. I called the cellphone but no one's answering.

Back Home

The flight from Beijing to Newark was supposed to be 13 hrs and 25 minutes. There's always something going on in the NY/NY airspace and I never expect to arrive or depart on time when I'm in this area. This time, heavy thunderstorms rolled into the area. After some delays, the plane landed, got through customs/immigration and found my way to the gate. The plane arrived in Houston late. I'm back home - with a cough and cold that I caught in Beijing 2 days prior to my return flight.

There were 70 channels on TV, 3 are in English: CNN Asia, a Singaporean News Channel and one Chinese channel that broadcasts (most of the time in English). Saw this one on the Chinese channel: Olivia Newton-John still sings?



No kidding, regular people go the park, sing, dance, play games and socialize:



The obligatory tea ceremony where you are given 4 different kinds of tea. Thereafter, you may buy tea, tea sets and accessories such as mugs and the Chinese pee-pee boy (which I might have a video later on):

The Great Wall

The Great Wall extends from east to west. There are sections of the wall that are open to the public and the one closest to Beijing was the Badaling Great Wall, some 30-45 minutes the hotel. It was cold (mid 30's F) and windy.

I've always pictured the Great Wall to be easily traversed, where I can walk, setup my tripod and take pictures. There are sections where this is probably possible but the Badaling section of the wall is about 800 meters high (some 2400+ feet). Going up was tough. Working on the stepper machine in a gym is nothing compared to climbing the first 100 feet up the wall. I was breathing hard. People around me were taking their time to go up. People would stop on the way up and sit on the steps. Anyway, it's still a great experience to see the Great Wall.

The purpose of the wall was to keep the Mongolians from invading China. Now that I've seen and been to the wall, I'd certainly have second thoughts about doing so. If I was a one of those attempting to invade China in the past, I'd look at the rugged mountain range, look at the wall and say, "ahh. let's just go home. let's mind our own business".

Anyway, here are my pictures taken at the wall - please click

Beijing City Tour

The plan was to tour the important sites around Beijing on a Saturday and then Sunday would be for the Great Wall tour. The city tour was very tiring: 3 major spots that all involved long walks. We started the tour at around 8:30 am and ended around 5 pm. I'll be back in Beijing in November so we'll have to postpone the Great Wall tour.

There were 4 of us who travelled to Beijing from the US. Julie flew back on Friday morning and Doug left midday Friday. Svetlana and I will be working here till Friday and will fly back to the US next Saturday.

Here are some of the pictures that were taken yesterday - change the slideshow setting to 6 or 7 seconds to view the captions:

The Forbidden City - click here

The Temple of Heaven - click here

The Summer Palace - click here


For the "real" explanation of what these places are, here are official links:

Forbidden City: Click Here

Temple of Heaven: Click here

Summer Palace: Click Here

After Dinner

The teahouse was close to Tiananmen Square so we walked towards it.

Food & Tea

So far, everything I've had tasted good (or great). Here's the food from one restaurant: the wok contains lamb and noodles, the plate contains fungus, noodles and vegetables.


We went to a famouse culinary landmark in Beijing: the Laoshe Teahouse - frequented by local businessmen, celebrities and dignitaries. Presidents, Prime Ministers, Royalty and other VIPs go to this place for tea and cultural shows. Pictures of former president George H. Bush, Kissinger, among others, are displayed.


Inside are various tea rooms where the group is assigned a tea server .


The setup:


The food:

Hotel

Here are pictures I took in and around the hotel.

Click to see the Pictures

Day 1

I had breakfast at the hotel. The food selection looked more western than Chinese. The only telltale sign that I was in Asia was the fact that there on the buffet was a "thing" (colander ?) with steamed dumplings of something. There was the usual sausage, pancake, pastries and eggs. I'll probably take pictures tomorrow.

Here are pictures from yesterday's flight from the states:

Click to see the pictures

Newark to Beijing

I'm now in Beijing. The flight from Newark took 13 hours. The cab ride to the hotel was at least 45 minutes and it cost 126 CNY (approx USD 18.43). Am so sleepy but I need to stay awake to force myself to adjust earlier to Beijing time.

Leaving Today

It's 3:27 am and everyone is still asleep. My luggage has already been prepared by Marilou a few hours ago. Joey and Aireen dropped by last night - BYOB - they brought their own beer.

I'm driving to IAH at 4 am with Marilou. I'm not taking the kids since Jan has karate and Jamie has violin lessons. The flight to Newark is about 4 hrs and the direct flight to Beijing is... a long one.

Another Trip

I was in the car with Marilou and Jan, waiting for Jamie to come out of school last Friday. Jamie was looking forward to see me at her school open house this Tuesday. My cellphone rang and I received instructions to go to Vegas for a convention. That meant leaving on a Sunday, return on Friday and totally missing my daughter's open house. Anyway, when I arrived at my hotel, Jamie asked me for pictures of where I'm staying. My cellphone doesn't really take sharp pictures (and videos) but here are some anyway:

1. View from the plane some 30 minutes prior to landing in Vegas


2. Getting close


3. Second prior to landing, you see life appear in the middle of the desert


4. The office/living area of the room


5. A blurry picture of the gondolas at the Venetian


6. A blurry picture: Vegas version of Piazza San Marco in Venice


7. The Bellagio


8. Ceasar's Palace, right beside the Bellagio


9. Video: das Zimmer


10. Video: Bellagio fountain show

The light show is on every 15 minutes and a different song is played, resulting in a different pattern from the previous show.