China

Lauren forced asked me to take over the blog to share some stories about my China trip.  I took the trip as part of my MBA program.  We were given the option of either staying home and taking a seven week class on the global business environment, or spending much less time in class and learning by doing in China for nine days.  14 dummies (kidding) ended up staying home and attending class, while myself and 7 other adventurous types decided to take the plunge.  We visited Shanghai and Beijing during our time, with a high speed rail trip in between.

The first thing I have to say is thank you to my wonderful wife for authorizing me to be gone for all that time.  It was an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I can’t actually believe we debated whether or not it was a good idea.  It was a lot for you to take on and I truly appreciate it.  Of course it didn’t all go smoothly.  There were a couple minor injuries, including a multi-lingual announcement on  on the flight over to see if there was doctor on board (Apparently a passing drink cart collision with the knee while sleeping can induce someone into passing out.  Who knew?), and a self-inflicted Great Wall head wound.  The trip over and back was exactly how you would expect it to be for someone who is 6’2”.  Not the most comfortable 26 hours (total flight time) of my life, but well worth it. 

Other than my periodic bad fortune and sore knees I was blown away by the trip.  The people are wonderful (very nice, inquisitive, willing to help).  The food was amazing.  The pollution even abated for the days that we were there and we were blessed with sunny skies and warm weather.  I decided rather than try to explain it all just do this photo essay style and share some images from the trip, along with some comments.  China is not somewhere that I would have ever thought to go if this opportunity had not presented itself, but I would absolutely go back and would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to take advantage.  You will not be disappointed.  Thanks for reading!

Day trip to Sozhou.  A smallish city about 90 minutes outside Shanghai.  Smallish like 10 million people

Traditional Chinese garden right in the middle of the city

All of the walkways had this kind of detail.  Makes my back hurt just thinking about it



Back in Shanghai.  There were a few scooters on the roads

It costs $10,000 to register a car in Shanghai.  Drive around for half a day and you quickly understand why

Took this in the cab from the airport to the hotel.  My jaw was on the floor.  21 million people and high rises everywhere

River cruise in Shanghai



This stupid American kept getting in my pictures

Bullet train from Shanghai to Beijing.  180 mph!

View from my hotel balcony in Beijing.  We were right in the heart of the financial district

Visiting the Olympic site.  The wind was at my back.  I'm not this puffy.  I swear

CCTV tower in Beijing.  One of the 7 architectural wonders of the world

If you are ever thinking of setting off a car bomb in the embassy district, don't do it.  It's not allowed

The knock-off market in Beijing.  A 5 minute walk from our hotel.  6 floors of knock-off clothes, jewelry, watches, handbags, luggage and just about anything else you can think of.  Nothing had prices on it.  You had to haggle with a rude 18 year old Chinese girl for everything

If you are looking for a foot massage and a new driver, this is the place

Street food

How do you know there are a lot of people in Beijing (population 19 million)?  This is in the subway at 10 pm on a Thursday

One of the city gates just outside Tianamen Square

Our guide told us that they make the Asian tourists wear matching hats so they don't lose people.  That's the National Congress building in the background

The famous picture from the 1989 student demonstrations was taken on the street just to the right of this picture

I had to keep backing up to get the National Mueseum into the frame.  This picture does not do it justice

We drew crowds a lot of places we went.  This is Chris from my MBA program with about 100 people standing around taking pictures with and of us.  I probably had my picture taken at least 200 times

Inside the Forbidden City.  The largest imperial palace in the world.  Our guide told us if you visited every room it would take 2-3 years.  There are over 10,000



The detail work on the building in the background is crazy

These are the two tallest people I met 

There were about 1000 of these on the doors of the Emperor's throne room.  Apparently he liked gold

This is a single piece of marble.  It took them 3 years to move it to the palace.  They could only do it during the winter because they had to wait for the ground to be icy.  Took 3,000 men to move

"We have some problems at our Great Wall of China store"

Street vendors at the Great Wall

We climbed all the way to the top of this section

It's really steep



That's still the wall on top of the mountain in the background.  They don't know how long it is for sure, but it's estimated somewhere between 4,000 and 7,000 miles

Also steep going down

Top of the world

After I took this picture I turned around and did...

...this.  Apparently the towers are not designed for the over six foot crowd

This lady tried to sell us beer on the way back down.  Thank you, no

Saturday (day before we came home) we had the day to ourselves.  We decided to visit an authentic Chinese coffe shop

One of my favorite places in Bejing.  Park that some locals had to show us how to get into



Lots of shops, restaurants, and bars in this area.  Very fun

The food was great.  Probably because we didn't eat here (I apologize to anyone who digs Sizzler)

This was one of my favorite meals.  Hole in the wall with sidewalk seating.  Less than $3 for soup and a couple beers.  So good

I can't describe how good this tasted at the time.  I love Chinese food, but this was a welcome change of pace

Our last dinner.  The one to the left of the beer was mine.  Fantastic.  My classmates that stayed a few extra days ate here 3 more times.  It was in an alley behind our hotel