After a week of productive meetings in China, another Chinese colleague and I headed to Beijing Friday afternoon. We stayed at a hotel overlooking the site of the 2006 summer Olympics. Very cool place to stay for sure. The "
bird's nest" (Olympic stadium) was closed for touring but the water cube was open. Pretty cool that it's open to the public not just for touring but to swim! The main pool is 9x50m lanes and people just like me were out there doing their laps. There was also a 6x50m warm up pool open for lap swimming. Very cool.
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| The view from my hotel. |
Pretty sure the smog was pollution. I had a slight burn in my eyes and the back of my throat in Beijing and in Shanghai.
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| The bird's nest |
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| normal people doing laps |
After walking around the Olympic park for a bit, we took a cab to
Tiananmen Square .
We couldn't walk on the square because Congress was in session and it was roped off.
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| Tiananmen Square |
Saturday morning, we took a cab to the
Great Wall. It was cold, 20F with 30 mph winds, but that kept the crowds down.
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| The Great Wall is 5,500 mile long! |
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| Very steep sections |
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| we bought stocking caps at a souvenir shop |
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| Two shirts and two spring jackets, I was cold! |
After the walk on the Great Wall, we headed to the airport where our flight left at 5 pm Saturday and after 13 hours of flying, landed in Chicago at 4 pm the same day. Kind of Matrix like :-).
What a great trip! Besides being productive for work, I was able to see two major cities in China. Very cool. I also used chop sticks for lunch and dinner all week and while not an expert by any means, I didn't starve :-). I guess eating sushi with chop sticks a couple times a month actually turned in to something useful.
