Back in the States

The China trip is over, and I had an incredible time.

This morning I uploaded over 800 pictures to Facebook; I still have seven videos to upload.

The jetlag has been somewhat murderous. I slept almost all day today with random bouts of wakefulness.

So. That is that. Hopefully I can go to Brazil in the spring.... that should be an awesome trip, too.

I climbed the Great Wall today! We had near-perfect weather for it, too! It wasn't too hot or humid and there was a good breeze at the top. We hiked up to the base of the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall and the group was given the option of going up via ski lift or by hiking up the stairs. Five people went ski lift, everyone else went stairs.

I went stairs and sweet baby Jesus, my legs were like jelly half-way up.

The pain was worth it, though. The views were undeniably gorgeous and I can say I legitimately climbed the Great Wall. Once up top, we decided to climb up some MORE to a tower even higher up. There was seriously a stair that went straight up!

Some of my pictures (before my camera died):

Company Visits: Recapping a Couple of Days

At this point, about six hours before we leave for the airport, I should write some stuff about the companies and people we've visited in the last few days. I realized I haven't actually done that.

So where I last left off was Capsugel in Suzhou, China on Friday. That was about a week and two cities ago. Clearly, more time needs to be dedicated to blogging about this trip.

Saturday we boarded the bus to go to Shanghai, but we were temporarily waylaid. Our tour guide set up some sort of tour of a silk factory in Suzhou without telling anyone; even Dr. Watson & Richard seemed to be confused by what was happening. Part of the group toured the factory, part of the group remained on the bus. I'm skeptical about the factory-ness of the factory (as in, how legit was it) because they were letting tour groups get almost on top of the equipment and touching the raw silk threads as it was being spun into hanks.

However, once in Shanghai, we visited Fudan University to meet with some of their IMBA students. One guy was a Chinese-American student, studying in China. He came over without knowing a word of the language and said he's gotten a mixed reception. Another student was from Chile and she didn't know a word of Chinese when moving here, either. I really liked those two students because they were very open -- the Chilean student even answered our questions about the squatty potty and her experiences with them! The Chinese students had been in Boston this spring and were taken to a lot of parties; they wanted to know if we partied like that too.

...

Of course we don't.

On Sunday we went to the International Expo, which I've already covered.

Monday morning was the only day this trip we got to sleep in! Our company visit in the morning (Covance) had been rescheduled to the afternoon, so we got to sleep an extra hour. Right after lunch we visited one of 3M's R&D centers in Shanghai. One of the best experiences on this trip! We got to see some of the cool things 3M's had a hand in creating.

After 3M, we went straight to Covance. At Covance, the mayor was visiting, so we were put off for about forty minutes (we were also thirty minutes early). Not a problem for us MBA students -- we just found the closest Starbucks and parked! Downside: the Starbucks didn't have the coffee blends for frappacinos. Therefore, most of us wound up with caffeine-free beverages contrary to our initial goal of dosing ourselves with caffeine and sugar. Once we were able to get into Covance, we met with one of the Vice Presidents.

I've said it before, but there's a definite difference between people in China that have been Western-educated and those that haven't. The ones that have are more gregarious than those that haven't. This man was funny and informative. I didn't realize that companies can contract out their drug research or clinical testings. I also found out that stomach and liver cancer are very prevalent in China!

No company visits on Tuesday since we flew to Beijing!

Since this is already pretty long, I'll do Mr. Fu's company and our politician visit and the dinner with ex-pats tomorrow. :)

Last Day!

Today's our last day in China! 24 hours from now, I'll be in an airport, waiting to fly back to the States.

I think I might sleep for days when I get back.

Of Course!

My roommate's sick.

I, being the loving and caring person that I am, told her that if I catch what she's got and I'm physically ill on the plane on Saturday, she might have to sacrifice some eyebrows.

Places!

In the last two weeks, I've been to some pretty awesome places: the Westlake area, the International Expo, Tianamen Square, and the Forbidden City. No Terra Cotta warriors. :( They were on the original itinerary, but got cut.

So! My impressions, and some pictures, in chronological order:

The Westlake Area

This is a GORGEOUS area! We took pictures with the Confucious statue (that were picture bombed) and then walked around some and took a boat tour. As beautiful as the area is, it's apparently not too much of a foreign tourist attraction, based on the number of stares we received. In Shanghai and Beijing, we haven't gotten that much attention and no one has asked to take a picture with anyone in our group in a couple of days (well, except for Katie today at the Forbidden City).

The Confucious statue at West Lake! Before we were photo bombed!

Not entirely sure why there's a bridge on an island, but whatever.

Dr. Watson.. he did one of these pictures on the Brazil trip, too. That's a VERY large Koi pond behind him.

The International Expo

Shanghai was NUTS about this thing. Everywhere you looked, there was Blue Gumby (or Haibo, as he's actually named). The expo itself was over a ridiculous amount of land that will apparently become the new business district when the expo is done. Most of the buildings constructed for the expo will be torn down to make way for new skyscrapers.

Security at the event was controlled by entrance times. You were given a window to arrive in and if you didn't get to the expo by the end of your window, your ticket was no longer valid (and they keep your money). So our window of arrival was 10AM - 11AM. We had 7PM reservations at the China pavilion. We had almost eight hours to kill in a park twice the size of the Magic Kingdom. After lunch (at Papa John's, in the Americas section) the group split into two and my group conquered about five pavilions including one that gave out beer in souvenir glasses.

My favorite was probably the Brazilian pavilion; the screens were omnidirectional touch screens! LOVED IT! The Chinese pavilion was interesting but since we were there so late in the day (and we were cold and hungry) that we didn't really appreciate it. Also, it was all in Chinese.

This is Haibo. Or, as we called him, Blue Gumby.

At the Netherlands, there were sheep you could move around and sit on. We all took pictures with this one!

Some of the pavilions at the Expo. The big fuzzy cube thing is the UK and the net is either France or Italy.

The inside of the Russian pavilion. It was sort of like what I imagine an acid trip is like.

Tianamen Square

I was probably not as impressed as I should have been. It was a huge square with a 'people's hall,' an obelisk, and a very large building for Mao's crypt. I didn't realize that the man was buried in a crystal tomb! Crazy! People were literally wrapped around the building - at 9Am - to see him. They did have some very large TVs that we were making vaguely inappropriate jokes about, though. I will note that I was shocked that we could clearly see the image.

Taken in Tianamen Square. Look at how hazy it is!

The Forbidden City

It was HUGE. It took us two hours to walk from end to end, without going into any areas of the city. I have a lot of pictures, but I realized towards the middle that a lot of them are going to look similar; I'm going to have issues identifying what they are. Also? The pollution here is AWFUL! There's visible haze EVERYWHERE~~

Forbidden City! Central building. I asked when it was last repainted. Answer: for the Olympics.

More Forbidden City! At this point, we were getting tired and cranky.

Bonus Pictures!

Some of the group... what's that vaguely hidden skyline?

THIS!!!!!

Drinking in Foreign Cities

Okay so, I have to say the best part of being drunk in a foreign city is that the cab drivers don't know what you're talking about when you and your friends start drunk-talking.

Also? The bartenders TOTALLY let Riley and Lindsey DJ, so we listened to Callin' Baton Rouge, Party in the USA, and some other normal bar music.

Two more days in Beijing until I fly home to Louisiana!