China Family Trip - PMI Chengdu Pictures

After my trip to Chengdu in August 2007 (lost luggage and really hot/humid weather), I said I wouldn't come in the summer again. This year, there was a solar conference in Chengdu during the first week of September so here I am. Summers are still hot and humid here; at least I have my own clothes this time.


I guess the solar conference is a pretty big deal. The lampposts along the Chengdu Airport Expressway had banners but the words were too small to read at speed. I puked near one of these lampposts during my last trip in March.


I saw a Bentley Continental on the way to work in Chengdu. Someone told me that it costs 3 million RMB, a lot more than in the US due to the 200% import tax.


A bus next to our car while driving to work. This is notable because we were driving the right way on a one-way street. It wasn't just buses, there were lots of other cars, trucks, scooters, and all sorts of vehicles going the wrong way.


This was the car we took to the solar conference. Since a lot of PMI employees and guests were going, we couldn't all fit in the two company cars. Professor Yan called some guy that hires out his car so we took this thing. It was a CNG (compressed natural gas) powered death trap. The driver drove like a maniac and there were no seat belts in the back. I recorded a 8 minute video (>500MB) that I need to figure out how to edit and upload later.


Apollo Solar house/booth outside the conference center. They're part of the company (or the other way around) that supplies PMI with some raw materials. I heard they were asked by the local government to make an extra effort at the conference and ended up spending a few million RMB's.


The solar conference was held at a newly build convention center. There are 9 exhibit halls and this conference only used one out of nine.


Sign outside the Holiday Inn used for registration. We registered then were asked to return our delegate badges. Evidently we had to pay and we didn't. Leon got to keep his VIP badge since he was still speaking at the CEO forum.


Chengdu TV interviewing one of our Swedish guests. I'm not sure if it was pre-arranged or they decided to interview all the white people. Also not sure if they though Leon was their translator but he got to translate anyway.


The CEO forum. The room was packed but I thought the entire thing was pretty lame. I heard only 1/2 the questions posed by the moderator but they seemed to be more political (praising the local government) than focused on entrepreneurship in the solar industry. I think Leon's question was why PMI came to the Shuangliu (Chengdu) area. Hmm, we're not located in the Shuangliu high-tech park and I'm pretty sure none of the audience gives a crap anyhow.


PMI's display. I think we wanted to show our customer's CIGS solar cells/module but ended up with just targets. I was sitting at the table resting and some Chinese guy came up to ask me questions... that didn't go very far.

China Family Trip - Back to Hong Kong

Aah, back to Hong Kong and civilization. I'm here on my 7-hour layover before flying home to LAX. Even though it's supposed to be a part of China, Hong Kong is different, at least the airport. Just at the CX lounge, there's non-spicy food, air conditioning, unblocked Internet, and hot showers (more on that later). I can only take so much bad air and rude people before wanting to go home. Speaking of rude, there's an Indian guy in the next lounge "cubicle" playing some sitar music out loud... oh well.

I'm parked in my usual corner at the Cathay lounge near Gate 3. Unlike other trips, it's actually bright and sunny outside and the sun won't go down for awhile. I really want to take a trip into town and go up on Victoria Peak. However, I heard that the temperature outside is 33°C and probably 100% humidity so I'm hiding out in the lounge. Maybe next trip in November. I also missed an awesome photo opportunity coming in from Chengdu. I usually sit in an aisle seat but this time I sat in seat A which is the left window seat. The flight path into Hong Kong took us around Hong Kong and Kowloon and you could see all the crazy tall buildings. I blew it though by taking my camera out too early and getting busted by a stewardess (cute one though). If I had waited until they all sat down, I would have got some good shots. :(


"Put the camera away." At least she remembered that I don't speak Cantonese.

Anyway, the Chengdu portion of the trip was mostly work. My parents and I arrived in Chengdu on Tuesday (9/1) night on our delayed Air China flight (on a borrowed Macau Airlines plane). Since it was late, we took separate taxis. It was hot and humid and the taxi line was crazy long. In any kind of line in China, there's always people trying to cut in and this was no different. There was one couple that ignored about 20 people telling them there was a line and jumped into a waiting taxi. Sigh...

The only sightseeing I did in Chengdu was when my sister and Rebecca came to Chengdu after their Tibet trip. We spent a couple of hours in the Giant Panda Research Station just outside of town near the Chengdu zoo. It was pretty cool since we got to see three pandas playfighting for about 30 minutes. The rest of the time we stayed near their hotel on Chunxi Road. They're in Guilin now and will head out to Hong Kong in a few days.

China Family Trip - Beijing Day 4 and 5

We're waiting for our flight from Beijing to Chengdu. Since I had my United/Star Alliance card, they let me into the Air China lounge. I'm at a small one near gate C52; it only has some couches and a snack bar. The lady at the counter wanted me to go to the main one since it had more stuff but our flight leaves at a nearby gate.

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Yesterday was the tour of Mutianyu Great Wall and Ming Tombs. I reserved a tour online which offered an English speaking guide. The guide went to the wrong hotel in the morning so we started a bit late. His English was pretty bad so we asked him to stick with Chinese and we'll translate highlights for Rebecca. I think I made the right choice going with a Monday tour; both places were pretty empty, especially Mutianyu. The guide said normally the parking lot is full of cars but we got to park right near the entrance.


Entrance to the Ming Tombs. We switch the schedule so we visited the tombs in the morning. There are 13 Ming Dynasty emperors buried here.


Long walkway with a bunch of stone animal and people statues. Some of the animals were lying prone but the sign said "porne." We weren't sure what to expect.


A museum hall at the entrance of the tombs. It has some pretty cool displays but we didn't get to see any dead guys. I visited some "Ming Tombs" 11 years ago on my first trip to Beijing and remember going underground to see some rooms. This tour was very different.


After lunch, we went to the Mutianyu Great Wall. The tour guide brought us to a "Friendship Store" for lunch but we didn't buy anything. I think he was not expecting us to buy anything so we left right after lunch. BTW, we found some yarn/thread in one of the vegetable dishes and told one of the wait staff. A manager came by all freaked out and offered us some gifts in return. We ended up getting some free water. I think the store is for foreigners and they were worried about too many complaints.


We took the tram up to the upper section of the wall. I didn't feel like climbing that much.


Great Wall at the top of the tram


More wall looking north


There were people taking photos on the wall. I couldn't tell whether is was a wedding photo shoot or for a commercial/ad.


More GW looking down the hill back towards the entrance.


Sign at the tram. I like item II.2 the best: no insane people, please. Item II.3 also excludes people who have "habitual abortion", whatever that means.

We left the wall at around 3:30pm and didn't get back to our hotel until 5:30pm. There was a lot of traffic when we got back to town. I think everyone was tired so we all took a nap before dinner.

My sister and Rebecca had to catch a 9am flight to Lhasa (via Chengdu it turned out) so they left early. The rest of us checked out, stored our bags with the hotel, and took a taxi for some final sightseeing. We went to the drum tower first then to Houhai.


Clock tower. A tour guide told us that it still rings at noon everyday.


Drum tower. I think there was a stabbing here last year during the Olympics and the Chinese killer jumped to his death.


Nuage restaurant. I was here last year and it was one of the worst (food and prices) places I've ever eaten at. Didn't know what it looked like during the day.


While we were at the drum tower, some people offered us a 20 minute rickshaw ride for ¥120 (2 people). Instead, we walked to Houhai and found this guy in an electric golf cart who drove us around the lake and surrounding houtong for ¥20 per person. There are a lot of nice houses/compounds.


This used to be where Soong Ching-ling lived. She was the wife of Sun Yat-sen, recognized as the father of modern China. Her sister, Soong Mei-ling, married Chiang Kai-shek, the guy who lost the Chinese civil war to Mao.


Rental boats on Houhai. I think all the "seas" are linked from Zhonghai all the way through Beihai to Xihai, which is past Houhai.


Air China mini-lounge. I stole a few cans of soda since that was all they had.

China Family Trip - Beijing Day 3

It's ~8:30pm and I'm sitting in my hotel room while everyone else went out for a late dinner. I think I walked too much today and did something to my right ankle. I'm trying to rest up for our trip to the Great Wall tomorrow.

Today was a lot of walking... I think that's the theme for every trip to Asia. We made sure that Tiananmen Square was open today and took a cab to Qianmen like we planned yesterday. As soon as we stepped out of the cab, we were assaulted by vendors trying to sell us hats and "tour guides" asking us where we were headed. Security was heavy and they shut down access to all the "gate" buildings. They also blocked access to some areas of Tiananmen Square. There was a huge line to get into Mao's memorial hall but none of us were really interested.


Qianmen... we tried so hard to get here yesterday via the subway. It was closed to tourists until after October 1st.


There was a lot of security at Tiananmen Square. In addition to the regular army guards, there was the police, the armed police, public safety, and of course, the chengguan. This is typically translated as city manager but in reality, they're mostly there to clear away street vendors. They have a nasty reputation in many cities of just beating up people who resist being "cleared" away and there have been a lot of conflicts.


A lot of real estate was blocked off in the square. I was able to get much closer even during the Paralymics last year.


Food truck. They weren't getting harassed by the chengguan so maybe they're legit. Can I get a burrito please?

At this point, my dad wasn't feeling well we gave him some RMB bills and he went back to the hotel. It was a wise decision since we ended up walking a lot. Next was crossing the street and into the Forbidden City. This is the third time I've been here.


Another obligatory shot. It still looks the same as last year.


I took a lot of "standard" photos but also some of other people taking pictures. Here is a random girl posing. Her boyfriend also took some "wannabe cool" photos afterward.

After exiting the back of the Forbidden City, we walked to Beihai Park. Along the was, we stopped in a local restaurant for lunch.


Dumplings with leeks(?) and eggs. We also had some noodle dishes. Interestingly, their version of some dishes was more Korean than Chinese.


We rented a six passenger electric boat and cruised the lake for a bit. Here is Google Maps on my Blackberry showing us to be in the middle of Beihai lake.


The white-thingy building as seen from the middle of the lake.


It was hard to find an available taxi after Beihai Park so my friend and I ended up on the bus. It's much cheaper but it ended up dropping us off on Wangfujing so it took us another 20 minutes to walk back to our hotel.


An orthodox church. A couple was taking wedding photos in front of the church building.


Ferrari and Maserati dealer next to our hotel. I heard that there is a Ferrari dealer in Chengdu and they only sold one car in 2008. Hope there was a lot of margin dollars in the final price.

China Family Trip - Beijing Day 2 (photos)

Hmm, it looks like I can upload photos but only one at a time. Here are some pics from day 2.


Our hotel. It's hidden behind a taller building so you can't really see it from the main street.


Egg pancakes. The stack of white stuff on the right are pork rinds. Definitely not the healthy choice for breakfast.


The Temple of Heaven park was crowded because a lot of people were here practicing ballroom dancing, line dancing, singing Chinese opera, kicking some feather thing (like hacky sack), but not really sightseeing.


Temple of Heaven. I have some pics from my first trip to Beijing but it was with a film camera.


Up close


There was actually more than one "temple" at the site. All the buildings line up in a straight row, kinda like the Forbidden City.


4th Ring Road right next to the Olympic Park


Bird's Nest


Entry turnstile from last year. They put a metal fence around the entire stadium in order to make it a "tourist attraction" and to sell you tickets to get close. They were also ripping up all the turnstiles. I guess that means they've given up on using this place for a regular sports venue.


Lights/PA speakers in the middle of the Olympic Park area


Water Cube


Line 14 was built specifically for the Olympics. The station and trains were empty (nice!) compared to the insanity of the rest of the subway system.


Insects on a stick. The scorpions were still moving; maybe to show that they're fresh?


Candied fruits (or other stuff) on a stick.


Bigger insects on a stick plus starfish! I think they deep fry it when you order. Gross.