Just a break from your regularly scheduled China trip update

Look who's on the news....

Free Day

On Saturday I woke up early and hit the streets with our IT guy Stephen and two designers from our UK office Kirk and Andy.  We had two excellent guides for the day, Leon who works for Chervon and his wife Catherine who works for Ford (which is across the street from our factory).  First stop was the Nanjing Museum where we saw this interesting statue.

We also saw priceless works of art.  There were artifacts there over 5,000 years old that had been found inside the city walls.

EZ Rider in China?

We drove to the top of Purple Mountain, it was much too hot to hike said our guides.  If you stare at this picture long enough the city will start to emerge from behind the smog.  I hear this is quite a view, but not so much in the summer.

This billboard depicts the mountain on a clearer day.  I never saw evidence of a chair lift.

Congealed Duck Blood Soup anyone?

This was lunch.  It was a bit strange but tasty.  Many dumplings.  On the left was our driver, next to him is Leon.

After lunch we walked into the Confucius Temple Market.  It was a really cool place.  I visited later in the week at 10pm and it was busier than this.  The lights were amazing but my camera was dead.

There are many little corridors branching off the main street.  These lead you back into a narrow market surrounding the Confucius Temple.

This is a large public square along a river in front of the Temple.  Very cool place at night.

You can see the yellow tops of the little boats that take you up and down the river.

Making our way into the Temple which goes on and on through many small buildings.

Tempting... but no thanks.

We then headed to a mall in the center of the city which seems to be one endless mall.  This one is underground and goes on forever.  There is a whole world under all the streets.  Catherine said this mall was the popular one with the teenage girls and she was right.  I felt a bit out of place.

We were looking at handbags when the store girl dragged us into a creepy back hall with a freight elevator.  We rode that up to the 11th floor and ended up in the room below.  The picture above is the view from the hidden store.

Our group spent lots of RMB here over the trip.  The girls that worked here were hilarious.  It is quite hard to negotiate when neither party speaks the other's language.

This is the plaza above the underground mall.  By the time we got out of there we were exhausted.  Thanks to Leon and Catherine for a super day.

My first evening in China

Upon landing in China we were greeted by a couple of nice folks in hazmat suits.  They quietly pointed a laser temperature gun at everybodys forehead to make sure nobody had the swine flu. If you are determined to have an elevated temperature, you and everyone within three rows of you must be quarantined for seven days.  Slightly frightening.

We drove from Shanghai to Nanjing which is only about 150 miles but takes about 4 hours.  The smog is almost unbelievable.  I couldn't even see the buildings of Shanghai.  These buildings were a good hour outside the city which seems endless.

Nanjing is surrounded by gentle mountains.  Once inside the city, endless canopies of trees line the streets.  This billboard was at one of the first busy intersections we came to in Nanjing.  I believe it is some kind of Tai-Chi instruction manual.

This is the view from outside of the Jinling Hotel.  I highly recommend the Jinling.  I is right smack in the middle of the city.  

Here is a photo taken from the second floor lounge inside of the Jinling.  You could always find some or all of us enjoying a Tsing Tao and some Chinese Pringles.  You might also find highly fashionable Chinese men in bright pink Polo shirts and jeans.  

There will be many more pictures to come...

Like this one...

Joe, the head designer in Nanjing, took the global design team out for a marvelous dinner in his neighborhood. This shot was taken during a crazy shortcut/comprehensive aroma tour en route to dinner. It was blazing hot, even in the evening. Hours later, I was splashed from above with an unknown liquid while in that very same alley.

China

Much like the traditional 18 course Nanjing dinner, there will be more pictures from China to come...

4th of July Weekend

I am way behind on my blogging so I am going to keep the words to a minimum. Laura and I spent a long holiday weekend up north and at home. We spent a night at Grand Traverse Resort and a couple days playing up and down the gorgeous coast of northern Michigan. Sleeping Bear Dunes was just as amazing as it was in 6th grade at Camp Hayowenta. The weather was in the 50's and 60's but perfect for hiking dunes.

We returned to celebrate the 4th with the whole family (Hamm - Walker Freeman). It was a bit chilly but Eloise, Andrew and I enjoyed a dip and took some time to smell the flowers.

Ernie Harwell, baseball and the 4th of July... and hot dogs

As I sit here watching Joey Chestnut's attempt to defend his hot dog eating title, I would like to tell you all about a tribute I saw on TV just moments ago.  Ernie Harwell relived his fondest memory of one of my childhood favorite baseball players, Tom Brookens.  As he introduced the segment, Ernie referred to Brookens as the Pennsylvania Poker.  You can always count on Ernie for a good moniker and a good smile.