Friday, December 30, 2005

Christmas Fun on the ski run!









Here are some pictures from the Christmas holiday.

Enjoy

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Food for thought








This was the last supper in Dalian. A supplier took us out to dinner. The catch is that you pick your dinner. It was pretty fun. I picked a lobster everything else were things that I've never seen before in my life. For the most part it tasted good. Sea Urchin isn't really that good. Just a tip.

Update






Here are some pictures from my last week in China.

These pictures are from a door manufacturer outside of Dalian. They control the whole process from log to door. It is really cool to see the whole process. The doors are built so well. It was really amazing how well they have the process down. This factory had a lot of machinery but it was amazing how much manual labor they still had on top of all the machinery.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

city lights


I liked these lights in the Beijing subway. I'll have some more pics from my trip to post in the next couple of days.

stay tuned.

2008 Olympics


Beijing is hosting the olympics in 2008. It's a pretty big deal in Beijing. I think everyone told me about it like 3 times. They are pretty proud of the fact that the city gets to host the olympics. I don't know how they will deal with Traffic. There are certain times of day where the trafic is imposssible.

And car ownership is expected to almost double in the next 10 years. So, we are talking a lot of cars. But I think Beijing is doing a good job on getting ready. You know it's popular when there are street vendors selling stocking hats with beijing 2008 and the olympic rings. When the copycats start making it here in China it must be half-way cool.

I was talking to an american couple when I first got to the city and they were saying that the Olympic commitee told the beijing officials to slow their building process down. They were way ahead of schedule and they wanted the facilities to look brand new for the games.

So this is me in front of the countdown clock.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Great wall fans




This is a picture that was taken on the great wall. I was walking with one of the people who had taken me up. We were actually walking back and this girl started talking to me in Chinese. My "guide" said, she wants to get a picture with you. I don't know why. I think she probably thought I was a backstreet boy or something. hahahahaha. So I thought that was that and then one of her friends wanted a picture and another and another until I had taken pictures with all of them. Then I said lets get a group picture.

Anyways, that's why I took this picture I don't really even know these guys.

So, I thought it was funny.

I climbed the great wall and all i got was a lousy t-shirt



So, i bought this t-shirt for 1 dollar.
i figured hey I climbed the great wall.
It's a wonder of the world how many people can say they've done that. What's one dollar for braggin' rights.

hahahahaha
so there is some money that I have spent on this trip that I don't really think was spent wisely here in China.

This t-shirt was money well spent.

even though it had been sitting in the sun and was really faded.

Now there is a lot of chinese writing on the shirt. I think it says I climbed the great wall but, It could say I am a stupid American who buys one dollar shirts because I think I'm cool and want to show off to my friends
I guess someoone will eventually let me know.

What can a guy do?

GOODNESS GRACIOUS GREAT WALL OF CHINA



Toto I don't think we are in Kansas anymore.


Pictures from the wall.
These are the pictures of the Great wall that I could take before I froze to death.
It was freezing out there.
Next time I'm going to come in the summer.




Thursday, December 15, 2005

DAS Tor article extra extra

I recently wrote an article for Thunderbird's newspaper
It is an article about my time spent with the minutemen back in october.
They put the article on the front pages so, that's kinda cool
i've never made front page news.


hahahahaha

here's the link if you want to check it out.

http://www.dastoronline.com/media/paper330/news/2005/12/13/FrontPage/Border.Disorder-1127680.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.dastoronline.com



I wasn't able to post anything for the last week because the connection at the hotel wouldn't let me do that.

But now i'm back in Beijing for a few days and the hotel here is much better.


So be on the look out for some pictures coming soon

Saturday, December 10, 2005

TIENEMAN Square at night





people's hall

Friday, December 09, 2005

Temple of Heaven
















Pics from todays journey after my meeting with a door manufacturer. The temple of heaven is in a great place. It is in a park. Many locals come here and do exercies, PLAY MUSIC, PLAY CHESS OR CARDS, ETC...

It's a very great place to visit and in the heart of the city.

Transport



Getting around Beijing is easy the subway goese everywhere and if it doesn't you can take a taxi. Taxi's are cheaper than in most large cities. The subway costs about 45 cents.

Food






When you are doing business in Beijing it seems that everyone wants to take you to lunch to eat Peking duck. I've eaten it 3 times here. Today I had a meeting with a door manufacturer and they said lets go get peking duck and I had heard that noodles are really good so I asked if we could get noodles instead. They all smiled and said yes.

Here are some food pics i've taken

The duck comes with it's head still attached. There he is looking at you as you eat him.

For the most part the food has been really good. I heard that it wasn't that good. It is definately not panda express! Chinese food in the US is very different.

The other day I went and bought some food on my own just to try some new stuff It was pretty good. They also had oreos and ritz with filling. Actually really good.

I took some pics because I think it's cool to see Chinese for US logos.

Wow!!!! Lunch

I was so hungry the other day and I was looking for somewhere to eat. I was lost not really knowing where to go So I just walked until I saw a place that looked interesting. I went in thinking it was a mall or something. It ends up it was this really high end restraunt with a twist. I went to the front desk and asked if it was a restraunt and they didn't understand me. One of the girls motioned me to come downstairs. So I followed her and she led me to the Bathroom. Restroom, Restraunt they both start with Rest. That's not really the funny part. Down the Hall there were small rooms with little porthol windows in them. In each room was a group of people sitting around small tables and singing Kareokee (sp?) Very Very badly. It was funny. Partly because it was bad partly because it was the in a language I couldn't understand and partly because it was the middle of the day. Who goes and does Kareokee at 1 in the afternoon?

It was great.

BIKE




Bikes abound in Beijing.

China is the bike capital of the world. There are so many bikes here I can't believe how many are on the streets. They actually have a lane just for bikes here. Bikes are not really too fancy. It's funny because, there are no new bikes they all seem old school. Kind of the type that your Grandma would ride.

There are bike repair places on every corner to fix flats etc....


Bikes are used for everything from cheap transportation to hauling materials. The other day I saw a guy who had about 30 15 food long metal pipes strapped to both sides of his bike.

It was wild.

Lama Temple





I was supposed to have a meeting with a lumber company yesterday but, it fell through So I had the day pretty much free. After checking some emails and going for a run I decided to see some other sites around the city. I had heard that the Lama Temple was worth the trip. So I hopped the subway and went up to see it. It was very beautiful. There was a lot of Hustle and Bustle going on around the city and once I entered the compound it got really quiet and peaceful. It is interesting because the monks still are there and use the facilities. There are a few different temples and in every one there is a statue of Buddah (sp?). Some were small and others were huge. One was so tall you really couldn't see the top of it insid the building because of the angle.

As you are walking from the subway to temple there are a lot of people selling incence, and I wasn't really sure why. As I got inside I understood why. There are places to light incence and say a prayer to Buddah. If your prayer is answered you must return and make an offering to thank Buddah. The whole place smelled of incence. I asked someone about religion and they said they weren't really big into religion in the North part of China but were in the South more.

Very interesting Experience.
Really pretty place