My upgrade worked ok. Just as a test I’m going to upload one picture from my trip. After that I’ll start messing around with the gallery plug-ins.

I’m back from China. It was a good trip. The job went well and I got to see a lot of China. I will be posting some pictures soon, but I intend to do some site maintenance first. There is a new version of Wordpress that is supposed to have some better photo support built in so I’m going to try to get that working.

My grandmother passed away while I was in China, which really stinks. I couldn’t make it back for the funeral, so I’m going to go down to Dothan this weekend to see my mom and make sure that she is doing ok.

More tales from China will be posted soon!

For the past two days Meg and I have been in Beijing, China. Thanks to the week long May holiday here, I’ve had a few days off of work. We decided that we should come to Beijing and do all the common tourist things to do. So far here is what we’ve been able to do:

1. Chinese Acrobatic Show. We were the only white people in the theater. Apparently in China, there are no vacations except state-sponsored holidays. So what that means is that during the festivals, everyone travels to the major cities to take in the sights. So it was very crowded in the theater, with lots of tour groups of rural Chinese who came to the city. We were stared at quite a bit. But when the show started, everyone forgot about us. It was amazing. These little kids were flying all over the stage, juggling, jumping through hoops, climbing poles…it was amazing.
2. Eat some Peking Duck. The official dish of Beijing is Peking Duck. We went to a little restaurant and had some. It was great! The duck is roasted for a long time until it is done. It is served sliced at your table by the chef. You put the duck slices in the duck sauce then fold them up with some vegetables in a crepe and eat it. I stuffed myself. I also drank some local beer (not TsingTao, but some real local stuff) that was really good too, but they serve all drinks at room temperature. The beer would have been better cold.
3. Visit the tombs of the Ming emperors. We listened to tales of serious political intrigue as we walked through the shrines and relics of the emperors of China’s past. Apparently when they dug up the first tomb, all the parchment and paper inside disintegrated so they are waiting till technology will allow the preservation before they dig anything else up. Lots of jade, gold, and silver relics, including some gold crowns made in a way that modern technology cannot reproduce. Basically, the art is lost.
4. Visit a Jade factory. We learned the difference in the regional types of jade, as well as how to spot a fake. We got to see the pieces being carved and polished, and of course we blew a wad of money on the items. I bought a jade Pixiu, which is a mythical beast that will bring you lots of money while destroying evil spirits. perfect for my desk at my office
5. Visit the Friendship Store, a state run store. We bought some knick knacks, like a terra cotta warrior (not life sized), and got our family name written on a scroll in Chinese script to hang in the baby room.
6. Climb the Great Wall of China. We drove out to the Badaling section and climbed up. That is really steep! But Chinese from all over came to climb it, including very young children and very old people. Chinese are hardy folks. That climb hurt me. My legs were like jelly coming down from there. I don’t have my usb cable for the camera but we got some really good pictures. Meghan was a big hit, since apparently it is rare for 6 month pregnant Americans to attempt the Wall.

Tomorrow we visit Tiananmen Square. We drove by today on our way out of town, and there were a vast amount of people there, just hanging out. It will be interesting to see this place, where so much history has happened. We might also get a chance to see the casket of Chairman Mao…with his dead body in it. (It is see-through). Weird. I plan to get my picture taken by the huge portrait.

Then the Forbidden City, the ancient home of the dynastic emperors. After that I catch my flight back to Nanjing, to finish up my work. So far it has been a great trip.