Time to go home. It's midnight here, and in the morning i go to the Shanghai airport and begin the 30+ hour trip home. I've just taken 3 planes in 2 days to see machines and factories, now i have another 3 planes and a drive at the end to get home. I'm ready to get back to Homer, though, so it will be fine. I will make one more post from home with pics from the last few days, I need to sleep now so I can at least start the trip rested up. [View Full Entry]

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Monday in Shanghai: I decided to try the metro yesterday, and hopped on near the hotel, had to take a taxi to the metro station. It was easy and not crowded, and got me to the bund area fine. I walked around a big pedestrian shopping area for a while, was actually walking west when i thought i was going east, so i rode a little shuttle back to the other end, towards the Bund waterfront. walked towards the water, and met some people from interior China near Harbin. They were going to a tea house so I joined them in [View Full Entry]

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Well, the typhoon Morakot has hit mainland China and caused major flooding in the city I was supposed to be in right now. Good thing my travel plans were changed in the last week, or I would have been down there in Wenzhou in the floods. http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Typhoon-Morakot-slams-China/ss/events/wl/080909typhoonmorakot#photoViewer=/090809/481/414628254cbe4e26ad2f1393bb6f6e45 So I am here in Shanghai, where there is some light occasional rain, and some wind but not much. It mostly has so far been to the south. The last 2 days have been comprised of scheduling flight changes, movin [View Full Entry]

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OK, so the last two days in Shanghai have been comprised of meetings, eatings, riding in taxis and private vans, and eating again. I've had everything from scuttlefish to shark fin, from duck to pork. I have a short time before i am supposed to be ready to go sight seeing today, so I will try to put up some photos, then more text if I have time. There was a typhoon headed here, but hit land further south, and is dispersed now. I'm not sure yet how that will affect my travels Monday since I am supposed to go to [View Full Entry]

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Finally made it to Shanghai last night after 36 hours of travel. Went out to have a couple beers with Benny after checking into the hotel. Saw a popular tourist district, then got some sleep... [View Full Entry]

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Hi All, I'm home now, recuperating! It's amazing to see Blaise walking around, and Sam seems older, too! It's great to be back, although sometimes I wake up and can't remember if I am in China or not... What a trip! Tomorrow I go back to work. Sharon's brother Mike, and his wife Rachael are here, enjoying the beautiful Alaskan winter for another week. So, it is a full house, but fun to be back with everyone. Here are some pics from Hong Kong. Mostly while there, I walked around Temple Street market in Kowloon, ate good food, rode the escalator [View Full Entry]

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Well, here I am in Nanning. I guess it's been a few days since I posted, so I will try to catch you up since I left Longji Terrace. OK, I'm trying this again... just typed a couple paragraphs, and my time ran out at the internet bar... it shut off, so i lost what I typed- oops! Anyway, I arrived in Nanning on Thursday afternoon, and called the bagasse factory (Qiaowang) to see when it would be convenient to go there. They picked me up at the train station, and I was there before dinner. We took a quick tour, [View Full Entry]

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Hi All! I've been here at Longji Terrace for a couple days, walking around in the terraced rice fields, staying in a wooden building, built post and beam... Uh oh, my massage appointment is here... gotta go... AAAAHHHHH... That was very nice, now it is hard to be online and not sleeping , so this will be brief. Made my way around yesterday and today in thesee fields and villages, and will head out tomorrow to Guilin, then Nanning the following day to check out the sugar cane pulp product factory near there. The stay here has been fun... good food, [View Full Entry]

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Took a bike ride today, in the opposite direction as yesterday. Road through a bunch of little villages, and farm land. The farmland is impressively groomed, clean, well taken care of. The villages are dirty, garbage alll around, generally uncared for. A weird disconnect there to me, but I guess to them the priority is the fields. It was another sunny nice day, a perfect day for a ride. Got a flat tire on the way back, but managed to find a few places with bike pumps along the way, it usually lasted a half hour or more before needing to [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone, Today I rented a bike for 10 Yuan a day (~$1.40) and headed out of town into the nearby rice fields, farms and villages. I took a route that was along a river, the Yulong. The raod was mostly dirt, and rocks, but easy enough to drive. Kind of like a 4-wheeler trail in AK. bikes, hand carts, cows, motorcycles, scooters, tractors, all use the road. Well, I rode for maybe an hour or so, when I was stopped at an intersection, and 2 guys started talking to me about floating down the river on a bamboo raft. Well, [View Full Entry]

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