Winding Down 11/16/2008

Today was a fairly calm day. We did not get out of the hotel until 1:00. I woke up and listened to the Alabama vs Mississippi State game on the Internet while laying in bed. After we got out we walked down by the Birds Nest Stadium looking for a McDonald's. For some reason we remembered seeing one referenced on a map somewhere, but we never found it. I think we walked about 7 to 8 miles in a square and did not find one. So much for a relaxing day. We came back to the hotel and ate at one of the local restaurants close to our hotel. We have eaten there a couple of times and they have a couple of good Noodle and Rice dishes. We never found the McDonald's. We came back to the room about 4:00 and took a nap. It is 8:30 and we have not left yet. We may go get something to eat in a little bit, but that will be about it. We have a taxi picking us up at 5:30 am to take us to the airport. Our flight leaves at 8:55 for our journey back home. I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!

Forbidden City/Tienanmen Square 11/16/2008

Today we went to the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square. It was very cool, and VERY big. It took us about 2-1/2 hours to walk from one end of the Forbidden City to another. By the time we got to the end, all of the buildings started to look the same. I got some good pictures, but have not uploaded them to my computer yet. I am in "Ready to go home mode!!!" and have not uploaded the pictures yet. After walking through Tienanmen Square we walked through "Old Beijing" it was cool also. It had be restored for the Olympics. The buildings are very old, but the outside had been re-done to look old like they used to. Tomorrow is going to be a relaxed day. Don't have anything planned except to explore the Olympic Village a little more around our hotel.

The Great Wall, Friday 11/14/2008

WOW! That is pretty much all I can say. It is pretty amazing. I now understand why they call it the Great Wall. It just goes on forever and ever. We thought about taking one of the tours they offer, but found out that you can just take the bus for 12 yuan and do your own thing. We took a Taxi to the De Sheng Men station and got on the 919 bus and road it to the Badling portion of the Great Wall. It takes about one hour to get there. On the bus there was a tour guide that talked most of the way there and of course everything was in Chinese. Luckily there was a nice girl sitting behind us that asked us if we understood anything and we said no. She told us the basics. The last bus runs at 16:00 and when you get there you need to buy a pulley car ticket and an admission ticket. I am glad she did, because we would have been lost. We got there and followed out little group to the ticket counter and got our tickets 95 yuan total. On the way to the entrance there are shops and a sections that has some bears. I got a couple pictures of the bears.

When we walk by the stores all we here is..."HELLO T-Shirt", or "Hello picture". I am not sure why they just say it to us, I guess we look different or something. Anyway, we walked to the tallest part of the section we were and we were pretty tired when we got there. Some parts are very steep and it feels like you are climbing the side of a mountain, which I guess you really are. Got some pretty good pictures. I have posted some and also added some to an ofoto site. Enjoy.

Thursday 11/13/2008

As you can tell, I have started to slack on updating the blog. Sorry about that. At least I am not as bad as Chuck has been. LOL. Anyway, the last day in Guangzhou was good. I think I have everything working. But I am sure I will get some calls. This morning we left for Beijing. We left the hotel at 6:00 am this morning and since there was not traffic we made it to the airport in about 30 minutes. We flew Air China to Beijing. We had heard that it flight never left on time and ours was no exception. We only left 30 minutes late, but got to Beijing at the scheduled time. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the hotel. Nice Holiday Inn Express, and we can see the Birds Nest Stadium from our room.


We are about 2km from the Birds Nest Stadium and Water Cube, etc. We walked around there today and took some pictures.


We went inside the stadium, it was 50 RMB for a ticket, and saw Chris and his family, it was awesome!!! Funny we run into the only other Americans in Beijing China from Memphis at the stadium. We did not even plan it.


They had some displays setup inside on the stadium field. I got some pictures of one of the drums used on the opening Ceremonies and some of the costumes warn.

This is a picture of the finish line of the track where the fastest man in the world ran the 100m and 200m.

Since we got up at 5:00 Chuck and I were both tired, so we came back to the room at about 6:30 and both fell asleep watching TV. I figured I would wake up at 4:00am if I did not get up so I decided to update the blog. We are off to the Great Wall tomorrow morning bright and early. Enjoy some of the pictures from around our Hotel and of the Stadium.

Tuesday 11/11/2008

Well, it has been a couple of days since I have updated. Been working on getting out of here. Sunday I slept in because I listened to the Alabama game. Ate lunch and walked around a little, then came back to the room and took a nap. I had planned on listening to the Titans game on the computer and stayed up until 2:00 am to discover that I could not get it. I then went to sleep because we had to leave at 8:00 Monday morning. Monday was a productive, but frustrating work day. Had some things go wrong but the day ended good. Monday night I just came back to the roo and ordered room service. Pretty good Egg Noodles and beef. Then I went to bet at about 10:00. I slept all night, and needed it because I stayed up late trying to get some needed football that I have been missing. No ESPN over here, atleast not in out hotel. Today was a very good day. I fixed some of the problems I created on Monday and got ready to do the last of my training for Tomorrow. Thursday morning we leave for Beijing at 9:25.

Saturday 11/8/2008

This morning I slept in. It felt great. Chuck and I went walking around and bought some souvenirs, and ate lunch down by the Pearl River. We also went to a different electronics district which seemed to have more "real" stuff. Although there were hundreds or booths with cell phone parts. I believe I have found the location where all of the cell phone and computer parts come from on e-bay.

Since we got here, we have been trying to find a bike that had the most stuff on it. We have seen a lot of stuff on bikes, but I think we found the winner today. We also watched some guy catch a huge catfish from the river. See pictures below.

For dinner we decided to take the subway, a method of transportation we had not tried yet, to a different part of the city to eat dinner. Since we both came back from our souvenir expedition and took a nap, we got a late start. We found out that the subway is the cleanest part of the city. It was not dirty at all and did not smell bad. We ate at a Japanese restaurant. It was pretty good. I had sushi and chuck had beef noodles. After dinner we came back to the hotel. I went to bed because I had plans to wake up at 4:30am and watch the Alabama/LSU game on the computer. When I awoke, I found out that you cannot view it from China. Isn't censorship great? However, I would the radio broadcast on the Internet and watched a graphical version of the plays on cbssportsline. Great game, especially since Bama won in OT! WOO HOO! Oh yea, and UT lost to Wyoming. HA HA! All in all a great football day!!! I then went back to sleep and woke up at 11:30.

Friday 11/7/2008

Another eventful day in China today. I worked my butt off at work. There is one thing I have left to do and I am having some slight issues, but I will get through. When we got back to the hotel it was poring down rain, so we just went up and had the buffet. Now I know why we have been going out of the hotel to eat every night. I stuck with the sushi and had some noodles and veggies. The desert was awesome tonight though. I had a couple of them. After dinner I went to the Watson's (like Walgreen's) to get some deodorant. I ran out two days ago. It was interesting because everything was in Chinese. I did, however, find some that had the work "men" on it so I grabbed it and went back to the hotel to finish up on some work. I am going to sleep-in in the morning!!!

Thursday 11/6/2008

Had a fairly successful day at work today. Have almost everything installed and ready to turnover before I leave. After work we went to the Cow and Bridge Restaurant. Thai Food. It was good and then we went looking for a Watson's. That's is kinda like Walgreen's back home. They were closed. So we came back to the Hotel and I asked the Front Desk if a Watson's was open, and he told me to just go knock on the window and they will let me in. I decided against it and will just go tomorrow or this weekend. WOO HOO the weekend is coming up. We plan to go souvenir shopping this weekend. I am sure Ashley will like to hear that.

Wednesday 11/5/2008

Today was a good day at the work. Everything it starting to seem to work itself out. For me personally it was a very productive day. The VP was at the work today to see how things were going. Maybe that is why everything seemed to work right. After work today the VP took the IT team to dinner. All 22 of us. It was pretty cool. We went to a Spanish restaurant. Kinda strange though, the only thing I saw Spanish on the menu was Spanish Rice. I had to coolest shes kabob. I called it the Hang Man...LOL. See the pictures below.



I got a picture of one of the IT guys from Singapore. He is kinda the Chineese Chris Rouse, but he actually does work. See picture and you will agree.

Tuesday 11/4/2008 (Election Day)

Not much to report today. Sill working hard at work. Things are moving, but not sure at what speed. Fairly slow from what I can tell. Not seeing too many new things. I have gotten where I sleep in the car on the way to work and sleep on the way back. The CRAZY driving does not effect me any more. I am starting to wonder if I will adopt the same driving style when I get back home. The smell is still bad, but I have come to accept it. China is what it is. Going to try and get to bed a little bit earlier tonight.

Monday 11/3/2008

Not much going on today. Made some more progress at work. Still some issues to work through, but things are coming along. Not much happened today either. It rained last night and on and off today. This was the first time it has rained since we have been here. But, it was not smoggy at all today. You could actually see some of the city from work today. Usually you have a hard time seeing the airport tower from work which is only about a mile or two away. It was also a nice night. Chris and I ate at a outside restaurant on the river. It was nice to sit and relax. Preparing for another day tomorrow. It is supposed to rain again tomorrow.

Hong Kong 11/1 - 11/2/2008

Went to Hong Kong this weekend. It was pretty awesome. Alot different that Guangzhou. More westernized. It is about an 1-1/2 hour to 2 hour train ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. The train ride was pretty cool. We saw alot of farm land an several more cities on the way. By train you arrive at the Hong Hun station which is actually in Kowloon. There are many shops there. We first went to the Rio Pearl. Nice store with everything you can imagine made of pearls. After that, we went to Nathan Street where there are all kinds of stores and American Restaurants. This is also where you get asked for "Copy Watches", "Copy Purses", and if you want custom made shirts and suits every 5 steps. If I was asked once, I was asked 1000 times for a suit or dress shirt. They follow you for blocks it seems asking you. Everyone wanted to eat at Outback so we ate there.

After that we went to the women's market. I thing there were a million people there. It was so crowded. I got me a 100% Swiss Made Tag Heuer watch...Made in China...for $38. After that we were making our way back to the train station and Chuck and I decided to stay over night and experience some of Hong Kong. It was pretty cool. At 8:00 pm they have a laser lights show on the Hong Kong side that can be seen across the bay in Kowloon. The laser lights show was all the different lights of the buildings in Hong Kong lighting up and synchronized to music. It was very cool. I will add a link to Chucks site to see some of the pictures. He has a nice camera and took some great pictures.

After that we had to find a place to stay, and we remembered this one place on the main shopping street (Nathan Street) and went to check it out. We knew it had to be a 5 star place to stay. See the pictures below. One is a picture of Chuck and myself taking a picture of each other in opposite sides of the room. It was the biggest room I have ever seen.

After we got the room. We ventured out the Hong Kong Island. We went to central station and ended up in a Thai Restaurant. Great food. See picture.

After that, we found the worlds longest escalator. It had to be multiple mines long and climbed forever. However, once we got to the top, we realized we had to walk back down...stairs... Hong Kong is very hilly, it seems to be build on the side of a mountain. See Chucks blog for pictures of the escalator.

http://chuckinchina08.blogspot.com/2008/11/okay-was-on-train-back-from-hong-kong.html

On the way back down we stopped in the SoHo district which had hundreds of bars everywhere. On our way back to the Hostel, we stopped by a local bar and when we walked in it was very surreal. It felt like the music stopped and literally everyone in the bar stopped and stared at us. Needless to say we immediately turned around and left. We then went across the street to another local bar, bad a couple of beers and learned how to play Lier's Dice. A pretty cool game, but possibly one of those games where you could loose a finger depending on who you are playing with.

All for now...