Adam's China Trip

PROLOUGE:

China. What can be said, it’s the most populous country in the world with just north of a billion inhabitants. It deserves some attention and intrigue, especially after being on the worlds display for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, further heightening my interest. Sure I have been to Asia before, living in Singapore for my senior year of high school and traveling to such places as Indonesia, Korea, and Malaysia, and Hong Kong (which technically is in China, but its just not the same). I even went back to Singapore in 2008 multiple times for business spending a month straight there on one stint. Mainland China however, had never made the docket, until now.

It was a last minute idea, first brought up in the office by our director of engineering about 2 days before I was heading to Las Vegas for a 4-day business conference. I chalked it up to nothing more then just an idea, prolly never coming to fruition, but then again, that’s the way things worked around there. Usually trips like this were last minute with very little forward planning, just book a ticket and figure the rest out later. I put it on the back burner and headed out to Sin City, without even mentioning it to anyone other then my wife (Trish), but told her it prolly wouldn’t happen. The reason for going you ask? Well, it’s secondary to this story. Without getting too detailed and boring, one of Motorola’s biggest VOD (Video on Demand) systems is located in the ancient capital city of Nanjing, China. They are in the process of doing a major expansion of the system spreading out to a few outlying cities, and the local team was requesting help from “experts” in the US.

My first day back in the office from Vegas (sometime in mid-August), I received an email from a collegue “in the know” with the simple words: “Get a visa for China and quick”, and I knew he wasn’t talking about a credit card. Surprised of this, I dug further, talking to those involved, including my boss, who then informed me that all parties involved wanted someone to go. I guess the local team across the pond (the other pond), might have been doing an unsatisfactory job, or too new, or whatever…the fact was, it now seemed that this whole thing was becoming very real. I looked at my schedule for the month of September and saw a couple key dates that I did not want to miss; one was a wedding at the end of the month (coincidently for a person in the office that was asking me to go), and the other, Patriots opening night in Foxboro, aka the return of Tom Brady, and even more importantly, the first game in my newly upgraded seats (years in the waiting). To further complicate matters, the work schedule in China was very dynamic, changing by the minute, thus making it extremely difficult to figure out when they actually needed me there.

After much discussion, emails, phone calls, I finally worked out a 2 week block to go, settling on a departure of Saturday, August 29th and returning on Friday, September 11th. This was only about 10 days away from the time of booking, so I had to get the proper credentials, and in a hurry. To further complicate matters, most countries will not let you enter with a passport that will expire within 6 months, which of course was the case with mine. To solve this, I worked with our extremely helpful office admin to get all the necessary steps completed. I dashed to Walgreens for some photos, signed all the paperwork and handed everything over to her, including my old passport (strange feeling for some reason). First it had to go to Miami to issue a new passport and then up to NYC to get the proper visa from the Chinese embassy. Usually this can take up to 6 months, but if you throw enough money around ($800 to be exact), I was able to get a new passport, with visa, returned to me the day before I left, amazing. As the day got a little closer, I felt more and more skittish about flying back on September 11th for obvious reasons. I had flown on that day before in the past and remember feeling sick to my stomach the whole time. Not to mention that it was going to be a huge plane, coming from a foreign country and I just didn’t feel right, so I bumped the day back to return on September 10th. I finalized the details with Amex travel, it was now set in stone…there was no turning back.

The night before I left I was feeling extremely nervous, as I do before most of my long trips in the past to foreign countries, and it had nothing to do with the plane ride. After all, I was flying on the familiar United Airlines where I obtained one of their highest rated statuses (1K) clocking in at just over 300,000 miles in my account. In addition, it was first class the whole way, which is Motorola policy. (Who am I to go against policy?) My real concerns were everything else: new language, new place, new food, and most of all, unsure of the work that I was going to be doing. So Trish and I had a nice home-style dinner (tradition), and made a fire outside in the pit and roasted a few marshmallows. During that time, all the previously mentioned concerns went away and just like clockwork, I begin to worry about being apart from Trish for so long, the worst part of travel for sure. Yeah we have done this many times before, but it just seemed a lot harder this time, maybe because of all the other stress weighing on me.

The next morning, she drove me to the airport, dropped me off, said our goodbyes, and I headed into the terminal to check in for the long journey. As I was sitting there waiting for my flight to Chicago and then on to Beijing, I thought to myself that I wanted to document this trip in a sort of blog fashion. I had always wanted to chronicle my journeys around the US and other parts of the world before. As usual though, for whatever reason, this never gets done and I end up with just a few pictures sitting on my computer for no one to see. I certainly never considered myself a writer, and I don’t exactly have command of the language, not to mention my 4 year old niece can prolly spell better then me at this point (thank god for spell checker). I am a nerd, a computer guy, math and science is my thing, not this. Despite popular belief I do enjoy reading, and not just the normal Sports Illustrated and Boston Globe. I have two favorite writers: First is Ben Mezrich (author of Bringing Down the House), and the other is Bill Simmons (“The Sports Guy”) who writes a column on ESPN.com. This story (and yes, I’m calling it a story because its not a blog, its not a diary, and the term essay sounds like homework), will try incorporating both styles, using Ben’s ad nausea attention to detail, and Bill’s humor and use of metaphors that are make his style unique and popular.

Ok, I digress. The point is that sometimes I wake up at night, or stare off into space (as my friends and wife can attest to) and words just seem to come together into in my mind that if I only got it down on paper, might actually be interesting and entertaining to others. I imagine this is what happens to actual professional writers when they get an idea, although this time, I convinced myself I would actually try and create something. As anyone that has traveled knows, nothing can represent a good story better then experiencing it yourself.  The next best representation might be showing a few pictures and telling a few stories. Unfortunately, memories fade and my memory is prolly worse then most people. So just as much as I want to relay the details to others, it’s also a sort of memoir for myself. This story will be told in chronological order as it happened, however, I will attempt to side-step at times to describe certain topics and ideas that happened during the trip. So it might seem a little all over the place, but in my head, everything seems to come together. It must be said that this WAS a business trip. I hope to leave a lot of the boring work details out of it, so it might seem as though I was there for complete leisure, not the case. Also, colleague’s names will be changed to protect the innocent. Lastly, I will even add in pictures from the trip to give a little more spice to the words. I have always wanted to do this, and now I am, and prolly never will again. What better topic then a trip 13,000 miles away from home, from everyone, and from everything I know, except of course VOD!

The more I thought about the idea of creating a story, the more excited I got. Even after the 5 hour delay in Chicago (mechanical problems) and the 13 hour flight to Beijing (in which I did nothing but eat, watch movies, and sleep), I was still convinced that it was going to happen. Even the thought of my pickup ride not being at the airport because I was so late, coupled with the fact that I had no way to tell a taxi what hotel to go to, or the 10 million other possible future events, could not distract me. (NOTE: All this did distract me and this entire story was written on my flight back and days after). However, at that point, as the older 777 slowly descended from the dark sky, softly touched down on the runway, and taxied to the gate, I was feeling great. It wasn’t until I grabbed my belongings, gripped my passport, thanked my flight attendant, took a deep breath, and stepped out of the plane, when I felt a pit in my stomach and thought to myself (and might have even said out loud), “Holy shit, I’m in China!”

BEIJING

Saturday:

I started up the long glass lined jet way towards the enormous looking terminal that seemed almost a half mile away. There were only a couple people in front of me, which is usually the case in first class because they let you off the plane before anyone else. Upon entering the main building, it took my breath away as it was quite possibly the biggest building I have ever been in. Despite having multiple levels, counters, stores, and whatever else you usually find in an airport terminal, the entire place seemed to be under one gigantic domed shaped roof. I was told that Terminal 3 (as they called it) was built in less then two years in preparation for the Olympics, and is now the largest in the world. It was immaculate, smelled great, air conditioned, full of huge advertisements, video screens, and completely state of the art. I thought that the new terminal in Singapore was amazing, but this blew it away by 100 miles (or should I say kilometers). I continued to snake through some roped off aisles following the few passengers that were in front of me, approaching some official looking people. No doubt the first thing I noticed was that they were all wearing white doctors masks, (actually some of them even had some decorative ones on). I wasn’t sure if they were trying to protect themselves from us, or vice-versa, but either way, it kind of freaked me out. All of the officials were staring behind me in line, so curiously turned around and noticed at least a half-dozen black guys none of which were shorter then 6’4”. I couldn’t help but think how amazed the workers must be, both in seeing a black guy and someone that tall, because China has neither. (OK, I know you are thinking Yao Ming, but come one, he’s just a freak of nature, AND only on TV. These guys were in the flesh AND approaching their immigration line, they couldn’t take their eyes off!) After I passed through immigration and collected my first stamp on the new passport, I walked through what looked like a metal detector but was actually a device that took my temperature, which was both interesting and scary at the same time. If the Chinese even suspect that you are sick on any level, they immediately quarantine you for up to 7 days in some “hotel” in the city. (I know this because that one of those particular hotels happened to be around the corner from the one I was staying in, yikes!) Before I even got off the plane, I had to fill out this huge document that was longer then the form at my last physical.

The rest of the terminal was completely empty which was very surprising, and a little eerie considering the size. Despite the plane being almost 5 hours late, it was still only about 8:30 pm local time and figured there would be other arrivals, but what do I know (not much at this point). I then hopped on a tram over to baggage claim where my bright red duffle suitcase was waiting for me (relief). (I could prolly write an entire book on luggage stories alone. One time in Amsterdam, after 4 days of lost luggage, I finally went back to the terminal and I found my bag in a huge pile of other bags on the side of the baggage claim, I just grabbed it an left, now that was a first). Cruising through customs and out the main door, I was greeted by about 500 Chinese people waiting for their loved ones, all waving and screaming and taking pictures and I suddenly felt very tall. I almost felt like a rock star will all the hubbub going on, but turns out that was pretty standard for the arrival terminal. I was scanning over the tops of everyone’s heads and noticing the only other white guy in the place, a Motorola colleague, Luis, who I have been working with since the beginning, (also know as the “Broadbus days”, because our former startup was called “Broadbus” before Motorola acquired us in 2006). He was waving his hand, unlit smoke in mouth, and had a big grin on his face. He must have reacted to my own facial expression of sheer joy that I wouldn’t have to find my own way to the hotel. I walked over and saw he was with a Chinese guy, Cyrus, a local “Motorolian” (that’s what we call colleagues, lame yes, but you get used to it). Cyrus was our host and tour guide and also had been with us since the Broadbus days, but this was the fist time I met him in person after exchanging many emails over the years. He was nice enough to drive back to the airport after they apparently got my text from Chicago some 18 hours ago that I was going to be late. I thanked them about 74 times for showing up and before I knew it, we were cruising down the highway into the Beijing night.

As we pulled up to the hotel, about a 20 minute ride from the airport, I was pretty impressed as it certainly didn’t look like any Holiday Inn that I had seen in the US. First, this place was nice and considered a 4/5 star hotel despite only costing about $150 a night. Second, there was a Starbucks in the lobby…not a bad start. Cyrus informed us he would be back at 8am the next morning for a day of sightseeing. I thanked him again (like 6 more times), checked in, dumped my bag, washed up, changed my shirt, and met Luis back in the lobby ready to go, it was 9:30pm.

After soaking in the lobby a bit, Luis suggested we hit the hotel bar for a few before calling it a night. We had a long day of touring planned for the next day and since we both just arrived, we figured it would be a good idea to get some good rest. It was solid plan, one that was not executed very well. The hotel was attached to a mall of upscale stores and restaurants (not that uncommon for Asia), however there was only one bar, the “Pig and Thistle” (which I kept calling the Pig and Whistle, although should have been called the Pig and the Poke and I will explain why). The second we walked in, Luis was cracking up because he must have seen my face when I realized that the bar was filled with about a dozed Asian woman practically licking their chops that two guys just walked in (the only two guys mind you). They were sitting around the bar and at various tables just waiting for us to find a spot. Now this is fairly common in Asia as prostitution isn’t exactly legal, but isn’t exactly illegal either, its also not nearly as taboo as in the US.  (I heard a great line from a local later on that the US makes the most violent movies in the world and is all over TV, but when it comes to sex, we Americans freak out.  Couldn't have summed it up better myself.) I had seen this many times in Singapore so it wasn’t a complete shock, just didn’t realize I would be in that kind of bar the first 5 minutes of being in the country. What could we do? It was the only close place that was open, so we took our seats at the bar, ordered two local beers (Tsingtao) and proceeded to fight off the girls for the next 2 hours while shooting the shit about everything from work to the Pats. Luis had recently taken on a new job at Moto that required him to move from the Boston area to San Diego so I had not seen him for a while and was nice to catch up. We had always gotten along well at Broadbus which was saying a lot for that place.

As time passed, more guys had filtered in the establishment so the girls’ attention wasn’t completely on us, but the beers were wearing on our shields. I started to feel like the Death Star at the end of the original Star Wars after Obi-One Kanobi flipped the switch and all of a sudden, the impenetrable object was vulnerable to attack. After a while we ended up in somewhat of a conversation with a couple of them (that’s a whole story in itself). Their English wasn’t great, but was good enough to say the basics. As time wore on, the one Luis was talking to somehow convinced him for us to bring them to another, more famous bar that was open later called Maggie’s. From what I understand, they could only get in if they were “escorted” by someone else, and since the Pig and the Poke was closing, they were desperate for customers. I hesitantly agreed, but since cabs are dirt cheap, I was wide awake from the jet lag, and still interested in seeing more of Beijing night life anyway, I figured, why not?

We arrived at Maggie’s after about a 15 minute cab ride that only cost us $4 (all money in this story will be auto-converted to US dollars for your convenience). We escorted the girls into the bar and within 4 micro-seconds, they were gone, a very big relief. As I surveyed the room, it was much bigger of a place then the pervious bar and come to find out later was in the heart of downtown. There was a good size square bar on one side that could be accessed from all 4 sides, and a dance floor on the other side that had lights and such whirling around the 20 or so people that were cutting the rug. There was American music at an ear popping level, (I remember Fergielicious was booming when we arrived), and we proceeded to get a small bar table along the wall, ordered a couple more Tsingtao's, and continued to assess the situation. This place was also filled with hookers but in addition, there were girls prancing around that were actually employed by the bar and could be identified because they were all wearing body tight silk dresses with the same pattern on them. It was kind of fun because you knew they weren’t trying to get your “business” and since their English was also rough coupled with the fact that is was extremely loud, I just kind of kept nodding my head at them and drinking beer. I could see these girls with some of the other guys playing little dice games at their tables which I guess was fairly popular, although it didn’t look like craps so I was lost. A few shots and beers later (I use the term “few” here loosely), I could tell I was hitting my limit (a skill I seem to posses, not everyone has this). I turned my head in the direction of Luis who was already looking back at me with the same cross-eyed glance and I think we both realized it was time to go. Without saying a word to each other, we got up, sort of nodded at the bouncer, walked out, got in a cab, and whizzed through the night down the empty streets of Beijing back to the hotel, it was 4am. I managed to have one last ounce of smarts to set my alarm…not sure how, but glad I did. Not a bad first night introduction to China.

Sunday:

After waking up and getting my bearings, I realized that I was still in China, (how often do you say that to yourself after night of drinking and having it actually be TRUE). The room was a normal size hotel room (hard to tell at first because it was spinning around me, with a king bed on one side and a 32 inch LCD TV on the other which was placed on top of a dresser that was next to a desk. I never miss breakfast when I travel and because I hadn’t eaten since I was on the plane some 12 hours ago, I showered, dressed, and stumbled to the café where the meal was included in my room rate. After standing at the OJ machine for a good 10 minutes just refilling and pounding with a glass that was tiny, some of the waitresses started looking at me funny. I asked for the biggest glass they had so I could fill it and go back to my table and eat my omelet.

I met Cyrus in the lobby right on time (8am) and a few seconds later, Luis showed up and we both must have looked like death. I really didn’t care, as I was looking forward to the day of site seeing we had on tap (maybe a bad term to use considering the circumstances). Before we did anything, all three of us hit Starbucks for a large ice coffee and we were off in Cyrus’s car (I think it was a VW Jetta but not sure, things were still hazy at this point). First stop was the Great Wall, and it was recommended we get their early before the crowds and before it got too hot. The temp at this point was a comfortable 75 degrees with about 80% humidity/smog. The forecast looked promising actually as we got lucky considering it was in the low 90’s the previous week (also converting from Celsius for your pleasure, but if you must know, it was about currently about 24 degrees).

The drive was about 40 minutes out of the city and up towards the mountains on a 2 lane expressway type road. Being a Sunday morning, there was little traffic, so it was a nice ride. We talked about work a little and the plan for the upcoming couple of weeks which was troubling considering I was just trying not to throw up on myself. Cyrus is not a big drinker so I imagine the smell from both Luis and I in that small car was wretched. As we continued along, we drove past the Olympic area and I got my first look at the famous Bird’s Nest stadium and Water Cube which was absolutely jaw dropping, more on these two sites later. In what seemed like a blink of an eye, we went from flat terrain to rugged mountains. They were not ridiculously high in elevation or anything but beautiful to look at, covered in small green trees that seemed somewhat layered with parts of exposed brown rock everywhere. Out of nowhere in the distance, I could start to see parts of the wall going up and down the mountain side, snaking around part of the exposed rock. It was quite a site and certainly very unique. Cyrus explained to us that there were a couple parts that were developed to deal with the hordes of people that visit and were going to the “closest and most popular” part of the wall called Badaling. This included a gondola (they called it a cable car) to the top of one section of the wall, which we would then walk down (which was more like a hike) eventually making our way back to the car.

Cyrus was nice enough to buy our tickets which were about $8 each and we got in line to board, it was about 50 people deep. The gondola, which looked about as safe as, well, lets just say it didn’t look safe, but the alternative of hiking up the wall was not an option. Luis said he had done it on one of his past trips, and didn’t recommend it, especially in our state. So we forged ahead in true Chinese fashion, which meant everyone was pushing and shoving to get on. For some reason, Chinese culture does not like to stand in line, and anyone who has been to Asia, or even Chinatown in Boston for that matter, can attest to this. It’s the most bizarre thing, I mean, I don’t like lines either, but I still respect the queuing process. (At one point later in the week, I was at work in a crowded elevator waiting to get to our floor. The elevator stopped on an earlier floor and a woman in the back of the car was trying to get out. I stepped out of the elevator, let her out and then stepped back in. The guys I was with were amazed, laughing, and calling me a true gentleman for doing that, unreal.) The gondola ride to the top was about 10 minutes and we got out, exited the unloading area, and looked at each other and gave a collective sigh of relief.

At this point I got my first look at the marvel that is the Great Wall of China, and the name speaks for itself, its just “Great”. The view was absolutely breathtaking overlooking the rugged mountains and you could see the wall going up and over each peak as far as the eye could see. There was a nice cool breeze and from what I was told, it was a particular clear day for Beijing standards. If that was a clear day to them, I can see now why they were limiting car travel to every other day a month before the Olympics. The wall at most parts was about 10 feet high and about 6 feet wide with a stone railing about 3 feet on each side. The surface was large stone pieced together that reminded me of what stucco might look like on the side of a house. Parts of it were uneven steps and other parts were more like a ramp. Now just because we were at the top, and we were working our way “down”, there were still many parts of the wall where we had to go up also. This presented quite a challenge on the sections that were “ramped” and apparently we were not the only ones having trouble because there was a metal banister railing installed on the side to grab onto. This was a little bit of a help, but since it was so low, I really had to reach down and almost crouch to hang on, and for Luis, who is about 6’2” (a monster for Chinese standards), it looked awkward for him. Couple that with his hangover and it was wonderfully entertaining to me, at his expense of course. At one point we scaled about 50 steps to this one peak and stopped because we were both dying, and Luis says, “hold on, I got to stop for a minute”, which I was happy to oblige, and he immediately fired up a cigarette…classic Luis. As we proceeded down another ramp with more struggles and hangover affects, we noticed 3 old grandmother types going UP the wall and we both looked at each other and started laughing our ass off thinking that maybe we should stop complaining. At this point I was really happy he was there and he said the same about me, because it’s just never as fun when you travel and site see by yourself, (more about touring on my own later).

It took us about an hour and half to finally make our way back down to the bottom after frequent stops for pictures and Luis cigarette breaks. It was a bit busy with other tourists but not overly crowded with everyone just having fun enjoying the day, taking pictures, and admiring the engineering work and scenery. You had all types of people of all ages including young kids running by us in both directions with no fear at all. We even saw lots of woman in flip flops and heels tackling the wall like there was no tomorrow. I guess slow pitch softball hasn’t gotten me in nearly the shape I thought I was in and I blamed the previous nights drinking to help feel better about myself. At the bottom there were bunch of various souvenir shops and street meat. I then took a few minutes to explain to Cyrus the concept of “street meat”  and how it’s always good at the time and then regretted not too long after, which he thought was hilarious, and asked my permission to use that saying in the future. Needless to say, we avoided it. At one of the shops, he then bought both Luis and myself a couple of small marble hand chiseled tablets that had a picture of the wall and the date on them, the 8th of 78 nice things Cyrus did for us this trip, just a good guy all around.

As we headed back to the car, we came up on a bear pen, yes, a bear pen. It was a circular opening in the ground about 50 feet in diameter and 30 feet down with a sort of jungle gym structure in the middle. Inside were about a half dozen black bears, some were sleeping, and some climbing on the structure. Around the edge were a bunch of cut up crab apple looking things, which was food for them. We paid the guy there a couple bucks and threw them at the bears which they quickly picked off in mid air and ate, very cool. After we ran out of food to give, I started to feel like I was beginning to look like and apple to them, and since there was no cage, we swiftly  made our way out of there and back to the car, with a quick pit stop for at Starbucks of course. Yes, Starbucks at the Great Wall, I wonder if the Chinese envisioned that 3000 years ago when it was built. For those keeping track, that’s two hot coffees at breakfast followed by an iced coffee for the ride and an iced frapachino at the Wall, it was 11:30 and we were both still hurting, time for food.

We started back towards the city for lunch and then more touring. As we made the 45 minute drive, I started to get a good look at the rest of Beijing (this time during the day and much more sober), in addition to Cyrus giving us a history lesson and fun facts along the way. The city begins at the central point, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, which happened to be our next tour spot. From there the city sprawls out in all directions with roads encircling the center, conveniently called “rings”. Our hotel was just past the 3rd ring, which was about 8 miles from the city center. Despite being a city of almost 18 million people, there is no real skyline anywhere (not that you could see it anyway due to the dense smog). The wide, tree-lined roads were straight as an arrow with bike paths lining each side that varied in width. Beside that were buildings which mostly consisted of commercial businesses on the first floor with apartments and offices above that. Each building was between 5 and 20 stories but not much higher. Sure, there were a few newer office buildings that were modern looking and taller, but those were few and far between. This went on for miles in all directions, which I guess that’s how they fit everyone, but it never really seemed overcrowded as you might think (before I left, I had a vision that it was just endless people crowded in all directions). As far as the driving and driving skills go, I will get to that later, let’s just say it’s amazing I’m still alive.

Cyrus had picked out a famous duck restaurant that was near the city center for us. I was really looking forward to it since everyone had told me before I left on my trip that China is famous for its duck, although at that point I would have taken McDonalds, and judging by the looks of Luis, so wouldn’t he. As we entered the restaurant, it was externally ornate with all sorts of beautiful Asian décor on all walls. We were led by a sexy hostess down a long hallway with glass on one side overlooking the street, and pictures on the wall of various presidents from different countries that had all eaten there on the other side. Luis and I joked that we only recognized about half the countries featured and didn’t see any from the US. We continued to walk past a bunch of other rooms that had only one table in each and it was explained to me that when you are with a group, even as small as 6 people, you usually got your own room, also more on that later. We were placed in a room with about 20 other small tables and on one wall was a huge wood carving of the Great Wall, very unique and cool looking (unfortunately, I left the camera in the car). Cyrus took over from here and ordered a whole bunch of different variations of duck. Before they served us, they handed me a certificate showing us which number duck we had ordered since the restaurant opened in 1864.  We had some ridiculous number, from what I was told, it was over a billion. This was just what the doctor ordered, including a guy that came over and right at our table, carved us the most tender pieces of duck I ever had, it was all very delicious. Not to mention I drank two cans of Coke bringing the caffeine tally up to about 3 kilograms. We used chopsticks to pick at different items on the table for about half hour, paid, and headed out. Both Luis and I agreed that we caught a much needed second wind and were ready for more attractions.

Cyrus drove us a couple miles down the road and into Tiananmen Square, a site to see for sure. I had asked briefly where the Tank Man had been and Luis turned around in the car and looked at me as if to say, I wouldn't bring that up here, so I dropped it. We got out of the car, thanked Cyrus again for the millionth time and we were now on our own, two Americans (prolly the only two Americans I might add) wandering around the biggest open concrete square I had ever seen. We then started talking about the Tank Man and how they don’t really know about it, government cover up, etc. I was still in awe that I was standing in the same place that 300,000 troops fought off tens of thousands of protesting students in one of the most famous moments in the city’s, and even the worlds history, just amazing. We saw the Forbidden City on the other side and started making our way over. This kind of reminded me of Vegas with the shear enormity of it all, thinking that it didn’t look that far away, but still took us about 20 minutes to cross the square, and we started about half way!

We reached the front of the Forbidden City and it just looked amazing. I am not going to get into the history of it all, I will leave that up to you, but it wasn’t until I grabbed a map of the area did I realized how big it was with so many nooks and crannies. We paid for a ticket to get in, a whopping $8, and made our way through the main gates. Luis had been before but said he was still amazed every time he went and I could see why. There were so many different buildings, structures, bunkers, temples, etc. Everything was incredibly ornate and colorful, with the whole place undergoing a massive restoration and repainting the entire thing by hand! I know how long it took to paint my new living room and that was with a roller, these guys were using little brushes! The government was trying to get the look of how it once was with the vibrant colors and shiny bronze decorative coverings on the walls and doors, words cannot describe (this is why pictures are good, and even they don’t really do it justice). There were even guys out in one of the courtyards picking the weeds out by hand. (It reminded me of driving to work and seeing the convicts on the side of Rt. 2 picking up trash.) It took us about 2 hours to get through the whole thing again stopping for pictures and yup you guessed it, more caffeine, although this time in the form of iced tea. Before you ask, there was no Starbucks in the Forbidden City although at this point, I would not have been completely shocked if there was. As we made our way out the back side of the complex, we were greeted by peddlers and beggars looking to get whatever they could from us.

Luis suggested we head over to Silk Street, a famous indoor bargaining market where we could do some shopping, it was now 4pm. This was easier said then done, as getting a taxi was near impossible for some reason. This one guy was driving a rickshaw and followed us for a good half mile trying to get our business. Now I am a fairly adventurous guy, but no way was I going to get in that thing on a busy street in Beijing. There was even more difficulty trying to relay to the potential taxi drivers where we wanted to go. At this point, we were both missing Cyrus big time. We ran into two English speaking Germans that were trying to go to the same place we were, and one of them could speak Chinese so we split a crowed taxi ride for about 15 minutes to the market. However, just outside, before we went in, we stopped for a, yup, you guessed it, another Starbucks iced coffee.  I though my heart was going to give out on me and I hadn’t even been in China for more then 24 hours, do they have free health care here?

As we entered the market it took about 4 seconds to realize this was going to be interesting. The building consisted of 5 floors with narrow walkways lined by small stalls similar to a flea market. The big difference is that each stall attendant was screaming at you (and screaming is not an understatement) to look at their stuff with many of them peddling the same things. Shirts, socks, sports clothes and equipment, watches, suits, you name it. “You want! you want!” they would holler. At some point they were actually grabbing my arm and pulling me in, no lie. One lady even pulled my cataract sunglasses (another long story) off my head and ran into her stall so I could follow her. Side Note: after she did that, she looked at the glasses and gave a look at me like, what the hell are these! The whole thing was intense, and since we were both in some kind of post hangover, it seemed surreal. I supposed if I wanted some silk shirts or knock off Taylor Made clubs it might have been ok, but I had no idea what I was looking for. We both ended up in a souvenir shop that actually had some cool stuff and they were a little less aggressive towards us. Luis was shopping for his kids and I was looking for something for Trish. After much bargaining with the lady’s, I only wish I had recorded some of the conversations. Try to picture in a thick Chinese accent, “Special price just for you”, “Customer just paid twice as much for that”, etc. The best part was that all price negotiation was done on a jumbo calculator, all the vendors had them. They would type in something, then I would type in something, and on and on it went…very funny stuff. We both walked out of there with a few things and made our way to the exit, no easy task as we got pulled and screamed at the whole way. I think that was the nail in the coffin and we decided it time to go back to the hotel and hang ourselves.

As we stepped outside the building, it was pouring rain which made it pretty much impossible to get a cab, not to mention that I could feel the acid rain melting my skin on the spot. The locals were scattering like roaches when the lights come on, all holding whatever was on them over their heads to protect from the rain, umbrella, newspaper, baby...not kidding. I remember this part of the culture vividly from my days in Singapore in high-school and I had to laugh. After about half hour, we found a cab, got back to the hotel, had a quick bite, and crashed like there was no tomorrow (I almost wish there wasn’t). I think it was like 9pm, I turned the TV on, caught the first 3 minutes of Iron Man and I was out.

Monday-Tuesday

I met Luis in the morning at Starbucks for more iced coffee and we were off to work. The Motorola office was about a 10 minute taxi ride away and when we pulled up I was immediately impressed. The building was about 30 stories high and looked fairly new. I was told that the company had recently moved buildings and it housed a few thousand employees. We made our way in using our badges (mine didn’t work of course, but pulled some of my IT connections and quickly rectified that) and went up to the meet Cyrus in the office who had booked us a conference room for the day to work in. I was introduced around to some of the people from the Broadbus days which was really good for me to finally meet them. When I was first hired there as IT guy, I had worked with many of them remotely to help setup the VPN connection to the home office in Boxboro, their phone system, lab network, etc, so to actually meet them face to face after all this time was actually kind of cool.

I sat down with some of the engineers and started getting caught up on the Nanjing project and what was to be expected. Luis was there for different reasons (in addition to my project) so he was off doing his own thing. The original plan had me going down to Nanjing the following day, but after more discussions it seemed that they were not ready for me yet down there so I postponed the flight until Wednesday and spend another day in the office trying to figure things out and get a little more training. Almost everyone there was very nice and spoke fairly good English, especially when it came to VOD language, a common bridge for all. I took a tour of the lab and saw some of the things they were working on and was very impressed. After the previous couple day’s events, it was sort of a reality check, but not in a bad way. Despite still being a little vague on the details of the schedule I was looking forward to getting down to Nanjing and getting to work, after all it is what I was there for.

Tuesday night before I left, we hit some local dinner, where we met another guy from the Broadbus days, Frank, who had just arrived. He was a lead developer on one of the pieces of the VOD system that they were using in Nanjing and part of the reason why I was there. They want to start deploying it in the US and would need someone to do the integration and figure out how it will work with customers like Comcast and Time Warner. Ok, enough work talk. We played pool at this bar for a couple hours and downed a few more Tsingtao's. Everyone said their goodbyes, wished each other luck in our own endeavors, and then headed back for the night. I still had to repack because I had a fairly early flight down to Nanjing in the morning and wanted time for breakfast and of course Starbucks.

The next day back at the airport, I made my way over to the gate and boarded the Air China flight, which is the most popular domestic carrier in China, and part of the Star Alliance so at least I earned United miles! The plane however, was on old 737 that looked like United had given up on about 20 years ago, except they added about 10 more rows to it so I sat there with my knees up my nostrils the whole time, I can only imagine if Luis was on there. The flight attendants, however, were anything but old. They were all extremely attractive Chinese woman wearing tight short dresses that reminded me of the work girls at Maggie’s a couple nights prior, and apparently that’s par for the course on these flights. They were smiling at me in a shy way and then would chuckle with their flight attendant friends. This was a very common sight with Asian woman, (well the ones that aren’t "professionals" anyway). Chinese are typically very shy people and most think that young white guys are very “handsome”. Now, I don’t think I’m an ugly guy but certainly no Tom Brady (more like Peter Brady), and when I smile back at them, it would always promote this type of behavior. It was cute and made me feel like a rock star, model, and professional athlete all at once. It was almost like in middle school when you liked a girl and she liked you and there was always that uncomfortable shyness where you would both just smile at each other with nothing to say (they wouldn't understand me anyway). Not to mention that almost every Asian woman has an amazing figure and I’m not kidding. Many times I would be walking down the street behind a woman with an amazing body and she would turn her head and come to find out she is like 50…its ridiculous! They are all wearing next to nothing since its hot out and they all seemed to have some kind of fashion sense. I don’t know, I guess its one the things I love most about Asia, what guy wouldn’t!

Anyway, as I walked down the aisle to my seat, (after getting pushed of course, remember that it’s the Chinese way) I saw another local Motorola engineer, Jack, who I had met the day before and also was going down to Nanjing, so I was a bit relieved that I wouldn’t have to make my way to the hotel on my own once we landed. The flight was only about and hour and half and all I could see was farmland the whole way including right up to when we touched down. I grabbed my stuff, took a deep breath, and met Jack in the jet way to begin the next phase of my trip.

 

 

 

 

 

NANJING

Wednesday-Friday

Walking through the airport I realized immediately that I was not in Kansas anymore. The building was small and very old looking. There were a few shops that were selling snacks and magazines, but certainly not the upscale shops and restaurants like in the massive Terminal 3 where I had just departed from in Beijing. Jack and I grabbed our bags and loaded into the trunk of the taxi who then proceeded to take off without me in the car (although Jack was), and the door was still open. He stopped about 10 feet ahead and I got in and Jack turns to me and said “time is money” and chuckled, I did not find this very funny at the time. Now that the both of us were safely in the car, we embarked on the 45 minute drive towards the city, engaging in some friendly conversation that had nothing to do with work. Basically we talked about where he lived, his education, girlfriend, etc. He asked me a lot of questions about the US and the related customs, he was very nice and seemed rather intelligent.

Nanjing is known as an “ancient” city and was the capital of China on and off for many different dynasties and even into part of early 20th century. It lies along the famous Yangtze River, is about 200 miles west of Shanghai, and is considered a “smaller” city in China with about 6 million people. (I will let you look up the rest of the history). The entire taxi ride was through all farmland and small towns until about 10 minutes prior to arrival we started to enter into city atmosphere. There were only a few modern buildings scattered about many more run down older buildings. In addition, I was noticing immediately that there was much less English on all the signs and shops which started making me a little nervous. Not being able to communicate is always the most stressful part of any trip I take. It’s kind of like going to the South and not understanding anyone even though they are speaking English, this is 10 times as scary, coupled with the fact you cant read anything. Unless you have been in this situation, its hard to understand. The streets were setup in similar fashion as Beijing, consisting of beautiful tree lined straight roads (I mean the trees were really amazing and old looking). I learned later that all the streets are setup this way to provide shade along both sides of the street to keep cool during the famously hot Nanjing weather. Outside the trees where much wider bike paths that were completely filled with people on regular bikes and also electric and gas powered scooters, they almost seemed to outnumber the cars. Next to the bike paths were fairly large sidewalks and lastly were the familial type of buildings with commercial shops on the first floor and apartments above that varied in size from 5 to 20 stories high. The commercial shops looked much more “local” and reminded me of a scene in Chinatown in Boston. The people out in front of these shops were engaged in various types of activities, but mostly sitting around, smoking, staring, and sweating. This scene seemed to go on forever and I never thought we would reach our hotel.

I couldn’t help but wonder what was in store for me on the other end of this taxi ride, if I could live through it, let me explain. For those who have complained about the infamous Boston drivers and how crazy they are, should take a trip to Nanjing. I thought it was bad in Boston, or even Beijing, but I have never seen nor participated in anything like this before. Most of the roads were 4 lane straight roads (2 lanes in each direction), well at least that’s what it LOOKED like. The traffic was busy but not at a standstill, because it’s pretty much a free for all unless you get to a stoplight, and even then it was suspect. There was a good amount of buses that seemed to be the most popular type of transportation despite the taxis being so cheap, but most people are fairly poor here. The busses just seemed to stop in the middle of the road to pick and drop off even though there appeared to be bus stops along the curbside. This caused the impatience of just about everyone but mostly the taxis including the one I was in, so very frequently he would just move over left into the oncoming traffic lanes to get around. I had the displeasure of sitting the front seat so I got a first hand look. I remember putting on my seat belt back at the airport and the driver was motioning to me that it wasn’t necessary but being an American (and someone that wants to live), I put it on anyway and I was glad I did. When we first moved over to the other lane, I thought it might have been just a one time thing, but I couldn’t have been more wrong, as it continued the entire ride. Many times there were cars going the other way trying to do the same thing in our lane! I would say it looked like we were about to have a head on collision about 15 times on that ride. The driver was not just doing that to get around buses, but ANYONE that was going to slow including other cars or even those on bikes and scooters who dared go on the regular streets.

At one point we actually went left around a slow car and another was coming at us in the opposite direction and then passed to the right side of us. I wish I was making this up as I white knuckled the “oh shit” handle for about 5 minutes and was feverishly trying to send a quick text message to my wife to say that I loved her and might never see her again. The taxi driver and Jack were both cracking up and they clearly saw the fear in my face. I mean, at one point, he passed a car on the left into oncoming traffic going through an intersection that had bikes and scooters crossing the street that we were on. I was suddenly was staring at an oncoming bus headed straight for us, and at the last second he quickly jerked the car back to the right in the “correct” lane and almost sideswiped the car next us with our mirrors actually hitting. By the way, this was the normal for every taxi I took the entire week which was about 4 rides a day. You can only imagine when I was actually on foot attempting to cross the street to get anywhere. The funny thing is, the entire time I did not see one accident, not even a fender bender or bike collision, nothing. When we finally did pull up to the hotel and the bellhop opened the door to let me out, I practically jumped into his arms and wanted to cry like a little baby.

The hotel was a large 20 story modern building nestled in a slew of poor rundown apartment buildings, in fact, I almost didn’t even see it until we pulled into the driveway. It was attached to a large 5 story beautiful indoor/outdoor shopping mall called Aqua City, and after first glance, you could see how the name came about. It had amazing fountains and pools running all around and through it on each floor. The front of the mall housed a huge colored water fountain display that had people standing around staring. The scene wasn’t quite the front of the Bellagio, but was still pretty cool. The whole structure of mall/hotel seemed really out of place there but come to find out they are really trying to build up that area and this was the first step. I couldn’t help but think that I should have stayed in the other hotel that was recommended by my colleague and was located more downtown, but I went with this one because it was close to the cable company and also where the other Moto guys were staying. Oh well, no turning back now, and it had a Starbucks in the mall so it couldn’t have been all that bad, right? Upon entering the lobby, I knew this wasn’t your average Holiday Inn, similar to the one in Beijing, very large, beautiful and bustling. When I finally got to my room, I was pleasantly surprised. It was large with two double beds (although they called them twins), and an above average view of the slums nestled throughout the taller modern buildings. Again, I had a good size LCD TV, good size bathroom with a big window dividing the main room that had blinds drawn. They looked like I could open them to look into the room from the shower, which I thought would have been cool to see, but couldn’t figure it out, oh well. I washed up a little and a few minutes later, I was back down in the lobby waiting for a couple of my colleagues to figure out what to do next.

I met with the project manager, who spoke very good English, and we went to get some lunch in the mall before heading to the customer site. After some delicious Korean food and warm Coke (you have to ask for ice in everything, and even then you get some looks), the other guys met us at the restaurant where we had an impromptu meeting and I was introduced to everyone. Most of them could speak fairly good English, when they had to, but would usually just speak Chinese amongst themselves unless they wanted to include me. This was a familiar pattern which I saw for the rest of my work time in the city. I realized that this was the way things were going to be for this project and little did I know then it would be even more difficult when the customer was added to the mix. We went over the current status of the project and the tentative plan moving forward, then made our way back to the hotel to pick up our laptops and such (after pit stop for iced coffee at Starbucks), and then embarked in taxis (gulp) to the customer location which thankfully was only a few minutes away.

We were dropped off in the middle of the road in true Nanjing style, and snaked our way through traffic to get to the customer building. Nanjing Cable was a 29 story very modern looking glass building located in a little more of a business district of the city, which meant a few less slums and a few more regular style buildings. We signed into the security desk, (which for me consisted of six security guards staring at me wondering what the white guy was doing here), and made our way up to the 13th floor (creepy). As we got off the elevator, I immediately noticed how hot it was on the floor and there was this ammonia smell emanating throughout. Come to find out later this was from the bathroom and I immediately remember a colleague of mine who had been there before giving me some advice. If I had to use the bathroom, hold your breath, and if I have to go #2, I had better do it at the hotel, now I could see why (and put into practice). I followed the others down a short hallway and into a long narrow room that had a bunch of LCD monitors on one side going down the length of the wall that were used to monitor all the VOD equipment. The opposite wall was all glass windows with a view of about a dozen huge satellite dishes on part of the roof and beyond that was an amazing view of the rest of the city. I was thinking what a great place to work with a great view and couldn’t help to think of my 3rd floor cube back home overlooking the parking lot and trees. We moved into an adjacent narrow room with a few modular desks where people were sitting and chatting. I was introduced to a few of the customer engineers and also some of our guys that were there as well. After a few discussions about what I was doing there, we took a tour of the server room and I was really impressed with the layout and the amount of VOD equipment they had there (mostly our stuff). This was indeed the biggest site we had churning out the most amount of streams (a stream is VOD speak for someone ordering a movie), then any other site I had been to. I couldn’t help but notice they had spaced out the equipment over multiple racks and thought that this was a complete waste of space and would never happen at home, but damn it sure looked cool. There were a few guys in there doing some wiring and despite the rest of the building floor being hot as hell, this room was freezing (as it should be) and must be where all the air-conditioning was going.

The next 48 hours were a blur. We spent about 40 of them at the customer site doing various tasks including upgrades, fixing servers, training and all the other fun stuff that goes along with my job. I slept a total of about 8 hours those two and a half days making trips back and forth to the hotel at various times for food and rest (and bathroom). At first I was trying to run the show doing things my way and it was clear that it was not going to happen. In fact I think that I prolly scared most of them off so I decided that this wasn’t’ my show (something I am not used to) and decided to back off a little. By the end of the trip they had warmed up to me and I was back to pointing, teaching, doing, fixing, humoring, etc, something I was much more comfortable with. By the time Friday night came around, we had accomplished some but not all we wanted to and were behind schedule, mostly due to the customer delaying everything for fear of breaking the system. It was time to go get a proper meal and have a few drinks, something I was dying for at this point.

There was a group of about 8 people including Motorolians and partners, but no customer. Unlike the US, it is not common practice for the customer to go out with the vendors as they see it as a conflict of interest. This is of course a sharp contrast from what I am used to as the customer is usually harking me non-stop to take them out to get their free meal. Anyway, we proceeded to walk about 25 minutes from the customer building towards the heart of the city. This original hotel recommended to me was located in this particular area I can see why. The older, poorer neighborhoods began to fade into a much more vibrant and electric section of town. The side walks were wide splitting the space between the street and tall modern buildings, such as hotels, office buildings, and shopping malls that seem to go on for a while in all directions. It was early evening so everything was lit up with colored lights and neon signs causing my neck to swivel in all directions trying to soak it all in. Being a Friday night, it was more crowded then usual and everyone seemed to be thankful to be done with the work week and ready to go out and I was certainly one of them. There was music coming from different buildings, vendors on the street, and the whole place was oozing good times from all directions. We wondered around for a while getting a bit lost at times looking for this particular restaurant, but I didn’t mind as it provided a good chance to get tour of the area. As we came around one corner, we finally found the establishment and proceeded to enter.

The entrance and lobby of the restaurant reminded me of the duck place from Beijing and a far cry from some of the other dingy lunch spots (all good food though) we had frequented the last couple days. The lobby again was extremely ornate and had cool décor hanging all over the place. A couple of sexy (obviously) Asian hostesses led us down a maze of hallways past a bunch of different rooms, all with one large table in each, until we reached our room. When we entered the fairly plainly decorated room, there were already a couple guys in there who were apparently hosting this shindig. I was introduced and we all sat down at the large circular table bigger then one you might see at a wedding, however, in the middle, there was a large lazy susan about 5 feet across and made of glass. There were two young waitresses (also sexy, duh!) that were dedicated just to our room. In true Chinese dinner format, one guy got the menu and started ordering like crazy, while the waitress just stood there. There was no, “lets start you off with drinks”, but more like, “here is the menu now deicide while I uncomfortably stand here”, this was EVERY meal. Since I was usually just eating with other people, I would just always let them decide and pick for the table.

We all got beers and what seemed almost immediate, food started coming out and placed on the edge of the lazy susan. The others started spinning the table around and picking at the different dishes with their chopsticks, so I started doing the same as they came by. The beers were large bottles that came with these small glasses (a little bigger then a shot glass) to drink with. The host at this point started to cheers everyone individually and you would gulp your “little” beer, show the other person it was gone, and then nod your head to finish the ritual. It took me a couple semi-embarrassing toasts to figure out that was the custom, but I got the hang of it. Throughout the entire dinner, different people were toasting others at the table, and even I tossed a couple out there, you know, just to try and fit in. At one point it got a little crazy and almost felt like I was trying to do the “power hour” like back in college, a shot of beer every minute for an hour. I was told this was the usual ritual for a more formal setting at dinner which I guess this was. At this point there was a steady stream of food coming into the room and the lazy susan was whirling around almost nonstop filled with delectable items. There was everything, whole fish (with heads), prawns (with heads), chicken (no heads), pork, beef, mushrooms, veggies, you name it, it was out there, and I was trying it all (even the jelly fish, not good). I even tried the ducks blood, yes, you heard me right (taste like tofu) and was actually not that bad. Almost everything was amazingly flavorful and delicious as was the case for almost every meal I had during the entire trip, so this was no surprise. After stuffing my face and drinking about 32 little beers, we got the waitress to snap a photo and stumbled out of the restaurant into the now even more bustling city. Once we got past the beggars at the door (not as common of a site as you would think), we wondered around a while trying to find a taxi back to the hotel. When that failed because it was just too busy, I took a stab at some people to see if they wanted to continue the party somewhere else but got no takers (prolly a good thing). We eventually hopped a city bus and made our way back to the hotel.

Back in the room, I realized how whipped out I was from not getting much sleep the previous few days, so I decided to check out the hotel pool for a few minutes, after all, I did bring my bathing suit. It was a large indoor pool with glass on all sides and overlooked the city (slums) from the 5th floor. I quickly dove in on the opposite side of the pool from the only other people in the place, a young couple, and only stayed in a few minutes but it felt good. I dried, looked around at the gym, laughed that I knew I would never use it, and retired to my room. I thought I would crash right away considering how tired I was, but instead, ended up doing some research on the places I wanted to site see over the weekend while watching the first two episodes of Band Of Brothers which was on HBO. I think I passed out sometime before the big jump into Normandy, shortly after midnight.

 

 

Saturday-Sunday

I woke up feeling very alone and homesick so I made a call home and Trish tells me that a couple of our friends were over visiting (if that sounds weird, remember its a 12 hour time difference). I had been in China for a week and was ready to get out of there, but after a few of her always encouraging words, I buckled down and pressed on. Before I had left, a colleague of mine had recommended a must-see spot to visit while I was in Nanjing so I planned on spending the day playing tourist. After breakfast I packed my backpack with some water, camera, and my laptop thinking I was going to find a nice little spot to begin writing this story (ha!). The day hardly got off the ground as it took getting in and out of two taxis before one finally understood the bellhop translating where I wanted to go. I was a little nervous on where I was going to end up, but after a 20 minute drive ($6), the taxi made its way out of the concrete jungle of the city and into the thick forest at the base of Purple Mountain.

The city of Nanjing is boarded by the Yangtze River on one side and Purple Mountain on the other which is visible from almost every point. A fairly large mountain about the size of Wachusett but with no other hills or mountains around, it looks much bigger. Scattered all about the south face of the mountain are various tombs and mausoleums that make up what is knows as the Zhonghan Mountain National Park. My plan was to try and hit up as many sites as possible in the day starting from one end at the Ming Tomb and working my to the other side ending at the Liggu Pagoda. They were all supposed to have great history and stunning views of the city so at this point I was really looking forward to checking it out and forgetting about missing home for a few hours. I paid my $10 entrance fee, grabbed a map, and headed in, not really knowing what to expect.

I started out towards the Ming Tomb down a straight path lined by grass and hedges on both sides. On top of the grass for about 500 feet were these enormous statues on both sides that were apparently very old but kind of cool looking. I traded pictures with a family so I could get one of myself there and the little boy that was with them said "thank you" in English and seemed very proud of that, very funny stuff. There was a good amount of people here but not overcrowded by any means. Some were just couples and some were big tour groups with the lead person holding a flag and sporting a portable PA system so that they would give out facts and direction to the group. This was very common at all the places I visited that day and all other tourist spots of my trip. I thought about following close to one of these groups to leech the info, but couldn’t find one that was in English so I decided I was going to do this on my own. Most of the sites had little signs posted here in there in all languages giving information about the buildings and history so that was good enough for me. I worked my way past a couple snack carts to the entrance of the Ming Tomb area. I crossed a little bridge over a brook and down and very wide decretive path that sliced through the woods like a golf hole. Up the path were a couple of smaller buildings that looked like a typical oriental structure that you would expect, finally making my way to the last building, the tomb itself. It was U-shaped with a large courtyard in front and the walls were about 50 feet high on all three sides with this kind of orange color that reminded me of the kitchen in my old condo. I walked through and up to the top looking back down the path I had just come up. I couldn’t really see over the trees here but cool to see the decorative colors and art that was inside the structure and around the façade.

From here I made my way up some smaller (still decorative) paths cutting through the woods and slowly ascending the side of the mountain. Luckily there were signs all around showing the direction for the different destinations because once you got into the woods, everything started looking the same. Not to mention the fact I couldn’t exactly stop and ask for help from anyone. My next stop was an area called Purple Lake which was further up the mountain. I immediately noticed signs everyone warning people to not swim but that didn’t seem to deter anyone. The lake was good size but not enormous, and had great views of the upper half of the mountain all the way to the peak. The name comes from the color of the clouds and the water around dusk and dawn, but I didn’t see anything like that at this point. I followed the path all around the parameter of the lake which had groups of people about every 10 feet. Most were having picnics and swimming at the edge of the water. The concept of a bathing suit seemed to be missing since all the guys were swimming in their briefs, quite a site, believe me. I thought about jumping in myself since it was so hot out and I was lugging around this heavy backpack that included my laptop, (at this point, I realized what a mistake it was to have brought it as there was no way I was going to get any writing done). Oh well, nothing I could do now except sweat like crazy and drink the water I had. There was a little pavilion overlooking the lake which I climbed up and rested for a little while in the shade. It was just about noon (midnight at home) and I decided to break out the cell phone and call Trish to let her know I was feeling a little better then the morning and not to worry about me before she went to bed.

I noticed on the map that the next tomb looked like a good distance away, but that there was a trolley that ran between the two sites, so I made my way back down the side of the mountain to the entrance of the Ming Tomb. Off to the side of the main road, I saw what looked like the trolley and went over to try and get on. I pointed to the spot on the map where I thought it was going and was denied by the driver which consisted of her shaking her head, waving her finger and saying, no, no. Ok, since an argument would not have gotten me too far, I marched down the road on foot, which was more like a road and not a path that lead over to the next tomb. When I came up on the entranceway, it was notably bigger then that of the Ming Tomb with snack shops, small restaurants, and souvenir shops all over. I also noticed lots of buses here which were for the tour groups, and cars parked which lead me to believe this was a more popular spot. After marching all that way, I was fairly hungry and since I didn’t know when the next food spot would be, I attempted to get some at one of these little restaurants and picked the only one that seemed to have air conditioning. The second I walked in, the cool air was a welcome relief as I grabbed cold water from the fridge and then looked at the menu, which was all in Chinese. There were a couple pictures on the wall that I was trying to just point at something, but the lady wasn’t having it and continued trying to get me to pay for the water. After about a 2 minute standstill of staring and pointing, I would have settled on a bowl of rice at this point, but I remembered I had bought a cheap little pocket book that had translations for popular Chinese sayings. I broke that out, found something and showed it to the lady, who immediately shook her head in agreement, charged me, and a couple minutes later, out came a large soup bowl filled with noodles and beef, perfect. I would think the last item I would want on a hot day was a bowl of soup, but it actually was very good, very cheap, and very satisfying. The book I bought which I had hardly looked at up to this point, turned out to be a great purchase. I was now on my way back into the heat and on to the next site.

The Mausoleum of Sun Tay-Sen (read your own history) was the destination and was already more stunning the Ming Tomb. I really didn’t know what to expect but it started out the same familiar path, a wide long path leading up the mountain, past a couple of gates, which were really just open structures built up in the middle of the path with a few steps at the front and an amazing deep blue colored roofs. Once I got past that, then I could see the actual Mausoleum located at the top of a VERY long wide set of stairs that were broken up into about 5 groups. I can only estimate about 500 steps, but again, once I saw some old people making the ascent, there was no backing down and I figured the view at the top would be spectacular, so I began to climb. I took it slow for fear of passing out in the heat or worse, upchucking the beef and noodles I just fought so hard to order. Once I made it to the top, it was all worth it when I turned around and saw the breathtaking view over the tops of the trees and into the smog faded cityscape in the background. I stayed up here a while because the cool breeze was offering much relief and I was enjoying watching the other people trudge up the stairs and then see their reaction as they reached the summit, mostly just trying to catch their breath. I walked through the actual tomb which was a small circular room with marble covered walls and a colorfully painted ceiling. I pressed my face up to the sides of the inner tomb to cool down (and I wasn’t the only one doing this). Back outside I stood at the top of the staircase again just gazing out into the distance and thought that it would be really nice to share this view with someone as I could see on the camera that it wasn’t doing it justice, but I was determined not to let it bother me. I passed the time a little by offering to take other people’s picture so they could have their whole group involved, which everyone was very thankful for and would try to say thank you to me in the best possible English (also amusing). After a while, I started to make my way down the stairs and on to the next site, the Luggu Pagoda.

After looking at the map, I could see that there were some smaller paths through the woods that did not require me to go all the way back to the main road, so I decided to take the road less traveled. These paths were much more narrow only about 4 feet across, but still decoratively made of some kind of stone and very nice. As the path snaked through the thick trees in all directions it seemed like, I could not help to notice the sounds coming from the woods. Most of them were the normal buzzing, whiling, and chirping noises you might here at home, but there were also plenty other unrecognizable ones as well that were kind of freaking me out a little. I even heard people yelling out in the distance and I think this was not a cry for help as it sounded like, but just a way to identify where they were located for the others in their party. Nevertheless, it sounded scary. Not to mention the bugs were fairly popular through this section of woods and was doing everything I could to kill whatever was about to bite me. I could only imagine what mosquitoes in China are carrying, but I wasn’t about the find out, and I suddenly felt much better knowing I got that Typhoid shot a week before I left. I don’t even know what Typhoid is, but I know I don’t want it. I was also thinking of that scene in Apocalypse Now where they get off the boat for a few minutes and a Tiger startles and chases them through the woods, then Martin Sheen says “Don’t get off the boat, god damn right, unless you were going all the way”. Well, I wasn’t going all the way and stayed on the path as best I could, never straying into the woods, for about half an hour until I finally turned a corner and came up on the Pagoda.

The Linggu Pagoda is a tall cylinder looking tower with partial roof sticking out at every floor and would considered to be a typical Chinese building you might see in the movies. It was about 10 stories tall and shot up towards the sky over the treetops. From the ground it was very impressive looking until I realized that I was going to have to climb it. I considered this my own 4th quarter and dug down deep, pounded some water, and started my assent up the windy cement stairs that were very narrow to the point where it was hard to get by someone on their way down. I stopped along the way to rest and check out the views that were getting increasingly better at each floor, until I finally reached the top. As I made the final step I noticed there were about 10 other people up here, a large telescope looking thing, and a husband/wife combo selling various souvenirs off a small table. I walked over to the edge and looked out to an even more breathtaking view of the mountain and city in the distance. I felt considerably higher then the previous tomb and could actually see the top of it poking through the trees in the distance. I then realized and saw just how far I had marched through the woods to get there and under other circumstances, prolly would never have done that, especially in the heat, but I was sort of impressed with myself. I mean, no one else was there with me to be impressed, so yeah, I had to congratulate myself. I stayed up here a while enjoying the breeze, the view, bought a little trinket from the guy that was in the shape of the Pagoda ($3), and slowly made my way back down, getting dizzy the whole way from the spiral staircase. After decided to call it a day, I started making my way back towards the parking lot until I came upon this Buddhist temple that was open, so I walked in, and I’m glad I did.

This temple was a lot larger on the inside then when I had originally came up on it. As soon as I walked in, there was a strong smell of something I can only call incense, and immediately I could see why. In the middle of the first courtyard there was a trolley cart type that you might see in Faneuil Hall Market but this was hollowed out. Inside there was a bunch of holes punched out for long candles to stick out and light. Next to it there was a monk offering up fresh ones to light yourself, but I didn’t really feel right about doing it so I passed, but it was impressive none the less. There were not too many people in here and it felt like I had the whole place to myself, almost to the point where I thought I wasn’t supposed to be in there. The rest of the area consisted of smaller different rooms you could go in, and each one was over the top decorated with all sorts of Buddhist stuff. Each room had a different statue inside with cushions on the floor which I later saw was for people to kneel down and prey on. I wandered around a little more in the temple, took a few pictures, and then made my way back to the lot. This time I was serious, and was not stopping anymore, I was officially out of gas. When I emerged from the woods into the parking lot, I was soaked from head to toe in sweat, even my hat Sox hat was completely drenched. I had been walking/hiking through the woods and climbing steps for the better part of 6 hours now and it was hovering around 90 degrees the whole time. I was able to get a taxi and was back in the confines of my hotel room about 20 minutes later.

After a few hours of relaxing, I showered and ventured out to find some dinner on my own. This was the first meal where I didn’t have someone with me that could speak the language so I assumed it was going to be challenging. After about a half hour of wandering around with no luck, I happened to run into some of my colleagues on the street who turns out were on their way to dinner. They could see how happy I was to have a guide now and we talked about the statistical improbability of running into each other in a city of 6 million people, oh well, ill take it. We found a restaurant nearby, ate, and again I threw out an invitation to continue the party somewhere but got no takers (I was starting to think it was me, who doesn’t want to hang out with me?). As I was making my way back to my room, I saw a sign for the rooftop bar in our hotel and decided to check it out. I made my way up to a large open area with about 30 small tables which were about half occupied. I ordered a beer and within minutes, 3 people came out to a raised stage that was over looking all the tables. One guy that looked like the villain from Rambo II with long hair and small cheap mustache was behind a DJ table. The other two were woman dressed in sexy outfits and doing slow funny dances while they all sang American songs. One of the women had a really good voice and was taking the lead while the others played backup. It was relaxing to hear as I sipped my beer, stared off to the wonderful view of the lit up city, and reflected on the days events. I didn’t last too long, and retired for the night crashing hard from shear exhaustion.

The next day I decided to go back to the mountain and check out the cable car ride to the summit. I didn’t have time to do this the day before and since Sunday was a little clearer out, it might have offered better views. After breakfast and more taxi translation trouble, I found myself at the base of the cable car, which was nothing more then a 2 person chairlift you would see at any ski mountain. Pushing away the fears of China engineering, I paid the $8 and got on. It was a wonderful 30 minute ride to the summit with sweeping views of the mountain and city. A cool breeze offered relief from the heat the further up I got. Almost the whole trip, I could hear people down below the trees make the climb to the top on foot and the majority of the sounds were of gasping for air. I decided I made the right choice taking the chair lift up and thought that maybe I would just hike DOWN, but of course that didn’t happen. Upon reaching the top, the view was better then any of the spots I was in yesterday, as expected, being at the summit and all. Despite the smog and haze, I could still see the main city in the distance and also other sprawling parts of the city that came close to the base of the mountain. I found some paths and started to walk around a little seeing various points of interest along the way. I didn’t know these were up here and as soon as I started down, I was thinking of a repeat of yesterday and my body let me know, I was sore.

After about 20 minutes, a young couple came up behind me and asked if I spoke English. After exchanging pleasantries, we started walking and talking together. Come to find out, June was a 20 year old student at Nanjing University and Jack was a 22 year old marketing guy fresh out of school and working to help Chinese students study at Cornell of all places. They both spoke fairly good English and told me they were very excited to practice on an “actual American”, as neither of them had met one before. I was just happy to have someone to talk to, and that they actually WANTED to speak English to me. Up to this point I was beginning to feel like a burden to the other guys who I’m sure were struggling to have to keep translating everything for me and speak in their non-native tongue. At one point, June said she wanted to go to New York City because it looks really cool in the “Sex in the City” movie and I realized most of the people here get their information about the US from movies and TV. She also said she liked the guy from “Prison Break”, as she described, “very handsome”. I spent the next couple hours walking around with them and talking about the US and culture. They were hinting about hiking back down the mountain so I told them about the cable car and they seemed excited about it, so I bought them two tickets to come down with me. It was the least I could do for hanging out with me so I wouldn’t have to spend the day alone. They were very grateful for this, we took a couple pictures together, and then made our way down the mountain. At the bottom we exchanged email address and I promised to send them copies of the pictures I took. We parted ways and they made their way to the bus, while I jumped in a cab reflecting on the day. It was so nice to run into them, I almost didn’t want to leave and it really made me sad. Here were two young people with no cares in the world, living the simple life, spending a nice day together and had the whole world ahead of them. It was really nice to have met them, one of the highlights of the entire trip so far. I know that sounds hard to believe considering some of the sites I had been to, but it really was.

Before I had left the hotel that day, I had seen a museum that looked interesting and had the bellhop write it down for me in Chinese so I could show it to the taxi driver, and when I did, we were on our way. Nanjing has a troubled history with the Japanese that dates back to just before WWII. Japan had this idea of taking over China and since Nanjing was the capital at the time, that was the destination. In 1937, they attacked Shanghai near the ocean, and then moved up the Yangtze River into Nanjing where they proceeded to kill over 300,000 people in the city (debatable on the number). Most of the killings were in mass including torture, executions, rapes, and complete destruction to about one third of the city. This point in history is called the Nanjing Massacre and they erected a memorial for this over one of the mass burial sites on the other side of town. When I arrived at the museum, the building was a long triangular shaped black building that seemed to disappear into the ground at the end. The admission was free and I took the tour inside which was filled with signs (in English), pictures, artifacts, and videos documenting the worst period in the city's history. It reminded me a lot of the Holocaust Museum in Israel that I visited in 2000 with my brother and grandmother. I made my way through the exhibits in about 2 hours including a spot where you could see the actual excavation site complete with bones in their original spots. It was real sad but I am glad I went, as it was very interesting. I made my way back to the main road to grab a taxi, head back to the hotel, and then attempt to go for dinner.

I figured I would just wander around the mall that was adjacent to the hotel as it might be easier to find a place to eat on my own. After getting denied at two places because I was only “party of one” (I guess the Chinese don’t understand this concept), I was getting discouraged and was very close to just heading back to the room and ordering room service. On my way back, I saw a little taco bar which I ended up in and it wasn’t that good, but at that point, I was tired, hungry, and just didn’t care. Even though the menu had some English on it, there was still some trouble getting the order through because of communication issues, but eventually I got some food. After, I was heading through the mall and saw some sort of show going on in the middle courtyard area that had a clown type guy making funny noises and twisting balloon animals. The point is, that if I had not stopped, I might not have seen the Dairy Queen right there and proceeded to get a blizzard for the walk back, and the taste of home I was looking for. I polished that off in my room, watched some bad movie and crashed so I would be well rested for the next two days of work.

 

 

 

 

Monday-Tuesday

After arriving at the customer site, I started to feel more comfortable with the people I was working with and started to stress the urgency of the matter that I was going to be leaving in two days. I think they finally started to warm up to me as they begin to listen and follow my lead. Over the next two days we accomplished quite a bit of the more difficult stuff that they were hesitant about performing because of the risk, but I continued to assure them that all would be ok and they seemed to believe me. We repeatedly had brief meetings with the customer to discuss our next steps and these were always interesting. They would take place on the top floor of the building (floor 29) which is where most of their offices were located, however the elevator only went to the 26th floor so we would have to walk up 3 flights of stairs every time. You would think it would be an honor to have a top floor office, however, I was beginning to think it was punishment considering. Despite the stair climb, the views from there were amazing and you could see the entire city in all directions including the river on one side and Purple Mountain on the other, where I had spent most of the weekend. These meetings were all in Chinese with the occasional question to me in English which was quickly translated back. I found this difficult to work with because I could not address the customer needs in person and I believed many of the ideas were lost in translation, but there was really nothing I could do, so I just went with the flow. One other interesting point to make here is that the demand from the managers on their employees here is ridiculous. Despite working late hours all the time, they were still expected to be there in the morning no matter what. This would lead to seeing various people through the office just sleeping at random times in their chairs and it was totally accepted. Taking that a step further, one day when we got back from lunch, we walked into one of the offices and it was dead quiet. Bewildered, I looked over at my colleague who was on his tip toes walking and so I glanced down at the desk in front of me and all I could see were feet hanging out like the Wicket Witch of the West after Dorothy’s house fell on her. Surprised, I moved around to the other side and saw two guys completely laid down flat on beach chairs (that they brought in) and passed out. In fact, one of them was snoring. Come to find out that the time between 12 and 3pm is considered nap time to help get everyone fresh for the afternoon. I couldn’t believe it and thought I might have  been back in pre-school coupled with trying to figure out how to convince the bosses back home to adopt this policy. What a country!

Since we were working real late on Monday and didn’t have time for dinner, one of the guys went out and got us all McDonalds, and I proceeded to down 3 cheeseburgers while thinking about going home in a few days. Tuesday however was a different story for dinner. We were finishing up for the day and I made sure that they were going to be on the right track going forward and answered any questions they had considering I was out of there the next day. It was my turn to pay for dinner that night (we rotated throughout the week), and I suggested we go someplace a little nicer then the norm and knowing how cheap everything was, I didn’t even think twice. They decided to go to a section of town called 1912 which I had heard about from the boys back home. It was a newer area that reminded me of Faneuil Hall in Boston and was filled with bars, restaurants, clubs, shopping, etc. I came up on a Japanese steakhouse (you know the kind where they cook the food in front of you) and was advertising all you can eat for $30 a person, and that included beer! The guys I was with continually tried to talk me out of it with the reasons of being to expensive which I repeatedly brushed off and walked in. After a quick trip back out the ATM because they didn’t take credit cards, we were seated in the back in our own little area and the festivities began which started with the first of many rounds of beers. What the hell, it was all included anyway! They handed one of the guys a menu and he started to order like it was his final meal before getting the electric chair. Since it was all you could eat, everything was up for grabs. The waitress kept brining out the dishes, and the chef continued to cook it, everything in dramatic fashion. If you have ever been to one of these places, you are familiar with the setup. He had knives flying through the air, bouncing bottles of sauce on the stove, cutting, flipping, dicing, the whole nine yards. We ate everything from steak, lamb, fish (with heads), rice, scallops, oysters, you name it, we got it. We continued to toast each other in a sort of mocking way from the other night, laughing and having a good time. I think they really enjoyed it, especially at my expense. Come to find out, those guys usually don’t have much of a budget to go on when they travel so it was a nice change of pace for them. I was happy to pay the $180 for the 6 of us which was considered a steal in my eyes, I mean, the price would have been at least 4 times that at home, considering all the beers and steak going around. It was a nice way to finish up my trip in Nanjing and a good way to show my appreciation for their hospitality. After I paid and we departed, I gave another stab to see if anyone wanted to continue the party, which of course was denied by everyone. So, we made our way back to the hotel, I said my goodbyes to all, and retired to my room to start packing.

Shortly after, I got a call from one of the guys there who wanted to talk some more, so he came up to my room where we talked about work for at least an hour. He was one of the guys from the “Broadbus days” and it was interesting to get his point of view on where things are going and the future of VOD in china as we compared them to my thoughts about the US. It was very interesting and made me feel pretty good about the whole thing as he hoped that I might return for the second phase of the project that was to happen sometime near the end of the year or early next year. After he left, I finished getting my stuff together, set my alarm and had no trouble falling asleep after the beer induced food coma I was in from the restaurant. I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and I knew I was going home soon.

 

 

 

Wednesday

After checking out the next morning, I embarked on the 45 minute drive back out to the airport. As the city landscaped faded back into farmland, I reflected on the weeks events in Nanjing including the work, the downtime, the food, and the people. Despite all the ups and downs, I was feeling pretty good about everything I had done despite being behind schedule. This is all you can really ask when going onsite, that you did the best you can, and I believe I did. After arriving at the airport, which somehow cost me about $10 more then the ride when I arrived (this is a lot in taxi terms), I checked in and received my boarding pass. This was a bit confusing since there were no specific areas for the airlines. Everyone checked in at the same counter and used the same security, and despite them having my reservation, I had the awful feeling I might never see my bag again. This was a far cry from the United check in where I am usually treated like a king. Not to mention the fact, again, that everyone was pushing and shoving to get to the front and this continued in the same manner at the security check. I managed to get through unscathed and plopped down at the gate to await my departure; little did I know at the time, there was more fun to come.

I was originally going to fly back on Thursday and then just connect in Beijing to go home, but was advised to come back the day before since Nanjing was notorious for delayed flights. About 20 minutes before the scheduled departure, I saw that the plane was delayed about half hour, and some official looking lady in a fluorescent red jacket came over to the gate and started announcing something in Chinese. Everyone at once got up and started to briskly walk away down the terminal. I figured this was a gate change so I just started following everyone else assuming they would lead me to the right place. However, after we started to mix in with the masses of the rest of the terminal, it was clear that I had no idea where to go. I stopped at a monitor to see what the new gate was, to wait a while because it was scrolling through the ENTIRE day’s flights only showing about 10 at a time. When it finally wrapped around the clock to my flight, I took note of the gate and proceeded to it. Now I have seen just about everything as far as strange air travel goes, but this was a new one. The new designated gate was completely jammed packed and showed a different flight on the screen above the door. Confused, I looked for someone who could explain but this was next to impossible, so I went back to the monitor where I saw that 4 different flights were all leaving out of the same gate…huh? I couldn’t do anything more but just wait around until they finally announced my flight. At that point, it was a mad rush (again, true Chinese fashion) to the gate, which reminded me a little of Running of the Brides at Filenes’ Basement when hundreds of women rush and practically trample others to get a good wedding dress. Since I am fairly larger then the average Chinese person with more determination to get back to Beijing then most, I held my ground fairly well, gave my ticket and proceeded down the “jet way”.

I was dumped out to the tarmac where there was a bus waiting which was filling up fast. As everyone pushed their way on (of course), I was able to glance at some other tickets and realized I was in the right spot, relief. The bus dropped us off in the middle of the tarmac where there was a plane sitting there and a staircase leading up to the door. This was not the first time I have boarded a plane without the use of a jet way, but  I decided to hang back (take a picture) and let the rest of the people push and shove their way on. I wasn’t the only one with this idea as I looked around at the base of the stairs and saw 3 other white people waiting, all trying to avoid the infamous Chinese push to get on. I found my seat, put on my headphones, and we departed back to Beijing, 3 hours past schedule and thought to myself how glad I was to have come back a day early. At this point, missing my flight back to the US would have practically killed me.

 

 

Beijing (part II)

I couldn’t help but get that “back home” feeling when I touched down at the great Beijing airport even after having spent only a few days there prior. I found a taxi no problem, made my way back to the Holiday Inn, checked in,  washed up, and headed back out in a taxi to the Motorola office. I wanted to touch base with the people there (including Luis and Cyrus) to debrief about my trip to Nanjing which they were anxious to hear about. I must say that seeing Luis again here was a welcome relief as he was the first American I had come across since leaving for Nanjing a week before. It was nice to use my own flavor of English again and not have to struggle to communicate. I must say that was the single most difficult part of the entire journey, not the food, not the directions, not the work, but the communication. Hardly anyone could understand English, and the ones that did, I found myself having to use different words stretching across my entire vocabulary to get my point across. My normal humor and sarcasm did not fly too well and after a while, it became exhausting just to talk, never mind the work, lack of sleep, being away from home, etc. I could sense that Luis was sort of feeling the same way as we chatted for a while about everything from work to the upcoming pats season (again). After a couple hours, Luis and I left the office and headed back to the hotel making a pit stop at a nearby shopping area for some last minute bargaining, screaming, and gifts. We then met Cyrus for some dinner at a nice Thai restaurant located in the hotel where we recapped the last couple weeks and talked about the plan going forward. I got stuck with the bill, which they all found amusing (a staggering $40 for the 4 of us), and I thanked them both about a hundred times for their hospitality and the opportunity to visit China. We said our goodbyes and I made my way back to the room. On the way, I passed the Pig and Whistle bar and glanced in to see all the hookers sitting there waiting for that nights prey, and couldn’t help but chuckle as I recapped in my mind the first night in China which seemed like an eternity ago. In my room, I gathered my things together getting ready to sleep for my final night in China. Since my flight was not until 4pm the following day, I had time in the morning for one final sightseeing tour stop which I was eagerly awaiting and turned out to be the highlight of the trip.

Thursday – Getaway Day

Since Luis and Cyrus were busy with meetings all day, I was going to visit this last spot on my own which was a bit of a bummer, but it was not going to stop me. I ordered a late checkout from my room, had breakfast, and jumped in a taxi. The driver knew exactly where I wanted to go this time with no issues as I read earlier in the paper that this place was now the number one attraction in Beijing surpassing both the Great Wall and Forbidden City. I had got a glimpse of it earlier in the trip, but after about a 15 drive, we pulled around the corner and there is was in all its might, the enormous Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium. I was dropped off on the side of the road directly in front of the other main attraction, the Water Cube. This would have been an amazing site anywhere else, but paled in comparison to the massive metal stadium that was behind it. I strolled past the Cube knowing I would come back to that later, and crossed a nice flower lined street that was blocked off to traffic and it was there that the full stadium came into view. Surrounding the structure was a huge open area of concrete walkways with cool shaped lights and souvenir stands everywhere. Drones of tourists were all over the place ranging from one person (like me) to huge groups consisting of 50 or more. Everyone was trying to get a good picture lined up in front of the stadium including myself, in which I waited about 20 minutes to finally get someone to take one of me standing there. I sat there and stared at it for quite sometime and then started to make my way closer to find out how to get in.

After walking about three quarters of the way around the structure, I finally came up upon a ticket booth where it cost me $8 for pass to go in. There seemed to be a ton of people around, but no big lines, so I swiftly moved through a metal detector and into the stadium grounds. This was defiantly the first time I had actually paid to get into an arena when there was no event going on, but I didn’t care. The sheer magnitude of the building outside was amazing enough, but inside was even more impressive. The entire concourse reminded me of any new modern stadium where you could get a look inside the field of play from any vantage point, but as I walked out onto the aisle down towards the field, I nearly lost my breath. The stadium was colossal inside in every facet. The field itself still had the beautiful laned track going around the edge with spots that had sand them for the long jump and such. In the middle of the track was a grass area that did not look to huge, but saw later it could fit an entire soccer field. The size of the stadium and the track were so big, it made this grass part look small, incredible. The seats were red downstairs and gradually turned all white heading up to the upper deck. They were not that impressive, just standard seats with no armrests and had holes on the bottom for water drainage. Each seat still had a “Beijing 2008” sticker on the back of them with a few that had been pulled off, I can only assume for souvenirs. There were a couple thousand people scatter throughout all sides of the lower bowl all staring in awe and taking pictures. Around the top edge of the stadium was a roof that covered most of the seats thus leaving a huge opening in the middle that exposed the field to the cloudy and smoggy Beijing sky. I remember watching the opening ceremonies last year on HDTV and how impressive the whole ritual was, and now standing here in that very same spot looking out, I couldn’t help but get goose bumps the entire time I was there. For about an hour, I made my way around the entire parameter of the lower bowl taking pictures along the way. I couldn’t help but think that in a few days I would be watching the Patriots play inside Gillette Stadium, a marvel in itself, but this place was even more impressive considering the brief history. Keeping an eye on my watch so that I would not be late for my flight, I still had plenty of time to head over to the Water Cube.

For those who have not seen it, the Cube is just that, a cube. Its exterior resembled the scales of a dragon and was blue in color. Since I was there during the day, it was not lit up, but from what I remember on TV, the colors on the outside changed every few seconds making it a true work of art, not unlike its bigger sister next door, the Bird’s Nest. I found the ticket booth, paid another few dollars, and made my way in. I briskly walked past the small but clean entry way and into the competition area. On one side was a glass wall that peered into the lobby, while on the other side had a small pool with diving boards used for those events. Dominating the rest of the space was the regular pool used for swimming events. The room had grandstands that seated about 10,000 and disappointingly, both pools were drained so it didn’t quite have the same affect. However, I still could only imagine what the atmosphere was like in here about one year ago as Michael Phelps was winning gold medal after gold medal and again, got goose bumps. Nothing is as good on TV as it is in person, and to be in a place that possessed that much sports history was truly amazing. Again, I convinced someone to take my picture, sat down for a little bit to rest and reflected on the location, truly amazing. I peaked at my watch and started to head out. I walked for quite sometime back around to the opposite side of the stadium through pretty tree and flower lined paths thinking about the day and the entire trip in China until I finally reached a main road where I got into a taxi and headed back to the hotel.

Epilogue

As I cruised along the busy highway on the way to the airport, I realized quickly that the taxi driver could speak some English and wanted to chat. I couldn’t believe that after 2 weeks and 50 taxi rides later, the last one I took had a driver that could talk, and it was nice. I dictated to him the details of my trip, all that I had seen, and that I was looking forward to going home. He told me that he had never been to the US but was trying to convince his wife to go see New York City next year sometime. I assured him he would have a good time and that this was a first for me to hear such an idea, as most Chinese have no interest in the US at all. We finally pulled up to the terminal where I paid and said my goodbye (which in Chinese, is just “bye bye” so hey, I did learn a little bit of the language!).

As I met with the familiar United representative who took my bag and already had my documents filled out, the real feeling of excitement hit me as I knew I was on my way home. I missed my wife, my cats, my friends, my TV, and was looking forward to the football game that following Monday. As I boarded the plane and took my seat in first class, I was striking up a conversation with the flight attendant recapping the events of the last two weeks.  After some time, I realized the conversation was going on for a while but I couldn't help think how nice it was to speak normal English with someone and prolly was just happy to talk. However, in the back of my head, I remembered that I still had not put down one word yet of this long winded story that I had so promised to myself I would write.

As crazy as it sounds, I was a little bit sad to leave this amazing country, although not surprised. Many times in the past when spending a significant amount of time somewhere, I have felt this way before. In this business, there are no certainties, and always that possibility that I would never return. In Amsterdam a few year prior, I got this feeling every time I left, even though I went back six times in one year. The same goes true for Singapore the previous year, I thought I was only going to be there for the first week, and ended up going back 4 times. So I can have hope, as I would love to return, maybe even try to bring my wife, but for now, at that moment, I assumed this was it. Shortly after we lifted off the runway, I stared out the window into the China countryside as it was a surprisingly clear day in the area. For the next 20 minutes or so, we climbed in altitude looking down over vast rugged mountains that seemed to go on forever. I had my camera ready in case we somehow passed over the Great Wall, but I never saw it. I knew in my head that if I had not started this story before I got home, it would never get done, just like the last umpteen trips I have taken. Thoughts of seeing Trish waiting for me in the terminal in Boston were strong. Normally, I would have just eaten, watched a movie, and tried to sleep for as long as possible to pass the time, but this was no ordinary flight home. Instead, I closed my window shade, cracked my laptop open, started writing, and didn’t stop for 8 hours. Yes, you heard me correct, I wrote until I finally just passed out in my chair waking up to the sounds of the pilot on the speaker announcing we were 30 minutes away from the Chicago. I realized immediately I was not going to complete this before I got home and became angry at myself knowing that it will prolly never get finished (obviously it did). I know it would have made for a better ending to have completed this on the plane, but there is quite a different ending still to come.

On the plane from Chicago, I struck up a conversation with the girl next to me who was interested in my trip so I started to talk about it and mentioned that I was writing this story. She insisted on reading what I had so far and after she finished, gave me high marks which made me feel like I was on the right track, although maybe she was just trying to be nice, who knows. But then, after all that time away from home, and all that traveling, for so many hours, the male flight attendant, who was sitting in the jump seat directly in front of me, began to make an announcement. He said that tomorrow was September 11th, and as for most people, a very tough day, but for him, even more so. He was on United Flight 175 the night before the tragedy, bringing the plane into Boston on the 10th, not unlike what we were doing now. Since he was lower seniority then, he had to work the weekend shift, while his friends took the midweek shift, including the following day, the fateful Tuesday morning before that plane crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center. He then began to talk about the crew on that plane, how two of them were engaged to be married, and a few other stories. He added that each year on this day, they put a American flag on top of the jet way at gate C19, the place where the plane left on that morning, 8 years ago. Not two minutes later as the plane taxied around the terminal, I looked out my window and saw this flag, lit up and waving in the gentle night breeze. I began to well up, and when I looked around the plane, so was everyone else. In an instant, everything else in the world seemed inconsequential. Here I was stressing about this stupid story getting finished and worrying about all the other chores and problems that awaited for me back at home, but none of that seemed to matter anymore.

After we finally taxied to our gate, I patted the sad flight attendant on the back, told him everything was going to be ok, and practically ran through the terminal to get down to baggage claim where I had planned to meet Trish. I descended the lowly terminal C stairs and ran into her arms where I was fighting a losing battle to hold back my tears.  She must have thought I was crazy. My mind was racing, everything from the long time apart, to the joy of finally arriving home, and to the story from the flight attendant, how those people never got their chance to finish their lives because of some bull shit that was out of their control. I couldn’t help but think how lucky I was to have someone like her in my life, to have friends and family that loved me, and to have these opportunities to travel around the world, to meet different people and hear their own adventures, as happy or sad as they might be. People read stories for a variety of different reasons, but I believe one of them is to help reflect on their own lives. So I as tell you my story here, you can take away from it what you want, maybe it was interesting, or boring, or educational, and as you might think its over, well its just the beginning. You see, the thing is, while I was experiencing these incredible events over the last two weeks, Trish had her own tale to tell, one which wouldn’t require a lot of time to recap. For as we stood there, on September 10th, 2009, at the Logan Airport Terminal C baggage claim, she summed up her own amazing story in two words, “I’m Pregnant”!

The End

 

If you want to see the rest of the pictures I took, click here.