Baby Blog

Finally set up a new blog for our baby girl. We're keeping it separate from our travel related blog because

A) She can't even travel for the next 6 months until we get her passport.
B) There will probably be a LOT of baby pictures that might drain all but the most avid family members.

The intent for the blog is as much for her as she grows older as it is for other viewers, so no apologies made for excessive amounts of the same baby pictures over and over. But if you are interested, http://blog.planetbc.com/dimsum.html

Think You're a World Citizen?

This one was passed to me by a friend and it's too fun to pass up. I did okay, but there are quite a few regions I need to brush up on! Guess that's a good excuse for another vacation adventure to somewhere new.

Traveler IQ

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P.S. The TravelPod website has several other version that let you focus on everything from photos to flags to specific regions.

Congrats

This weekend we were invited to attend a wedding banquet in Guangzhou by one of our partners with whom we have worked quite closely over the last several years. Aldrich, the owners' son, was married to Catherine. We attended with several of our office colleagues, and we all had a great time. The evening was a huge production (over 400 people). Tons of food, kicked off with some fish stomach and shark fin soup and ending with a nice bottle of Cognac. Well actually several nice bottles of Cognac. And of course a little Karaoke thrown in there for good measure.

This was the 3rd Chinese wedding we have been invited to since we moved to Asia- so here is another thanks to the couples who have invited us to experience these great events. :) This also happened to be the 3rd wedding reception within the week for Aldrich & Catherine! The first was in Taipei and the second in Jiangxi- from what I heard they were of similar size and grandeur. Hope they can relax a bit now and best wishes for the future!

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Roof of the World

A tour of Central Tibet was our way of celebrating our fifth year wedding anniversary. Caro organized the 10 day trip only a few weeks prior to departure (one of the beauties of living in Asia). We learned about Tibetan culture and religion, and took in some fantastic scenery. We were pleasantly surprised with the food- the tsampa, Yak meat, and potatoes were all safe bets and even the occasional cup of Yak-butter tea was palatable. Alas, we couldn't quite stomach 40 cups of it a day like the average nomad there. One of the highlights was scouting the foot of Mount Everest. We are planning to return (some day soon) to camp and bike along the stunning valleys, and make it to the ice seracs above Camp 1.

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The China influence throughout the region was large and at times tedious (read: lots of permits required), but we'll save those discussions for another day so this blog does not disappear behind the Great Firewall of China. Needless to say, with the newly completed train routes bringing in thousands of people per day to Lhasa (many of them Chinese immigrants), the struggle to retain some of the the local culture will not be easy. Signs of construction, some good/some bad, were everywhere - we even had amazing cell phone coverage at Mount Everest! Unfortunately the inevitable ecological tolls were also becoming visible. A little fact from our guidebook: 47% of the world's population (and 85% of Asia's population) depends on the water from rivers originating in Tibet. We feel extremely fortunate to have experienced such a humble culture, and hope their lands are preserved.

But Bacon is Good

So this is coming a bit late, but we did attend the annual HK Parade for the Chinese New Year. Year of the Pig (hence the dancing children wearing pig snouts in the picture). Not the lucky golden pig as most newspapers and shops would like to have you believe - apparently its actually the fire pig this year. The parade itself was a blast- larger than in past years from what I was told. And extremely crowded. The setup wasn't great in its new location in TST - a lot of construction limited standing places and the street sloped in weird angles that made it difficult to see the performers- but we did finally get a good vantage point behind some shorter people.

As a bonus, our buddy was in town with 30 of the Arizona Cardinal cheerleaders, so we watched the ladies perform and met a few at the bars parting it up in Lan Kwai Fung later that evening.

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Parents Visit Asia

The last of our guests left today, and the apartment suddenly feels a little quiet. Now I know we are really in for a shocker when we eventually go back to the states- just about anywhere we might live will realistically feel dead compared to the bustling streets of HK or Shanghai or Beijing.

Anyhow, we had a great visit with our parents. First on the B's side, we hit all the major tourist areas of Hong Kong but I think they got a great overall feel for city during their week here and the excitement of this place we call home. I still can't imagine there is anywhere else on Earth where you can go from such a major cosmopolitan area to a quiet isolated hike with amazing sea views through thick forests in literally 5 minutes time. We also managed to fit in the brand new Ngong Ping 360 cable car ride, although we learned after riding that they had just found some cracks in one of the support columns!

Then we were off to Beijing and met up with C's Mom too. This was our first trip to Beijing, and the city was amazing. A modern city that offered plenty of ancient sites to enjoy as well. Again we hit most of the major tourist sites (Great Wall @ Mutianyu, Beihai Park, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen / Forbidden City) mixed in with some great restaurants. We saw a wonderful acrobat show that has me excited for what we might see in the upcoming Olympic ceremonies. And our hotel (Grand Hyatt Beijing) was wonderful.

The city is definitely gearing up for the 2008 Olympics, with signs, souvenirs, and countdowns everywhere and a lot of big construction projects. We actually drove by the main stadium, which is still under construction, and it looks massive. And the best part was we could actually understand a little Putonghua even with their accent which uses so many R's (honestly the accent was not nearly as difficult as we expected).

Parents in HK View Slideshow

Trip to Beijing View Slideshow

More to come...

ex-Capital of China

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We took an extended business trip up to Nanjing to visit a new vendor with whom we want to develop a business relationship. During our extra day and a half over the weekend we got to see a lot of this famed city’s tourist attractions. We sampled the local cuisine- I especially liked this cuisine because it had a little kick to it, which means it would be quite hot for many of you. And I now love the Stinky Tofu (臭豆腐)! We even ran into Tung Chee Hwa, who was the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR after the handover in 1997. Since Nanjing was the capital of China for so long there is still plenty to see for a second trip… especially the momument to the 1937 massacre at the hands of Japanese Troops (which is closed for renovaton until the end of 2007) and the Yangtze river bridge. So here’s to hoping that factory works out!