Sorry no pictures this time. I'm writing to you from Beijing, the capital city of China. Filled with 1000's of years of history and ancient architecture, I couldn't tell you the first thing about what Beijing looks like. So far, I've seen the airport and my hotel. I'm here on business, looking at a real estate deal, but tonight was just meetings at the hotel. Tomorrow I'll actually get to see the property and maybe a little more of the city. My brief thoughts:
The downside of business travel:
- I missed lunch (well, peanuts on the flight), and my flight was late so missed dinner and went straight into meetings upon arrival and am writing you at 11pm here, having just wolfed down some food at the only open hotel restaurant. After I'm done here, I've got a bit of work to do, and then will wake up early tomorrow to do some more work before a 10am site visit and then hurry to the airport to make a 2pm flight back to Shanghai.
The upside of business travel:
- The Peninsula Hotel where I'm staying is beautiful and I have a gorgeous 42" plasma TV in my room (of course, I haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet...) And I had the best butter at dinner that I think I've ever had. And I've eaten a lot of butter. It was firm and so creamy that I thought it was cheese at first, but then no, it was butter, but it's so flavorful it must be cheese? no, it's definitely butter, just some really amazing butter...
Anyway, to summarize, fun perks, but not a lot of sleep.
Apparently China, way back when, had to write some laws about which areas of the country would require central heat and air conditioning. So an imaginary line was drawn east-west across the country. Shanghai falls just south of that line, and so central heating was never introduced into the buildings. Beijing, on the other hand, is solidly north of the Chinese Mason-Dixon line, and I have to say I have noticed the difference. The airport in Beijing was nice and warm, my cab ride was positively steamy, and the hotel is like a sauna - I almost went to my meetings in a t-shirt and boxers. Almost. Even outside it's very dry so even though it's colder here temperature wise, it feels warmer than Shanghai.
Well, gotta go now, I'd like to get back to my room soon so I can at least fall asleep watching that beautiful TV...
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I hate to say it, but TV makes everything better. It's funny - the Mason-Dixon Line theory applies to the US, too (sort of). EVERYONE in Louisiana has their AC on full blast, all the time. I don't think we turned ours on in California even in the summer.
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