If it's Wednesday - it must be Beijing!

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Tuesday afternoon 3-27 Dr. Ma and I returned from a quick trip to Shanghai where we visited Fudan University. The Hangzhou – Shanghai train service is very good. There are about forty trains per day between the two cities because Shanghai is one of the leading business cities in the world, and Hangzhou is one of the nicest, as the Chinese say – leisure cities anywhere. Both trains were new, super clean, smooth, and quiet. We traveled through mixed country side with agriculture, housing, and some manufacturing side by side.

Tuesday evening Dr. Ma and his senior staff hosted a going away dinner for me at the university restaurant - we had a great time and another great dinner. This group obviously enjoys each other and I don’t believe that can happen unless they work well with each other and support each other’s work. Dr. Ma’s leadership is obviously an important facet of all this. While we had a good time, it was sad to say goodbye to these fine people. I hope to be back with them sometime, and I hope they can visit us.

This morning we packed up to get ready for the jump to Beijing. Dr. and Mrs. Ma came a bit early so that she and I could say goodbye, and they brought very nice gifts. Just before leaving, Miss Chen stopped by with a CD of pictures from the first several days. I will update each of these posts with pictures when I get home. After a brief scare on the highway (when I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen my passport) we were on our way. The passport was found at the bottom of my big bag, but I was relieved when Dr. Ma offered me job if I couldn’t return home!

The air was much better in Beijing than my first day in China, with a pleasant breeze most of the afternoon. On the way to Tsinghua University we went right past the Beijing 2008 Olympic Stadium and other Olympic venues, and the stadium is a fantastic steel structure. There is a lot of construction and other preparation underway and many, many, tower cranes in every direction.

Tsinghua University is in the midst of the city, but occupies about four square kilometers. It has more low buildings than the other campuses I visited, and it also has more generous spacing. Tsinghua has also placed a lot of emphasis on the land and nature in the midst of a giant urban area, and the campus therefore feels more relaxed and settled than the surrounding areas.