Day 9: Xi'An break day

Break day in the hotel and two meals.

Today’s the break day. JD was scheduled to visit the Terracotta Warriors’ Museum in the morning and Shaanxi History Museum in the afternoon.  I, on the other hand, will stay in the hotel and relax and work on a few items.

In the morning, when I called him for breakfast, he said he might come down with a cold. I asked him to take a walk with me to a nearby local restaurant from breakfast.  Unfortunately it’s not open yet at 8am. 

I called CL from XDU to see whether they can delay the tour so JD can have some rest. Unfortunately he was already on the way so we decided to go out for brunch together. Obvious they went to “Fang Shang Ren” (坊上人) which is considered to be No. 1 restaurant for lamb soup in Xi’An. The one I wanted to go is better in tastes but not suitable for guests.  I didn’t insist.  It turned out that it’s pretty good already.  I wouldn’t tell the difference.  JD also had a good meal with lamb steaks.

After brunch, JD and CL went off to the Terracotta Museum only.  I stayed in the hotel.  It’s a very relaxing day and I needed it. 

In the evening, we went for dinner in a nearby restaurant with YQ.  He really took care of us very well and I was very impressed.

 

Day 8: Friday in Xi'An

Today’s a fully booked day at XU. The itinerary starts at 8:30am and ends around 8:30pm.  JD and I arranged to have breakfast at the hotel around 7am and will be picked up around 7:50.  The breakfast buffet was pretty good. They spoon for coffee is very special: it has a very long handle while a turn in the middle of the handle allows it to be hung on the side of the coffee mug. Unfortunately it didn’t work for me. The long handle sticking out became a problem while I was trying to refill the coffee.  The coffee bottle hit the handle and in turn knocked out the coffee mug.  Half cup of coffee spilled on the table and on the carpet.

Maybe I’m biased, it’s an example of how a designer didn’t really use it. 

Our host YQ arranged JD to give two talks of 1.5hr each and mine is 1.5hr immediately following that. JD’s talks were excellent as usual. He spent quite some effort asking the initially reluctant audience to ask questions. Eventually they opened up with some quite nice questions.

One of the questions is what JD thinks of using artificial organs. Would we become just a robot?  JD’s answer was perfect: “this is a question to be left for the individual to deal with at that moment. Some people would rather die than relying on a machine to keep them alive, while someone else may be perfectly fine with it.  People will also change their opinions over time. Someone may have a strong feeling not using life support earlier may change their mind when they wanted to live a few more years to see their grandchildren growing up.”

Although I have high regards to JD, he never stops impressing me.

Mine was in Chinese. It didn’t go as well for a number of reasons. Most likely it’s a lack of preparation. Of course I can blame JD used up my time that I had to compress it to 1hr. I also ran out of time for questions.

The talks were in a small classroom sitting about 30-40 people.

We went out to lunch in a nearby restaurant with YQ’s group. On the way there, I saw posters of both talks on the entrance of the university.

The lunch is in fact in a Cantonese restaurant. Only thing worth mentioning is the Chinese ice wine.  It is not so sweet as the Canadian ones, which works for me.

After lunch, YQ took us for a walk on campus and two of their huge clean rooms. At 30 degrees Celsius, it is pretty hot walking around with dress shirt.  The cleanroom jump suit did help. I was all soaked.  On the other side, the cleanrooms are very impressive. They are huge as the other ones I’ve seen in China and well organized. A lot of people are working inside, including a few faculty members.

After the tour, we had a meeting with YQ’s group to discuss their current work and potential collaboration. I realized that their RFID technology may have a simple solution to a problem JD raised in his e-health talk. We discussed that in details during this meeting.  In the end, I would write a one-page proposal and YQ’s RFID group will take a look.

The next item on the itinerary is dinner with the XU’s Office of International studies. Since JD was pretty tired, it was a quick meal. One thing worth mentioning is that the director attended the same middle school as me. Of course, he was a few years ahead.

Even it’s a short dinner, we came back to the hotel around 9pm. JD originally proposed ping-pong in the gym but ended up not going. I was kind of ready so went for a 20 minutes run on the treadmill then used the hot tube.  It’s a very nice big stone hot tub with clean water and powerful jets.  However, it’s in the men’s changing room, which means people will use it naked.  When I was using it, I wore my running shorts but while I was leaving, a complete naked guy went in.

Had a glass of wine and watched some badminton before passing out.

It’s a very full day.

Day 7: Thursday Baoji to Xi'an

Did I mention the hotel I stayed in Baoji is in a very good location? 

I wanted to take a train back to Xi’An this time. In the morning, while I walked to the same restaurant for breakfast, I noticed there’s a train ticket sales booth right next to the restaurant. I got my ticket there right after breakfast.

In the morning before leaving for the train, I went to my old neighborhood to see SH. Her younger brother XG was my best friend here in Baoji. He and his parents now are living in Shanghai and I will be visiting them next week. The old neighborhood was much nicer now. I even bumped into Dr. M while passing by a farmer’s market. She must be over 80 by now but still in good health. 

I took a quick look of the city on my way to the train station. Then I realized that Baoji is really a small city comparing to any other Chinese cities I’ve visited recently. I hope it remains that way. Last night during dinner, it seems ZW really passionate about the city and its growth.

I was lucky that I decided to take this train with a seat reserved. The train was a little crowed and hot. 15 minutes before reaching Xi’An, the conductor even turned off the little AC, which left a 30+ degree cabin. I lashed out at them but know it wouldn’t change a thing but making them feel bad. Well, I don’t care even that didn’t make me feel any better.

The cab ride to the Xi’An Shangri-La hotel was quick. According to the cab driver, between 2:30-4:30 is their shift switching time. So a lot of them won’t take anyone to the opposite direction. I told him that if a tourist city has a lot of cab picking passengers, it won’t expect returned customers in the future.

TheXi’An Shangri-La hotel was very nice. No wonder it’s the No. 1 hotel on TripAdvisor. I had a good sized room. Even with a bottle of complimentary Australia Cabernet Merlot.

The host took us for a tour of the Stone Tablet museum, the old city wall, and the bell tower later in the afternoon.  We all had a good time except JD was a bit tired.

Day 6: Wednesday Shenzhen to Baoji

Today is mostly a travel day from Shenzhen to Baoji.  XP picked me up from the hotel around 9:30am.  I forgot my PJs hanging behind the hotel door.  While checking out, the maid told the front desk and I went back got it. I had a pretty good impression about this hotel. We bid on a Chinese groupon for a low price for the one-night stay. It took them a while to figure out the transaction but there are no surprises.  Although the building and hall way seem a bit dated, the room is in fact very clean, one of the cleanest I’ve seen for 3-3.5 star hotels in China. It’s also quite. 
Arrived at the airport about 1.5hr before the scheduled departure time. The airport food in Shenzhen is very expensive. Ended up having a Chinese meal at the KFC. Although the flight is code shared with Air China, a Star Alliance member, my Gold status was not recognized and the miles couldn’t be counted since SZ Air has not officially been added to Start Alliances.  Nor can I use Air China’s lounge even they have the same flight.
My flight at Shenzhen was late.  It’s not just waiting.  When arrived at XIA, I was 5 minutes late for the airport bus back to Baoji.  Originally, I grabbed a cab trying to go back to Xi’An to catch a train then realized that I may be late for that due to the rush hour traffic. So decided to bite the bullet and paid 500 yuan asking the Taxi driver directly go to Baoji, which is 170km away.  The freeway to Baoji is having major work done but we were lucky. 
Got in Baoji about 2hr.  In the end, I arrived there earlier than initially planned. I quickly checked in the hotel for a very low price (SH booked for me using her company discount) and had a shower.
I left Baoji 24 years ago. Can’t believe it took almost a quarter of a century for me to come back.
The city has much changed but I still managed to recognize a few streets, with the help of the GPS + Google Map on my iPhone. 

The hotel is in a very good location. HB and ZW made reservation at a restaurant across the street. We also met with BJ. Three of us were not only classmates in middle school, but elementary school.  We were all exited and HB drank a bit more and stayed with me in the hotel instead of driving back.

Day 5: Shenzhen

The overnight train right was not as good as I had thought.  Waking up every hour or so.  In fact, my cabin-mates were pretty good.  It’d be me, if anyone, who opened the door all the time.

In the last two hours, I used the iPhone’s Personal Internet Hotspot through the USB (for security and saving power).  It was great till in the end when I tried to disconnect.  The iPhone hung and then crashed.  For about 15 minutes, I was afraid that the Gevey card would fry the iPhone for good.  And it’s the time I’d expect to call XP to pick me up.  After holding the Home and Power buttons simultaneously for a few seconds, it rebooted very slowly than normal. Eventually, it booked up and I was able to repeat the Gevey starting sequence to get it working again.

XP was late as usual.  I had to wait at the subway station for an hour.  Should have just taken a taxi to the hotel. After lunch, he went back to work and I met with ZY.  She hasn’t changed much from last time, must be 3-4 years ago. The weather was pleasant and we had coffee sitting outside of a Burger King (the Starbucks across street was full). 

In the evening, JH’s flight from Beijing was late.  XP and I waited and met up with him close to his hotel/office. ZY and her hubby also joined us later. It’s been quite an interesting chat. Will talk about that more later.