China

It was a long trip, but it was a lot of fun.

The trip to Hong Kong took about 26 hour - a quick flight to Newark, a van ride to JFK followed by several hours of wait, and then 16 hours on Cathay Pacific. The long flight was cramped in coach, but service was very good.

Hong Kong was hot and steamy. We arrived in the middle of the National Day celebration - holiday celebrating the formation of the new China in 1949. The downtown area in Kowloon was closed to vehicular traffic, so we had to walk the last several blocks to the hotel. I was pretty busy at the conference all week, but Linda really enjoyed her tours and shopping.

The post-conference tour to Beijing was great fun. We had a wonderful group - friends from I&CPS, and new friends from Israel and Mexico; eight couples in all. Allen, our tour guide was fabulous. I think the high point for me was the visit to the Great Wall, but we also enjoyed the Summer Palace and Forbidden City. Tianimen Square was crowded and not all that interesting, and one has a saturation point on tombs and temples.

Linda went crazy with shopping both in Hong Kong and Beijing. My only purchase was a chop - the inscription is my name phonetically translated into Chinese script. I have a bunch of film that I need to process, and then I need to do some serious printing to catch up with the last several trips.