I figured I’d make one last feeble attempt at maintaining a little physical fitness before going on vacation by hiking up Nanshan on a very hot and sunny day. It probably wasn’t the wisest choice to hike up in during the hottest part of the day, with only a little bit of water, but I did. The views were clear and I got some nice shots of Shenzhen (with landmark labels below). I paid for the quick hike later with a splitting headache and turned in early.

Here’s a view you never want to see in front of you on the highway. Those big blocks are just waiting to wreak havoc.

Here are scans of the tourist maps for Huangshan and Huashan. I say, with tongue-in-cheek, that these maps should not be used for navigation purposes – especially the Huangshan one. The “Illusion Scenic Area” is way bigger than it appears on the map and features a descent of a couple of thousand feet down into the valley and an ascent back up the other side, which is not notated. Notice the names of all of the different areas and peaks; they are quite representative of a mystical, ancient, Oriental mountain:

(above) Map of Huangshan. Some of those stairs and walkways were built around 1500 years ago!

The Huashan map is only in Chinese, but still, fun to look at:

I conducted an interview at work on Friday.   Nice guy, seemed quite competent and driven, yet he appeared overly nervous and did poorly on the technical part of the interview.   I suspect he was better than what he showed me.   I’ve given so many interviews that they’re second nature to me now, and I usually assume that people’s nervousness is due to typical interview anticipation.   However, after we finished, our HR representative came to me with a serious look on her face and told me with an even, soft tone, “The candidate admitted to me that he was very nervous talking to you because you are the first foreigner he’s talked to or had an interview with.”

My Chinese teacher told me a similar story recently.   She recounted to me her story of finishing her masters degere and getting out of college, moving to Shenzhen, getting a job as a Chinese teacher, then going on her first lesson to my apartment totally nervous, not knowing what to expect from a wild-eyed barbarian from the West.

It would be rare to run into these situations in the US, but it just goes to show the lingering effects of China shutting itself off from the world for so long.   That’s got to be one of the root causes that makes living and working in China so fascinating.

I needed to attend some training starting at 9am on Wednesday in Hong Kong. I left my apartment around 6:30 AM and arrived about twenty minutes late – nearly three hours! I had to take the Shenzhen subway, go through the border, hop on the KCR train, transfer under (all underground) to the local MCR, pop out at the “Central” subway station in the heart of the main island and find the 30X bus. Well, when I couldn’t find the bus, I hopped on a taxi.

One thing that I enjoyed seeing, in a perverse sort of way, was how crowded the MCR was, from the Tsim Tsa Tsui stop to Central. At Tsim Tsa Tsui, rows of maybe twenty people were lined up against each door. Each arriving subway was also absolutely jammed with people. The only room that was available was made by those departing, and that room was quickly filled by the first few people in each row. At first, I thought it would take forever finally get on a subway when I saw that the trains were showing up every twenty seconds or so.   That made the crowds tolerable.   That and another great British tradition:   on the escalators, stand on the right, and walk on the left.   This is dutifully honored everywhere in Hong Kong (and nowhere in mainland China).

OK, and now I’m back in China after a hectic, stressful, but, in the end, productive trip to the US. If I had to do it over again, I would have found a way to stay longer, or maybe just found a way to do less. I think the former is more realistic. I only got to see a couple of good friends this time, which was disappointing.

On Saturday, Daryl and I met up for an exploration trip to Dong Men and Luo Hu. I say “exploration” because that has such a better ring than “shopping”. Anyway, it was quite productive. A coworker of mine back in the US had turned me on to these solar paneled USB chargers that can be found in LuoHu, and I’m sure Hua Qiang Bei too. Through my broken Chinese, I managed to explain to them what I wanted and I picked one up for about 12 bucks. It works great! I charged my cellphone this morning:

Call Al Gore, China is goin’ green!

Oh, be sure to check out the Huashan post below, which is post-dated to May 18th, when we were up on the mountain. Fantastic trip! The trip to the US prevented me from doing any blogging, but I’ll try to be a little more consistent now. Oh yes, and there should be a movie soon – I’ve got it all planned out in my head.