beautiful Beijing

Back from another trip to the outskirts of Beijing for a dose of non-polluted air, and it was very invigorating.

The area is called Shidu (10 (shi) ferries or crossings of the riveris the rough translation and there is 1du, 2du...etc along theriver), and we went to a 'village' called mujiakou, which is in factjust a recently built village designed to house goats and be ahotel. its nicely done, with the rooms in little stone rooms thatfit in well.

It was very beautiful (a bit like Yangshuo), and i promptly ledeveryone on a 2 and a half hour trek up the mountains...i managed toconvince them all to trust me, and my sense of direction.Fortunately everything worked out well and the exercise, views andanimals, plus the rarity of absolute silence was fantastic.

there are a bunch of photos on the wesbite(http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=adamlane for those with abad memory).

other news is that we have midterms this week so i need to startdoing some work ASAP, the tickets for inner mongolia are bought andwe all went out for a class lunch last week (hot pot) which waspleasent (unlimited beer, shame i had to work afterwards).

this week i am hoping to get lots of big names (government etc) tocome to the next CSR conference I am organising..hoping they accept.Also this weekend will be the last time I see Flic until...? aww :(have to make the most of her till then, like by eating the xmaspudding at her leaving party!..since the weather is now a perfect 25degrees, why not?

nothing too much interesting in the news this week except theongoing demonstrations and japan issues...a good update is here:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1581091,00.html. Althoughmore interesting is to read elsewhere about what China does not havein its textbooks, or distorts..(wars with India, Vietnam, TianenmanSquare amongst others...)

lets all keep our fingers crossed for the big derby game tomorrow!

Adam