Month: October 2012

Today I finished my Beijing holiday and am traveling to the southern city of Shinzhen (which I’ve learned is pronounced “shinJIN” with the “J” pronounced as in French, not English.  The “J” in “Beijing” on the other hand, is pronounced like the English “J”–I had always pronounced it like the French J.) The flight was… Continue reading Day 9 – Beijing to Shinzhen

This morning early I walked from the hotel to the entrance to the Forbidden City, the palace of the last dynasty of emperors in China.  I found a ticket line and stood in it.  Soon a woman came up to me and asked if I wanted a guide.  Since my boss had recommended picking up… Continue reading Day 8 – Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, Old Beijing

  Today I went to see  the Great Wall of China.  There are two sections near Beijing:  the closer one is flatter and more crowded;  the second one is steeper and not so crowded.  I chose the latter.  I hired a car and guide through the hotel. The driver spoke no English, but,the guide’s English… Continue reading Day 7 – The Great Wall

  Today I flew from  Dalian to Beijing.  Our flight was delayed because of fog in Beijing, so we probably arrived an hour late. By the time I got settled in my room it was mid afternoon.  I went out to Wangfujing Street which is a large shopping street about half a block from the… Continue reading Day 6 – Dalian to Beijing

  Today is my last day in Dalian, working with Neusoft.  Both of my traveling companions have now returned to the US. Today was more of the same at work:  mostly working with the Neusoft to iron out details in the interface from my test cases to their infrastructure. I also met with the liaison… Continue reading Day 5 – Last Day in Dalian

  My boss is traveling home today so now there are two of us.  We have actually been joined by another engineer from Cupertino.  He looks Chinese, but I have the impression he does not speak Mandarin well. The day was kind of boring for me.  The Neusoft engineers are busy implementing a design we… Continue reading Day Four in Dalian

Wednesday was my third day in the Neusoft offiices.  We spent most of the day on designing an interface  between test cases I wrote and their framework.  Four or five of them then went off to busily begin implementing. For lunch we went to an interesting restaurant.  One of the dishes we had was chicken fingers.… Continue reading Third Day in Dalian

  Yesterday was our first full day in Dalian.  We spent the day going over various topics of mutual interest.  I gave an impromptu presentation of some of our software.  I spoke very slowly and did a lot of writing on the white board.  Still I couldn’t tell how well I was understood.  Some people asked… Continue reading Day Two in Dalian

  We left San Francisco on Saturday morning and arrived in Tokyo Sunday evening.  We stayed at an airport hotel and went into the town of Narita for dinner.  It was fairly deserted because it was Sunday. I am traveling with two co-workers, one of whom is my new boss, and the other is Chinese… Continue reading First Day in China