This page shows some photos from my recent trip to China. Pictures are divided into two groups: Beijing and Taiyuan.
This is a picture of the hotel where I stayed in Beijing. This was a very nice hotel.
This is a picture of what seemed to be a typical view of Beijing from the taxi window.
While in Beijing, we of course did some sight seeing. Some pictures of the great wall (at Badaling) are shown below:
We also visited the Tombs of the Ming Emperors. A picture of one of those tombs is shown below:
Now I will move on to Taiyuan, which is located inland from Beijing and is the capitol of the Shanxi Province. We traveled there on an overnight train (10 hours). The sleeping compartment is shown below:
My purpose for going to Taiyuan was to meet with people at the University. Pictures of Dr. Li and Dr. Wu are shown below at the Taiyuan University of Technology:
While at the University, I was treated to lunch. The centerpiece/appetizer plate was in the form of a peacock:
After lunch, we had a karaoke session:
I gave a lecture at the university to the following students:
They also showed me their plasma coal reactor to make acetylene:
The city of Taiyuan was very polluted, with a lot of dust in the air. Someone told me that it was the worst air pollution in the world. This can be seen by looking over the city:
I also took a picture of traffic in Taiyuan stopped at a red light. Note all of the bicycles:
Finally, at the conference banquets they had a band playing, with unusual instruments. One looked like some organ pipes with a baritone mouthpiece!
I enjoyed this trip quite a bit, and would like to return someday. The people that hosted me were extremely gracious, especially Dr. Wu and Dr. Li. Below is a picture of Dr. Wu and his family:
Dr. Rafiqul Islam from Dhaka University in Bangladesh sent me this photo from the conference. They recently discovered coal in Bangladesh.
