G'day!

Greeting to one and all from sunny Beijing where the temperature is -1℃ at 430 in the afternoon. Positively balmy after this morning's -11℃ (actually more like -17℃ if you consider the wind chill factor!). I went for a walk this morning to take some photos of some old school apartment blocks not far away. I'm not sure if they worked out ok, as I didn't want to take my gloves off which made me even more un-cordinated than usual. We'll wait and see, I suppose.

Anyhoo, I hope everyone is enjoying the festive season. Mel and I are flying out to Thailand early tomorrow morning. Looking forward to the being in place that's warm. All the time! And I don't have to put on 17 layers of clothes just to pop over to the supermarket for some milk. Yes, should be good:) Obviously the "17 layers of clothes" is a slight exaggeration, but it'll be sweet to be able to kick around in shorts and a t-shirt again.

In my last post I mentioned that Mel and I had a short trip before Xmas. We flew to the province of Shandong, which is south of Beijing. We spent three days in the city of Zibo. Zibo is an industrial city so the pollution is quite amazing - as you can see in the picture below. After Zibo, we headed further south to Nanjing, the original capital of the Ming dynasty. We visited Dr Sun Yat Sen's mausoleum which was very, very impressive. For those who don't know, Dr Sun is considered the father of Chinese revolution and was president of the first Chinese republic in 1911 or 12. We also visited a Ming dynasty tomb which was interesting but not nearly as popular as Dr Sun's memorial.

I was wanted to put some more pictures up but due to the earthquake in Taiwan a couple of days ago, the internet connection is kinda patchy at times. Maybe when we get back from Thailand. Hope everyone has a blast on New Years Eve.

Zaijien (Chinese for goodbye, although the spelling could be dodgy!)

TONE