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August 5, 2005

It had been unbearably hot in Xiamen these days. Traveling at this time seemed to ask for suffering. And yet there were many tourists at various attractions. It is always a paradox. People have time to travel in the summer while the weather is hot and don’t have time when it is more pleasant in the fall or spring. We all have to make choices.

ML was still busy at work. She is one of the new capitalists in China. In other words, she is a wheeler and dealer. Seeing how hard she works and how richly she has been rewarded, I see hopes for China. It is obvious she works hard. For example, I got a message from her after midnight one night telling me that she was on her way for a meeting. In terms of rewards, she drives a new 5-series BMW with computer controlling everything and another Mercedes-Benz in Taiyuan. She also owns a mountain ridge stretching 2 kilometers under which there are iron ores.

Because she was too busy to accompany me, she sent one of her nephews to go out with me. A Xing was nineteen year old but much more mature than his age. He was very nice and considerate. When we first met, we had nothing to talk about. Then after I discovered that he was a big NBA and Michael Jordon fan, we started to bond. He played basketball for his high school. His team won three county championships in a row. Today he wanted to go out and play some ball but I told him that I did not have sneakers. He insisted that he buy a pair for me. I told him that I did not have any space to bring them with me, he sounded upset and said that he sincerely wanted me to have them as souvenir. I had no heart to turn it down. Now my luggage was even fuller.

I went to see Seven Swords, a big Hollywood like movie in China. There were only handful people in the theater. In the middle of the movie, someone’s phone rang. The person actually started a conversation as if he had not been at the movie. Another observation was that taxi drivers liked to spit outward by opening window or door while they stopped at lights. They did this quite often in these couple of days.

I took bus to Xiamen University (XU). China was promoting a conservation program trying to save resources. Part of the program was to encourage people to take public transportation. So I gave it a try. The ride was not too bad once I figured out which direction I was going. XU’s campus, situated between a mountain and sea, was beautiful. The landscape and building structures were rather European like. I went to and visited their School of Business. Unfortunately since now was also their summer break I did not get to meet too many people.

posted by Unknown @ 11:20 AM