I’ve let my social networking – blogging, FaceBook, Twittering, whatever – slide over recent weeks. Mostly it’s because of the sheer frenzy of life, but the Great Firewall blocking Twitter and FaceBook doesn’t help. So let me recap a bit.
Three weeks ago my team and I came out to Shenzhen for two weeks of meetings: architecture, planning, face-to-face time with opposite numbers, and so on. We made good progress – so good, in fact, that my boss asked if I could stay on for an extra two weeks to take advantage of the momentum we’d achieved. Naturally neither Kate nor I were too happy about this, and my first reaction was to say “no”. But then Kate came up with a creative solution. Last Saturday, the rest of my team headed back to the US, and I moved to a downtown hotel, more convenient for shopping and sightseeing. The next day, Kate arrived to spent the extra two weeks with me, having reorganized a bunch of commitments and getting a China visa in record time. And here we are.
During the week, I’ve been working flat out, so Kate’s been checking out the city. She’s photographed and blogged about her explorations, and she’s seen a lot more of Shenzhen than I have. And then this weekend I set work aside, and we planned to have some fun together. On Saturday, we went off with some friends and colleagues for a “team building” in a mountainous area just to the north-east of Shenzhen. The team-building was interesting, the Chinese-style barbecue (small self-organized collectives) was tasty, and the landscape was arcadian though a bit run down. It was a bit of a “magical mystery tour”, with the usual results.
And then on Sunday we went to Hong Kong. That deserves a post of its own.
We’re here until the 14th, when we fly back to the US. We won’t be there long, though: on December 7 we’re flying to England for a mix of family and business activities. That will take us up to December 21, and we’ll be home for Christmas.
UPDATED to correct several misrepresentations.