Spring Festival in Beijing

On the first day of the year of the Rabbit, Caren and I packed our bags for a trip to Northern China. First was a city break in Beijing, then skiing at Duolemedi in Hebei province. During Spring Festival, we found it really hard to get a taxi in the Higher Education town, so we loaded two people, a big suitcase, snowboard bag and a couple of backpacks onto the electric scooter and headed to the high speed train station at Yuan Qu.

The Electric Scooter Loaded with Luggage

From Yuan Qu, we caught the train to Shanghai and from there a flight to Beijing. We arrived early in the evening and headed straight out for dinner and drinks..Chinese New Year celebrations don't stop on New Year's day (as I write this four days later, I can sill here fireworks going off), and Beijing was alive wih fireworks.

A Well-Stocked Firework Stall in Beijing

Afer a great Indian meal at Ganges, we headed down to Glen Bar for some Japanese and Scotch Single-malt whiskies. I would highly recommend both.

Good Whisky at Glen Bar

The following day, we walked from our hotel to Tianenmen Square, where Caren tried the legendary Peking Duck (now Beijing Duck). Afer a hearty meal, we toured Tiananmen:

The Imposing South Gate

Revolutionary Statues

South of Tiananmen, Portrait of Mao

Tiananmen is an imposing public space, in the middle of which is Mao's mausoleum, where it is possible to see the preserved body of the man himself. Unfortunately it was closed for spring festival. Leaving Tiananmen to the north, you walk straight into the impressive Forbidden City:

Entering the Forbidden City

The First Square

Heading North through the City

Royal Chambers

Pagoda on a Hill to the North of the Forbidden City

The following day we intended to visit the great wall, but unfortunately, we couldn't get a train ticket, so instead we visited the excellent Beijing art district, where we bought ourselves an orginal oil painting. Here are some of the more outlandsih highlights:

Want a Sports Car? Build your Own out of Bricks!

Angry Naked Westerner!

A Drunken Rabbit.

After two and a half hectic days we left Beijing for northern Hebei province... stay tuned for photos of our ski trip.

Escaping Winter on Sanya Bay

Caren and I decided to escape the harsh winter of Jiangsu province and head to Sanya Bay in Hainan province. Hainan is a tropical island just accross the South China Sea from Vietnam. This trip, we stayed in the Howard Johnson Resort, which was really nice. Some photos follow:

 The Pool Area

The Lobby Bar

Looking Towards the Sea from Our Balcony

We spent most of our four days relaxing at the resort, swimming in the pool or soaking in the hot tub or fish-nibble spa where lots of little fish eat any dead skin you may have:

 

Little Fish Nibble my Feeet in the Spa

Caren Warms Up on a Sunbed After Swimming

When we arrived in Sanya, the weather was a little cool - perhaps 18 degrees, but it soon warmed up and hovered around 25 for the rest of our stay. As well as relaxing in the hotel, we would take long walks along the beach. Heading west you pass picturesque and quiet beaches, eventually ending up at the Narada resort. Heading west, the beach becomes less picturesque, though you eventually reach Sanya bay's 'walking street', which is good for shopping.

Walking East Towards the Narada

I tackle a Refreshing Coconut at the Narada

One of Hainan's Many Small Islands

Looking West Towards Sanya City

Caren Cools her Heels in the Surf

There are three good restauraunts at the HoJo Resort: Chinese, Korean (my favorite) and Western. So, we mostly ate there during our stay. On the last night though we fancied something different, so we took a cab to the Paulaner Brewhouse at the Narada for German food and good beer. It was a great end to a great trip.

Our Little Banquet at the Paulaner Brewhouse, Sanya Bay

Christmas 2010 in the UK and Ireland

I just returned from a nice Chirstmas break in the UK and Ireland. Luckily I arrived  home just before the big freeeze, with an on-time flight to Heathrow and an on-time train to Wigan, but the snow fell that night and I woke up to deep snow the next day:

A White Christmas in Merseyside

After a couple of days at my parents house in Crank, I flew to Ireland to meet Caren for her PhD viva. Caren's incoming flight was diverted due to snow, but thankfully she still managed to get to Galway on time.

Nervously Waiting for the Viva Exam to Begin

After a lightening quick viva (1 hour, 45 minutes), Dr. Caren Crowley emerged triumphant (subject to the usual minor corrections of course).

Success! Champaign with the Examiners

After flying back to England I met up with Kev and Kiel, friends of mine from Lancaster University in Liverpool for a night on the town.

A Flaming Long Island Iced Tea

Heading Home on the Train after a Big Night Out

The following day, I collected Caren from Manchester Airport. That night we stayed at the historic Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool, before heading down to Nottingham to spend the New Year at David and Zoe's house. We had a beautiful room in the Adelphi with a four poster bed, as you can see below:

A Delux Room in the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool

Middleware 2010 in Bangalore, India

I recently returned from the Middleware 2010 conference in Bangalore India, where I chaired the MidSens workshop and helped to deliver a tutorial on the Loosely-coupled Component Infrastructure (LooCI). It was also nice to see old colleagues from Lancaster University and K.U. Leuven.

I stayed in the Ramada near Indian Express Circle, right opposite one of the small Hindu temples that are dotted around Bangalore. Every morning I had to make a 5K trip accross town to the conference venue at the Chancery Pavillion.

The Bangalore traffic can be heavy, with cars, rickshaws, bikes and horses(!) so the best way to get around is by motorbike...

..like this family on their way to school, or by Rickshaw. Here you can see Nelson and Klaas from K.U. Leuven posing in a one (photo by Klaas):

The MidSens workshop went very well and it was great to see people getting to grips with the LooCI during the tutorial:

  

The conference banquet was excellent and featured Indian Dancing as entertainment. You can see a video of this below:

After the close of the conference, we got to see some of Bangalore's famous sites, including the great Hare Krishna temple, Iskcon. The Lalbach botanical gardens and the Bull Temple. There are some photos below:

The Iskcon Temple By Night

Climbing the Stone Hill in the Center of Lolbagh Park

Twisting Paths Through the Forest in Lalbagh Park 

Wild Mokeys Outside of the Bull Temple

The Holy Bull Statue in the Bull Temple

Bangalore was excellent and I look forward to returning soon.

IEEE NESEA 2010 Conference Banquet

Shortly after the first day of the conference closed, the attendees gathered for the group photo in the lobby of the XJTLU Conference Center Hotel:.

The Conference Group Photo

After the group session, we headed to the 5 Star Kempinksi Hotel, which hosted the conference banquet in a beautiful private room in the Wan Hu Ge resteraunt.

The Banquet at the Kempinski

After dinner, there was free flowing drinks at the Paulaner Brewhouse for all attendees. Thankfully our dedicated attendees were up bright and early for Friday's morning sesison.

Free Flowing Beer in the Paulaner Brew House

Suzhou was a great start to the NESEA Conference Series and I can't wait for NESEA 2011 in Perth, Australia. We hope to see you there!

IEEE NESEA 2010 Conference Sessions

The Inaugural IEEE conference on Networked Embedded Systems for Enterprise Applications (NESEA 2010) just closed at XJTLU in Suzhou. It was a small, but tightly focused and high quality event with great discussion in all of the paper sessions. 

The XJTLU Conference Center did a great job of hosting the event and made sure that everything was taken care of during the conference.

XJTLU's final-year Computer Science students were indispensible, manning the registration desk and helping the attendees. NESEA would not have been the same without them.



As local chair, I was honored to open the proceedings, and I even wore a suit for the occasion, which as you know, is very rare.

NESEA was a single-track event with ten academic papers and one keynote speech delivered over one and a half days. Papers were divided into four key themes: (i) application composition, (ii.) the tangible cloud, (iii.) secure routing and (iv.) hardware design. In the photo above, Dean Kramer from Thames Valley University, UK presents his work on MobDSL, a domain-specific language for developing mobile applications. This work won the best paper award in the DATICS-NESEA workshop.

It was extremely gratifying to see that the audience remained engaged throughout the event and that all of the authors got a good grilling on their work. I think that in-depth discussion is the hallmark of a good conference.

The main conference best paper award was given to Rabindra Bista from Chonbuk University, Korea for his paper "Assuring Integrity in Data Aggregation for Wireless Sensor Networks".

Of course, the conference banquet and social event were also a lot of fun. I will upload some photos of this next week when I return from Middleware'10 in Bangalore, India.

IWISA 2010 Conference in Qinhuangdao

In late October my colleague Kaiyu and I flew to Qinhuangdao in the north-eastern Hebei province to attend the IWISA 2010 conference. The conference organizers were very hospitable and we had a great time at Yanshan University.

Kaiyu's Presentation on Context Aware SOA

After the conference, we had time to explore some of the Qinhuangdao sights and I was really excited to see the great wall for the first time.

Steps up to the Great Wall

The section of the great wall at Shanhai Guan near Qinhuangdao is the most easterly in China. At 'First Pass Under Heaven', the wall provides intimidating fortifications for the old city of Shanhai Guan.

Market Stalls Along the Top of the Wall

There are a series of towers along the top of the wall, inside of which are some historic artifacts. Below you can see a photo of me in front of Lin Lu tower, which dates from 1584 and an ancient tablet showing the progression of the animals in the Chinese calendar.

Lin Lu Tower

Chinese Animal Calendar: this is the Year of the Tiger.

A short taxi ride form First Pass Under Heaven is 'The Old Dragon Head' where the great wall meets the sea. This fortification was most recently to defend against Japanese pirates and it contains a number of Chinese naval relics.

Inside the Old Dragon Head Fort

The Old Dragon Head: where the Great Wall meets the Ocean

The Old Dragon Head is an impressive symbol of ancient China's achievemets. Standing on the wall and looking out into the Bohai Sea, it was possible to see dozens of huge ships waiting to dock. An impressive display of modern China's growing economic power.

The View Down the Coast to the Sea God Temple

Just down the coast from the wall, there is a small but pleasent shrine to the god of the sea, which was used by fishermen. Below you can see a statue of the sea god himself:

The God of the Sea