Sanya: "China's Hawaii"

The next stop on my sister's visit was Sanya, a tropical island in Hainan province, which is sometimes referred to as 'China's' Hawaii.... and it was just that. Gorgeous tropical beaches, good infrastructure, friendly locals and cheap food and drink. Some photos follow:

Our Hotel - The Holiday Inn, Sanya Bay

Relaxing in the Pool

Relaxing on the Beach

And watching the Sunset. It's a hard life.

Chengdu

My sister is visiting with me for two weeks. As I also had a conference in Chengdu, she accompanied me to Panda City.

Bizzarely, our five-star hotel provided every guest with a working gas mask! Your guess is as good as mine as to why.

The biggest attraction in Chengdu is the Panda Research Base, where you can see hundreds of giant pandas and red pandas.

The pandas seemed to enjoy human contact and posing for the camera.

It was a rainy day, but we perservered nonetheless. Here you see my sister on a rope-bridge.

The sites breeding program has been very successful including a pair of panda twins.

I think the best thing about the pandas was how human they looked while eating and playing.

Our next stop will be Sanya. I'll report in from there.

Visit to Ireland

I just returned from a great visit to Ireland. Everyone was very friendly and I had a great time. Photos follow:

Saint Finbarre's Cathedral, Cork

A Nice Monument on the River Lee, Cork

 Posing on the Lovely Campus of University College Cork

Chinese Wisdom, Cork Style (and how creepy is the fake sleeping cat)?

FutureTech 2010 in South Korea

On Thursday I flew to Seoul in South Korea to attend the FutureTech 2010 conference. I really enjoyed my trip and found South Korea a pleasant and fun country.

In front of the steps of Seoul train station, there is a large display encouraging visitors to remember that the Korean war is not over, but is at an armistice. This is evident with tensions currently rising over the sinking of the Cheonan.

 

From Seoul, we took the high speed train south to the coastal city of Busan, where we stayed in a nice little motel that you can see above.

 

The conference was very well organized. I presented one paper and chaired two sessions at the DATICS workshop, as you can see above.

The conference center was in the beautiful Lotte hotel, which houses Busan's only casino (I lost about 20 pounds) and has great views of the city.

We had a free day in Busan, so we hopped on the subway and went to Hyundai Beach. I really wanted to swim in the Sea of Japan, but unfortunately it was raining, still we had a great day seeing the sights and tasting the local food.

 

 Ka Lok and his Friends from Hong Kong

Walking to the Apex Conference Facility

 

The Apex Conference Facility

Rediscovering Old Suzhou

Living in the ultra modern and international SIP area of Suzhou, its easy to forget that the old city of Suzhou has historic and picturesque areas. On Saturday, we took a much needed day off to relax and walk along the old road to Tiger Hill. Here's a few photos:

Traditional Canal Side Houses

View From the Bridge

Relaxing with a Cold Sapporo and a Glass of Wine in the Bookworm

In unrelated news, it looks like government regulations are being tightened up a big for the Shanghai Expo -- check out the changes to the terms and conditions for my apartment building:

 

Trip to Hangzhou

It was my 30th birthday on Friday, which I celbrated with Mexican food and Margharitas at Casa Zoe.

For my birthday weekend, I took a little trip to Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. Hangzhou is famous in China as a scenic retreat, with lakes, mountain and forest. A few photos of my trip follow:

We Started at Longyin Village in the Mountains Above West Lake...

 

...had a quick a Snack...

...and walked down 18 Creeks trail...

...check out this cool water wheel...

...a dog in a Chinese coat...

...I loved the orderly terraces of tea...

...was surprised by some of the things hanging on a Chinese washing line...

Our walk ended by a beautiful waterfall and brilliant azure pool.

It was an excellent weekend. I look forward to returning to Hangzhou as soon as I can.

Research Visit to Brazil

I just returned from a one month post as a visiting professor at the University of São Paulo at  São Carlos, where I was working with my friend and former colleague Jo Ueyama. You can read about the work-side of our activities in Brazil here: http://www.sp-river.blogspot.com/. But it wasn't all work - I also spent a weekend on the São Sebastian beaches and went to Rio for Carnival weekend. Here are some photos:

The scenery on the drive between São Paulo and São Sebastian is spectacular, here you can see a forest waterfall in the Sierra Del Mar mountains.

Thanks to the hospitality of Jo's friends from USP, we were able to stay in a great little cottage in the forest, surrounded by forest, flowers and cool animals.

 

There was a creek behind the cottagee that you can swim in, here you see a swimmers-eye-view of Delano (our host, on the right) and Jo.

Here you can see some of the cool flora and fauna.

Compared to Rio the São Sebastian beaches were quiet and laid back, here's a shot of the beach at sunset.

In contrast, Rio was more glamerous and developed, though still very beautiful. Here is Copa Cabana beach where I stayed for the weekend.

Here is the younger, busier Ipanema Beach.

And here's a photo of me at the Ipanema Bloco parade with Alessandro, one of my hosts and other friends. What a great trip!