http://www.ourchinatravels.com A Father & Sons Adventure Blog Fri, 20 Oct 2006 20:28:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The academic element of this trip included 20 UW students who signed up for an Exploration Seminar called “Entrepreneurial Explosion in Modern China.”  The goal of the seminar was to expose students first-hand to the incredible economic growth happening in China, to help them understand the forces driving that ... http://www.ourchinatravels.com/2006/10/10/an-overview-from-exploration-seminar-leader-cindy-lavoie/ In this post I'd like to capture and share some thoughts I'm having about China - and about life in the United States - after returning from Shanghai to our home in Seattle Washington. Today I found out that the beard trimmer I brought with me to China will no longer ... http://www.ourchinatravels.com/2006/09/21/post-trip-impressions-of-china-and-of-the-united-states/ I've been sifting through the photos and video I have from our trip, and finally figured out how to add video clips to this blog. I'm not very happy with the quality of these videos when played online, but here are a few of my favorite videos from our trip... 1. Thomas being shown ... http://www.ourchinatravels.com/2006/09/20/videod-memories-of-china/ On the streets of Shanghai bamboo scaffolding can be seen at building construction or renovation sites, while at the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall you can see a built-to-scale plan of how Shanghai will develop over the next 20 years.                                         http://www.ourchinatravels.com/2006/09/16/bamboo-scaffolding-planning-the-future-of-shanghai/ Here are some scenes from our travels around Shanghai and shopping at the Yu Yuan Market...                             http://www.ourchinatravels.com/2006/09/16/back-in-shanghai/ We returned to Shanghai on Thursday and that evening we hosted a reception for fifteen students from Shanghai Jiaotong University Business School.  Our UW students enjoyed mixing with them and talking about everything from favorite restaurants and marketplaces in Shanghai to how business is taught in China to career prospects in the ... http://www.ourchinatravels.com/2006/09/14/reception-with-jiaotong-university-students/ I've resisted posting my overall thoughts about China to date - mostly because I knew that my initial impressions would be naive "knee jerk" reactions that wouldn't honor the unique character and complexity of this fascinating country. I also felt that it would be necessary to see and experience several different ... http://www.ourchinatravels.com/2006/09/09/my-impressions-of-china-to-date/ Today we went to the Buddhist temple where they had a thousand little mini Buddhas and 3 huge Buddhas. They also had a cave where a monk showed me and my brother Lucas how to pray to the huge Buddha statue like Buddhists do. He helped me light a candle ... http://www.ourchinatravels.com/2006/09/08/yan-dang-shan-caves-and-buddhist-temples/ We went by bus to Yann Dang Shan for the weekend, and it is very different then Hangzhou and Shanghai. Our hotel isn’t exactly perfect nor very good. Our room has two floors with stairs leading up to the second floor. My brother and I got the bottom floor and our beds ... http://www.ourchinatravels.com/2006/09/07/yan-dang-shan-hiking/ We just stayed in Hangzhou for a few days - it was an awesome place. We stayed in a cool hotel that had a swimming pool, and we swam in the pool twice during our time there. We had some awesome dinners too. One was at Pizza Haven. It wasn’t the ... http://www.ourchinatravels.com/2006/09/06/hangzhou/