First Couple of Days in China

Our group has now all been in China for two days.  Katie D'Amico and I have been here for about 5 days, having spent a few days in Shanghai for general sightseeing (more on that later.  Shanghai is awesome!)

So, I suppose I should introduce our group!  We've got me and five folks from SUNY-ESF:  Dr. Bill Powell, Amelia (Bo) Zhang, Kathleen Baier, Andy Newhouse, and Katie D'Amico.  Yesterday, Katie and I flew in to Beijing from Shanghai and met the group.  If anyone followed my blog from last time, I bet you can guess what we did as our first activity ... EAT!! 

I had a couple of firsts yesterday:  squashed chicken (picture below) and Peking duck.  Surprisingly, we didn't have any last trip; then again, we weren't in Beijing very long.  We also had Peking duck again today, and it was still very good.  I can definitely say that, when in Beijing, you need to get the Peking duck.  I didn't realize that you don't just eat the duck, but wrap it in something like a wheat tortilla w/ a thick sauce, cucumber and scallion strips.  Yum. 

As for work, we met up today with a couple of our main collaborators, including Dr. He Wei, a host from last time, and a new host, Dr. Jiang.  Both Dr. He and Dr. Jiang are from Beijing Forestry University, so we took some time to walk around and visit the University's lab spaces.

As for sightseeing, we've had a bit to do.  We did get to see the Olympic Village (pic of group below).  Tonight, we saw a very good show at a Middle Eastern type restaurant.  The entertainment was an excellent band that sounded much like the Gypsy Kings.  Among other songs, they played "Volare" (of course!) and a cover of "My Way" and "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps".  The band played about 3-4 songs per set, in between which we had two belly dancers.  It was definitely a new experience in Beijing!

Tomorrow, we head out to Xi'an, and hopefully then on to Ankang.  We are still unsure of our exact location of field work, but we do know it's raining there, and scheduled to continue for the next couple of days.  Hopefully it will let up by the time we hit the field! 

Mmmm.  Squashed chicken.  It actually was VERY good, but had a lot of elements that seemed to be repeated on this trip.  1)  Lots of bones in the food;  2) head attached and/or included w/ meal; and 3) Yummy!

Kathleen and Katie review the materials at Dr. Jiang's lab that were ordered prior to our arrival.  We spent part of the day putting all these materials together and prepping for our trip to the field.

.Dr. He shows off isolates taken from Dalaoling and the NanGongShan Mountains, both sites we visited back in 2008.

Our group at Bird's Nest Stadium.  Amelia, Sara, Kathleen, Katie, Bill, and Andy.  The Water Cube is behind the photographer, on his right (Picture from Andy Newhouse).

Beijing Forestry University is pretty close to where Beijing hosted the Olympics.  In the background is the Bird's Nest Stadium, which I'm sure you guys have all seen plenty off.  Off to the left, then, would be the Water Cube, which we also walked by.  In the foreground is a really big piece of jade. 

Our first dinner out as a group, and we went out for Peking Duck!  In the picture are our bus driver while in Beijing, then Mr. Lin, our interpreter, and Bill, our fearless leader.  The tortilla-like wraps for Peking duck are there in the middle.  The sliced duck is the upper-left of them.  A thick soup of duck fat and duck pieces can be found in the upper-right of the picture.  And, no Chinese meal would be complete without a head of some kind.  You can see the duck head, split in half, there to the lower-right of the wraps.  Mmmm.  Duck head. (Picture courtesy Andy Newhouse).