Friday at the Wall

Note: The time is finally fixed.

We spent the day Friday at the main Xian branch office, working on our project. It was a productive day with the usual meeting accessories: fruit platter (always the cherry tomato's and bananas), green tea and of course an ash tray (because they still smoke freely everywhere).

Friday night we were invited to a banquet with the "Premier" (the guy with the horseshoe conference room). However, he had to cancel at the last minute due to another pressing matter.

We were all excited to be banquet free but one of the branch managers ended up inviting us to dinner and it developed into what was essentially another banquet --- huge array of dishes, toasts etc. One of the Xian employees was there and was not participating in the toasts since he was driving. Our project manager, who does not like toasting, said he was going to see if he could rent a car at the next destination.

On the way back from dinner, our interpreter suggested we get off the bus and walk the rest of the way along the ancient inner city wall. There is a green belt along the wall and it is a popular spot in the evenings. You see impromptu quartets, people letting their dogs run loose, tai chi type get togethers and all sorts of other activities. One of our associates joined in the fun (only posting because his identify is hidden):

We're staying the weekend in Xian and planning to visit the Terra Cotta Warriors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army. Should be interesting.