Returning to Hefei

[Okay --- that's not really Hefei, but rather an ad for another real estate development on a billboard outside the airport]

Sunday, I met up with colleagues back at the Beijing airport to board a flight to Hefei in the Anhui province (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hefei). This is one of the cities that I visited on my first trip and we are returning for meetings with the project team for the next few days.

As always, on the flight, they served a meal. This time it was 'hamburgers':


This was not like any burger I had seen before. The smell of the meat and the ongoing turbulence (something you always seem to encounter on domestic flights) kind of ruined by appetite. I did try a bite however, but would not recommend if you have a choice.

Sunday night, we had our first banquet of the trip and a return to the Vodka Like Liquid or maotai featured so prominently in Trip 1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_tai). They do like their VLL here in Hefei. It seems like a lot of the people in Beijing have moved beyond it, drinking more red wine, so we didn't have a lot of it on trip 2.

Fortunately, we started dinner a bit late, so the toasts were kept to a minimum --- just enough to take on what appeared to be an aorta floating in the soup featured.



Back at the hotel, it was time to relax with some Chinese TV. You try and figure this one out!

[Internet access has been somewhat of a problem here so postings may be intermittant]