Second trip to China is much easier

Nanjing, China—I’m in China again for three days of training sessions with employees of the JiangSu Broadcasting Corporation, one of China’s largest television companies. While the plane trip was still killer (15 hours out of Detroit) my second visit is much more comfortable than the first.

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Amazingly, the food is much more intimidating to me than the language barriers. If you’re one for new things, this trip would be perfect for you. I typically like heavily processed foods, anything in a paper wrapper and cheese. Here they are constantly feeding us fresh fish, a wide variety of fresh vegetables and fresh fruit for dessert. And no cheese.

We’ve been working since we got here so I don’t have much to show you yet, but here are some images. I’ll have a free day in Nanjing then a free day in Shanghai, so I’ll try to get more stuff then.

We encountered this scene on the street on Sunday. This man kept trying to pull this woman down the street and she didn’t want to go, she kept holding onto that plastic fence. No one came to her aid. I didn’t, either, because I don’t know the culture and don’t know what would have happened to me if I had tried to help.

A traditional dumpling, vegetable filled.

Shot from the 27th floor of the JiangSu building. The gold building is a bank.

Lunch, with two men from the t.v. station.

We’ve all decided we wouldn’t survive a day trying to drive here. This is during light traffic. There are pedestrians and cyclists in every lane and on the sidewalks (yes, cars too!)

My knees are not strong enough to squat over these traditional toilets.

A bowl of sticky rice. All the meals are served as separate dishes, served family style on a lazy susan. You simply reach out with your chop sticks and grab a bite of what you want.

The meat is pork, the beige veggie is a mushroom.

Very nicely displayed desserts. I had ice cream.

At the hotel buffet most of the foods are labeled. These things weren’t. I did not try them.

Scott Libin checks out the view — and the smog. For the second day in a row we had this crappy air.

This is half the “class” of JiangSu employees. My second lecture was after lunch and several of them were asleep. Can’t blame them.

By the end of the day Tuesday the sun came out. This is apparently an unusual site in Nanjing.

The seafood bar at the hotel restaurant.