Let's Make Some Art, Dammit

November 4, 2017. Spent the day hiking the Great Wall of China with my hosts here in Beijing. Despite reading ahead, I found the wall to be much steeper than I expected. This was no holiday stroll; it was a gruelling workout. The Wall was also more massive and more dominating than I had expected - even the refurbished part is an impressive feat of engineering. I won't ever forget my day on the Great Wall. http://ift.tt/2Aj7ZPV

November 2, 2017. I gave my talk this morning, which by all accounts went well, and then visited the Summer Palace. Accomplishments: - slides and recording of my talk - not uploaded yet byt they exist http://ift.tt/2zb8HkV

November 1, 2017. I spent a quiet day relaxing, watching the ball game, looking at photos, and preparing for the conference. It was good to get a rest after a few exciting stressful days. http://ift.tt/2hvkZu5

October 31, 2017. No one photo could convey scale and scope of the forbidden city. But let me try with this one: this is the outer gatehouse. Behind this is an inner gatehouse, a series of palaces, gardens and much more. The Forbidden City is everything I expected and more. I spent the day here exploring the city and the Zhongshan Park next door. Accomplishments: I did three nice things for other people: - I let young woman ahead of me to view one of the palaces; her surprised smile lit up my day - I helped a man photograph a child by attracting his attention toward the camera - I called out to a man when he accidentally dropped quite a bit of money http://ift.tt/2ikenP2

October 30, 2017. My flight landed late this afternoon and I made it into my hotel in the evening, just enough time to grab supper and go to bed. This display is from the hotel. I've already learned one new thing: they like to display big complex rocks here. http://ift.tt/2gSwJX4