My first National Day in China

I just spent the last week traveling through China with my parents.  I’d planned on spending a few hours every day doing work, but I didn’t actually get anything done at all…  I’d forgotten how busy it can be to travel, particularly when you’re the host and need to show someone around.

First, we went to Xi’an for three days.  It’s a great city.  The city wall is the largest intact ancient city wall in the world, and I highly recommend a walk on top of it.  We also visited the Terracotta warriors (of course!), the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and Beilin (a garden with collections of calligraphy and sculptures that was started in the 900s).  We stayed at the Shangri-la hotel, and had drinks in the downstairs bar almost every night after our crazy taxi rides home.  All the tourist sites are just way too packed during the National Day Holiday.  The funniest part of visiting Xi’an was that everyone thought Judy was a tour guide, so they kept asking if they could get pictures with her clients or trying to get her to tell us to buy stuff.

It was so crowded at the market that when we finally found a ride in this falling-apart ‘taxi,’ we took it. Needless to say, we had a drink in the hotel bar before bed…

Next, we visited Shanghai for another four days.  There, my parents met Judy’s parents, and we spent a few days with them.  We also visited Suzhou one day while Judy stayed back in Shanghai with her parents.  It’s only 30 minutes by train to Suzhou, which is really nice.  Again, everything was too crowded, but it was still nice to visit.  As usual, the best part about visiting Shanghai was eating the dumplings.

Some of the people who visited the peaceful Yuyuan Gardens with us

Finally, I’m back in Beijing, and really trying to get started on work again.  It’s tough enough to get back on track when you come back to a big company job after a vacation, but at least you have emails and other people to remind you what you need to get done.  When you’re coming back to your own project, it’s a little tougher.  Thankfully, I use Pivotal Tracker and keep lists of everything.