You are in "".

When I did a tourist search for the area of china where I am staying, the local cuisine specialty is “Exquisite donkey meat.” I find this interesting. If all goes according to plan I should be in Dongying right now. I would have just spent a day in Beijing rocking out at the Great Wall and such. By the time the tourist fun has likely slowed, and been replaced by work and interesting local foods.

Really though, most of the local food delicacies don’t sound that bad. The northern area of china has a few foods that are specific to its area including duck, cucumber, steamed pancakes, Tianjin cabbage, lamb, mu shu pork, and carp.

I am most excited about the Mongolian hopot. Everyone I’ve spoken to has sung its praises. Esentially its a selection of meats, vegetables, and noodles that can be dipped by the consumer into a vat of boiling water or broth that sits on the table. This, with the collection of sauces, apparently makes for a fantastic meal.

While my co-workers have passed on tales of how the chinese would trick them into eating horribly strange items and then make fun of them endlessly, I think the food opportunities will be very unique and I’m looking forward to them. I’m also lucky because my destination, the Shandong province, is known for its older style Chinese foods and is considered the best location to get authentic eats.

Sidenote: I had promised you that I’d be put together a selection of MSPaint drawings prior to my departure entitled “The Rock, Stopped.”

The next 7 days (including weekends! booya!) will highlight selections from this gallery. Some of the drawings are good, others, less good. Feel free to comment on them. They will appear in the Quickthoughts section to the right.

Not only did we rock Saturday hard, we rocked it so hard that our bodies ache.

At 8:30am Mr. Lee and our Chinese guide Theresa, picked us up at the hotel to bring us to the Great Wall. The wall was really fun and excessively crowded. Two thoughts went through my mind as we traversed its winding paths.

1) Ryan Schenk would die of happiness if he could ride his mountain bike on the mayhem that is this wall.
2) Tim Baird would want to run up this with me.

Unfortunately, my teammates did not want to run. So we walked carefully. It was still great though. This I assure you.

We left the wall around noon, and drove back to Beijing. Next stop? The Forbidden City.

You’ll learn more about these places next week as the features pop up on the lefthand side of mikedidonato.com. The single best word to describe The Forbidden City is “big.” There’s a reason they call it the forbidden ‘city’ and not the forbidden ‘rural hotspot.’ The place just goes on and on.

We left the F.C. at 4:30 and booked it over to the Temple of the Heavens by 4:45 (this involved running). We saw the temple, took pictures, loved every minute of it, and then jumped in a cab to head to dinner.

The place chosen was a world class roasted duck place. Unfortunately there was an hour wait (it was crowded), so while we waited we walked over to Quanmen, a wonderful local shopping street. It was wild.

We soon returned to the restaurant, ate our food, and headed back to the hotel.

My flight to Dongying departs Sunday at 7:30am China time.

Hope all is well in the states! China is fantastic.

This might surprise you but… just about everyone here in China is Asian.

Tom and I are in Beijing. We left JFK right at eight am on Thursday and made great time to San Francisco. Outside of the TERRIBLE in flight movies, the first 6 hours went very quickly. We arrived in San Fran early and after some dangerous Mexican food we headed over to the gate.

Not THREE minutes after checking in, the front desk pages Tom Ig and upgrades him to business class. I walk onto the plane and find my place in between two dudes. All the attractive women must be seated somewhere else because there are none within eyeshot of 35J.

I throw my stuff in the compartment and take my seat. A minute passes and I start some quiet banter with my neighbor. Then, a gentleman approached me.

“Mr. DiDonato?”
“That’s me.”
“Come with me.”
He gave me a slip of paper. No, it did not say 35J as my previous slip had… no no. This paper said 8F.

Eight F.

“you’re going to like it,” the man added as I entered into the businuss class section.

“may I take your coat sir?”

It was an aisle seat. In business class. An aisle seat with cycling lumbar support, automatic seat adjustment, stereo headphones and a menu with options of Pan-seared filet mignon w/ balsamic rosemary sauce, citrus chicken with cashews, and pan fried mahi mahi with garlic sauce.

For dessert? a selection of international cheeses or caramel apple cobbler.

There was a little package of comforts that came with the seat as well. Moisturizing oils, a night time eye shield, kleenex, soap, and face towel.

We got warm cashews and walnuts shortly after take off. And multiple passes of the hot towels to wipe your weary eyes.

Personal T.V? yes.
A huge stretch of legroom? yes.
Fantastic flight? yes.

12 hours of luxery? yes please

The Date: July 14-29, 2006
The Who:

mike d
25 year old male, single.

mike d has great plans for China and intends to hit the ground running. Provided I can avoid illness and extreme exhaustion, I hope to visit every site that is within reach. There’s really only one picture that is a must: playing hacky sack at the great wall. When Tim Baird and I were in England we got some hacky sack photos at Stonehenge, and really, I think it’d be fantastic to have a whole series of such worldy photographs.

Tom Ig
male, married. three kids, with another on the way.

I’m not sure Tom is prepared for the mayhem that is traveling with mike d. Also, upon arriving I will have been confined inside a plane for 20 of the previous 22 hours… and for anyone who’s had the misfortune luxury of traveling with me on extended car trips, I think you can appreciate the potential severity of my need for action. Tom will only be staying for a week, at which point he will return to the states for his son’s 5th birthday.

San P.
male, married. Children unknown.

San is one of my company’s Chinese contacts. I have met him once before during one of his visits to the US. I think there’s a good possibility that San has superpowers. Rumors have been going around that at night he turns into a dragon and lays waste to those who oppose him.

I’m hoping to get some tourist time with San. He’s a great guy and a phenominally thorough worker.

The What: Successful installation of equipment at a customer’s mill in Dongying, China.
The Payoff: Wild times, happy customers, and a safe return on July 29th.

Welcome to the first Automatic Feature post of my China trip. This should be posting just as I’m landing in China. I thought I’d get people into the mood with some China specific information. My sister Alicia got me a very thorough China traveling book for my birthday and I see it as my duty to share some of the information with the masses.

My first landfall in China will be in Beijing. Beijing is the capital of China. It’s in the northeast of the country with the Yellow river to the south and the Great Wall to the North. It is described as a city rich with traditional architecture but modernized from the pressures of an expanding population. At the center of Beijing is the “forbidden city,” a palace of sorts from where previous emperors ruled the country. It is now fully open to the public and supposedly boasts some very striking architecture. There are many gardens, gates, and dragons ornamenting the city. Provided we get to the city at a reasonable hour, I hope to see this area of Beijing first. Although the functionality is vastly different, the size on the map reminds of me Tivoli in Copenhagen. It looks to take up almost a square mile of real estate.

Directly south of the forbidden city is Tian’an Men GuangChang (Tian’an Men Square of the Gate of Heavenly Peace). Ironically, this square of heavenly peace was the location of the violent suppresion of the 1989 democratic uprising. The square is almost as big as the forbidden city and is surrounded by the Chinese legislature auditorium, a museum of Chinese history, and the Chinese National Musuem. At the center of the square is a monument and the mausoleum of Chinese communist leader (Chairman) Mao Zedong. Apparently every morning and evening his casket is raised out for viewing.

I’ll update with another China Feature section soon that will correspond with my travels.

At the time of this post, my flight should be taking off from JFK.

If all things went as planned, I should be leaving the House of Rock for China just about the time that this post is posting. 4am EST. That means upon arrival (5am EST on Friday, 5pm China Time Friday) that my internal clock will be as wrong as it can get.

Here’s some info on where I am and what my schedule looks like for the rest of today (tonight?) and tomorrow.

If internet is available at my hotel I will update with a post. Otherwise, keep tuning in because at 7am each weekday, there will be new material waiting for you.

I am 24 hours away from the first leg of the China trip.

I’ll have you know that I have prepared over 20 posts to post automatically while I’m gone. Most are features, which will show up on the left hand side of the screen. They all deal with different interesting things I discovered about China during my pre-trip research. I tried to touch Historic, Cultural, and Location specific information. Hopefully you will find the posts interesting as well.

I will not be bringing my cell phone and internet/e-mail updates are dependent on the severity of Chinese internet regulation and availibility.

Provided I complete my job for work, I am due to return on Saturday, July 29th.

Tickets have been purchased.

Annnnd…drum roll…. it’s no longer a direct flight from New York to Beijing!!!!

That’s right folks! we’ll be stopping in San Fran. What does this mean for travel times?

Instead of a comfortable 17 hours of travel, I get to travel for 26 hours!!

I leave at 4AM EST Thursday from the HoR. I arrive at 6PM China time on Friday. That’s 6AM EST.

The good news is that we get to rest for a full day in Beijing before heading onward to our final destination.

I guess we have to say officially that patrick won the last Skyline contest. Although he gets minus one point for being too thorough.

Roland and Shamus, on the other hand… Rockin’ it steady with the correct planet announcements.

So we’re on to Skyline 5 I suppose.

WARNING: the answers may be in the comments below.

SKYLINE:
HERE!!

And the satellite image? here.

your task:

1) identify the location of the skyline photo
2) determine if the skyline photo is of the same location as the satellite photo
3) if not, identify the location of the satelllite photo

Good luck!