Snow Clouds over China: Feb 2008

Some of you may remember the heavy snows from February 2008 that brought most of China to a grinding halt, with railway stations and airports crowded by thousands of stranded passengers. I got alerted to the situation by my Suzhou-based colleague just before flying into Beijing, and so spent a couple of days warming my heels in Singapore before changing my flight plans completely and flying to Japan. On the flight over, I took these photographs of the view from above the chaos, just as the sun was setting. They looked even more spectacular in real life, as the photos can not do justice to the way the clouds were layered one on top of the other. I'd never seen anything like it before.

Safe travels!

Welcome

Risking the solipsistic intro that will alienate many readers, I'll start by telling you a bit about me, so that you know that I am speaking from years of experience. I work as Product Manager for an electronics materials company and have global responsibilities that take me all over the place. I get to Asia a lot, and mostly enjoy the food, and have a reputation for eating and enjoying things that others won't, although I don't eat beef or pork: if that makes any sense to you(?). I speak enough of several different languages to get by almost anywhere, and generally find that wherever I go: 90% of the people are friendly and helpful, and 10% are idiots, independent of race, creed, culture or economic status.

I also try (as far as possible) to "fit in", as far as a blond 5'10" Westerner can, with the local culture. For example: the Taiwanese have the Japanese fear of disease, so when I got a cold while traveling in Kaoshiung two years back, I wore a mask (see picture) to prevent contaminating my customers. Whatever works! In the background that's the Taiwanese high-speed rail (THSR) that is the Taiwanese version of the Shinkansen (bullet train) that used to run only from Taipei (in the North) down to Kaoshiung, and I understand now actually runs to Zuoying.