Got around to putting up my photos from the 2006 International Conference on Robotics and Automation which was held in Beijing, China:
-
- 4 star hotel room in China. Rooms were OK but mine was saturated with cigarette smoke. Had to open the window and let the smog in to ‘clear’ the room.
-
- View from my hotel window towards the neighbouring 5 star hotel and a large lawn where the conference reception was held. Note the low visibility distance – the smog was horrible some days.
-
- Dancers at the conference banquet. The highlight of the evening was a wonderful martial arts and weapons performance by the Beijing opera troupe.
-
- The Great Hall of the People. This room was truly magnificent, with ceilings about twenty metres high.
-
- Stairway in the Great Hall of the People building. Once again, truly magnificent.
-
- Me in front of a fountain on our adventure night. We’re just about to enter a really swanky shopping centre in central Beijing.
-
- Almost all the fashion advertising in Beijing had Western models and a Western focus. Some of the text in the ads was a little…interesting however.
-
- The New Zealand group I was out exploring with. At this stage we were trying to work out where the *genuine* markets were.
-
- Entryway to the markets.
-
- Snackfood at the markets. We looked but weren’t game. However, more exotic things were to come…
-
- Anyone for fried scorpions! These guys were actually wiggling on the sticks, to show freshness I presume. Needless to say we weren’t game to try them.
-
- Some other exotics – grubs, hearts, baby birds and other interesting foodstuffs.
-
- View down the main alleyway of the market. As you walked down you were assailed by offers and tugs on your clothing to come look at ‘special’ products. It was all very friendly and good natured however. There were also roaming guides who latched onto you like a limpet, presumably they ‘negotiated’ a good price for you and received a cut from the vendors.
-
- Picturesque lanterns in the market.
-
- I’d never seen the logo for this shop before, but it was strangely familiar…
-
- View from the plane window on the trip home, some beautiful cloud cover.
-
- Sunset from the plane.
-
- Godiva chocolate is the best chocolate in the world (in my humble opinion), but it sure is expensive. $80 for a 300 gram pack of chocolate.
-
- Changi airport in Singapore is the nicest I’ve been in on my travels around the world. Beautiful gardens, free massage machines, and lots of free computer terminals with high speed Internet access.
-
- Home sweet home at Brisbane airport. I wonder if any drug smugglers appreciate how cute the Beagles are before they are caught 🙂
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.