New experiences everyday and I think this will continue for some time.

This morning we had a lecture from Sheldon Glashow to the Chinese academy of sciences (of which I guess there must be about 5000-10000 people from grad students to professors. This place is huge!). The lecture was on luck versus design in scientific descovery and was a superb speech. I'd recommend anyone to see him if you get the chance. It was pretty much a history lesson of the most important discoveries in science of the last 400 years and how intuition and serendipity have played their parts in its progress.

Lunch was the other new experience today. I went with a couple of guys from the office to a local Hunan restaurant. Hunan province is near Sezchuan province. I was aware that the latter had a spicy cuisine but didn't know that this paled in comparison to Hunan food. Very tasty but packed full of very spicy chillies. Just right for today's weather. Anyway, this restaurant dismissed for me the things I'd read that said that Chinese eating dog was a myth for dog was indeed on the menu. A pooch stew for a mere two pounds. I'm not sure if that's good value or not! (Joanna, stop reading here) As I know that several of my friends would never speak to me again if I consumed dog, we went for a beef dish and a chicken's feet dish. I can assure you that eating chicken's feet with chopsticks is far from simple. You have to get over the Western dislike for fat and cartilage to see that they're actually not too bad.

I'm planning this weekend's excursions into the city at the moment so anyone who has been to Beijing and can recommend their highlights, I would be interested to know.