One Year On (Part 3)

I realise each time I finish a review posting that it's virtually impossible to sum up these subjects satisfactorily in a few paragraphs. I would like to add many afterthoughts to the last two postings but simply don't have time at the moment.

As an aside to today's postings I should mention something that currently fills me with some guilt. The heating in Beijing has not been turned on yet and, if last year's winter is anything to go by, the heating in the flat is simply not enough to keep my extremities much above freezing. I spent most of last year in gloves and scarf. So, with a bit of persuasion from those at home and abroad I bought an electric heater for the flat to make things more comfortable. In a nation choking itself with such atrocious pollution from the coal-burning power-stations (currently one built every week), adding another load to the system is not something I feel good about. Unfortunately because we don't have the power to control our own flat temperatures, I feel forced to do this. The fact that I currently take public transport almost all the time now makes up for this a little but I'm still left with a heavy conscience.

OK, I don't have much time today to write anything so will simply sum up a few of my favourite views from the last year. I guess I must have taken four or five thousand photos since I arrived but these are a few that sum up some of the stunning and sometimes bewildering things I've seen. Again, these miss out many important and astounding things that I've seen and done in the past year but, searching through my photo folders these are the ones that jump out most. They will be in no particular order as sorting that out will take too long for now (Mathematica is fighting back today).

The weather here may be the next posting and the storm clouds that frequented the city through the summer kept me mesmerised for hours. These ones glaring at my flat through a couple of nearby skyscrapers bought some fine fireworks with them, though I've still not managed to catch a lightning strike on film.

Sunrise in the plane flying from Munich to Beijing gave a satisfying abstract.

The summer palace as we headed into winter last year.


Fiery leaves in Tongli.

Happy driver in Souzhou.

Slow life on the Yangzi river.

Picnic with English Corner students.

Happy kids in my neighbourhood.

Mount Fuji in all its stunning glory.

Pondering in the Forbidden City.

Back home in England for a few minutes of relaxation playing frisbee with friends.

Ex-houses in Xi'an.

Happy families in Tongli.

Reflections from the Golden Palace in Kyoto.

Dancing man tree in Souzhou.

Hangzhou reflections.

British summer wildlife.

Boatman on the Yangtzi

Bamboo view in Souzhou.

Monks in Xi'an.

Ant-cleaners on a local office block.

Beijing Punk.

Duck tongue delicacies.

Beautiful clouds from my balcony.


From this list I can already think of many things I've missed out but this gives a cursory idea of what's been going on. Still to come I want to talk about research over the last year as well as the bizarre weather patterns, the music, cinema and literature scene and a few others. I feel that it's injustice enough to try and sum up these topics so 'the people' is certainly not a subject that I will attempt to dilute into a single posting. Coding battles to return to.