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Here are some pictures from Shanghai and Beijing, where Marisol and I spent a few days from 15th October to 25th October 2005.

Marisol's trip was mostly sponsored by Virgin Atlantic and Holiday Inn, whereas I was in China courtesy of my work. While I worked Marisol did a great job of looking up Museums and the shopping malls on Nanjing Road in Shanghai. Later I took a few days off and joined Marisol on a break to Beijing.

Stories

1. Air Products need to learn from Marisol's skill at packing a first aid kit. The standard kit contains nothing of normal needs, like headaches, tummy trouble etc. so we did not even open the standard issued kit. Marisol took along about eight items and we used six out of those!!

2. Watch out for Formula 1 races in Shanghai. The hotel rate doubled, and I could not even cancel the room to rebook at a lower rate. Air Products' travel agents had guaranteed payment!! It took some arm-twisting from our local office to get the rate lowered for part of the stay. Ouch!

3. Having seen people of all ages out on Nanjing Road (closed to traffic) exercising early every morning, I decided one morning to get dressed and join them. It was a great experience. People welcomed me and tried to help me to take up correct postures, and Vivian who works in the Design group in the AP office, took time out to say 'good morning' while passing by!!

4. In Beijing there are notes for much lower denominations of Yuan. I was swindled by a street vendor. He gave me 20 cents instead of 20 Yuans in change. I am going to frame the cent notes and put up as decoration and to remember the episode. My loss? 18Y - 20cents = 17.8 Yuans = roughly $2.

5. We managed to squeeze in a Beijing Opera arranged kindly by our colleague Kevin's friend - Rita in Beijing. Unfortunately everything turned out to be in Chinese. Even the brochure. Until two weeks later we had no idea what we saw. The story was roughly explained to us by a guide of another couple who were equally at sea. Now we know that it goes by the name of Qin Xianglian, and is quite a famous opera. It was spectacular, and we were given some royal treatment. We had seats at a table and were served tea and sweets during the performance. Type the name in Yahoo or Google to learn more.

6. I should have charged people money to have their pictures taken with me. I may have made a tidy sum! Many of the people were pretty girls, and Marisol being present I had to be on best behaviour. As always!

7. Beijing is the first place where we saw a four star toilet!

8. In Shanghai we actually saw a pedestrian crossing that shows you a countdown in seconds of how much time remains for the green man for pedestrians! In Delhi they had these countdowns for cars at red lights (with the word 'relax' as a backdrop)!

9. In Shanghai dogs and cats were conspicuous by their absence. Don't dare to ask why?

Regards,

Marisol & Arvinder.