Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Great Wall
Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of posts. I had some technical issues.
A large display describing the history of and background of the Wall's construction. Team mate Madhu (pictured) and Kevin comprised our adventurous team.
This section of the wall has a cable car system to get you to where you need to be. I could be wrong, but I think Kevin is too tall.
...and here's are the cable cars. The ride to the top took about 10 minutes. Walking it would have been steep and miserable.
First view of the wall from the cable car
I walked down to the foot of the wall via stairs. This side of the wall faces into China, so it wasn't the side that usually had to be defended. In most places the wall seems to be about two stories high. Pretty imposing when you're at the foot of it.
This is the roof of one of the watch-towers. The stairs leading to it were about 2 feet wide, so a little bit of a squeeze. Not all of the stairs were still there, so you had to pull yourself up. Totally worth the view.
Peek-a-boo
By 9:00 am the wall was getting pretty crowded. I can't imagine what it gets like later in the day.
A few of my work peers and I were able to take a Sunday morning and hit the Great Wall. My understanding is the Great Wall is about 4000 miles long (though not visible from space -that's an urban myth) but most of the wall is in disrepair. The government has restored a few sections. The two closest to Beijing are Badaling and Mutianyu -with Badaling being the more popular of the two. Mutianyu has a cable car that takes visitors to the top of the wall -its a little more remote so we hired a cab for the day and went out early in the morning. Our timing was great.
The cab ride took us out of the city and on a meandering country highway that passed through several small villages. I'm not sure if the smog continues out to the wall or if there is persistent fog -in any case, the hillside was shrouded in mist.
I'm not historically minded -so I couldn't envision what the Wall might have been like when under siege. But from an architectural standpoint, the Wall is stunning. It is built on the ridgeline of the the mountains and even the effort to get supplies to the location, prior to construction, must have been staggering. We were on the wall for about 90 minutes and for the better part of that time had the wall virtually to ourselves.
Enjoy the pics.
-Eric (Dad)
A large display describing the history of and background of the Wall's construction. Team mate Madhu (pictured) and Kevin comprised our adventurous team.
This section of the wall has a cable car system to get you to where you need to be. I could be wrong, but I think Kevin is too tall.
...and here's are the cable cars. The ride to the top took about 10 minutes. Walking it would have been steep and miserable.
First view of the wall from the cable car
I walked down to the foot of the wall via stairs. This side of the wall faces into China, so it wasn't the side that usually had to be defended. In most places the wall seems to be about two stories high. Pretty imposing when you're at the foot of it.
This is the roof of one of the watch-towers. The stairs leading to it were about 2 feet wide, so a little bit of a squeeze. Not all of the stairs were still there, so you had to pull yourself up. Totally worth the view.
Peek-a-boo
By 9:00 am the wall was getting pretty crowded. I can't imagine what it gets like later in the day.
Labels: beijing great wall
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Work - A big, hairy day (Beijing)
Last Saturday was a work day, but for good reasons. Our customer has to shut down their production environment every quarter to allow new programs and modules to be loaded to it without impacting online users. This quiet time lasts for about 5 hours and is non-negotiable. Our team showed up at the office at about 11:30 am and started laying the ground work for all quiet time activities with the actual “green flag” moment starting at 1:00 pm.
For the first hour, our 3-hour Migration-To-Production plan (MTP) was about 40 minutes ahead of schedule. Then we hit snag number 1 and burned an hour –but that’s ok we had a two-hour buffer, right? The net result of the day’s activities was a last minute “hail-Mary” that worked and got our code within the quiet time.
The room we were in was very small, crowded and hot. The cans are of a coffee drink called "Fire".
Literally at the last minute we hit a glitch. It took us 7 hours and 12 minutes to finish the migration. Everyone is watching the very last piece register as valid.
-Eric (Dad)
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Pierce Writes (pictures)
Pierce was selected as one of 5 students to represent his school at a district young authors conference. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend, but Nora took some nice pictures. The conference included a speech by a well-known children's author and a presentation of the students selected to represent their school. I'm told Pierce carried himself with confidence and his usual good nature.
Pierce holding his manuscript.
Pierce and Anna - ain't they cute.
Pierce meets the author of a book promoting children's writing
Pierce with the other young writers in the district.
-Eric (Dad)
Pierce holding his manuscript.
Pierce and Anna - ain't they cute.
Pierce meets the author of a book promoting children's writing
Pierce with the other young writers in the district.
-Eric (Dad)
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