Blogging from Beijing this week.

Here for a Global Partner Engineering Operations Review. My second time to Beijing. Very cold this time, highs are 40 F and the lows are in the mid-teens. Air quality is bad. Perhaps an inversion layer. Taxi drivers are warning us about the air. Also the Avian flu is apparently spreading through Asia, seems to be a bit of concern about it now. More than the usual.

On the positive side though, the food is always good here - interesting and sometimes a challenge, but good.

We found a seafood restaurant last night where you pick the live *whatever* from the tank and have it cooked up to your specs. Huge lobsters, crabs of all sizes (from huge to small and all kinds), geoducks, scallops, prawns, abalone, oysters, whelks, big fish, little fish, flat fish, sea urchins, things I didn't recognize.... - all live of course because fresh is everything here.

Traveling with 3 Europeans - fortunately the restaurant manager knew some english and we know how to point! I actually do know the word for white rice (bi-fun) which came in handy as - unlike the US - its not assumed that you want rice and rice is kind of a southern thing and this is northern China.

So we had an interesting meal, all very good, but we were never quite sure what was coming or how, so very exciting when it showed up. A bit more pricey than we planned as those giant crabs come at a premium, but very good.

Staying at the Beijing Marriott. "Working from Home" - looking at some giant TV tower (I assume) outside my window. Lots of construction going on for the Olympics. Not sure how they are going to deal with the pollution though. More later.