Been a while i know...

Hello! Been awhile I know. I should call more often, but really not much news to share.

For those of you who don’t follow news much, you might not be aware that my colleague and partner in this little adventure of China has decided to ply his trade with the other private network. The good news is he still works in Beijing so I still have a good friend here. Best of luck Ben, and look forward to working with you again soon my friend. Thanks for bringing me along on this Asian experience.

Now as to what I’ve been up to? Not much. After the GG was here Ben let if out that he was leaving. So two weeks later I was home for couple weeks of holiday. Some fishing, but not nearly enough. Got re-acquainted with my dog, my wife, and my family. At the end of it, there was a little retreat and party for the out going Kevin Newman. Doesn’t seem like a nine year run, but it has been that long. From the beginning of September, 2001 to now. Covered a lot of air miles in that space of time and some interesting stories as well. I can’t thank him enough either. Without Global National with Kevin Newman, I’m not sure where the road would have taken me.

Now for the new guy, Jas Johal. Jas has been Gnat’s India correspondent, so he is no stranger to news and working on a shoestring. Looking forward to the Chinese giving him his Visa soon. So I’ve spent the last 6 weeks or so sorting out internet problems and keeping a low profile.

Late September, my wonderful and patient wife Maggi came for a visit. Went down to Xi’An to see the Terracotta Warriors. The overnight train was a interesting adventure. The length of China’s history is pretty cool and to see this place was fascinating. We also hit the Lama Temple here in Beijing and saw the Monks at work. The chanting is pretty cool. Also went out to the summer palace, another beautiful spot full of history.

Heading out soon a quick little overnight trip about fertilizer and potash. Will try and remember my still camera and hopefully will do a little better in keeping this up to date. For now enjoy a few pictures.

Governor General Visit

The GG was in town early July so Ben, Fan Di, Sean from CTV and I where the pool for it. Got to see the pandas, tour a garment factory and spend may days sweating in high humidity and and heat. Also toured a rebuilt school in Sichaun.

Most of these pictures come from Fan Di. the Video is below for you oh and ah over. Still not sure if panda is tasty though.

Shanghai PJ's

A while back Ben Fan Di and I traveled to Shanghai for the opening of Expo. One of the stories we did was about PJ's. Seems a long time ago wearing your bed cloths out to do your shopping was considered a sign you where wealthy and had leisure time. For expo there was a big push to knock that off. Didn't seem to have much effect on the locals. Athough when we stopped people to talk to them they weren't thrilled to be seen on TV in their PJ's. Pictures are courtesy the fabulous Fan Di.

Lightening

Was able to capture some cool shots of lightening with the video camera.

Here are a couple of stills and a slow motion of the strikes.

Yurts so good...

Not much new since the little Thailand episode. Glad that's over with and in no rush to repeat it.

Most recently had to work a weekend and Fan Di, Ben and I headed up to Angula Lake. About 5 hours drive from Beijing into Hebei, towards Inner Mongolia. Actually it is part of the Mongolian plateau. What makes this lake interesting is that although it is still on the map, it dried up six years ago. We spoke to some locals who remember fishing and enjoying the lake as well as making some money on the tourism side. WIll post the story once it has aired. Also had the fun of staying in a yurt. See pictures above.

As an aside, I work in a very strange business. So i'm in the middle of nowhere with Ben, but the weekend show decides that they can't live without Ben filing Kyrgyzstan. Ethnic violence and TV are a match made for each other. Not that Ben and I are going there, just file'er from where you're at. Now since Ben and I are literally in the middle of nowhere this presents what I would call a technical challenge. So it's 10 pm, the power is out do to an electrical storm, and I'm fair away from 3g cell service. So Ben writes said item and my resources producer suggests phoning it in. Not a bad idea, but one better. Send it as a voice note. Seems our blackberries can send voice note. So out comes the ipod mic/earphone combo and viola, TV. A medium as it is rarely done well. So from a Yurt in the middle of China, we bypass thousands of dollars of TV gear and file the voice track for a story on Kyrgyzstan. Done in the middle of a power failure in an electrical storm. Was a very strange night.

Also managed to lift a still from the video that caught a bolt of lightning. Pretty cool. Was a wicked storm over night. Made the yurt experience that much more interesting.

THAILAND MAY 19TH

Wednesday May 19th

Inner Mongolia

Here are some stills from Inner Mongolia. We are about 800 to 900 km East of Beijing. It's in the South West corner of Inner Mongolia. Ordos is the city where we stayed, but we drove in to the desert to get some element for the Cashmere Goat story that I will post once it has run.

The new member of our team here in Beijing is Fan Di. She has taken the job of our bureau producer. You may remember Qi, well he left us for a job at Global Times as a reporter. He will be missed, but Fan Di is a great addition for us as she has worked for Aljazzera TV and for the McClatchy Paper Group, so she comes with a lot of experience.

For the Goat story Ben and I wound up chasing, or herding the goats for the most part of an hour to get one On Camera. Oh and it was also in the middle of a snow storm.

Was still nice to get out and on the road for a few days. They other adventure was that the Hotel we had booked into didn't take foreigners. Seems they would get in trouble if they got caught renting to rooms to anyone but Chinese. We did stay one night with them but we where quickly forced to move to another hotel. Kind of odd but it's China so nothing should strike me as strange anymore.

The older women in the photo is a former herder. She now pens her goats and lives more or less right beside them. We where the first foreigners she had ever met. She was also the first goat keeper I'd ever met so there you go.

My thanks to Fan Di for the pictures that appear in part of this post!