After a long flight to Beijing (13 hours) through LAX, I arrived on Monday morning, and checked into the hotel.  I had left Denver on Saturday evening around 7 p.m., and so I tried to take a short nap.  But I had to get up for a dinner engagement, and it seemed wise not to sleep too much.  So I got up and walked a few blocks to Tiananmen Square.  This picture was taken by Jenny Zhang, who works for Lexis in NY, and had come along on the trip to be my translator and guide.  Behind me is the iconic picture of Chairman Mao, which looks out on Tiananmen Square.  It is on the first gate into the Forbidden City.

The conference itself was very interesting and enjoyable.  I learned a lot from my colleagues in China.  Both days featured lovely lunches served on a large glass lazy susan containing over a dozen dishes. 

When the conference was over, I had two days for sightseeing.  I went to the Forbidden City and Behai Park, and had dinner overlooking a lake near the park.   And I went to the Great Wall, and visited the Ming Tomb.  On my last day in Beijing, I took a bicycle rickshaw tour of the Hutong neighborhoods - what old Beijing looked like over 700 years ago.  I also went to 798, a community of galleries and studies for modern artists that is housed in a series of defunct factory buildings.