Carter China Trip 2001

On Monday I went to the Opening Ceremony in the neighboring Conference Center. It was great to see friends from many places, including Horst, my German buddy on the Siberia trip in 1998. After the close I started to hear the intestinal rumbles of Mao’s Revenge. I hurried back to the room and took care of matters. I popped some pills and things settled down. I then went back to the conference and toured the map exhibit in a very hot room.

In the evening I went to the reception with plenty of goodies to eat. Liu Zhen appeared and I had to recall another person from the past. She spent a year at Illinois State University a few years ago and we got to know each other at that time. She went back to China in the late 1990’s. At the Stockholm ICA Conference in 1997 one of her colleagues brought me a rolled Chinese painting that is hanging in my living room. I had a good visit with her and her colleagues, but I was not feeling great.

Back in the room I needed to take another magic pill. I then called Jane, a colleague who used to teach at ISU with me. Jane now works in China and I corresponded with her before going. Jane brings groups to China and for this reason has a web page advising potential visitors. I consulted this page as I prepared to go. Based on her advice I got my Hepatitis A shot and updated my vaccinations. I even brought two hypodermic needles in case they ever needed to draw blood, because they do not always have clean needles in China.

Jane and I made plans to get together for dinner later in the week, along with her precocious and delightful daughter Emily. She said she would pick me up at the hotel, just watch for her Jeep. When I mentioned that I was having internal problems she told me to take my antibiotic. Based on her advice, I had my doctor write a prescription for an antibiotic. I started taking the pills that night. The next morning I had a little discomfort but that was it. I am pleased to say I had no more problems for the rest of the trip and that helped to make this a very good trip. Earlier in the year a group from ISU came to China and a number of them got quite sick. It can happen even though most of our group fared quite well.

Tuesday was spent at the conference where I heard some good papers and attended some meetings. I took some photos from the hotel and conference center. This is near a big sports complex and the 2008 Olympics will be nearby. There is a large grassy park across from the hotel but I never saw anyone there. I went out to explore this and found a cable is buried in the hedge around the park. At the far end of the park there is an entrance and come walkways among some bushes. But there are signs on the grassy areas but no people. I couldn’t read the signs but I know they tell us to Keep Off the Grass. I was willing to comply.

I had a piece of Dominos Pizza, complete with green peas on the top. It was quite tasty. I then went next door to the Recreation Center to use the Internet Café. The Center had the following: Dairy Queen, archery gallery, bowling alley, swimming pool, miniature golf, electronic games galore and many shops. Outside the Café was an automated ping-pong table, which continuously served balls to be hit back. I visited the Internet Café many times, as did many others from the conference.

As I walked into the hotel there was an old friend Manik from Seoul, South Korea. The last time I saw him was when he and his family visited us in Illinois eight or more years ago. We spent more than an hour chatting in the lobby. He was here in part to invite the ICA to hold their meeting in Seoul in 2005. (He didn't prevail for the 2005 Conference will be in Spain.)