Once again, Brian the snooty world traveler, was able to get “back of the bus Tom” into a nice lounge. My personal opinion is it’s not as good as the one in Chicago, but who am I to complain. Free food and drinks, and free wireless internet. 

Our flight leaves in about an hour and there’s not reason to think it will be delayed at this time. 

Apparently not too many people know this spacious lounge is here. There were more staff members then travelers. This is just ONE section that I didn’t realize was there until we were ready to leave. 

Today will probably be another long edit day, but it is the last day here so no matter what we’re done after today. I’ve been gone on trips longer then this, but for some reason this one just seems a lot longer. I’m pretty home sick and looking forward to returning to Chicago tomorrow. 

You can find the most recent photos added to SmugMug. The guy second from the left seriously thinks you need to check them out. Don’t make him mad. 

Does Jim actually do it?  You’ll have to find out for yourself.  

I actually was not part of this little excursion, but Brian went along and recorded it with his little digital camera. The quality is a bit low, but it’s still good enough to make your stomach turn. 

Blizzard.

How do you write “Take me to the Apple Store” in Chinese? Well, I can’t tell you how but I can show you. The card was prepared by the front desk of the hotel so that I could just give it to the cab driver and he would know where to take me. None of the cab drivers here have spoken even the most basic english, so this was very helpful.

Then, I found this helpful iPhone app that lets you do the same thing with your iPhone. It’s called “Beijing Taxi Guide” This is the exact same message, but create by the iPhone. Pretty cool!

Once there, I picked up the few things I needed for the job and headed back. It was about a 15 minute cab ride form the hotel, so I was able to get a nice view of some other neighborhoods. Where we are staying is clearly the more expensive part of town. 

This photo was created from 20 different photos, moving from left to right as I was shooting. They were then stitched together in Photoshop CS3. You can see the full size version on Flickr. 

This is the view from the edit suite where I’m working. The edit suite is just a dedicated hotel room.

Today is the first seriously busy day of the job. The show has officially started and the tapes are starting to come in fast. Our job is to take about 6-8 hours of a recorded conference and boil it down to a 10 minute “best of” highlights video. As soon as it’s done it gets uploaded to a web server so that people who could not attend the conference are able to see at least some of what they missed. 

Since there was a chance of dealing with clients more today (which has not actually happened) I decided to dress up. Dressing up involved wearing exactly the same thing as the last 2 days (jeans and a t-shirt) and adding a jacket to the mix. So kind of a fake dress up. 

While the first day was a nice reset/sight seeing day, the rest of the week and weekend is all work. 

I have a small setup this time, but it’s more then enough to get the job done in quick order. I have a separate room that’s being used just for the edit suite. 

Going up.

Coming down.

Today was an all day event to get to and from the Great Wall. It is about 50 miles outside the city, but it was a 2 hour cab ride each way (in part because our cab driver kept getting lost) and we spent about 3 hours walking the Great Wall, taking photos and having lunch. 

More photos can be found on Flickr.

Walking the great wall right now.

http://tinyurl.com/5ayrsa http://twitpic.com/bs9u

This is our hotel, although the photo was taken several hours after we arrived (it was about 4pm when we actually checked in. 

The hotel is very nice, the rooms are nice and the bathroom is awesome! All marble floor and counter, as well as a standalone marble shower.

Landed in Beijing China.

http://tinyurl.com/6j673o

http://tinyurl.com/5d9lzv

We made it through checkin and security very fast (total time was probably 20 minutes). My cases were not opened by security and ravaged like they normally are, so that was nice. That’s the part that normally stresses me out is watching them unpack my cases and man-handle everything. 

Because I’m traveling with Brian (a snooty global multi-country traveler) he was able to get me into the fancy “Red Carpet Club” that’s kind of like a high end, exclusive coffee shop where everything is free. The seats are very comfortable and cushy, and every seat has it’s own power outlet for using your computer. Oh, and there’s free wireless internet too. 

So, not a bad start to the trip! Our flight is scheduled to depart at 12:30 and even though there is a lot of rain still it’s on time without any delays. 

Being the nerd that I am, I have my 20 pocket vest on, which includes a digital camera, 2 ipods, iphone, extra battery for iphone, magazines, amazon kindle, and headphones – all charged and loaded with many selections. So should be more then set to kill the time.