Recollections

Sometimes a great trip is best remembered by a series of simple statements of recollection:


Carrie, flustered from the failure of two alarm clocks and one cell phone.


Being crammed into center seats in cattle class.


The stark and alarming news that Northwest charges for drinks on international flights.

The total intermingling of religion and commerce....a shrine to Buddha sitting next to a gift shop...monks in orange robes marching past gift shops.

The thrill of asking for hot peppers in Mandarin and having them magically appear at the table.

Dark, bitter greens, stir-fried to perfection with garlic -- breakfast, lunch, dinner.

The "oldness" of that country, as evidenced by its jade, silk, porcelain, and coins -- so much older than anything we know in the US.

Mr. Won, the ninja bus driver, delicately weaving a 20-foot bus through traffic as if it were a VW beetle. Sitting there, mute, with those Matrix sunglasses on. Awesome, man....awesome.

The first awe-struck view of downtown Shanghai, with a TV tower that looks like something from a science fiction novel.

A rambling walk on a soft, sunny afternoon, by the downtown waterfront...cold beer served on the river-facing, sun-drenched terrace of an upscale little cafe...a sudden feeling of being so damned cosmopolitan.

The sweet, raucous chatter of too many students crammed into one hotel room, digesting the day.

The sheer scale of the Red Gold Leaf mill, and the first peek at a world-class tissue maching operating in a spotless setting.

Food, in an endless stream -- dish after dish after dish, stacked on top of each other. An ocean of food. Every plant and animal species.

Pijou. Pijou. Bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing.

The look on Mandy's face when Dr. Chang tells us it's pig ear.

A world-class day in Nanjing -- sunny, soft, and perfect.

Running in the lakefront park in Nanjing early one morning, dodging an array of old folks practicing tai chi, muttering loudly to themselves, walking backwards, taking their pet birds for a walk, playing with giant yo-yo's, flying kites. Children again? Sweating and marvelling at the same time, thinking "I must never forget this moment."

The look on our students' faces when they starting talking to the students at NFU...the buzz in that room...and the realization "they're like we are."

A lunch that seemed more like a dream than reality -- 22 courses, covering every single part of the animal kingdom. A cooked bullfrog. Fish after fish after fish. Hospitality taken to a higher power.

A sense of exhiliration, climbing the 1000 steps to the top of the Sun Yat-sen tomb for a wonderful view of the city -- and the sudden crystallization of our group spirit.

Stinky, smelly tofu. Man. Man, oh man.

A view of a brand new paper machine, making coated free sheet at 6600 feet/minute -- a peek at the future.

The devilish smile on Roy Wang's face (NCSU alum working at APP) as he served up ice-cold tall boy cans of Nanjing beer at lunch.

The increasingly-strained, increasingly-higher-pitched voice of Joel as he pleaded with Dr. Chang to stop the bus at a rest area.

Filling bottles.

Three parallel looks of student befuddlement -- one when they saw the buffet at the truck stop, one when they had to go around back to get hot water for noodles, one when they emerged from the toilet. Priceless.

Jesse buying a 3-foot samarai sword...and an overwhelming feeling of wanting to use it on him.

KTV. Wow.

Keith at KTV. Wow.

Tabitha after KTV. Wow.

Grant, mixing Moutai and Coke.

Saving "bumf."

Pijou. Bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing.

DeathBus 3000. Hot, cramped, and totally confused. 3-foot visibility, an endless stream of trucks, and the sinking feeling that we made a mistake.

The smell of 25 people incubating in a hot bus.

Grant, cramping.

What seems like a dream...a rest stop at 3 am...dark and populated with unlit and unknown people....begging for water....the mind-boggling stench of that toilet.

Looking over at Hunter at sunrise on DeathBus 3000, watching a stream of drool slide out of his mouth, and thinking "why did I put my camera up?"

A total sense of re-birth after exiting DeathBus 3000 and taking a scalding hot shower. Ready for anything in Beijing. Bring it on.

A soggy, cold trek through Tiannemen Square and the Forbidden City. Wet feet. Water, like crystals, in my eyelashes.

Carrie, falling off of the wet bus steps and into a puddle...getting up, crying and laughing at the same time.

Rebellion in the ranks. Quelled by shopping.

A misty morning at the Great Wall. A seemingly endless climb into the clouds. With each step up, my spirit rises with the altitude.

Unmitigated joy at watching a group of 22-year olds perched on top of the guard tower at the top of the Wall, yelling and celebrating. Top of the world.

Our final 10-course, lazy susan meal, bookending the trip...and the bittersweet realization that it's coming to an end.

Dreading another tourist activity, but instead being treated to a sensory overload of color, music, pageantry, skill, strength, and wonder. Wow.

Pijou. Pijou. Bing bing bing bing bing bing.

Epilogue

I would be lying if I said I was not apprehensive about this trip when we started. Accompanying 22 students -- some of whom had never traveled at all -- on a trip to Asia is a considerable undertaking. But now that we have returned, I feel something different -- excitement. satisfaction, pride, and hope.

It was a joy to watch these students respond to all of the different and diverse aspects of China, this great and growing giant of a country. With each exposure to China's people, culture, history, food, and industry, I saw the students open up, take it in, and learn from it. In the face of challenging situations, our students showed unerstanding, patience, strength and flexiblity. That is a wonderful thing.

I have always believed that travel is good for you. Travel makes you a better person -- once you travel to other places, meet other people with ways different than (and similar to) your own, and realize that your own country is NOT at the center of the universe, then you necessarily have to become a better person. More understanding....more open-minded...more compassionate.... more aware of how great our world really is...and more likely to help protect the people and resources of the world.

Students of the first iteration of the Paper International Experience -- I cannot tell you how proud I am of what you have done. I know that, in some ways small and large, you will never be the same. I know that I never will.

Homeward Bound

On our last day, we had to get up quite early for a 9 am flight home. I think everybody was ready to go.



This very bad photo (my camera's flash is weak) shows half of our group back at RDU....sticky, tired, and very happy to be home.

The other half of our group went on to Xian.

WHAT A TRIP...WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY!

Day 11 Redemption....In Beijing

After the DeathBus 3000 ride and a soggy first day in Beijing, what the group needed was redemption and rejuvenation. We found it at the Great Wall.

The rain had stopped, and in its wake, we saw a Beijing I have never seen before -- clean, fresh, and cool. There was a bit of mist in the air. It turned out to be the perfect weather for climing the Great Wall.

We went to a very vertical, rugged section just outside of Beijing.

This is our group at the base of the wall. Look at those smiles. You can see the wall rising in the background -- but what you can't see is how far it goes on. Ignorance is bliss, because the climb goes on forever, rising up and (as it turned out) over the cloud line.

Here's a look back, early in the climb. Note -- this is far, far, far from the top!

We lost some of our party early. Andy and Joey trudged on. Dr. Byrd was getting increasingly sweaty.

At each landing, there were guard towers -- a great place to pretend to be contemplative while actually catching your breath.

The closer we got to the top, the more excited everyone became.

This is still not the top, but it's close. Look down the mountain -- far, far down. That's where we started.

At the last landing prior to the top, I stopped for this self-serving photo. Note that we are actually IN the clouds.

About half of our group reached the top. Not content with that accomplishment, some of them climbed up on top of the guard tower roof, and we shot this photo. LOOK AT THOSE SMILES!!!! These guys are on top of the world -- literally and figuratively.

Sweaty, thirsty, and totally exhilirated, we next went to lunch. And then, the Ming tombs.


The basic Ming tomb structure is a series of gates and courtyards, leading to a large mound of earth under which the emperor, his wife, and his concubines were buried. The last tower is called the Soul Tower, shown here.

Answering student cries and complaints, our guide agreed to take us back into the city to a "free market" -- one not associated with a tour-agency-sponsored trap. On the way, she had the driver pass by the Olympic Stadium, still under construction. Here is it -- breathtaking. It looks like a giant stainless steel bowl that someone attacked with a carving knife.




Shopping in this large indoor market was a treat. A few of the girls found the knock-off stores (Polo, in particular) and went into a mouth-foaming frenzy of buying. The guys bought "North Face" jackets for $20. We had to drag them out of there in order to stay on schedule for dinner.



We realized that this was our last multi-course lazy susan meal. Sort of bittersweet....











Our last activity was a trip to an acrobat show. Some of the group groaned about this, fearing another tourist trap activity -- but it was spectacular. Full of color, music, and mind-blowing feats of balance, strength, and coordination.







What a day. Redemption obtained.

Day 10 Soggy in Beijing

After a pretty horrible day of cancelled plane flights and endless bus rides, we deserved a nice afternoon in Beijing. We did not get it....the cold front brought with it a steady, dreaching rain. Great for parched Beijinig -- bad for tourism.

This is our guide Lilly. She was a pretty "standard" guide for China, talking in rapid-speak (like a machine gun) and always pushing and prodding us to the next venue. Some students developed a bad attitude about her rushed demeanor, but I think eventually they realized that she was trying to extract maximum benefit from a minimum amount of time.

After our post-DeathBus 3000 tour, students were given 2.5 hours to "freshen up." Our first stop was lunch, another lazy susan meal at the venue shown by these ladies.

We were able to round up umbrellas from the hotel and local vendors. But it did not matter...we were as wet as dogs when we landed onto Tiannamen Square, shown here.

Here's our group photo on Tianneman Square, with the wall of the Foribidden City gate shown in the background. Lots of soggy shoes.

This was that strained, "I've got wet underthings" sort of moment.

The Forbidden City is a huge city-within-a-city in Beijing, constructed by the later emperors as a place of private residence. It is 1 km in length.

Day 9 1. Fog from Hell 2. DeathBus 3000

On any international trip, there is "that day." You know - the day where nothing goes according to plan. Lost passports, cancelled flights, abductions -- it ends up being the one day that you will never, ever forget. Today was that day!!!

On Day 9, we drove four hours (in that DAMN BUS!!!) from Tralin to Dawan, home of the Huatai newsprint mill. This mill uses 100 % deinked wastepaper to produce newsprint for domestic and international consumption. Amazing...they have one machine that is the largest and most modern newsprint machine in the world. 11.25 meters wide....running at 1600-2000 meters/min, dilution headbox, gap former, twin shoe presses. They are making 450,000 tons per year right now on one machine, but their target is 3,000,000 tons per year by 2010 on multiple machines. You could have eaten dinner off of their operating floor.

We were not permitted to take many photos. This is their anaerobic wastewater treatment system. They use a very advanced 4-stage system, which removes even color.

On the tour, they showed us their new employee housing on site. It was amazing -- looks like Cary condos...

Afterwards, of course, we had another 12-course lazy susan lunch, courtesy of the mill.

After lunch, we took another 2-hour ride on THAT DAMN BUS to the Jinan airport. This is a medium-sized airport in the Guangdong airport. We had an early-everning flight to Beijing. There was a 3-hour wait for our flight, so we amused ourselves as best we new how.

Cards, beer, and souvenir shopping. All was well. Little did we know that all was NOT well.

We were trying to find out what this "bumf" was and how we could save it to save the environment. We're still figuring...

Okay, so here's where it got bad. All day, as we drove on THAT DAMN BUS for hours and hours, we noticed a persistent fog all over the place. It did not feel like typical fog weather, so we assumed it was pollution. As the day wore on, the fog grew denser. What we did not know was that a cold front had moved in from Mongolia, creating an air inversion that was trapping all moisture, particulates, smoke, and pollution at ground level. As we waited for the plane to depart, the fog grew denser and denser. It became so prevalent that it entered the terminal and began to accumulate in the upper part.

Naturally, flying planes in dense fog is not a good idea. So they cancelled our flight about 30 minutes prior to departure. This left us in a strange situation -- Dr. Chang had already left by car to go to his next appointment. We had no one that knew Mandarin. We knew that waiting for the next day's flight would not be a sure thing -- what if the fog were still around the next morning? What if we lost an entire day of our limited 2-day Beijing tour? As the flight cancellations began to accumulate, the citizens in the airport began to yell, to scream, and to fight. Lou Boos and I began to worry -- how to keep our students out of harm's way? We struck up a converstation with a Chinese businessman standing at our gate. and he said that the train to Beijing was probably already full (people were streaming out of the airport toward the train station). Our only option was bus. ANOTHER DAMN BUS!!!!

We called Dr. Chang in distress. He contacted a local NCSU alum in the area, and -- by some miracle -- he was able to scratch up a tour bus and driver to take us to Beijing. Now THAT'S what I call influence....

Here's a photo of students waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for the bus. They were remarkably patient and good-humored, even though they knew that they were about to spend another 6 hours of time on another cramped tour bus, after being on one for 8 hours on the previous day and 4 hours today.

Well, we loaded up the bus (it was so small that we had to line luggage down the isle). And what transpired next was certainly the most harrowing, the most surprising, and honestly the most frightening part of the entire trip. It was surreal. The driver drove up to the toll gate leading onto the highway to Beijing - all lanes were showing CLOSED. They closed the highway? And that's when I thought to myself, "Hmm...if a plane can't fly because visibility is less than 3 feet, does that mean driving a bus is a good idea?" Then our bus driver took off at a crazy speed down some unlit side streets, through neighborhoods looking they were bombed, backing up when the road ended and finding another way through. What we found out, later, is that he was taking a short cut to the next entrance to the freeway. But I was a mess...the students were sleeping ( a defense mechanism, I think).

We finally got onto the freeway...and OH MY GOD it was a steady, endless stream of heavy trucks moving at about 35 miles per hour. You could not see anything around you. But our bus driver took up the charge, driving on the shoulder and median to thread his way around these slow-moving trucks. For those of us awake, it was like some bizarre video game. I will never forget it. We stopped at some unlit, scary rest area at 3 am, praying for water or soda. We found it, sold to us by a young girl who looked at us like we were aliens.

It took us about 8 hours to make the 6-hour drive to Beijing. As the sun began to rise, students began to stir and look out on the massiveness of the fog. We all realized that staying at the airport would have been a mistake. Our guide was waiting at the hotel, and we decided to give the students 3 hours of washing/sleeping time and drop two of the sights we had planned for the day.

My gosh, what an experience. I promise you that the students will never forget it, ever. We drove the equivalent distance between New York and Miami.

Day 8 -- Wheat Straw...and Song

On Day 8 of our trip, we visited the Tralin Mill, which is the largest mill in the world using wheat straw as a raw material. They are currently producing 600,000 tons per year of pulp, but their goal is to produce 2 million tons per year by 2010. Assisting them is Dr. Chang, who is helping them re-invent the wheat straw pulping process, to improve yield, drainage, and strength properties.

Here are our students in front of the new batch pulping line.

Dinner that night was hosted at the hotel by the mill. It was YET ANOTHER multi-course feast, with lots of tasty (and some challenging) dishes. The students recognized Dr. Chang's enormous contributions to setting up this trip by giving him a bottle of Scotch and an NC State pullover.







What happened after dinner can only be described as "karaoke madness." The basement of the hotel had a KTV, which is a famous Asian franchise that permits people to rent a private room with a dedicated karaoke machine. We did...and the results were racous, crazy, and a lot of fun.

These students appear to be screaming....

The ladies took over the microphone late in the game, permitting Carrie to lead the way to stardom.

This was an unholy alliance....are those sweat stains on that dress shirt?