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?