Getting ready for China

The whole family is getting ready for our upcoming 3-month stay in China. (Click here to read more.) We expected to fly out around August 30. We'll be living (and I'll be working) in Hangzhou (here is a map), which is a few hours from Shanghai by train. Hangzhou is a city of about 6 million people and it's a popular tourist destination for the Chinese. By all accounts, it's a beautiful city. Our apartment will be within easy walking distance to the BoldTech office where I'll be working.

China has a week-long holiday, National Day, on October 1-7. It sounds like an extended version of Thanksgiving; most businesses are closed, people typically travel home to see their families, and hotels and transport are hard to come by. Unlike the Chinese new year celebration, however, there doesn't seem to be any interesting cultural events happening during National Day. Maybe this will be a good time to leave the country? We're thinking about Thailand, Bhutan, or Mongolia. Since our multiple-entry visas stipulate that we can stay in the country for a maximum of 30 days (possibly 60, there's still some confusion over this), we're going to need to leave China and come back sometime during our trip, anyway.

For now, I'm working with the client in Boulder, on the Pearl Street mall. Pretty cool place to work.