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(Be a Scientist...)
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July 17, 2009
We left Grand Forks on Thursday, July 16. After plane changes in Minneapolis and Detroit we arrived in Shanghai (Friday night) where we
spent two nights in a hotel. We are fairly close to downtown and here is the view from our hotel room.
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July 18, 2009
On Saturday we went downtown to see what there was to see. The most obvious landmarks are the tallbuildings (Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Jin
Mao and Shanghai World Financial Center). The right image is a closer-up of the Jin Mao and Shanghai World Financial Center (second tallest
building in the world).
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Since the Bund (a well-known river walk area) was closed for construction for the Shanghia 2010 World Expo, we headed into the shopping area
near Old Town. Last time we were in China, few knew of the eclipse. But, this time, at least some people will know about the eclipse!
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From there we made it across the river via subway to the financial district and went up to the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center.
Here are Tim and I at the 100 floor level.
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Here some pictures from 100 floor observatory. Looking towards our hotel and looking over the Jin Mao building towards Old Town.
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More pictures from the 100 floor observatory. Looking towards the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and a zoomed-in image of Old Town.
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Finally, after 12+ hours of walking around we headed back to the hotel (by foot - only a few miles). We walked along the river as long as
possible and I took this photo of the river traffic (looking towards Old Town). Here's Tim along the river (looking away from Old Town).
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July 19, 2009
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We traveled to Wuhan (referred to as the furnace of China - it's hot here) to prepare for the webcast. Wuhan, which is on the Yangtze River,
is the third largest city in China and much of it used to be rural; so when you drive in from the airport is it a mix of modern
construction, wetlands and (classic Chinese) rural communities. Also, being on the Yangtze River, Wuhan consists of pockets of construction
nestled between rivers, lakes and swamps.
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We decided to visit a popular shopping area in hope of finding something good for dinner (we did). Here are two views of that shopping area
(referred to as "Walking Street") in Wuhan.
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Since it is so hot here in the summer, nighttime is a popular time to do things (like exercise). Also, Wuhan is not unlike many big cities
overflowing with garbage, especially around "noodle joints" (I only report what we see; if you want the sugar-coated version of this blog -
goto DisneyLand).
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After dinner, we wandered around the area looking for the river. After walking through a seedy part of town we did find the Yangtze River
and walked along it back towards our hotel (turned out to be a much longer walk than we though and finally got a taxi!). Anyway, I suspect
that due to the heat, the river is a popular place also (even after dark). Here is a riverboat all lit up and people swimming all along the
very long beach area. The riverfront is very nice with plenty of police patrols, Karaoke activities, swimmers, etc, etc.
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July 20, 2009
We drove out to the Wuhan Bioengineering Institute to check things out (location, Internet bandwidth, etc). Fortunately, Rick Brown (who is
affiliated with "Eclipse Chasers") arranged for an interpreter (Phillip) to go with us. Here we are having lunch at the institute with the
interpreter and a network engineer he brought along to help work out any Internet bugs.
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Here's Tim sweltering (left) under the Wuhan Sun (right) in 97 degree humidity setting up and testing the telescopes. Where was I, you ask?
I was sitting at a desk (in the shade) all day testing the bandwidth and streams and I don't mind saying that it was hard work too.
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When we got back to our hotel, we headed back down to the "Walking Street" and River front. This time, we got adventurous and took the city
bus. Here are two views of the "colonial area" (this was an early shipping point for tea and silk) along the river.
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Here is a distant view of one of the bridges that cross the Yangtze River. The river is very wide and there are only a handful of
bridges/tunnels that connect the two sides and since Wuhan metro population is something like 9 million, traffic here is horrible!
The left photo is of a kite, or rather a string of little kites all tied together. Pretty cool.
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Here I am trying to take a picture of the bridge using the "night mode" of my camera. As usual, there are a lot of the locals staring at us
trying to figure out what we were doing.
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Here's something you don't see everyday a double decker bus with sleeping compartments (upper deck). Finally, they're everywhere.
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July 21, 2009
We moved our operation to the Wuhan Bioengineering Institute for the night (we will return to Wuhan proper), so there isn't much to report.
By the way. If you think we spent the day cooling off in the pool, we didn't (there isn't one - otherwise we may have). We spent the day
doing more testing in the UN-AIRCONDITIONED Tea Room.
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July 22, 2009
The big day came and went with a whimper due to clouds which obscured the totality and the huge number of people (about 250,000 in 2 hours)
who tried to log in and watch (which froze the web server). Here is the crowd at the Institute.
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After the eclipse and lunch we headed back to Wuhan proper and our old hotel. From there we did a little sightseeing. Here are two views of
the Yellow Crane Tower, which was first built in 223 CE. |
The view from the top of the tower was fantastic. Here some views of Wuhan.
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The view from the top of the tower was fantastic. Here some more views of Wuhan.
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Due to the heavy traffic, we could not get a taxi back across the Yangtze River to our hotel so we took a ferry boat (like the one on the
left) across and here are some of the locals wondering what 2 Americans are doing on such a rust-bucket.
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Here is a look down the Yangtze River from the ferry.
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July 22, 2009
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All we managed to do today was travel (by air) from Wuhan back to Shanghai, check into our hotel and get something to eat.
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