First Post

Here is another attempt to document some of what is happening around me in Beijing. This time I found my motivation through a guy name Raj that I had shared a few beers with at my girlfriends bar in Northwest Beijing. He and his companion had travelled to Beijing from Silicon valley to meet their Chinese counterparts in a joint venture that included Qinghua University and numerous Chinese government organs. Their work on semiconductors (shown on http://www.legendsilicon.com/) is more advanced than the system we have in the US. Before the Olympics, these high-tech chips will be in all of the HDTVs, car screens, and handheld TVs in Beijing and soon after will expand into the provinces. Besides higher definition, the broadcasting is free - what a deal. I think Americans with their lobbyists and neo-cons are too satisfied with the status quo, and before we even know it, we will be nipping at the heels of China's and India's technological infrastructure, green energy market and stem-cell research.

And the cell phones here are way cooler! Anyway, that was my first post, lets see if I have the time to write a second.







(Pics: Top - The China Mobile Headquarters in Beijing, boasts over 450 million users; Bottom - Zhongguancun Software Park, houses hundreds of R&D centers)