Back from China and ready to start the fall marathon season in New York along with the usual list of conferences, MVP Summits and the like.
A very quick synopsis on China, well it was pretty cool. Got to experience communism first hand (and made me not take for granted the freedoms I have as an American) and see some amazing historical, religious and cultural areas. I met so many everyday Chinese people, very excited to practice their English talking with me for hours and exchanging views and ideas.
While I went to several places in China (Beijing, Datong, Dunhuang, Xi’am, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau), I have to say two places really stuck out for me.
First is the Great Wall. It lives up to its reputation. It is steep, vast and goes on and on and on. I kept climbing on up, seeing in the distance a watchtower and figured to myself “well this watchtower should be the last one, I can then view over the other side of the mountain.” Then when I got there, there were just more and more and more. A truly amazing experience.
Second is the Yungang Caves, just outside of Datong in the Shanxi Province. These caves were carved out of a mountain by Buddhists 1500 years ago (yes 1500) and are a very special place-it was a bit of a pilgrimage for me. Started in 450 AD, Yungang is a relic of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534). It is a combination of Chinese and Indian Gandhara Buddhist art. Chinese are not like the Buddhists in other parts of SouthEast Asia that are Theravada, the Chinese are Mahayana.
Anyway, I saw a ton of other great stuff, but don’t want to bore you all with the details. Time to get back to the Model View Controller Design pattern…..