Return from China

Well, back from China this morning. I am still very tired, but have begun the process of catching up on domestic issues.

This was an incredibly packed trip. Just as an example, in our last full day in Beijing we drove to and then walked up one part of the Great Wall, visited the Olympic site, went to a silk market and then a little later took our Chinese hosts out to dinner. Then we did some late night shopping.

Switching the TV on on our return to the hotel, we found in breaking news that a bombing had just occurred in Islamabad and sat there watching the fire engulf the hotel in real time. Not really the type of thing to watch just before going to bed.

There is so much to write about and across several blogs. For someone like me who is fascinated by the way societies work, this was a great trip. I found it especially useful in taking me outside my immediate Australian pre-occupations.

I am not sure that my observations and conclusions are very profound. However, they are interesting to me. So I am going to spend the next couple of days writing things down before they all blur together in my memory.

Postscript

One thing that was nice while I was away were the number of comments I received on various posts. I tried to respond, but I found it a little difficult because of the combination of time pressures and internet access. I will do so properly over the next day or so.