I travelled to Beijing this past week for the Agile China conference where I did a talk on our latest product offering. The experience was fantastic. It was my first time in China and I was able to meet all of my wonderful colleagues from this amazing country.
I got sick the day before I left, and by the time that I landed in Beijing, I had lost my voice. Luckily, Yabin told me about this amazing Chinese medicine called Hou Xiang Zheng Qi Shui (in Pinyin minus tones). It came in little wax bottles and smelled god awful, but within a day, I felt better. It was like magic. I had half of my voice left by Saturday (day of the conference), but my colleague Zheng told me that I sounded sexy, so I was not afraid. All in all, the conference was fantastic, as I was able to meet all sorts of wonderful software developers from Beijing.
As I scrambled to figure out how I could pack some tourist fun into my trip, I learned that the Great Wall was only 30 minutes from the city. So, on my 33rd birthday, we managed to make our way to the Wall (see pic below). It is big. And awesome. And hard to climb. But it was great.
Here I am on the Great Wall of China
Other highlights of the trip included the trip to the Ming Tombs, seeing Tiananmen Square in person, eating at King Duck, seeing Chinese folk musicians in the subway, wandering the alleys and shores of Hou Hai, watching the Venti coffee come to a Beijing Starbucks even though the day before the biggest size they had was Grande, eating awesome Yunan food, and drinking yak butter tea and a great Tibetan restaurant.
I am looking forward to heading back to Beijing this fall. It is a fantastic city that feels like it’s about to become a great deal more exciting.