I visited China twice in 2009. First visit was in July when I attended the International Conference in Hydrometallurgy which was held in Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province. The conference was held in a newly built hotel, Qinhe Jinjiang International Hotel. Mom and I visited Zhangjiajie in 2007 as a part of tour to China. In the past two years, the progress they have made in infrastructure of this tourist place is phenomenal. They have paved the road exceptionally well and there are a lot more four- five star hotels now than before. Zgangjajie offers most beautiful mountain scenes; many say a lot better than those of Kum-kang Mountain in North Korea. The scenery of Kum-kang Mountain is very much the same as that of Sul-ak Mountain of South Korea but it is much bigger in scale.
My second visit occurred in October but this time to Beijing by an invitation from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The following shows some of the memorable photos taken during these visits.
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October 15, 2009
Dear Children,
As you know, I have been to Beijing, China, and just got back. This is my second visit to Beijing, the capital and largest city in China. There have been remarkable changes in the size of the city, the number of cars on the street, and also the number and size of buildings. It was apparent that the Olympics held last year had helped the city grow. When we visited Beijing in 1996, there were a lot more bicycles than cars, but now there are so many cars running in the city and the traffic is too chaotic and driving is unsafe, worse than Seoul. However, the city is cleaner than before, and there are more restaurants and entertainment centers all around the city.
Dr. Hao Du was one of very good students in our Department when I was the head of the Department. He took a couple of courses under my direction. I remember that he was one of the best students in the class. After finishing his M.S. degree under the supervision of Jon Kellar, he went to the University of Utah where he finished his Ph.D. degree. Unlike the most of the Chinese students there, he came back to China to take up a position of assistant professor at one of the very best universities, the Chinese Academy of Sciences. I met him at a conference I attended in July this year. He invited me to come over to his Institute and give a couple of seminars. I suggested that Dr. Kim should come along and try to have joint research projects with him or his group.
First day, we spent the whole day on seminars and a long discussion on various topics in our area. At their request, I gave two lectures, one on “how hydrometallurgy is used to recover metals from scrap,” and another on “how hydrometallurgy is used to make nano-particles.” There were about 50-60 students in the audience and they liked my lectures and the Head of the Department later asked me to serve as an honorary professor and come there to give some lectures in the future. We had lamb chops, frog legs, and mostly pork but not very exhaustive dishes and Dr. Kim was disappointed. He was looking for stuff he couldn’t have elsewhere like roast bugs, but not this time.
There is a good chance that our research center and their Institute will have a number of joint research topics in the future but this will come later. One of the first things we will launch will be accepting their post-doctors working at our research center in Seoul. Since Dr. Kim is in charge of the center, he will figure out something, I am sure. The Korean Government encourages any joint work with other countries, especially with China, which is growing faster than any other countries at the moment.
Next day, they offered us a great sight-seeing, visiting the forbidden city, the temple of heaven and the summer palace. I offered them a Korean dinner at one of the Korean restaurants located in the hotel we stayed. Everything was relatively cheap compared to the prices in Korea. For example, the price of the dinner we had was about one third of that in Seoul. Attached are a couple of photos we took mostly on the second day.
Fall is getting its full strength here in Seoul and pretty colors start appearing everywhere. This is the best season for me, and Mom and I will enjoy the season to the fullest possible. We have stayed here for a month and half already, and it won’t be long before we have to get ready to pack up and head for our home.
With regard to my hip-problem, I feel much better since I have stopped to work out rigorously. I am convinced that the muscles near the hips got stressed due to hard work-out I exercised recently.
Love Dad.
The following photos were taken during the July visit to Zhangjiajie.
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