Today was largely uneventful. I was 20 minutes late to breakfast because I couldn’t figure out how to work the alarm clock. Actually, there isn’t an alarm clock at all in the room, just a sophisticated lighting controller with a time display. I set the alarm on my Palm but that didn’t wake me from my slumber. I just downloaded an alarm clock for my PC from qlock.com. I set it to play the karaoke version Bust a Move by Young MC, so hopefully that will awaken me tomorrow!

I had a couple of observations about China in general today. First of all, the driving style is very different. I never felt completely unsafe but I was constantly amazed at how drivers had complete disregard for cars beside of them and people in front of them. Drivers must always be thinking “”they’ll get out of the way.” It works over here, because both cars and people do get out of the way, but there is definitely less regard for safety on the roads than in the US. In the US, you never see a 3-wheeled bicycle with a lawn mower engine going 40 miles/hour on a 6 lane interstate!

Secondly, I can’t believe how much food we’ve been served here. I wasn’t hungry for either breakfast, lunch, or dinner and was served more than I could eat at all of the meals. I think one meal would have been fine for the day but the food just kept coming!

As a part of the tour, the group visited a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Wal-Mart built the store underground and there was a park on top of it! I was amazed by all of the western brands in the store and I was also amazed by much more expansive number of non-US brands. I bought the necessities: water for drinking, beer for drinking, and some snacks (not that I’ll ever need them!)