Day Eight - earthquake (a)

Just wanted to get a few more thougths included in the blog. For some reason I can only post comments to this blog while in China, I cannot view it or see the comments. So for those of you that have left comments, thank you and I should be able to read them when we get back into Hong Kong on Thursday night.

I have responded to several people in e-mails about the earthquake but I don't think I have mentioned it in this blog. We were at a factory on the day it happened and the factory owner we were traveling with didn't even know it had happened until Mike saw it on the Internet on his Blackberry when we were riding to dinner. He told us that Sichuan was about a 2-3 hour plane ride away...he was not sure how many miles but I think it is about a 1,000 miles away. Needless to say we did not feel anything. The local people here have not even mentioned it unless prompted by a question. It is interesting to watch a Chinese newscast (in English) and see the spin they put on it. Basically glorifying the response of the government and how quick they responded. A little different than how skeptical the media can be in the U.S. The current death total is ~12,000.
I took this picture on my run this morning...it is the sun rising over a lake by our hotel...you can barely see the sun through the smog/pollution but it was still a "Goodview".