China!

Well, there has been a delay since the last post, and there something of a passable reason for this! For about two weeks I was traveling through parts of China (my first visit there), doing some touristy things as well as some looking at vineyards and wineries.

To say that a visit to the country was an eye-opener would be a vast understatement! In fact, "vast" is a good term to use when talking about it, since it covers a huge geographical spread, as well as in reference to its population!

As some background to the trip, I was invited there by a visiting scientist, Changbing Song, who works at the Northern Nationals University in Yinchuan, Ningxia. This is about 1100km west-southwest of Beijing. Changbing visited me in New Zealand in 2008 to do some research, and kindly was able to bring me to China (with the assistance of the China Foreign Experts Bureau) to give a couple of seminars and view the industry there. In addition, some others sponsored my time in Beijing (Professor Changquing Duan of China Agricultural University) and in Yantai (Changyu Wine Group).

In addition, also invited on the tour was Wen-feng (Regon) Hung, who is a PhD candidate at Lincoln University, and who helped Changbing quite a bit while he was in New Zealand. As well, Regon's PhD research involves wine protein stabilisation, and he was to present his work on the tour as well.

It also helped me greatly in that since Regon was from Taiwan, he could speak the language, whereas I could only speak a few words! Though I am half-Chinese (with my Mom coming from the Sichuan Province), I never took an opportunity to learn the language. So I am deeply indebted to Regon for all his hard work in translating and looking after me!

So with that background, I can begin to relate my China trip experiences and observations... in the next post!! (sorry!)