Travel again! Currently I really have my “Asian Phase”. After trips to Korea and Japan in February and March, I am now in Beijing. Actually, I arrived yesterday early afternoon, and I had to take advantage of the nice spring weather (surprisingly no smog!) to do a little bit of sightseeing. I also met a friend of mine who has been living in China for already more than 3 years.

On Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China
Of course as usual I am not here for fun, but for work. I am one of the lecturers in a school on calorimetry at the International Linear Collider, which is organized for chinese graduate students in order to furhter improve the collaboration with Chinese institutions in the field of detector development for the ILC. My lecture is on Friday, and I’ll have to spend quite a bit of the time between now and then to prepare, because I just did not get around to do it earlier.
Yesterday afternoon I was too jetlagged to do much, so the sightseeing excursion into the city (see the picture taken on Tiananmen Square) was the right thing to do. Also, it might have been my only chance to see something of Beijing. Sadly, this is a common thing in my travels nowadays: very often, there is not much time to see much aside from the airport, the way to the hotel, the hotel and the meeting place.
I realize that I’ve not yet posted anything about my work on calorimeters, and this school should be a good opportunity to get into that. So, hopefully, more near the end of the week!