This Great Work

Quoting from Global Times: " There is a popular saying that "one out of  the two people in the world wear glasses with lenses from Danyang", East China's Jiangsu Province, known as China's "capital of glasses." From the research and development of relevant technologies to the actual manufacturing and sales, Danyang is just a snapshot of multiple domestic cities and towns that have become famous for concentrated and specialized manufacturing, while supporting the global industrial and supply chain. As the world's largest lens production base and the biggest eyeglass products distribution center in Asia, Danyang currently has more than 1,600 enterprises engaged in eyewear and associated sectors, official data showed."  We heard about Danyang from a friend and since it was only 15 minutes by train we went there to check it out.  Not including little shops on the street, there were two large buildings filled entirely with individual shops selling g...

We went to Chengdu for summer's last hurrah.  Chengdu is a city of 21 million people in western China. It is as far away from us as Nauvoo is from our home in the US.   We could have taken the high speed train.  But it was a 10 hour ride and a little more expensive than flying.  So we opted to fly.   We've made better choices before.  On our way there, the plane was delayed more than 2 hours, putting us landing after 11:00pm, which caused us to have to take a taxi instead of the 30 minute ride by high speed train into the city. And somehow we got the slowest taxi driver on the planet (was he really Chinese??). But we got there and tucked ourselves in real late.  (That was nothing, however, compared to our trip home where our plane was delayed for 7 hours...causing us to arrive home at 3:05am--not really worth the ¥15 savings--two-ish dollars per ticket.)   Lesson learned:  Planes in China are just no match for the efficiency of...