Capt Mondo's Photo Blog

I was invited to join the members from the firm that was hosting the localization summit for a team building event at a place called Chateau Changyu, about an hour-and-a-half’s drive north of Beijing.

I considered staying in Beijing to go see The Forbidden City and The Great Wall, but I had visited both on my last trip here and wanted to see and hopefully explore some of the countryside, which this trip offered.

Chateau Changyu is an interesting place. First and foremost, it is a winery, which was one of the draws of the place for me, a chance to do some comparisons to what I have seen at home, in France and in Southern California. It is also basically a theme park, the “theme” being a chance to visit a old French (or German?)-style village while still in China. It was a popular place for brides and grooms to be photographed against a faux-European background featuring a Neuschwanstein-ish castle (which is where the winery cellars are housed). So you get the incongruous setting of a small European village surrounded by extensive vineyards set among iconic eroded Chinese mountains in the distance.

I attended some of the presentations, ventured into the cellars, and waited out a thunderstorm. After the storm passed, the bright late afternoon light set against a dark sky made for some very striking shots, which can be seen in the gallery below.

I was given some wine to taste while there, and while it was not the best I’ve ever had, it was also far from being the worst. I am pretty sure we will be hearing more about Chinese wine, since they seemed determined to make a dent in the market. The consensus though is that the local market needs to be educated first, as there were several stories of a locals chugging back expensive wine like pop. Am sure that too will change, and clearly there is an enormous market for good wine emerging here.

Second day of the localization summit in Beijing. Inna Geller gave a presentation on how to assess and minimize risk in localization assignments, and a new software tool that embraces machine-translation (through the mediation of a human translator) was launched by CSOFT. Here are some pics I shot from the day’s events:

JoAnn Hackos gave the keynote presentation about DITA and localization, which was followed by Bill Hackos who presented on the factors go into a successful DITA deployment. Here are a couple of pics I took from my front-row seat:

JoAnn Hackos Giving the Keynote Presentation at the CSOFT 2011 Summit

Bill Hackos Speaking at the CSOFT World Summit

My presentation followed theirs, and it seemed to go down well.

In the afternoon I pushed through my jet lag and went on an expedition (there’s really no other word to describe it) to Beijing’s Silk Market. Went along with co-speaker Inna and Keith Cai. Keith was great, helping us negotiate good rates with the shop keepers there in the mall. As you walk by each of the stalls you are greeted and asked to look at their wares — some more aggressively than others.

On the fifth floor of the Silk Mall was a well laid-out store called Katherine Jewelry, which is where I ended up spending most of my money that day. I came away with three sets of jade jewelry for my wife and daughters, which you can see below:

Jade Purchases from the Silk Market for My Wife and Daughters

I also came away with some milk-based candies that my eldest daughter specifically asked for, and a t-shirt with a blossom pattern on it for my youngest daughter.

A few pics from the excellent cocktail reception party that was thrown by CSOFT the evening before the start of the localization summit.

One day “off” before the summit begins in earnest, so I teamed up with my co-speaking colleagues and after breakfast we went to see the Temple of Heaven complex.

I visited The Forbidden City on my last visit here, and the Temple of Heaven seems to have been built along much the same lines — not as overwhelmingly imposing as the Forbidden City, but certainly large and ornate. It was a hot day and it was good to be able to head into the wooded areas that fringed the main buildings of interest.

Here are some of the many pics I took:

As usual I couldn’t fall asleep during the long haul flight to Beijing, but I manage to persevere and basically stay up for two days straight.

I didn’t have much in the way of opportunities for taking pictures, but I did what I could.

This was taken immediately after going through customs, looking down on the monorail tracks that lead to the arrivals section of Beijing airport.

Looking Out from Terminal 3, Beijing Airport

Once I got into the hotel (which is near “The Pants” building) the sun was setting, and I could still see a pair of workers who were working near the top of a nearby building under construction.

Construction Workers, Beijing

At the hotel I met JoAnn and Bill Hackos, who are the keynote speakers for the localization summit. Together we are taken out for a wonderful dinner.

Afterwards, I got back to the hotel and happily collapsed into my bed.

Am heading to a localization summit in Beijing. Here are a couple of pics I took while waiting at Pearson International Airport.

777 Waiting at Gate 175, Pearson Int'l Airport

Contrails Over Pearson Int'l Airport

On our last full day in England the girls and I had a chance to meet my Aunts and Cousins for a pleasant lunch at a place on the High Street of Orpington.

After the lunch it was late enough in the afternoon that there was no point heading to the city to see anything, so the girls opted to go shopping in the town instead. Much clothes were bought. 😉

Immediately after going to the Doctor Who Experience (and being the last to leave it for the day) we found a cab and headed over to go on the London Eye. The girls had already been on it a couple of days earlier with my cousins Philip and Kenneth, but I wanted to go on it with the girls, and I knew it was close to the train station we needed to get to.

It was a fun ride with the girls, and the views of London were incredible. Here are some of my pics.