In August 2007 I did another series of presentations about the carbon market for CLSA clients, this time in Beijing and Shanghai. Other highlights of the trip:

Prof. Shao Min at Beida

I had a chance to visit Beijing University once again, and have lunch with Professor Shao Min and his wife, Zhao Meiping (another environmental chemist at the University, who works on endocrine disruptors). Professor Shao and I had worked together addressing NOx emissions in Guangzhou, and he filled me in about his current ambient monitoring efforts both there and in Beijing in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. I also arranged a business dinner for some Beijing colleagues at South Beauty, a Sichuan restaurant in the China World Center recommended by former UN colleague Rose Wang (now at J.P. Morgan Chase in New York). I’m usually not a fan of spicy food, but Rose’s suggestion was superb!

Shanghai Skyline

And Shanghai was hectic & busy as usual — but I stayed an extra day, and took some time off to walk around the city on an exceedingly warm day. Luckily, I made it back to the hotel near the Bund just before a late afternoon downpour — and sat in the bar watching the rain beat down on the hotel’s see-through atrium roof, quaffing an ice cold beer. Not a bad life, huh?? On this trip I was reading the latest Qiu Xiaolong novel about Inspector Chen Cao, the poetry-spouting/gourmet police inspector of the Shanghai Police Bureau. This is Qiu’s fourth novel, & I’ve enjoyed them all — although I still like the first one best.