Beijing 2008, Google Stalking, and the KFC Bandwagon

Some close friends of mine came to China for a vacation and I traveled from Harbin to Beijing to meet them. Naturally we went to the typical first-time-visitor tourist traps including of course the Great Wall. We went to the Badaling section of the Wall, where I was impressed at the distinctly fewer hawkers since the last time I went. I believe this is the result of a government campaign in advance of the Olympics, which ironically made its own presence known in a interesting way.

However, my friends aren't just any old tourists; they are also super-nerds (like me), and their visit also included a tour of Google's Beijing office (located near Tsinghua University.) Now I'm bound by an informal verbal NDA not to reveal some of the things that I saw, but here are some photos that I hope don't give away any trade secrets.

This is a toilet in the men's restroom. Notice the knobs and LED readouts. Pretty high tech stuff!


These are the exercise facilities.

Some old-school hacking.

Finally, here's a shot of the entire building at night.

All in all, a very cool experience, and once again I realize it pays to have connections. Doesn't top my tour of Pixar though. After my friends left, I had some time to kill before my train left for Harbin so I spent some time walking around downtown Beijing including the Wangfujing area. While there, I saw the following: