Shenzhen

Another trip took me to Shenzhen, China last week.
From Tokyo, a 5-hour flight to Hong Kong, then some 40-min. ferry ride to the Fort of Shekou.
Overall, from leaving my home to arriving at my hotel in Shenzhen, it took about 10 hours.

Again, like Taipei, it was much warmer than Tokyo.
While I was there, temp. went up to 25 deg. Celsius.

Just like many other of my trips, I had no time to go sightseeing.
I could enjoy running in the morning before my meetings and a bit of walking in late afternoons.

I learned that Deng Xiaoping decided to make this place the first Special Economic Zone, in 1979.
Since then, it grew to one of the largest industrial areas of China with over 10 million people living there!

However, I did learn that many factories are affected by the current global financial crisis.

Yes, they have their own Eifel Tower - at an amusement park "Window of the World".

A pond behind the park.

Colorful carp in the pond of the hotel I stayed.

A view from Lo Wu, the train station where I went through the immigration to go to Hong Kong.

Sapporo

I had an overnight trip to Sapporo, the main city of Hokkaido last Thursday.
I expected a much colder weather - the temperature was reported as -3 deg. Celcius (26.6 deg. F) as the flight from Tokyo International Airport was leaving.

When I arrived, I found that it was not too cold. The temp. went up as high as 15 deg. C (59 deg. F) during the day - actually, it was quite pleasant.

I enjoyed the stroll around the city, as you can tell by the photos below.

The TV Tower of Sapporo on Odori Park

Beautifully colored autumn leaves on trees of Odori Koen.

Former Hokkaido Government Office Building

A nice pond in the ground of the former Hokkaido Government Office Building

Sapporo Beer Museum is a popular sight seeing designation.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

On Thursday morning, I ran to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park from the hotel I was staying by Hiroshima Station.

In a cool autumn air, it was a very pleasant run. The total distance was about 10 km, but because I stopped to look around and take photos, it took about 1 hour 20 min. altogether. Hiroshima is a very clean, nice city, with population of almost 1.2 million people.

The Memorial Park is spacious and truly "peaceful". It is amazing that before the atomic bomb destroyed it, this area was the most populous district of the city.

Approaching the Atomic bomb memorial service monument - in line with the A-Bomb Dome

The Statue of "Child of Atomic Bomb", surrounded by exhibition containers of "thousand cranes" of origami given by visitors from all over the world.

A statue of a mother carrying a dying child - also surrounded by "thousand cranes"

Remains of Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall - it is preserved as "Atomic-Bomb Dome". It is one of UNESCO's World Heritage site.
Inside of the building is left a rubble.
A photograph of the area around the A-Bomb Dome taken in October, 1945 - two months after the bomb explosion (from an explanatory board next to the Dome).
Here's what now-Peace Park looked like until right before the bomb was dropped. Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall is seen on the right side of the T-shaped bridge on the center-far side which Enola Gay used as the target. (This photo was taken from a Wiki site)

Taipei

I visited Taipei , Capital city of Taiwan, earlier this week. It was about 4- hour flight from Tokyo. When I stepped out of the airplane, noticed that the weather was much warmer than Tokyo. The city's latitude is even more south compared to Okinawa and Miami, FL.

Running in the city of Taipei was a bit tricky from my hotel. I had to run mostly on sidewalks of busy streets (or maybe I just was not very familiar with the city). There were many traffic lights, so I had to stop often.

The city was a mish-mash of old and new – traditional Chinese architecture and parks as well as ultra-modern business buildings. I only stayed for 2 nights, but ate a lot of Chinese food!

Sunrise shows Taipei 101 in overwhelming height.

Zhongshan Park

Buddhist temple on a top of a building