Up until 2011, I had never been to China. In 2011, somehow I ended up going twice! The first time was to speak at a protein conference in Shanghai – after which Wayne Patrick and I had an epic trip. Then, in October, Ann and Jane and I headed to Beijing for the 4th Asia-Pacific NMR meeting. The meeting was good, and we had a little bit of time to check out a couple of the attractions of Beijing – mainly the Forbidden City (a palace) and the 798 Art Zone – a whole block of derelict warehouses that have been turned into a huge art district.

We were struck by the amazing rate of change here – there was a whole underground train system with more than a dozen lines I think – which was hardly there at all when Ann was last here in 2004 or so. We love the food too – and the best food (for us anyway) was to be had in the tiny noodle/dumpling places that were for the local workers – fortunately, having Ann with me meant that we could easily go to those places and I wasn’t choosing the pickled sea squirt etc…