Sam At Large

Actually, I have no idea why I’m referencing Billy Joel’s classic song, “New York State of Mind.”  I just seemed to fit. I arrived in Hong Kong this morning after completely skipping Friday. It’s already Saturday here, for those of you that are timezone challenged.  I’m now 15 hours ahead of Vancouver.  But the best [...]

Almost done, almost home.  24 hours from now I’ll have been in the air for about 40 minutes of the 11 hour flight from Beijing to Vancouver. I’m looking forward to being home. Today, I met up with a friend of mine from home for a good Starbucks chat in Sanlitun, a very trendy shopping [...]

I’ve just arrived in Beijing.  It is the sixth city in China that I’ve visited in the last two days.  I have been on planes, I’ve been on trains and I’ve been in many automobiles in these last two days.  I don’t think I’ve ever done this much hopping around before. Since about noon on [...]

I’ve spent just about two days in Hengyang, which is about 40 minutes due south of Changsha by high-speed train. I have a few hours in the morning before I go back to Changsha and catch a flight north to get to Sanmenxia. We’re due to sign an official agreement to operate another facility there. I [...]

Today is my last day in Changsha before I go to Hengyang. It has certainly been an amazing experience to be here in this city of 10 million people… which is considered a second- or third-tier city, by Chinese standards. Last night, the entire Changsha team, international staff and board members got together for dinner.  [...]