布莱斯在中国 Bryce in China

I have changed my blog from Microsoft's blog server to Google's. In retrospect I'm shocked that I ever considered using Microsoft over Google. I'm so glad for the change. Suddenly blogging has become enjoyable again. Thanks Google.

So my new blog address is http://bryceinchina.blogspot.com

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I have some sort of emotional/spiritual connection with elephants. I can't explain it but I've had it for years. The Thai Elephant Conservation Center (TECC) is an amazing place to be close to several Asian elephants.

I was there with other tourists from England, Australia, Spain, and Japan. We had a good time with each other and with our beloved pachyderms. The real mahouts didn't speak much English but Thai people are so fun and friendly that we all had a great time.

"My" elephant was a 27 year-old female named Pangkot. She has an independent spirit and a bit of a rebellious side in her. She is also a bad mother. She killed her first baby. Two years ago she gave birth to her second, AI, which was the first successful artificially inseminated birth in an Asian elephant (AI stands for artificial insemination, I guess it's like naming a naturally conceived baby "Copulation"). She rejected AI so her friend, Pumphuang, spent the last two years as surrogate mother.

I could go on and on and on about it. I really need to add captions to my photos but the internet connection here is so painfully slow. I visited the elephant hospital where I saw a 50 year-old female who was born with a malformed front left leg. I visited a 5 month old baby and watched her chase a kid around after trying to get bananas from her mom (who ate the whole bunch). I also met a male who was older, maybe one year but I don't know, who loved to play tug-of-war and try to pull people's arms into his mouth. He was quite the rambunctious little boy.

I have my mahout training certificate, some fun photos, and great memories. Maybe I'll go back someday for some more elephant love.

A lot of captions again. Here's the list.

1- metals in various stages of refinement

2- metals of different types and purities

3- metal products

4- reinforced aluminum pipe

5- an impressive porcelain vase

6- a woven-appearing vase

7- Vietnamese embroidery art

8- Vietnamese embroidery art on translucent mesh

9- a silicon wafer

10- Malaysian goods

11- Asian furniture is typically wood without cushions

12- beautiful, if not comfortable

13- beautifully carved wheeled tables

14- tree stump carving

15- Indonesian (I think) statuary

16- a huge and elaborate carved tree stump, including a large phoenix in the center

17- more beautiful wooden furniture

18- solar and wind powered street lights

19- solar powered street lights and bollard

20- a modular water filtration system

21- residential water filtration

22- cross sections of various types of large cables, pretty interesting

23- fun shaped flash drives

24- a white board that lets you "draw" digitally via a projector

25- a huge LED screen (can you believe the vendor asked me if I wanted to buy one!?)

26- a close up of an LED screen

27- need a huge fiberglass pipe?

28- solar water heaters just like this are heating water all over southern China for free

29- gas powered augers

30- need help with a hand tool? ask one of the Stanley girls

31- I don't know what these are, bolts, axles, rods, but they sure are long

32- cutaway pumps, very cool

33- precision-made aircraft parts

34- more precision parts, my brother makes things like this

35- large ball and barrel bearings, they were so beautiful, like sculptures

36- beautiful bearings

37- the bearings man's daughter was fun

38- how on earth do they get those ball bearings inside this piece of metal tubing?

39- nuts and bolts of all sizes

40- electric swithces

41- magnetic switches, the TBRS machines I ran in Alaska used a lot of these

42- all things plastic

43- these aluminum ingots were beautiful, but the product on display was the plastic strap, which was also a big improvement on the rough straps I've seen before

The industrial exhibits at the China-ASEAN Expo were the most interesting, and the most plentiful it seemed. I took so many photos, which really disappointed the vendors. Having an American come to their booth was apparently quite a thrill. They all read my name tag to see what industry I worked in. Unfortunately I wasn't looking to buy any industrial machinery, and their faces fell rather obviously. They gave me tons of literature on their products (which I threw away at the next garbage can that the vendor couldn't see) and several took photos of me looking at their exhibit. I guess a photo of a Westerner examining a product makes for good marketing material in Southeast Asia. I wonder how many catalogs and ads I will end up in!

It takes a really long time to put captions under each photo so this is the caption list for the industrial machine photo album. My brother can probably tell you a lot more about these machines. Machines are just cool, especially the big ones.

1- a rebar joining machine

2- large generator with encasing panels removed

3- small generators

4- large generators in their encasements

5- transformers?

6- a huge insulated connector for high voltage power

7- transmission

8- a toothpick machine

9- some sort of automated machine

10- wood carving machine up close

11- wood carving machine

12- log stripping machine, it strips logs into continuous flat sheets of desired width

13- laser cutter making cloth bears

14- not sure what this one is, some sort of bending mechanism?

15- back-hoe type construction accessories

16- drum printing press

17- some huge pump component

18- a huge pump impeller assembly, conveniently open for us to view

19- the log stripping machine making wood sheets, about 2-3mm thick

20- metal press

21- gas powered landscape maintenance equipment

22- automated rotary cutting machine

23- rotary cutting machine close up, cutting Chinese characters into a medallion like object

24- rotary machine cutting stone close up

25- rotary machine cutting stone

26- rotary cutting machine simultaneously making two relief carvings

27- wood relief carving close up

28- wood cutting machine that is like a big automated router cutting patterns into wood

29- pattern cutting close up

30- chipped ice machine

31- bubble pill packing machine

32- recesses (bubbles) and pills

33- applying the foil backing to the bubble packs

34- bubble pack cutter and used foil spool

35- some sort of food extruder

36- interior of the extruder

37- oil bag filling machine

38- oil bottle filling machine conveyor view

39- oil bottles on the conveyor

40- oil bottle lid applicator

41- condom packaging machine

42- condom packing machine

43- condom packing machine

44- cellophane wrapping machine

45- cellophane wrapped boxes

46- plastic bag food packaging machine

47- not sure what this does but it was beautiful

48- this machine makes a continuous tube of plastic and collects it on a reel

49- the entire plastic tube machine

50- mega size deep fryer

51- mega size mixer

52- label applicator

53- pill bottle label applicator

54- food packaging machine (mmm, cookies)

55- some sort of grinder with an interesting grinding bit

56- potato chip bag packager/sorter

57- the sorting part of the packager

58- packaged goods

59- vegetable bubble washer?!!

60- the most beautiful machine, this one draws thread from dozens of independent spools and weaves a continuous tube of stretchy fabric, which is collected on a reel underneath

61- threads feeding into the machine

62- threads going down into the weaver

63- active spools

64- more active spools

65- multiple tool machine, shown with five different tool attachments

66- plastic sheet in the laser cutter

67- plastic sheet being laser cut close up

68- laser engraver decorating a gourd shaped piece of wood

69- carving machine working on plastic, example product at left

70- plastic bag machine making grocery bags, very loud

71- bone crusher/grinder

I attended the 5th China-ASEAN expo in October 2008. It was very interesting. China hosts the expo in Nanning annually. The 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) come to Nanning with extravagant displays and demonstrations. Commerce ministers, and sometimes even heads of state, also attend.

Each country has it's own exhibition area and the other areas are grouped by industry type, eg. agriculture, industrial machinery, electronics, home decor and construction, tourism, energy, etc. It really is like a mini-world's fair for these 11 countries.

The exhibition center in Nanning hosts the even every year and is quite an impressive complex. It sits on a hill in the south east part of the city. My company, along with a German company, designed the exhibition center. It includes some huge and elegant exhibition halls, vast outdoor plazas, and a huge round meeting hall (think UN) that is topped with a roof to represent the hibiscus, Nanning's city flower. This roof has become an icon for the city. It's not all that hibiscus-like to me (kind of like an upside down hibiscus) but it is still a beautiful structure, and so much larger than it looks.

Check out the CAEXPO website at http://eng.caexpo.org