Eric's Beijing Diary

I caught the airport shuttle at North Gate this morning, and went to the airport to board the plane for Guangzhou (Canton). At the airport, I was looking around for a news stand to pick up a copy of the Wall Street Journal, when I heard a bunch of people calling my name. Another group of students from the Software College leaving for Japan. There is a growing number of students from the Software College doing internships of one kind or another with Japanese companies. The student I had dinner with in February was in the Japanese software program; these kids are from the IC Design program. They will spend a year or two in Japan, and then come back to China and be in a very good position to get good jobs with joint venture companies.

Fengwei, the assistant to the Vice President, met me at the airport, and brought me here to the campus. I had never met Fengwei, but we had communicated by phone and email during the weeks before I came, as I was giving them instructions for the lab setup.

The University of Guangzhou has sixteen campuses. This one is located about 40 kilometers north of Guangzhou. I am here for two weeks as a visiting professor in the South China Institute of Software Engineering. I will be here one week now, and another week in May. Originally, I was scheduled to teach this class in the city (Guangzhou), because most of my students are working there. But I had sent very specific requirements for the lab, and they were not able to find a lab in the city proper which met these requirements. So I am teaching the first half of the course in two consecutive weekends here at the campus. Kinda awkward for me, because I have to be gone for two weekends, but it does work out better for the students, because they can stay here on campus over the weekend. And I would rather be here where I can get some work done, than holed up in a hotel in Guangzhou.