Eric's Beijing Diary

This afternoon, I went to the clinic at the Peking University Health Sciences Center (which is across the street from the Southeast gate of Beihang) to have my blood pressure checked. During the Christmas season, I happened to be at the Walmart Super Store, and they were selling those little electric blood pressure checkers. That one showed me at 152 over 86. I don't trust those gizmos, so I wanted to have it checked by a doctor. Cost me 5 kuai. 130 over 70. Those little electric gadgets are a nice idea, but they just aren't accurate enough to be worth buying.

Ran into Eric Zhang in Wudaokou this evening. He recognized me from my blog. We went to an Italian restaurant that my neighbor told me about. Nice place, and the Lasagna is pretty good, too. Eric Zhang works for Semantic, one of the many companies that are springing up around this area. Zhongguancun has been referred to as the "Silicon Valley" of China, and it is rapidly developing in the area around Qinghua University. It is really amazing to see the companies that have sprung up just in the three years I have been living here. Zhongguancun is also the name of a major street in the Haidian District, and the primary Zhongguancun businesses have tended to center around that area, which is a couple miles west of where I live. But now, many multinational companies are setting up on the north side of Wudaokou, where Qinghua University (the "M.I.T." of China) is located.