After Jason Cooper and I settled into our hotel on Sunday afternoon we went on a little trip to a downtown area that we had spotted earlier.  We pulled out a little bit of RMB (the currency here in China) and we jumped in a taxi.  The traffic here is a bit crazy and the taxis are ok except for the bars that they have up between the driver’s seat and the rear seat passengers.

We had a good time walking around the shopping area.  We saw lots of people in the mall that we visited and we even found a Starbucks and bought a Guangzhou collector cup.

As we walked along the street we were both overwhelmed with the volume of people that filled the sidewalks.  They don’t seem to pay much attention to us foreigners (except for the street vendors).   

The weather here in Guangzhou is in the 70s and it is a bit muggy.  The skies are tainted with the gray-brown haze of pollution.  The conference began for us last night as all of the participants gathered for dinner.  There is about forty people from all over the world in attendance at the conference.  We had a great meal of Cantonese food and we had a wonderful time of fellowship.  The people that sat at our table for dinner were from Africa, Australia, France, Hong Kong and…Idaho, USA.