Time

My time in China is running out. The project is moving forward at a frenetic pace. We have been in Beijing for 2 days in meetings with potential partners and suppliers. There is little time left but lots still to do. I am finding it hard to concentrate on everything that is going on around me because my mind is firing in different directions all at once. The project is really interesting for me and I have a strong desire to stay here and finish it - to really see it through.

This will not happen - there is a lot more to do and it will not be finished by the time we leave next Thursday night. This is a source of regret but I always knew this would happen because projects don't have neat beginning and end times that you can stick to, because people don't work that way. I spoke to someone on Thursday who said that they had reserached for one-and-a-half years before they set up a programme with similarities to ours. I have been in China for 7 weeks...

Kot has arived from the UK and we spent some time together in Shanghai before he jumped on a train to Huang Shan (11 hours), climbed the magic mountain and then hoofed it up here on another train (22 hours this time!) to join us in Beijing. I took him to Shintori in Shanghai, which he loved and tonight in Beijing I have introduced him to Tony and Ma Jian who came to say hi and talk some more about his plans for his latest venture in China. Everyone has a venture in China. Only some people have the staying power to make them happen. Being 6 ft 7 inches tall helps you to make your plans come to life, or at least helps you to get your plans noticed.

It also helps you to get a private dining room at an incredible Beijing restaurant. I ate wonderful new, subtle flavours. New styles of cooking - a huge rib of beef, chicken with spices and walnuts, chunky oxtail, yellow fish and roe deer. The conversation and the beer flowed.

God I love China. Wo bu xiang li kai Zhongguo.