Visit to China
Went to Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Beijing October 8-18 for the University of Illinois with Mark and Marilyn Vonnahme. Finalized an agreement with Renmin University for bringing some of their masters students to Illinois to participate in in our MSF program. Gave talks at several universities. Met some people a the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. And did a little touring.
(click for greater detail)
SHANGHAI
This is a Buddhist temple, the much updated Jing'an Temple, with a typical modern office building behind it. We stayed nearby, at a hotel with a view of the Stalinesque wedding-cake architecture of the Shanghai Exhibition Center
It was just a couple of days after the national holiday week, and so decorations were still up everywhere, including these star lights in the trees on the Nanjing West Road
To a restaurant for dinner--the first of countless elaborate meals on our trip. Shanghai food is a little bit sweeter than the other Chinese regional cuisines 
After dinner we went to look at the lights and the people shopping on the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street
And then we went to look at the Bund (the historic section of European style buildings) by night. 
Opposite the buildings is a levee beyond which lies the river and the new buildings of Pudong. The flowers decorating the wall were put up for the National celebrations.
Lots of Shanghainese like getting their pictures taken in front of the flower wall!