This is getting exciting again! We have been very busy. We got into the city on the 5th. I accidentally scheduled a meeting with Doug Whitehead at GEI before we had gotten into Beijing. The time zones mixed me up. So, we arrived in the morning and had a meeting on the day after, and so had a day to acclimate. I’m happy with how quickly I was happy in China again. Today we had ginger tea and it was just like it always was. fabulous.

We rescheduled the meeting with Doug Whitehead to yesterday, and it went really well. I think because Doug and I had exchanged so many emails–he’s a good emailer too–leading up to the interview, we both felt very comfortable. And we got great lighting for the interview, so it looks really nice. We watched some of it today, but I’m looking forward to continuing to check it out. Doug touched on some things that I had been preaching about since earlier this spring, and imparting to Jeff more recently, about how the pattern that environmentalism is developing in China, and so I’m happy to have had my idea validated.

We spent Thursday the 31 meeting with the Roots and Shoots program at the Jane Goodall Institute. This program kind of encapsulates the way that I see Chinese environmentalism developing–in an emergent pattern. By educating Chinese kids, change is affected from the bottom-up, and this pattern depends upon time to see any changes. I’ve told this story fifty times I feel like. We had dinner tonight with our friend Tony–someone who has contacts who are middle and high school teachers–so we’re looking forward talking about the implementation of the government-mandated environmental education regulations in schools. Tony also has connections in factories that were moved outside of the city for the Olympics, and we’re going to try to set up some factory tours–this is GREAT visual evidence, I’m learning all about it.

Coming up this week we have a meeting scheduled tomorrow with the World Wildlife Foundation, Steve Blake at The Nature Conservancy, and possibly a meeting with Greenpeace on Tuesday.

Our homestay is on the outskirts of the city, so we have to take a bus or taxi to the train and take the subway into Beijing everyday, which is kind of a hassle. But, Jeff and I agree that there is a lot that is positive about this homestay. We have lots of space, and feel very comfortable here.

more tomorrow. I want to write about the evening of the opening ceremonies, because this was a fabulous night.