Wuhan-Zhuzhou-Jinan
Wuhan
Did not get much of an impression of this very industrial city on the Yangze river, except that it has a lot of lakes. The weather was wet and foggy the entire time we were there. The hotel we stayed in, albeit briefly, was quite impressive however. Check out the photos if the Lakeview Hotel in the photo album.
Our host from Wuhan Line Insulator, Shirley, was quite a firecracker, drinking glass for glass of baí jiú and beer with Doug, who was twice her size.

Liling
Sitting in the back seat of an extended length Audi A6 speeding down the highway from Zhuzhou to Liling. When I first visited Liling 9 years ago, there were very few luxury cars here and the roads certainly did not allow "speeding" anywhere. They evoked the concept of a highway, but the realization was belied by the yawning potholes and cracked pavement. Today, we see no such thing.
The countryside looks much the same, and the developments here are much more the look of old China. Much of the urban areas are under construction and you can see the old houses and storefronts giving way to the new roadways. Buildings will follow. A typical scene was the roadblock we hit this morning, where the new highway abruptly ended at a barrier beyond which was a broad boulevard under construction. It was bordered by high rises under construction. Sprinkled randomly among the developed areas were pockets of old farm houses or storefronts struggling to stay in place.

This was the first inland city I visited on my 2004 initial visit to China. It has changed a lot, but in many ways it is still the same and far behind places like Suzhou.
The countryside in Hunan that one sees when driving in from Zhuzhou or Changsha is lovely - hills and valleys with farm houses and rice paddies along flat valley floors and climbing up hillsides. As you approach the city, development is clearly underway with many abandoned buildings adjacent to new construction. In many places, the roads are under construction and existing buildings are cut off from road access. Dirt or barely paved roads wind into the valleys off the main highway.
The construction is typical for the region. Apartments rise 2-3 floors above garage-like storefronts that house everything from convenience stores to small machine shops, street food vendors, and auto repair garages.
Nearly all the storefronts have a little chair by the entrance for the proprietor to sit and watch the world go by - which is most of the day as activity always seems slow.
The other hallmark of Liling, besides the motorcycle taxis with their extended umbrellas, are the creative uses for scrapped insulators from cutouts to large housings. There are fences, graded ramps, and culvert pipes that use these products quite functionally.
The other characteristic for Liling roads is adventurous driving. Lane usage is optional. There is lots of honking. Cars seem to spend as much time on left side of the road as as on the right passing slow moving trucks, motorcycles, and carts while playing "chicken" with oncoming traffic.

Jinan
Finally some sun. East If city is direction of development. 30 kilometers of obviously planned layout with some factories already in place but lots of wide boulevards and parkland. Driving into city after visiting factory, the city looks a lot like Suzhou, except more mountains to the south.
Traffic is awful - but probably not a lot worse than Chicago, which is about the same size as Jinan.

Beijing
Big Brother signs:
1) need to scan passport to get access to free wifi in business class lounge.
2) Asian WSJ in lounge had banner add at top of page 1 promoting an editorial on how the latest Sichuan earthquake has exposed some of China's weaknesses. All the copies on the shelf had page 12 (and the other 3 pages shared) removed.
Huge airport - three widely dispersed terminals with #3 being the newest and nicest. Very efficient operations for check in, customs, and security.

Note: Cover photo is me with Banks Huang, the export sales guy for PK Huaxin insulator company.

I'm ready to come home.