Java in China

I've spent Thursday and Friday this week in Beijing giving talks about Java. There's a very large and vibrant community of Java developers in China. It's been great meeting so many interesting and talented people who are doing great work. China is an incredibly dynamic and growing country.

After all that, I got to be a tourist for a while. This is a picture of me on top of one of the many guard towers on the Great Wall of China. I actually climbed to the top of the highest tower in the background. I had been somewhat puzzled about why folks talked about "climbing" the great wall: I had this naive view that you got to the top of the wall and then walked along it. But walking along it is truly hard: the wall goes up some very steep and high mountain slopes. It's quite an impressive piece of work.

October 18, 2003