International Water Conference

With my work being less structured than I had hoped for, I began to look forward to attending the 2nd International Conference for China Urban Water Development being held in Beijing. I was tipped off to its occurrence by one of my coworkers, Gui Ping, who would be presenting at the conference. Andrea, Peter and Kenetha had attended the Transportation conference a few weeks ago and had to pay the hefty fee 800Yuan. As far as conferences go it was pretty cheap, but when you are making 100 Yuan a day, it’s not a small matter. So I was prepared to pay a similar rate. I took to shuttle bus that my office had arranged and arrive at the conference center. When I got up to the registration booth I was informed the registration fee would cost me 1,200 Yuan. I contemplated turning back home, but another of my coworkers said it would be taken care of. At first I thought the CAUPD would pay for my registration until all the badges were handed out and I got nothing. Then it became clear to me that my team was going to smuggle me in. By getting smuggled in I would miss out on the conference book, which was fine, since it was mostly in Chinese.

I sat through the opening speeches, a few were in English so I was content, but the majority of speeches where in Chinese so I had to sit there and let my thoughts wander since I couldn't make heads or tails of what was being discussed. It wasn't until after the session that I realized there was simultaneous translation going on and I could have rented the translation headphones. I spent the rest of the conference seeking out the sessions that had simultaneous translation, which proved to be few and far between. And the sessions that sounded most interesting to me were conducted entirely in Chinese. Well I still learned a lot and I got to see the nearby Olympic Stadium that was still under construction. Its pretty impressive and I only wish I could have gotten closer.