Susan writes from Beijing:

Just a note to let you know we arrived in Beijing yesterday. Our flights went smoothly, and customs was super easy. We had dinner last night with Shichang, Qinghua, and a number of students. We will be spending another day or two in Beijing, and will then fly on to Lanzhou. I'm giving a talk this afternoon at Shichang's institute about the Everest record. Send our hellos to everyone.

Susan writes from Beijing:

Bjorn and I are doing well. We've been getting some work done, and yesterday we took a day trip with two of the graduate students from the Institute of the Tibetan Plateau to visit the Great Wall. Much of the area that we visited dates back about 400 years. It was exciting to walk on historic sections of the wall, compared to some areas that have been rebuilt in recent decades for tourism. We passed 30 watchtowers during our three hour walk. It was a rainy day, so the visibility was limited, but it was enjoyable to see the wall rise up from the mist. Last night we celebrated Qinghua's birthday. Tomorrow is China's National Holiday, and we will head to Lanzhou on Sunday.

Bjorn writes from Lanzou:

Susan and I have been in Lanzhou the last few days helping Shichang and his graduate students prepare for the expedition, which is scheduled to leave Lanzhou on Oct. 8th. Our plan for today and the next couple of days is to clean and set up the ice core melt room. Hopefully, we can finish before we leave. It would be ideal to be able to start melting immediately when we get back from Geladandong. Besides working, we have been treated to many outstanding dinners and been able to try a lot of local dishes, such as Lanzhou noodles. We also had the opportunity to visit Shichang's home town. It is a beautiful little village located in the mountains about 200km south of Lanzhou. It was amazing to see how farmers had terraced the mountain slopes to grow their crops.