Drivel Starved Nation!

I am thrilled to share that we have been receiving early interest in the Shanghai/Nanjing field trip this fall.

Here are the crucial dates you need to know to make a decision:

Friday, October 27th, Bridge City will host a kick-off dinner at a yet-to-be-named restaurant. It will be a meet-and-greet and lots of fun with the Drivel Starved Nation and members of Harvey International (they are making Bridge City tools for the international market).
Saturday, October 28th, we will visit some major Shanghai tourist spots. We will let the weather dictate our choices.
Sunday, October 29th, we will likely visit a couple of spots and then take the bullet train to Nanjing.
Monday, October 30th, we will visit parts of Nanjing (former capital of China).  Very rich history, and a very sorry chapter of WWII.
Tuesday, October 31st, we will visit Harvey Industries and visit the show-room of China’s most famous woodworker HongMu Master(highlight of the trip!)

Tuesday evening, Bridge City will host a farewell dinner and you will have an opportunity to talk woodworking with both the president of Harvey and the HongMu Master (the most amazing woodworker I have ever met).
I suspect the hotel bar will be busy following…

Wednesday morning, Nov 1, you can choose to take the bullet train back to Shanghai (one hour)  and catch a flight home. Most of the flights to the states leave after 4PM. You will arrive back in the states on November 1 with this decision.

If your schedule allows, I would recommend you add a day or two (or more) on either the front or back end.  China is an amazing place regarding any aspect you can imagine.

Now here’s the deal, in order to make the dinner on 10/27, you need to leave the states on the 25th!  You will likely get to Shanghai late on the 26th (international date line). That will allow you to sleep in on the 27th, and maybe catch a few sights on your own in the afternoon. If you leave on the 26th, dinner will be over before you arrive. If you plan on joining us from somewhere other than the US, you can figure out what travel window works best.

We will arrange for a nice hotel in Shanghai, likely in the Bund area. I know the hotel in Nanjing-it’s nice! All these details and arrangements will be made for you once we finalize the attendee list, which at the latest should be mid-April. So you have some time to think about things.

Here are a couple of images of student work from the HongMu Master;

This grasshopper is not much larger than actual size!

Again, this is student work!

In the video below, you will see an amazing piece of work from ONE PIECE of wood;

When I said this trip will be fun, I meant it. You will get a sense of the personalities in this clip:

So I hope you join us!

Recently my grandson “Speedy” took a field trip of his own and visited Bridge City Tool Works for the first time and this proves field trips should be fun!

So you have some decisions to make. And so do I, as I try and figure out why Bella dog likes to sleep like this:

-John