When the alarm rang around 5:30 am, it seemed awfully early and too quick for good reason. Normally, we do not leave for China until late November or early December. Yet this year, it was only October 22nd. More immediately, we had just spent an enjoyable evening as guests at the Museum's annual Women's Board Ball. And it was only a few hours earlier that we returned our dress attire to the deep end of the closet and the last items were packed in the suitcases that we planned to lug on the long journey across the Pacific.

This year, our Sino-American team begins our second decade of collaborative research and systematic regional archaeological survey in the Rizhao area of eastern Shandong Province, and some of the arrangements are different than ever before. To begin with, we will start our time in Shandong Province with a conference that in part has been arranged to celebrate the ten seasons of field investigations that we have completed in this part of China. To arrive in Rizhao, where the conference will be held, we will not stop in Beijing this year. Rather, our flight plan will carry us from Chicago to Beijing to Qingdao by air, followed by a two-hour car trip south to Rizhao.

Arriving at the airport on these annual trips to China, I always am thankful that living in Chicago we are able to fly non-stop to Beijing. While a 14-hour air trip is no picnic, it sure beats spreading that journey into segments punctuated by long layovers and/or the worry that one's connections will be missed. This year, with warm weather in Chicago and China, we were fortunate, having only a few hour delay (waiting for our connecting flight) in Beijing. Overall, it was more than a full-day's trip, meaning that we did not reach Rizhao until almost 11 pm Sunday evening including the 13 hour time difference from Chicago (this will increase to a 14 hour gap once the clocks 'fall back' in the Midwest U.S.).

Generally in recent years, when we travel to China, we move quickly into our regional settlement pattern survey, which happens to be a great cure-all for jetlag. Walking all day in the sun seems to help re-set my body clock rapidly. Since this year, our time in Rizhao has begun with a scholarly conference honoring in part the completion of 10 years of research by our Sino-American team, my body has been slower to adjust. After several days, I still am finding it hard to stay up beyond 9 pm and sleep beyond 3-4 am in the morning. Hopefully, this will be rectified as soon as we begin the field study.

Although I have limited experience, large Chinese academic conferences seem to me much like those in the West. Lots of academic papers, but the real intellectual action often takes place in the corridors and eating venues where people have a chance to discuss and exchange information. One difference in China is that there seems to be more formalized ritual ceremonies that start and begin the meeting, as well as formal banquets, which punctuate the conference calendar.

On a personal note, it is very gratifying for Linda and me to see the number of Chinese scholars who have initiated systematic archaeological surveys over the last decade. When we got involved on this project with our Museum colleague and China specialist, Dr. Anne Underhill, one of our personal goals beyond our specific Sino-American project and its research aims was to promote the advent of archaeological surveys across China. This now seems clearly to be happening, and the results are starting to influence the ways in which researchers envision the past and frame research agendas.

Because my Chinese language skills are frustratingly poor (something driven home to me when I sit through papers and feebly endeavor to dialogue with local colleagues), I try to pick up a few new words each day. The Chinese language is truly fascinating and I imagine that if I were younger I might try to immerse myself in it. As a consequence, with each dispatch, I will pass along one or two words, although these presentations are simplified lacking the tonal information that is a key part of pronunciation. Today's word is "hui yi," which means "conference." 'Hui' means "assembly" while 'yi' refers to "opinion."