Bryon Returns from Beijing, China

Bryon returned from Beijing tonight after spending five months on exchange with Elon University in China.

He emailed his return flight details a few days in advance and a request to eat a large American hamburger pretty much immediately upon landing. We drove into Chapel Hill and Bryon had the Montana Burger at Top of the Hill which he nearly finished.

Damon and I snapped some quick pictures of us with Bryon before my camera entirely ran out of power.

He mentioned a bit about the recent earthquake in Chengdu in central China. Apparently in Beijing it wasn't very strong although some of the higher buildings were felt swaying just a bit.

According to Google maps it looks like Shanghai is actually slightly closer to Chengdu than Beijing. Some of our family friends are currently in Chongqing which is also in central China, just a few hundred miles away from Chengdu.

Reports on the condition there during the quake were pretty incredible. For several days people didn't feel safe to go back inside so they slept in the parks and open areas and most of the stores were closed.