Short trip to Shenzhen

I was invited (with my boss and another colleague) to the International Quantum Academy in Shenzhen to give a talk after I edited Single-Electron Spin Qubits in Silicon for Quantum Computing, a paper written by some researchers who are based there. Siqi came with me, and spent Friday as a tourist on his own. (He went to Huaqiangbei electronics market.) Then we spent Saturday as tourists together.

  • Thursday, June 5 – flight from Hangzhou to Shenzhen
  • Friday, June 6 – talk at the International Quantum Academy
  • Saturday, June 7 – visit to Dafen Oil Painting Village and Sungang Home Furnishings Market
  • Sunday, June 8 – return flight from Shenzhen to Hangzhou

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International Quantum Academy

I was invited (with my boss and another colleague) to the International Quantum Academy in Shenzhen to give a talk after I edited Single-Electron Spin Qubits in Silicon for Quantum Computing, a paper written by some researchers who are based there.

See my other post about the trip to Shenzhen for what my husband and I saw as tourists on our visit.

See below for photos of my visit to the International Quantum Academy.

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Fluorite from Wuyi

Item description / significance
This is a group of seven fluorite display objects, each on a wooden stand:

  • A mostly green polished sphere with a purple stripe (stand can rotate)
  • A smooth translucent purple lizard carving
  • A rough purple and green lizard carving with white crystals
  • A bright green translucent “kryptonite” natural crystal formation
  • A sparkly purple natural crystal formation
  • A polished slice of purple and green fluorite with white “feathers”
  • A purple three-legged “wealth toad” carving

Bought where
in Wuyi, Zhejiang Province, China, in a shop inside a residential complex

Age and origin
basically new, from Wuyi

What I like about them
There are so many kinds of fluorite… each of these pieces has unique characteristics in terms of color, texture, shape, size, and interaction with light, thus they attracted me for different reasons. The polished flat slice is the thing that struck me first, and seemed unique in the shop; the pure bright green crystal caught Siqi’s attention; the sphere has a purely symmetrical shape and smooth texture that minimizes distraction from the stone’s colors; I wanted a piece that showcases chaotic sparkly square crystals; and I wanted at least one animal carving.

Other notes
I bought two lizards even though I usually don’t buy two similar items. The logic is, if I buy two similar things, then I will probably wind up liking one more than the other, and the less-liked one will cause regret by seeming redundant. I decided that the lizards were both spectacular enough, each in its own way, and that I’d regret leaving either of them behind.

See below for more on how we found the shop where I got all this stuff, and photos of the items. In particular, the crystal on the far left really is bright green, though it doesn’t look green at all in the photo above!

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“English” on signs in Wuyi and Jinhua

Below are five funny English text samples I saw on a brief road trip with my husband Siqi and his parents to Wuyi, Zhejiang Province (a city with a population of 460,000). On our way back to Hangzhou, we passed through Jinhua, Zhejiang Province (a city with a metro area population of 1,258,000).

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Wuyi Fluorite Museum

There’s a trip.com page about this place, and a couple of stilted English-language news articles that mention it, and that’s all.

Hello, Wuyi Hot Spring Fluorite Museum!

The museum was two floors of rooms, laid out like this.
“Schematic diagram of the distribution of fluorite ore resources in China” and “Distribution map of fluorite despots in Wuyi Count” (inset)
Guanyin statue outside the museum

See below for info on 4 Guinness World Records related to fluorite, and photos of the minerals on display.
Continue reading Wuyi Fluorite Museum

Trip to Wuyi, Zhejiang Province

I live in China. I’ve had the thought that while I’m here, I should look into buying minerals that are mined locally, since presumably such treasures can be had for a fraction of the price they sell for after being exported.

I had the impression that China is known globally as a source of fluorite. I did an online search, and went to a geological museum in Hangzhou, and learned that the county of Wuyi (population 462,462), which belongs to the city of Jinhua, has fluorite mines and a fluorite museum. Therefore, during the Chinese New Year Holiday, I went with my cooperative husband and in-laws to Wuyi in search of beautiful stones. I assumed, since Wuyi has fluorite mines and a fluorite museum, that it also had shops selling fluorite products. If it does, we couldn’t find them! Nevertheless, our road trip shopping quest was successful.

The trip is documented in this post and five others:

We stayed two nights (February 1 and February 2) in the Vienna International Hotel in Wuyi. There are… 26 miscellaneous photos from the trip below.

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Places visited in 2024

Siqi and I visited 2 European countries and approximately 9 cities in China in 2024. I took thousands of photos on my phone! The road trip that Siqi and I went on with my parents was particularly special. See below for an illustrated summary of where we went when.

Continue reading Places visited in 2024

“English” on signs

I included some funny English signs in the post about the journey to Longquan; I saw a lot all in on the same day, mostly in the same place. But I saw and took photos of others in various other places. Rather than put them in posts about those places, I’ve collected the rest of the strange English signs here. Enjoy!

Continue reading “English” on signs