Editing NoisebridgeChinaTrip8 (section)

== This year's Hacker Trip To China ==
'''When: 3-Nov in Beijing'''<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;through<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'''23-Nov in Shenzhen'''.

'''Flight, transportation, and hotel Info''':  It is up to each person to book your own air fare to meet in our starting city, Beijing, on 3-November (which probably means leaving your home on 2-November), and to fly home from our ending city, Shenzhen, on 23-November.  ''(Of course, you can decide to come before or after our start date, and leave before or after our end date -- you are free to come and go as you please -- some of us will spend a few days in Hong Kong after Shenzhen.)''<br>

I'll organized the itinerary and the hotels and other transport.  I'll pay in advance for some of this, and you can pay me back when we're in China.<br>


'''Where:'''  In each of the cities we will go to, we'll visit some of their local hackerspace(s), and will be shown around by local geeks to see what interests them where they live.  We'll also have plenty of time to do "normal" (and spectacular) tourist things too!<br>

<span style="color:red">'''NOTE THAT THE INFO BELOW IS ONLY A BRIEF POSSIBLE OUTLINE:'''</span><br>
'''Here's some possible places we might visit, leaving plenty of room for the serendipity that makes our Hacker Trip To China truly unique and memorable:'''<br>
* We will start our trip by meeting in <span style="color:red">'''Beijing'''</span> where we may visit [http://www.bjmakerspace.com/ Beijing Makerspace], and other hackerspaces.  We'll also visit Tsinghua University, where they built the "world's largest hackerspace" in 2015 (called the "iCenter"), and where I've been hacker in residence.  Beijing has lots and lots of way amazing stuff to visit and be a part of!
* We will probably next go to <span style="color:red">'''Xi'an'''</span>, where we will be shown some of the extensive activity to encourage "innovation" there.  We can give presentations at [http://www.nibaspace.com/index/ Niba Makerspace], where lots of way cool and interesting things are happening.  Our hosts will also show us lots of local arts and cultural activities, as well as give us a tour of the 10,000 Terracotta Warriors.
* We may go to <span style="color:red"> '''Chengdu''' </span> from there, home of the panda bears, as well as another new Chinese "innovation" hub.
* We may then visit <span style="color:red">'''Shanghai'''</span>.  In Shanghai we will visit [http://www.etonnet.com/ my manufacturer (Etonnet)] that I have used for [http://www.tvbgone.com TV-B-Gone] remote controls and [http://www.neurodreamer.com NeuroDreamer] sleep masks, where we will all get to see how products are made, from start to finish, learning how manufacturing works.  We will also visit [http://xinchejian.com/ XinCheJian] hackerspace in Shanghai, the coolest hackerspace in all of China.  We can also visit companies started by hardware hacker geeks, such as [http://www.dfrobot.com/ DFRobot].  We can also visit the  [http://www.flickr.com/photos/maltman23/4064240200/in/set-72157622640069902/ Shanghai electronics mall] (a smaller version of the famous electronics mall we will later visit in Shenzhen). 
* We'll finish our Trip in <span style="color:red">'''Shenzhen'''</span>, where we can visit [http://www.chaihuo.org/ Chaihuo Makerspace], [http://www.szdiy.org/ SZDIY] hackerspace, and a few other hackerspaces, some of which are real, and hundreds of which are new over-the-top bizarre government-started places where they want to create "the next Apple" (we won't visit them all!).  We can visit [http://www.chaihuo.org/xfactory/ x.factory] while we are in town, an interesting mix of hackerspace and incubator, where we can organize a Bring-A-Hack event, where anyone of us (for those who want to), along with the general public, can show off our projects.  We will also visit [http://www.seeedstudio.com Seeed Studio] - the open source hardware company - to meet the cool folks there and to see their manufacturing facilities.  We may meet with the founders of [http://dangerousprototypes.com/ Dangerous Prototypes] - another open source hardware company.  We'll also visit other manufacturers, to see where all the things we use in our daily lives come from (such as springs, cables, PCBs, packaging, etc., etc.).  We can also visit [http://www.dorabot.com/ Dorabot], a Chinese robotics company comprised of people in the Shenzhen hackerspace scene. We may also visit [https://hax.co/ HAX], the first and biggest hardware accelerator (and where I'm a mentor) -- those who wanted to gave presentations at HAX last year.  Of course, we'll also visit the famous (and totally awesome!) [http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/shenzhen/print Huaqiangbei electronics market] in Shenzhen (where, we may again be shown around by famous hackers who really know the place well). If the timing works out, we will go to the [http://www.shenzhenmakerfaire.com/ Shenzhen Maker Faire].<br>

For most of us, our trip will end at the end of three weeks, as many people on our trip will fly home from our last city, Shenzhen, on 23-November.  But, since <span style="color:red">'''Hong Kong'''</span> is just over the border from mainland China, some of us will go there to fly home (since it is cheaper, and since Hong Kong is a way cool city).

''Of course, everyone is free to arrive and leave whenever you like for the Hacker Trip To China.<br>


'''Cost:'''  For the Hacker Trip To China 2018, I paid $2,605.48 total ''(for 4 weeks -- I was in China before and after the Trip)'', including air fare from SF, food, lodging ''(all single rooms)'', transportation, some electronics items, tea, some clothing, and everything.  You can spend more or less, depending on how you like to travel, and depending on what, if anything, you want to buy.<br>
''As in past years, part of this year's trip may be paid for by Tsinghua University, our hosts in Xi'an, and other hosts that invite us to give presentations.''


'''#hashtag:''' [https://twitter.com/hashtag/httc2018 #httc2018] &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(Hacker Trip To China 2018)

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