Weiss in China lecturing about use of lasers in foot care
Page 4 • Wednesday, January 14, 2015 • The Hammonton Gazette
WEISS, from Page 1
ture.
“I was in Hong Kong four days, spent two
days in Xi’an and four more days in Beijing.
The culture is very different than ours. They
are undergoing their own industrial revolution, which is very exciting. It is just as exciting to see how many people they are
elevating from poverty to the middle class.
It is just neat to see how ancient their culture
is. The things we were seeing were from 200
B.C. You then realize the relative newness
of our country when you start looking at historical artifacts. It was very impressive,”
Weiss said.
The speaking engagements at the
Kowloon Hospital in Hong Kong went very
well, according to Weiss. Everyone was very
receptive to his lectures pertaining to the use
of lasers in foot care, he said.
“The doctors there [in Hong Kong] want
to learn about this technology. It is very new
to them. They have very limited experience
with it and it felt good to be able to lecture
on the subject. It helped them to get what
they need as far as a background for laser
care,” Weiss said.
For the next 10 days or so, Weiss and his
wife took in the sights and sounds of China,
visiting two other cities and historical landmarks. Weiss said it was an “awesome” experience as he and his wife engaged in
activities such as walking four miles of the
5,000-mile-long Great Wall of China.
“It was really breathtaking to be there. In
Xi’an we saw the terracotta warriors, and once again, historical
sculptures from 200 B.C. and
around that time that still exist
today,” Weiss said.
The food was different in terms of
how the meat was prepared. Weiss
said in China they don’t waste any
part of a chicken meat.
“There you have chicken knuckles and chicken feet. Chicken feet is
more of a delicacy there than
chicken breast, which was not really
for my wife. She ate Haagen-Dazs
[ice cream] for one meal because
there was a Haagen-Dazs that happened to be next store, so she had an
ice cream for dinner. It was just too
much. I am more adventurous than
she is, but couple that with jet lag, I
just wanted something that I could
understand too. They eat more exotic things. There, they will use
every part of the chicken,” Weiss
said.
Proficient in Spanish, Weiss said
he has gone to Mexico and the Dominican Republic in the past where
he was able to have conversations
with natives from those countries. In
China, the language barrier was a
challenge.
“The alphabet is completely different there. It is just very different.
The other thing I would say that is
culturally different is that there are
1.4 billion Chinese, and because of
that and that there is such a premium on space, they get to where
they need to get to and if you are in
the way it just doesn’t matter. The
sense of space there is different.
Here, we have a greater sense of
space. In the cities that I traveled in
China I found this to be the case,”
Weiss said.
Spending about a week and a half
in China, Weiss said he believes he
got the entire experience and is
happy he made the trip.
“It is a huge country. There are
other cities, Shanghai being one of
them, and I was told it is much like
being in New York City. Xi’an had
more historical relevance for sure,
and that is why we were more intrigued in visiting there than Shanghai. It was definitely a ‘bucket list’
thing, but I don’t know if it is something I would visit again. Maybe for
some of the cities I missed, but I
was happy to see the historical
areas,” Weiss said.
The one aspect of China that
Weiss thought was somewhat of a
shock was the climate. He said it is
very cold in certain parts of the
country this time of year.
“It is colder than here. Beijing
and Xi’an were cold, and Hong
down. The air quality is tough,” Weiss said.
Weiss acknowledged it was a difficult decision for him and his wife to leave their
practices and their children to go to China
on the speaking engagement and vacation
for more than a week. However, he said it
was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and they
relished the opportunity. He hopes the
speaking engagement in China opens up the
chance to go to other places in the world in
Courtesy Photo
Dr. David Weiss is pictured being honored with a
plaque (welcoming gift) prior to a lecture.
Kong is warmer. Hong Kong is nice. It was
long-sleeve-shirt weather there. The thing is,
we were doing a lot of stuff that was outside.
We were in open areas that were very windy.
The air quality was another thing. They are
balancing a lot of things there with growth,
and air pollution was an issue. Hopefully
they can come up with a way to slow that
the future.
“I don’t really have a preference where I
would want to go next. It is a case-by-case
thing. After leaving the kids for as long as
we did, I think it is going to be a while before I take one of those types of trips again.
It was hard. I came to realize that I read a lot
of about China, not even intentionally, just
in the books I read. It gave me a nice background,” Weiss said.