The Hammonton Gazette 01/14/15 | Page 5

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.