Beijing

Hello –

I haven’t posted for awhile because I didn’t have Internet connection in Beijing … so let me do a little catch up.

We had a great time on a scenic river cruise on Wednesday night, and then a group of us went back to the Paulaner for some more German beer. The same Thai band was playing, and we got a warm welcome from them.

Thursday we got up bright and early and boarded our buses and went to the train station. We caught the high-speed train to the airport. The train was awesome – we went 301 km/hour (which is apparently 188 mph, as calculated by Jason and Dr. Bob). Most importantly, the train operated smoothly and did not need to be repaired with rope this time. Travel from Shanghai was easy. We caught a flight to Beijing on China Air, and I pretty much slept the whole flight (again). It was about a two hour flight. When we landed in Beijing… we had to walk a long way to our buses. Unfortunately, we lost Van. Somehow he got separated from the group. His cell phone didn’t work, and he had no idea where our buses or hotel were. Luckily, he was resourceful enough to get some help with the pay phone and call one of the emergency numbers.

We went straight to a manufacturer of Eastern medicine called Tong Ren Tang for a tour. After that, we went to Lenovo for a presentation and tour. The tour guide was great – one of the best on our trip. It was interesting, especially because we are using the Lenovo/IBM Think Pads at Notre Dame now. They talked a lot about branding the Lenovo (sports-related marketing is a big part of what they do), and their attempt to become more of a global name.

[Random note: The highways here are extremely dangerous. We have had several near misses, and we have seen quite a few accidents with injuries and even what appeared to be a fatality or two. I am writing this on the bus now, and we just got cut off by a car that was crossing multiple lanes of traffic and then proceeded to back up on the freeway! That was like the easiset question on my driver's test: "True or False, If you miss your exit you can back up on the freeway."]

Dinner was at a Tea House called Laoshe. We had a speaker named Anna Sophie, an American woman doing a spoof on “Sex in the City” here in Beijing. It’s called “Sexy Beijing.” She and her partner Luke spoke briefly to our group and played some sample “Sexy Beijing” videos for us. I thought they were pretty amusing, probably in large part because I’m such a big “Sex in the City” fan. The entertainment then took quite a turn and we had a traditional Chinese performance that included a shadow play, various acrobatic routines, an act called “Man Juggling a Flower Vase” and lots of others that I can’t even begin to describe. It was really cool to watch. I remembered my camera for the first time on this trip, and then took 4 pictures before the battery died….

We finally arrived at our hotel (the Swissotel) at about 10:00 p.m. after a long day. A small group of people (including Todd, John K., Jason, Tom K., Bill, Jim and our spectacular EMBA student services manager, Amber) went to meet with a tailor to have some suits made at a 5-story shopping center. This story is hearsay, by the way – I was home in bed! Anyway, about 10 people from our group jumped in an (Otis) elevator. I believe they exceeded the weight limit by a large margin. Anyway… they pressed the button to go to the 5th floor and the alarm went off. The elevator started up, then jolted about 3 times, and then dropped a bit. It was stuck between 1st and 2nd floors. Apparently, our crew was packed into the elevator like sardines. Jason took control – he removed light bulbs and the ceiling to try to find an exit strategy. The two Chinese guys in the elevator pushed the emergency button, but it was useless. According to the legend (and Jason!), Jason said “forget about it - we’re getting out of here,” then opened the doors and jumped down about 4 feet. The others followed and they made it out safely. Needless to say, I’m glad I don’t wear suits!

Today (Friday the 13th) we rode the bus for what seemed like 12 hours, but I think it was actually only 11.5! We went to the Tianjin Economic Development Association (TEDA) in Tianjin and heard several presentations about various business topics. How is that for informative? I know this is an EMBA blog, but I won’t drone on about the details. We then split into two groups – half of the class went to Motorola and half to a company called Novozymes. I went to Novozymes and learned more about enzymes than I’ll ever need to know to practice law!

Lunch fit in there at some point, and was pretty good. It was our first meal (other than pizza) that did not involve a big wheel full of dozens of dishes. This one was a “set meal,” which means everyone got their own individual plate. Our tour guide, Jamie, told us before lunch that the wait staff wouldn’t understand English and then she taught us the signs to use to let them know what we wanted. She was clearly setting us up to make asses of ourselves, and she was successful! It was amusing to see classmates flapping their arms like chickens. By the way, Jamie is amazing. She is full of great information about China – I’ve learned a ton about life in China from listening to her talk.

I just returned from dinner at the Da Dong Roast Duck restaurant in Beijing. A vegetarian’s delight! Regardless, it was a fun dinner, and I hear that the duck was very tasty. Anne amused us during dinner with such gems as misinterpreting the dinner menu that said “Beijing snakes” and saying “Oh good, we are having Beijing snacks.” We were also talking about what food we were going to eat when we got back to the US, and believe it or not, Bob Evans was raised. I said “Did Bob Evans just die?” and Anne responded “I don’t know, but someone did.” Very insightful, Anne!

I’m off to either the beer garden or bed…. I can’t decide. Tomorrow looks great – we’re going to tour the Forbidden City. More soon!