Day Five

Hello -

It's 4:45 p.m. and we have some rare free time before dinner on a river cruise. First, some random thoughts and facts about China:

* There are 18-20 million people in Shanghai and it's not even close to being the largest city in China

* My Chinese name (as given by a member of our host group) is Ji Li, which means good luck

* To give you an idea of how fast Shanghai is growing, Mike Cloonan said this morning when introducing our speaker "He works in the tallest building in Shanghai; at least it was as of this morning."

* Frank Braeken, a Vice President from Unilever, summed up China well when he told us today "Change is so big, so fast and so much at the same time."

* My favorite quote from yesterday, as the Chinese patients laughed and pointed at my classmates who took pictures of anything and everything at the local hospital: Jill to Jennifer "I wonder what they are saying about us." Jennifer to Jill: "I think it loosely translates to 'look at those giants taking pictures of our walls'"

Anyway, today (Wednesday) has been a great day. We got to sleep in, and then we had some outstanding speakers here at the hotel. First was a panel discussion about the changing Chinese consumer, and second was a Notre Dame Law grad named Michael Chiang. He graduated in 1995, which means he graduated with my sister Julie (he said he remembers you!). Mike talked to us about the legal ramifications of doing business in China.

After a quick lunch at the hotel (I got to sit with a lawyer from Mike's firm), we were off to Wal-Mart. The speaker was one of the best we've had here so far. His name was Jonathan, and he was very honest and informative about Wal-Mart in China. He said that Wal-Mart has it's problems in the US, but is seen as a great company and employer in China. There was an "associate meeting" going on in the room next door. The associates did indeed seem like a happy group, and it was a total party atmosphere in the room. They were breaking out into serious song and chants. When members of our group peeked in the room, they were treated like rock starts and greeted with a major outburst of excitement.

We shopped at Wal-Mart a bit. I bought a sweet skirt to wear to our formal dinner later this week. It was $5.00 US. The grocery section was unbelievable: tons of live fish, seafood and other creatures. Customers were picking out the fish with nets.

Ok, that's it for now. I'm off to relax before the river cruise! Talk to you all later -

Jill