China in a nutshell.

Leg two of our 15 day tour field trip of Asia took place in the quaint little town of Beijing, China. The first thing you notice when your plane lands is how smoggy it is. I guess 14 million people driving cars and coal burning power plants will do that to your air. The second thing you notice is that the entire city looks like it is under construction. The world's steel and cement prices have risen dramatically in part to the amount of materials going to China. Beijing in particular has undergone extensive renovation in preparation for the 2008 Olympics, including new roads, buildings, hotels, etc. Returning visitors in our group commented on how many trees have been planted, mostly to obscure some of the poorer neighborhoods. The third thing you notice is the sheer number of people. Public transportation consists of mostly buses and subway and while we could comfortably fit our group of 40 on a bus, we saw buses that had easy 100 to 120 people on them. Traffic is awful as you can imagine, and driving in Beijing is literally taking your life in your own hands.






One of the main reasons I wanted to see China was to see the Great Wall. Its one of those things you figure you'll only see in books, so I have been pretty pumped to hike along it. On our first day we took the bus for 1 1/2 hours to see it, but it rained the whole time. Its up high, so we were in the clouds, and the views one would hope for never materialized. We got some cool pictures of the Wall disappearing into the mist, did some hiking, bought some trinkets, and by the end I was soaked but satisfied.












Our hotel was the nicest I have ever stayed in--those EMBA dollars at work. Big rooms, marble showers, water you could drink, and an absurdly opulent $25 breakfast buffet (Here is my last meal in china--asparagus, hashbrowns, sushi, bratwurst, fresh squeezed carrot juice). I'll be packing a few extra lbs after this trip. China World Hotel, look it up when you're in town.






After long days of sight-seeing and business visiting, we would hit the Pearl or the Silk Market, where it was stall after stall of cheap shirts, purses, swords and ties, each manned by a motion-activated teenage sales girl with some of the most aggressive sales tactics and negotiation skills you have ever seen. Mom would have loved it.



We walked around Tiananmen Square a couple of times--once just to see it at night. It was nice to see Chinese families and kids there--we didn't seem to see many children around town. This one group of school kids each took their turns in front of the big Mao picture each doing their own special gang sign. For some reason, I'm a minor celebrity in China too, as a couple of girls targeted me out our crowd in order to get my picture with them. It's the Dubble Bubble hat.














The Forbidden City was enormous. It is miles long, complete with the Emperor's quarters, throne rooms, and concubine stables. You start at one end and walk your way through. According to Carrie, it was the site used to film the movie Hero--but the buildings used in the movie were under renovation. I look forward to looking up a lot of the stuff I saw to figure out what it was. At the end was the coolest old garden I have ever seen, with gnarly old trees and rock formations. David O. McKay dedicated the land for proselyting in that garden--someone brought the dedicatory prayer which was read.























All in all, it was a rather enjoyable experience in China, if not a little scripted. It gave us enough of a taste of China to know what it would be like to live and work there, and what it would be like to do business there. On to Hong Kong!

T



ps.




Peking Duck. You make little burritoes out of the meat





Every Chinese meal so far has included a deep-fried fish that has been turned inside out and breaded. Kind of like a bloomin' onion.