tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37979137016361709062024-03-14T04:21:31.971-04:00China shakes the worldThis blog is an account of my learnings, thoughts and experiences preparing and going through a study trip to China. I decided to take this course for many obvious reasons:
1- Being in the apparel industry, like many industries, China dominates in manufacturing.
2- China is an emerging economy in the world, soon to pass the United States.
3- China is such a large country with so many opportunities... but one must know HOW to do business in China to succeed in this country of opportunities!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3797913701636170906.post-22998721472834358402012-03-20T08:53:00.002-04:002012-03-25T22:19:40.160-04:00Goodbye China<div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal">On our final day in China, Saturday, we started off by going to a Water Village, the Zhujiajiao Water Village. According to our local coordinator, this water village is less commercialized than some other water villages. There are several water villages outside of Shanghai, also known as “China’s Venice”. We took a boat tour, just like in Venice, pushed by a long stick, and travelled on the canal passing a few bridges connecting the houses from one side of the canal to the other. At the end of the boat tour we had a bit of time to do some souvenir shopping. At first it was pleasant to look at all the small shops and see the local souvenirs. But an hour later it got so crowded in the small alleys that I couldn’t even move or squeeze by people.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">On our way back from the water village, we stopped by the Bund, which is the walkway opposite to the financial center where the pearl tower and all the skyscrapers are. Then, we returned to the hotel and were free for the rest of the afternoon. I packed my suitcase because I was leaving the hotel very early the next morning and then I went out to walk around some more. At 7pm we left for our farewell dinner. Again a very nice restaurant, but this time I loved every single dishes served. After dinner we went back to the hotel and I finished packing my bags for my 6am hotel pick-up the next morning.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Good night and Goodbye.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJxwjud4e3p17SO695p3_R8eioAcJ6dILETL5fg1gffADHGEmpegk43iYoKgrzzawoGli6ZGSecECUY86iaZ3fJOlPKA5j2zxmdY_w34sBExypQV5NNFl7CBlFf7yttKS2rvD-09vWsns/s1600/IMG_0753.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJxwjud4e3p17SO695p3_R8eioAcJ6dILETL5fg1gffADHGEmpegk43iYoKgrzzawoGli6ZGSecECUY86iaZ3fJOlPKA5j2zxmdY_w34sBExypQV5NNFl7CBlFf7yttKS2rvD-09vWsns/s640/IMG_0753.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br />
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</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3797913701636170906.post-71102058321694426052012-03-20T08:38:00.001-04:002012-03-25T22:09:19.193-04:00Last day of site visits<div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal">Friday was our last educational day. First we went to UPS, at their facilities by the international airport. We had a presentation about UPS’ logistics in China: how they sort packages for imports and exports. Then we visited their warehouse where the packages come in, are sorted, and are shipped back out. It was very interesting to learn about all their logistics systems and see where the action happens. Unfortunately, most of the action happens in the middle of the night, so we didn’t see packages moving around, but we did see an airplane pulling in towards the warehouse.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After UPS, we had lunch at a sort of outdoor mall, but with restaurants only. Then we went on our last site visit at Honeywell. We had a short demo of their video security systems, which was pretty advanced in my opinion, but I’m not very familiar with security. Then they presented their business strategies in China. It was quite different to hear that they are not measured on specific targets, but rather how close they are from the Chinese competition. Their goal is to stay right up there with the Chinese competition.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After Honeywell, we went back to the hotel and were free for the rest of the night. I explored the streets around the hotel and shopped a little bit at a department store. I was interested in seeing what their fashion look like out there and what kind of prices and quality they had. I was surprised to find the clothing at a nice department store to be priced at around the same level as in the U.S. And I wouldn’t say that the quality was better either. I was also expecting to see more Japanese-type fashion, but a lot of it was European inspired.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">For dinner, the same group from the previous day’s dinner adventure, decided to finally go to that nice Italian restaurant in the Financial Center. It was very lovely and delicious. And the setting was gorgeous: on the waterside overlooking Shanghai.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZ7iY87HeZ1ACARZA6FTNssHFaIngHchd1eXQyJVAcD5AfDAAe-pI6idsMXDG2F_Iw_4tuPA02TJjuwY95tSL3S9mjJMZtxdgH1s4AlpHL-qd01BW_sPygew1hvZ8HQ8o7oz8_TFsZgE/s1600/IMG_0731.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZ7iY87HeZ1ACARZA6FTNssHFaIngHchd1eXQyJVAcD5AfDAAe-pI6idsMXDG2F_Iw_4tuPA02TJjuwY95tSL3S9mjJMZtxdgH1s4AlpHL-qd01BW_sPygew1hvZ8HQ8o7oz8_TFsZgE/s640/IMG_0731.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br />
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</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3797913701636170906.post-54040245159505708872012-03-17T04:51:00.001-04:002012-03-25T22:05:48.929-04:00Change of minds<div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal">Thursday, we started the day with a couple speakers in the hotel conference room. The first speaker was Jon Anderson from Kyosay Global. He was interesting, but saying the same thing we already heard many times. One thing I found interesting, being a demand planner, is that the Chinese companies have a difficulty with demand planning because in the past companies were told by the government exactly how much to produce. Now that they have the freedom to produce whatever quantity they want, they don’t have the skills and knowledge to forecast the demand. The second speaker, Lufeng Gu from Hill & Knowlton, was a bit of fresh air. He spoke about media in China. Most Chinese companies are not aware of public relations, only the top tier companies are. He showed us newspapers from the same day, same event, but reported differently from the state owned newspapers and the tabloid newspapers. The example he showed was from a speed train derailment last year. The tabloid newspapers put it as it is with a picture of the train accident. The state owned newspapers preferred to focus on the people being rescued rather than showing the actual accident.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then we had the rest of the afternoon free for sightseeing. Before we left for China, we watched Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservation show in class and he went to a soup dumpling place that he really enjoyed, so I wanted to go there too. I went with a few other people; it was back in the market around the YuYuan Garden. We had some regular size soup dumplings and we also had their famous large soup dumpling that you drink with a straw. It was really good! Afterwards we shopped in the market for a little while and we took a cab to get back to the hotel. Over 45 minute cab ride for maybe a couple miles: that’s Shanghai traffic for you. Walking would have been faster. After we got back to the hotel, a group of us had planned to go eat at an Italian restaurant – little too much Chinese food. So we left the hotel around 4:30 because we had to be back at the hotel at 6:30 for the acrobatic show. We got a restaurant address from the hotel, which was a walking distance. But that restaurant didn’t open until 6pm, which was too late. We walked around a bit to try to find a hotel to go ask for recommendations and we stumbled upon the Waldorf Astoria. The concierge printed out an address of a restaurant, which said it was only a mile away, but we took a cab anyway to try to save time. So we got on the cab and showed him the address. Then suddenly we’re in a tunnel. We’re going across the river to the financial center. Oups… that’s way too far to eat and make our way back to the hotel in a little over an hour. When we saw the traffic going the opposite direction in the tunnel, we panicked a bit. So we tried to tell the driver we didn’t want to go to that restaurant anymore, but instead we wanted to be taken back to the hotel. Yeah, I’m sure we sounded like complete idiots in his head because we couldn’t explain why we wanted to go back. Back at the hotel, we had exactly half an hour to eat. We ran into Pizza Hut and told them we had to be out in 30 minutes, if they understood anything. It actually ended up being pretty fast. We all ordered soda, but the waitress brought soda in glasses with ice, so we explained that we didn’t want ice. While she was away changing our glasses, we realized that we shouldn’t even be drinking fountain soda anyway. So she brought back our ice-less glasses, which we didn’t touch. Poor lady, she must have thought we were idiots too.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">At 6:30 we left for the acrobatic show. Like I said earlier about my previous experience with an acrobatic show in China, I didn’t have very high expectation. But, the Chinese surprised me again. It was very entertaining. And dangerous. The show ended with one of those sphere motorcycle cage number. Not something you would see in the U.S. Not because the act itself is dangerous, but because the motorcycles actually drove around the theater seating area and spun around the sphere for a good 10-15 minutes with gas engines. After about 2 minutes, the theater was filled with gas fumes. All I was thinking was if they collide, the whole thing will explode. At one point there were 8 motorcycles in there. 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</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3797913701636170906.post-27680185109947502612012-03-16T11:46:00.001-04:002012-03-25T22:03:02.224-04:00The real China<div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal">Wednesday, we all had to get up early to leave the hotel by 7am to take the speed train again, but this time to Shanghai, 5 hours away. I had downloaded some TV shows on my computer to watch on the train. I was told I was very lucky to have had my headphones on and missed some interesting conversations going on! Oh the beauties of travelling in a group! <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Once in Shanghai, we went straight to sightseeing. All I have to say, well not actually all, is NOW I feel like I’m in China. Shanghai is much more “Asian” looking than Beijing. Other than the historical sites in Beijing, it didn’t feel very Asian. Shanghai, on the other hand, has more people, more bikes, more action, more China character! First we stopped by the Jade Buddha, which was in a Temple looking building, in the middle of the city, again very Asian. Must have been here before, don’t remember. After we made our way to the YuYuan Garden, set in the center of a market. That was very pretty and luckily it was a gorgeous day outside. But we were in a rush to get back to the hotel, not quite understanding why we needed to go back to rest after a 5 hours train ride of resting time, so we didn’t have time to stop for the shops in the market. Also because we rushed back to the hotel, we skipped the stop at the Bund, which is the walkway across the river from the Financial Center, where the Pearl Tower and all the skyscrapers are. And that was the only nice weather we were going to have here in Shanghai. Oh well I don’t want to argue with the opinionated voices. So we got back to the hotel and checked-in. I decided I wanted to go to the hotel hot tub because I had seen on the hotel website a room with three large hot tubs. So I put my bathing suit on, put a robe on, and walk barefoot down to the amenities floor. I try to ask for the hot tub, but not sure that they call them here. I try spa, but that’s their actual spa treatment. Then I try sauna, thinking it might lead me in the right directions, so they point to the women’s locker room. In there I see the sauna, but no hot tub. I look through another door and find someone to ask. I try a couple variation of hot tub: Jacuzzi, pool with hot water. Until they tell me: “only for men!” REALLY??? WHY??? They can’t explain of course! So I go back to my room and hang out until we leave for another meet and greet / happy hour, this time with Rutgers Shanghai. Same idea, different city. Well, guess what? I met another Canadian. A Chinese-born Canadian who teaches at the University of Shanghai, but lived in Vancouver and thought at the University of British Columbia for several years. Such a big country in a small world. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After dinner most of the group went to a club, for which we only had the address written down once. We had to take several cabs and miraculously managed to all make it there. I’m still impressed by that. In my cab, our driver ended up having to call someone that spoke a little bit of English to have one of us try to explain where we wanted to go. And we made it there. The club was very interesting. It was a club like any other club, but it was filled with stylish Asian people…obviously…but it was still funny to look at. At some point in the night, there was a mini show: three girls lip-synching (everything is fake in China!) to Christina Aguilera’s Burlesque song. Then later in the night, two Lady Gaga singing with two S&M-looking guys. Several of us left the club at the same time and somehow, the cabs all dropped us off at the hotel across the street from ours, even though we showed them the hotel card. Kind of a weird coincidence, almost makes me think that there’s a mistake on the small map on the hotel card. Anything is possible in China!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_LzztfuLOQEob_5DbdBzdzeYMP5iy7h3KRTHmPdUmJ6hTE9eGx0LIt_jjgTBBmZayvO_LtnEkChkwi-qOvmR7oXCZrLGVymqIUCQZ8i7P6H4SrkBdz77A1nM9mWOKKsOly18H0MzhWoc/s1600/IMG_0590.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_LzztfuLOQEob_5DbdBzdzeYMP5iy7h3KRTHmPdUmJ6hTE9eGx0LIt_jjgTBBmZayvO_LtnEkChkwi-qOvmR7oXCZrLGVymqIUCQZ8i7P6H4SrkBdz77A1nM9mWOKKsOly18H0MzhWoc/s640/IMG_0590.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3797913701636170906.post-15187507032622290842012-03-15T19:16:00.002-04:002012-03-25T21:39:53.816-04:00The Canadians invading China<div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal">Tuesday, we had plans to go to visit Alcan, but the visit got cancelled because the person receiving us was sick. Instead, we had Mr. Gilbert, managing director of Beijing Global Strategy Consulting Co., Ltd. come speak to us at the hotel. He was involved in a few ways in the Beijing 2008 Olympics. He had a lot of interesting things to say, coming from someone that has lived through the 30 year boom in China. He has been in China since 1980. He first went through the changes in China from 1980 to today. In 1980, there was practically nothing possible. As an immigrant to China, he wasn’t allowed to have contacts with locals. After 8pm, everything was dead, no entertainment, nothing. The main thing that struck me, given my industry background and interest, is that the Chinese consumers in the large European cities account for 50% of the luxury market. And the wealthy Chinese consumer average age is well below the average age of the wealthy consumers in the U.S and Europe. To me, this is important about the luxury market because even if I never export to China, I would still need to heavily cater to the Chinese people.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After the presentation at the hotel, we ran to the mall to get lunch. I went to the actual food court part, not international food court like we’re used to, Chinese food court. I managed to find something that looked decent from the plastic food models. Then our bus took us to the Beijing train station to catch a speed train out of town. The train station was really impressive, it looked like a modern airport. And the train was pretty cool too. It went up to 300km/h or 200mph and our ride was only 13 minutes. Once there, we went to visit Lights Medical Manufacture. They develop and manufacture alcohol pad, and swabs, and hold a 50% market share in the U.S. We first had a presentation on the company and then visited their facilities. That was cool, we got to see everything: the lockers where they keep all the samples where we saw some Walgreen alcohol pads, the labs where they develop and test the products, the factory where they produce and print the foil envelopes for the pads and swabs, the machines doing the production, the workshop where the machines are built. All their machines used in production are created and built on site. Pretty impressive. The company was very welcoming to our group and even had a banner outside welcoming us. Light has just recently merged with a pharmaceutical company and the manager of that pharmaceutical company is a Chinese-born Canadian. He studied in Ontario and lived in Toronto for many years.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After the tour we had a few minutes before we boarded our train, so we stopped at the new mall in front of the train station. This mall is an outdoor mall and from the street you can only see the back of the buildings because they are facing inwards and just from the architecture of the mall I could tell it was an outlet mall!!! It looked like Woodberry Commons! Nobody really bought anything because luxury is more expensive here, especially with the 17% VAT (tax). So we got back on the speed train back to Beijing. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Our bus dropped us at Switch Grill where we had an informal happy hour with Rutgers Beijing students and Alumni. Rutgers has an EMBA program in Beijing and Shanghai and the professors from the U.S. go to China for a week and teach a class. The structure is the same as the EMBA in the U.S., one weekend a month and a couple nights a month, so a full course is over in a week. I met Stephan, a French Canadian from Joliette! He graduated from the EMBA Beijing in 2009. The restaurant, Switch Grill, was also owned by a Canadian! It was mostly American food, so we ate a burger, mmmm! After the restaurant, we went back to the hotel and packed for our early departure for Shanghai for the next day.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmzUrG4bGeUmi8QgJnvisCIwFt-A1YrtKgwfEo-xB0Fo6kjuiKJxy3QeiQgORacm_BJURzAzRwwdxXHGUM-ex8FrKeXCLJhG6xCUrmhLxkikWhciV5aS7fedpPteS9obhKm3yQvHIeIH4/s1600/IMG_0573.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmzUrG4bGeUmi8QgJnvisCIwFt-A1YrtKgwfEo-xB0Fo6kjuiKJxy3QeiQgORacm_BJURzAzRwwdxXHGUM-ex8FrKeXCLJhG6xCUrmhLxkikWhciV5aS7fedpPteS9obhKm3yQvHIeIH4/s640/IMG_0573.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3797913701636170906.post-60401886178452720102012-03-14T05:04:00.002-04:002012-03-25T21:31:58.672-04:00Kong Fu fighting<div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal">Monday was our first part of the educational program. We started in the morning in the hotel conference room with a presentation from David Wolf from Wolf Group Asia, a consulting firm providing strategic communications counsel to companies in innovative and creative industries. Mr. Wolf was a very dynamic and interesting speaker. He has been doing business in China and living in China for the past 17 years. He started his presentation with “In China everything is possible…nothing is easy.” Then he gave an example of how a client asked him to reserve the equivalent of the Capitol Building in China for a dinner and needed an answer in 20 minutes. Mr. Wolf’s wife, Chinese born, got it done. Everything is possible…nothing is easy. Some of what he talked about was contradictory to what I’ve learned from my preparation for the trip. For example, before leaving for China I learned about Guanxi and how it is probably the most important thing in doing business in China. However, Mr. Wolf acknowledged that Guanxi was that important, but he sees thing moving in the direction where Guanxi will not be enough to succeed in China. However, like many others, Mr. Wolf also agrees that China still need to make more socio-political changes and to innovate to stay on the growth path. He also talked about the Little Emperors, which I though was interesting. Because of the birth control laws in China, a family can only have one child, which created a new generation of single childs with two parents and four grand-parents attending to the Little Emperors. Mr. Wolf also recommended that the best products to import into Chine is luxury goods for two reasons. There is a rapidly growing number of millionaires in China and you just can’t compete on price with the Chinese on anything else. One little bit of fact he said that I though was interested is two third of all the world’s construction cranes are in China. So just that shows how rapidly the country is growing.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The second presentation at the hotel was from Ms. Manuela Reintgen from Dezan Shira and Associates, a consulting firm that provides pre-incorporation regulatory and tax advice. Her presentation was more of a “textbook” presentation. She only had a little over two years of experience, but still very informative. She talked about the potential conflict of doing business in China, such as time – time is not money in China, relations – again she emphasized the importance of Guanxi, dealing with conflicts – the Chinese are not confrontational they want to ensure harmony. She also talked about the different types of legal structuring to start doing business in China, such as Joint Venture, Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises, agents and more, and she talked about the risks of doing each of them. Her information was definitely very practical.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After the 2 presentations, we only had 45 minutes to go get lunch before we had to get on the bus. Leaving us very little time and no idea how to say “to go” or “we’re in a hurry” in Chinese, a few of us opted for McDonald’s. I wanted to avoid Western food, but given the situation and I also believe I should try McDonald’s in every country I go to, we didn’t have much choice!<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After lunch, we went to Lenovo R&D center for a tour of their office and a presentation from an American marketing and communication manager. The tour of the R&D center was a presentation area prepared for group tour to go through the history of the company and see the product evolution. It was interesting, but I would have rather seen the actual production line, which was a mile down the road. At first I didn’t think they would have a plant that near to Beijing, but when they said the plant was down the road, I was a little disappointed we didn’t get to go see that. After the tour, we had the presentation from the American manager. He told us that when he first moved to Beijing, and for the next six years, he had to live in the Lenovo doors, where he shared a room equipped with six metal bunk beds and shared 2 washing machines between 100 people. Why would anyone want to do that? I wonder why people decide to move so far overseas and have to live in much more difficult conditions than back home…answer to come.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After the Lenovo visit, which ended an hour late, we had no time for dinner, so we all rushed back to our hotel room to change to go to a Kong Fu show. I was agreeably impressed with the quality of the show. On my first trip to China, we went to an acrobatic show and this poor lady fell from where ever she was perched and the tray of glasses she was balancing on her hand or her head, well turned out to be a tray to plastic glasses all glued together. It kind of ruined the show!<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After the show, we came back to the hotel, some people went out, of course, some, including me, went to bed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeu1ugyDweyc2yvlI23PXUprO_-se1MJN_e9LRpKyLj4kalk9dGrsWGOx8jgDU5d2syWfQeOpJp22eWsNINx-0jjykXqH-LAJ01dSOiTlPRKXET0PG5Ur2gQmMpbzHEcNVL4wgyvp70m0/s1600/IMG_0555.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeu1ugyDweyc2yvlI23PXUprO_-se1MJN_e9LRpKyLj4kalk9dGrsWGOx8jgDU5d2syWfQeOpJp22eWsNINx-0jjykXqH-LAJ01dSOiTlPRKXET0PG5Ur2gQmMpbzHEcNVL4wgyvp70m0/s640/IMG_0555.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3797913701636170906.post-87168308132041305472012-03-12T10:33:00.002-04:002012-03-25T21:27:03.231-04:00Knockoffs everything<div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal">On Sunday, we started the day by going to the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven is that famous round temple that is often shown in pictures of China. On our way out of the Temple of Heaven, we stopped in a tea house. We all sat around a large table and experienced a tea ceremony, which is basically a tasting of different kinds of teas prepared in front of us. All these teas supposedly have beneficial “powers”, such as lowering high blood pressure or cholesterol, helping memory, making your skin more beautiful. I enjoyed the experience.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then we stopped at the pearl market. The pearl market has everything from real government approved grade pearls to cheap fake jewelry and Canal Street-type knockoffs. One thing and maybe the only thing I wanted to buy myself in China were pearl earrings, so I went to one of the very nice store inside the pearl market with our local tour guide Isabella, a very very nice lady, and she helped me bargain for the earrings. In the end I got them for 40% off the ticket price. Not as low as what you can bargain the knockoffs for, but the lowest they would actually sell them at; I did try the walk-away technique – it didn’t work at that point. The knockoffs were what you would expect: designer handbags, shoes, “silk” scarves, sunglasses and electronics. Electronics are still interesting to me because I feel like a fake Louis Vuitton is one thing but a fake Canon camera?? Then again there are fake Mercedes in China! That is quite funny I think. To me, that is the prime of all knockoffs – a car!<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After the pearl market, we headed back to the hotel, around lunchtime, and our group program was over for the day. A lot of us went to the mall near the hotel to eat. There are quite a few restaurants along with some fast food chains in the mall. It’s a very nice mall. We went to a Chinese restaurant and I had a delicious Wonton soup and we shared dumplings. It was so far the best meal I’ve had in China.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After our delicious lunch, everybody did different things: massage at the hotel, nap. I went to the Summer Palace with Francesca and Carlo. We took a cab from our hotel and got there an hour later. It was kind of far. Although the cab fare was what you would expect in NYC going from midtown to downtown in 10 minutes: $12. And gas is more expensive in China than in the US. Not sure how they make any profit. The Summer Palace is where the last two Emperors spent their summers, up to 6 months a year. It’s a huge piece of property with a man-made lake, about a foot deep, and about 30-40 little pavilions or houses everywhere. We walked along the lake for about an hour and a half. It was very beautiful. I assume I had been there on my first trip to China, but it didn’t seem familiar. When we were done at the Summer Palace, we were afraid we weren’t going to find a cab to take us back to the hotel because the Summer Palace’s last entry was at 5:00pm and it was already 5:30pm with not too many people left around. However, as soon as we walked outside, a “cab” was waiting there, so we got on. I put cab in quotation mark because it didn’t look like most of the other cabs, but it did have a meter – one that turns twice as fast! We didn’t care, it was already so cheap for an hour cab ride and we were lucky we got one so fast.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The thing I’ve been most amazed by is the infrastructure. The roads are impeccable and so many buildings are what the very nice buildings in the US look like. A lot of it look very luxurious and if you take the Chinese characters signs out, you feel like you are back home in a very nice part of town. That is one thing I have no memory of back in 1995. I will really have to look at all the pictures from my first trip to China. I should have done that before I left, but I can still compare when I get back.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Once we got back to the hotel, since I had been cold all day, or actually the past two days, I felt like going to the hotel pool, hoping for a hot tub. Yes, I am one of the few people I think brought a bathing suit because I did look up the hotels before we left and saw that they had a pool, not so surprising anyway; most hotels do have pools. But unfortunately, no hot tub. I walked down the pool steps to my waist and I was still cold so I decided it was enough and sat in the sauna for a few minutes. When I got back to my room around 8pm, my roommate was sleeping; she had been partying pretty hard the last two nights. I decided to lay down as well and fell asleep. Later, I woke up, deciding I should go have dinner somewhere. Too late, it was 11:30pm. Back to sleep.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhehvOYalW0iJ7LDNM-YP6PlqkGoAiiN4AwuyZr_9rDSPNXQDgJbjHR4S3bNUMYs_uz44iv8dJqV-g0hWOgUrcOVibiHhB7TIsJVK2kIG6oJJqtsjAdWYd3Dm5CzwTAdig3i5QiSXbCvNI/s1600/IMG_0516.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhehvOYalW0iJ7LDNM-YP6PlqkGoAiiN4AwuyZr_9rDSPNXQDgJbjHR4S3bNUMYs_uz44iv8dJqV-g0hWOgUrcOVibiHhB7TIsJVK2kIG6oJJqtsjAdWYd3Dm5CzwTAdig3i5QiSXbCvNI/s640/IMG_0516.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3797913701636170906.post-17269635667867369262012-03-11T19:31:00.002-04:002012-03-25T21:14:33.177-04:00The Great Steep Wall<div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal">Saturday was a long (not long in a bad way) cold day of sightseeing. We all met in the hotel lobby at 8am to make our way to Tiananmen Square, the largest city square in the world sitting on the longest avenue in the world, if I remember correctly 42km. In my young 12 years old eyes, I saw Tiananmen Square much larger, but it’s still pretty large! I also remembered tons and tons of bikes going through the avenue in front, but it was summer back then so that might be why. So we walked through the square, took a few pictures and bargained a group deal for a souvenir book with a group picture taken professionally. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then we walked towards the Forbidden City, where we walked for about two hours through layers and layers of walls and interior courts. There were a lot of Asian tourists, actually the majority of tourists were Asian. I suppose western foreigners travel more frequently during the summer months. Walking outside for about two hours already got most of us pretty cold. Some people had to buy gloves and hats from the vendors walking around. Then we ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant, which was very good. Most of us liked it. It was somewhat close to what Chinese food tastes like at home. After lunch we rode the bus for an hour and a half towards the Great Wall. Nap time. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The Great Wall was pretty much like I remembered, but not as steep as I remembered. We entered through the Badaling entrance, which is the most popular. The climb to the peak was quite tough; it started with a smooth walking hill going steeper and steeper until it had to change into stairs, which were not only so steep that all you could see was the heels of the person in front of you, but also uneven steps. The steps are uneven because if the enemies were running on the wall they would trip due to the unevenness of the steps. So note to self: don’t run on the wall. The walk down was just as challenging, in a different way.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After the wall climb, we got back on the bus for the hour and a half ride back to downtown. Nap time again. On the way back, just outside Beijing, we stopped to take pictures of the famous Bird Nest and Water Cube, from the 2008 Olympics. It was very beautiful in person. The whole Olympic village was quite nice.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">One thing I learned that I though was very interesting is how the government controls the traffic, or the abundance of cars. I hope I remember all of these correctly. First, to get a license you have to wait, like a lottery, because only 240,000 are issued every year. Second, every day two numbers are picked and if your license plate start with one of these two numbers you cannot drive on the roads, eliminating 20% of the cars driving every day. Third, in Shanghai, it is very expensive to buy a license plate or driver’s permit, sometimes as much as a cheap car. I thought those little facts were pretty interesting. However traffic wasn’t too bad, not must worse than traffic outside New York, but then again it was the weekend, so it could be much worse during the week.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then, back to the hotel for about an hour and we were out for our welcome dinner at Jasmine. It was a very nice restaurant, which I actually didn’t expect. However, the food was, how should I say, exotic! In another way, it was fancy Chinese food. Yeah, not at all what we eat at home. Jellyfish, lotus roots, frog legs (which I do love, but didn’t want to try them soaking in a bowl of liquid) and many other exotic food. Most of us didn’t eat much, if anything, until they brought out the bowl of noodles – that was delicious. We also kept asking for white rice and they kept saying no! We also had the traditional Peking Duck, that we rolled into pancakes with cucumber and a sauce. Pretty good.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">After the restaurant most of the group went out to a club, which I believe is a pretty famous one in Beijing, coming back at all hours of the night: 12:30am, 1:30am, 2:30am…</div><br />
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</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3797913701636170906.post-44723414332164995542012-03-11T18:56:00.010-04:002012-03-25T20:15:13.948-04:00Through new eyesSo I’m having issues posting with pictures, so I will keep it to text for now and add pictures later. So this post was intended for our first day in Beijing.<br />
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Yesterday we went to Wal-Mart on our way to the hotel from the Beijing airport. It was quite different, but to be honest I thought it would have been even more different. Some of the interesting things they had were live turtles, “pack-your-own” chicken legs like you would do with fruits, very very expensive sea cucumbers one box was around $1,500. Most of us took advantage of the shopping experience to get a few things to eat and drink to bring back to the hotel. One thing many of us observed is that there aren’t as many people hustling around as you would think; New York City feels more busy.<br />
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After checking in at the hotel, a few of us went to a restaurant in the alley behind the hotel, the last one with the red door to be exact, some tourist recommended. We ordered a bunch of dumplings and some other dishes. It wasn’t too bad. Not as different as I remembered real Chinese food. <br />
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I travelled to China in 1995, when I was only 12 years old, so it is and will be very interesting to see it again as an adult. I’m so so grateful that my parents took my sisters and I around the world when we were young, but I wish I had been more mature back then. When the Olympics were in Beijing in 2008, I remember watching a documentary about the terracotta army and I had the same thought; I wish I was a little bit older when I saw all the things I was lucky enough to see to understand how special it was. I was probably complaining about being tired and hungry, but what can you say I was 12! We’re actually not going to the terracotta army on this trip, but we will see a few of the things I remember from my first trip to China, like the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City.<br />
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Here are a few pictures from yesterday’s short adventure. Today we’re in for a big day.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ_mmA38Xz-vAcqdn8HUo1vwqA17mIjt6vb6N9lPJIYPmtnte5M7ykRzGHob7FSniP6fw5jJj8neuRHtbYFDairb2PUbdd19Ymcx4p9LB-B6Yms6hdU12ElBU0D7SYLvzIREwolMrdMiU/s1600/IMG_0442.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ_mmA38Xz-vAcqdn8HUo1vwqA17mIjt6vb6N9lPJIYPmtnte5M7ykRzGHob7FSniP6fw5jJj8neuRHtbYFDairb2PUbdd19Ymcx4p9LB-B6Yms6hdU12ElBU0D7SYLvzIREwolMrdMiU/s640/IMG_0442.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3797913701636170906.post-75797312028257489592012-03-09T10:28:00.000-05:002012-03-09T10:29:17.728-05:00Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage<div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Why can’t I go on blogger? The internet cable is connected properly; I can go on MSN……… Oh yeah! Why didn’t I think of that, the internet is censored in China. I can’t access my blog I’m supposed to be writing on. Thanks to my classmate Adam, he set up my account from the US so that I can post through email. I hope all this is coming out right because I can’t see it!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I should have known that networking sites (Facebook, nope can’t go on that either) and blogs any more political subject sites are blocked in China. I wrote a short paper on Google China about Google’s decision to censored it’s search results to enter the Chinese market. From the US I tried googling, on the Google China page, controversial political subjects and I was surprised I was able to get on the pages, but now I understand that it’s not about searching from the Google China page, it’s about being physically in China. <o:p></o:p></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3797913701636170906.post-42516206280702837012012-03-07T19:43:00.000-05:002012-03-07T19:43:14.554-05:00Title changeFor those of you that already peeked at this blog before this post, you might realized that my blog title changed. While reading <em>China shakes the world, the rise of a hungry nation</em> by James Kynge, on the plane, I came across a great quote by Napoleon about 200 years ago. He said: "Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world." Kynge then goes on to explain that China hasn't been exactly sleeping for the last two centuries, but "the renaissance currently transforming the world's most populous nation marks the end of a long era of decline and weakness for the Chinese nation." For whatever reason Napoleon spoke those words, "he was far ahead of his time."<br />
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I already loved the title of this book, but I didn't want to use it for my blog title, now that I understand where it comes from, I just have to!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70_Uet9KLGjdr8orIBJVoi9B73lpULlggNXx3ZbCYKkenQCIfCaErFN8PCEp8NVr_2Zqo_0yibxYQL1VSTfOn2OksxapKuh6OAzcnmICPXBo4TJmn8j7-XQv3yGznh_qf3BS51NB0mYk/s1600/China+shakes+the+world.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70_Uet9KLGjdr8orIBJVoi9B73lpULlggNXx3ZbCYKkenQCIfCaErFN8PCEp8NVr_2Zqo_0yibxYQL1VSTfOn2OksxapKuh6OAzcnmICPXBo4TJmn8j7-XQv3yGznh_qf3BS51NB0mYk/s200/China+shakes+the+world.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3797913701636170906.post-54773128236212667472012-03-07T12:35:00.051-05:002012-03-07T20:13:06.995-05:00In preparation for departureIn preparation for my study trip to China, I did a lot of reading and research on how to do business in this emerging country. Here is a glimpse of the things I learned before I step in one of the fastest growing economies of the world. Throughout my trip, I will keep an account of what I'm learning that is different from what I believed going in.<br />
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GUANXI: Guanxi means connections, or relationships. It is probably the most critical resource to have to be able to do business in China. Because of the country's tight regulations and bureaucracy, business people need Guanxi to help them "get around" those regulations. I had learned about Guanxi even before starting my studies on China in my International Business class. It's a very important part of successfully doing business in China and everyone will reiterate it.<br />
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FACE: The Chinese are very concerned with face. They will do almost anything or not do something to get face or give face to someone. When I first read about face, I wasn't sure exactly what it meant, maybe because English is not my first language and I'm not familiar with this expression, or maybe it's just something that's not commonly used in western culture? After a quick Google search, I learned that face is in fact of Chinese origin. It is a sociological concept meaning dignity or respectability also synonymous to prestige, honor, respect, and status in other cultures. So going back to face and the Chinese, putting it simply, they place appearance over substance.<br />
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CHINA BOOM: In 1978, the Chinese government created policies to open China's door to the world economy and went through a series of economic and political reforms leading for the China Boom of the last 30 years. The boom came about following the new policies primarily because of the privatization of enterprises allowing business to make their own choices of prices and production quotas, which in turn created competition and increased productivity in China. Individuals were also able to make their own choices for the first time. China's economy now relies heavily on foreign direct investments and exports. However, this model is not sustainable in the long run and China will have to keep moving forward towards a more consumption driven economy.<br />
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PROPERTY RIGHTS: Doing my research on China, so many things became more clear in my head. We all know about the immense counterfeiting problem in China, but I never really questioned why. The Chinese people do not benefit from intellectual property rights like we do in western cultures. Companies do not want to innovate and invest in research and development because their intellectual property investments will not be protected by the government, so instead they copy.<br />
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STATE OWNED ENTERPRISES SOE: Up until 1978, 90% of China's output was produced by SOE. These SOE had the monopoly in their industry and the government controlled the pricing and production quotas leaving the SOE inefficient at using their resources. Privatization of industries came about after the open door policies of 1978; today the private sector represents about 50% of China's GDP.<br />
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LOW PRICES: Again we all know that the cheapest prices a business can get will come out of China, but other than their low wages, which a lot of other countries also have, why? One of the reasons lies in the Chinese culture. The Chinese are curious, eager to learn and very ambitious. "The Chinese companies are flexible and make decisions very quickly. By the time a multinational firms are ready to make a decision, the Chinese companies have already made a cycle of decisions and learned from each of them. The Chinese companies leverage this model to grow very fast" and be able to offer the lowest prices. (Edward Tse, for the Asia Society China Boom Project)<br />
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CHINESE CONSUMPTION: The Chinese population is very frugal. The consumption level in China, around 36% of GDP, is much much lower than the developed nations of the world standing at around 50% of their GDP. In fact, "China had the lowest consumption-to-GDP ratio of any major world economy except Saudi Arabia, where oil exports contribute the bulk of economic output." (see chart below) The main reasons for this phenomenon are because the Chinese government doesn't offer its citizens any social safety net - there are no social security, no pension plans - and the other reason is simply behavioral. "The country's households have an extraordinarily high ability to save: the average Chinese family squirrels away an astonishing 25% of its discretionary income, about six times the savings rate for the US households." (<em>A consumer paradigm for China</em>, McKinsey Quarterly, August 2009) But when they do spend, they make sure it's on something that will give them face!<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;"></span></span><br />
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</div>Along with these main important facts about doing business in China, I also learned some Chinese cultural etiquette, like the way to accept and give a business card, the way to greet and be greeted, and more, which I will report on when I actually experience it.<br />
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Now on to my super long flight half way around the world.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0