Beijing in Photos

The Bird's Nest from the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Street food that the boys were daring enough to eat (Silk worms, chicken hearts, snakes, etc.)

Daily Struggles

Since arriving back from my trip I have been completely swamped.

(literally 12 hour days, endless meetings, and hours behind at work)

Because of all of this I have been super slack about finishing the rest of my travel posts and editing photos however, today is the day! I have done a ton of editing and hope to complete the rest of my China posts (Thailand may have to wait a little bit longer).

I am going to upload photos and insert them into the matching posts; this means that if you are interested in seeing them you should check out old posts. Also, as my camera tends to be obtrusive at times and general intimidates others, many pictures were not taken by me!

Thanks!

Hong Kong

March 15th

I woke up around 6 am to leave Dongguan and catch the bus to Hong Kong. After hearing such wonderful things about Hong Kong I was very excited to experience it first-hand. We drove across the border from China to Hong Kong and boy was it an experience. Even though Hong Kong is a part of China there are stringent restrictions on who can go in and out of the area because of the large number of mainland Chinese wanting to go to Hong Kong, as well as the economic inequality. Arriving at the Chinese border we unloaded all of our stuff, filled out customs forms, and got in line. After making it through the passport check and baggage scan we boarded another bus and continued on to the Hong Kong side. Once in Hong Kong, we repeated the earlier process with a much longer line and less personal space. In order to keep the group together and to hold our ground, we all strategically spread out to keep the Chinese behind us. They don’t believe in queuing up and cutting in line is standard practice. This is totally opposite of Western ideas and can be a little disconcerting if one isn’t prepared.

An hour and a half later we were in Hong Kong at a wonderful dim sum lunch. It was definitely one of my favorite meals of the trip with an array of dumplings, buns, and greens! Following lunch we attended a lecture at the City College of Hong Kong. It was given by an expat who moved to Hong Kong and has been teaching at the university for 15 years now. We had an interesting discussion about China’s past, present, and future as well as, relations with Hong Kong and Macau. As if the day weren’t packed enough, we also visited Victoria’s Peak to see the best view of the city. It was incredible to see all of the city, the harbor, and the mountains at one time. Hong Kong is a very dense and urbanized city however it is surrounded by a lot of national forests and green mountains.

From the beginning, I was interested in visiting Macau, the world’s gambling capital and former Portuguese island. Even though the day had been long, taking the ferry to Macau was an obvious choice for me.  I have never been to Las Vegas, a casino, nor gambled so I had no idea what to expect from this experience. I imagine Vegas looks really similar, a lot of lights, huge buildings, and prominent casinos. In a rush we scarfed down some McDonald's (don't judge) and ran to catch the ferry (literally, a mad dash). While casinos are hardly as glamorous as I hoped and I am way to risk averse to be a real gambler, I did have an awesome time and even won some money playing craps! 

Our first time gambling!

However, arriving back at the hotel at 4:30 am was not fun!

Dongguan, Day 2

Our trip to Dongguan was primarily to visit with Bernhardt Furniture, a company with strong ties to ASU and with operations in China. The Bernhardt office is located in the Sofitel resort, ultimately making it feasible for us to stay there, as well as very convenient to meet with them.  After a wonderful, relaxing night with the MBAs poolside, we woke up and enjoyed the most extensive breakfast spread ever. Calling it a buffet would not do this breakfast justice because there was fresh juice, homemade yogurt, and an array of my favorite cheeses accompanied by fresh bread. Great start!

We met up with our host, Steve, and boarded the bus to go visit the factory where Bernhardt furniture is manufactured. Lacquer Works is a Taiwanese company that operates in Dongguan and is rented by Bernhardt to do its manufacturing. They also produce other notable North Carolina brands. I never previously considered manufacturing interesting, however visiting the plant was a very cool experience. I definitely have a new interest in and appreciation for the manufacturing process. Maybe that’s in my future?

After the tour, we had a spicy lunch provided by Bernhardt, which was delicious and interesting as usual. As someone considering working abroad, it was nice having the opportunity to talk with professionals about their experiences landing a job and working internationally.

We also had our first free night, which was awesome as there had hardly been a moment to spare up until this point. Chinese food is delicious and unique, however after a week of solid Chinese food everyone agreed that a change was in order. While it was hardly the BEST choice, we ended up at some sort of Tex-Mex restaurant with overpriced, mediocre food (but it was totally perfect). It turns out that the place is owned by a guy from High Point, NC, small world huh? We had hoped that this connection would have landed us some free drinks, but alas Mr. High Point was not overly nostalgic about his old stomping grounds. To try and experience a little bit of Dongguan we went out to a club where there was a super cool chick DJ and we were the only non- Chinese. It seemed like a totally great place but Alex and I were pooped so we called it an early night and I enjoyed a wonderful night sleep back at the hotel. 

Despite these safety precautions, we used no safety equipment nor did any of the workers

I know we are all used to seeing this in the States, however I did see a lot of 'made in the USA' in China

Alex and I at a pretty site in Dongguan

Down South, In China

March 14th (I think)

On this trip our days were so jam packed that no one ever got enough sleep and I had to take notes to remember everything I have done (unfortunately, I stopped taking notes 4 days in). Beijing was nice but cold and kind of a quiet city, with the exception of never ending traffic, and after 4 days I was ready to move on. The group met in the lobby at 5 AM to catch a 3 hour flight south to Shenzhen. We flew Shenzhen Airlines which provided us with attractive flight attendants in stereotypical sexy stewardess garb. We were also treated to a charming breakfast of soggy hash browns, pickled vegetables, some sort of brown egg in air tight packaging and a mint upon disembarkation. At the end of our flight we enjoyed an interpretive dance performance, a la Napolean Dynamite, about the kindness of Shenzhen Airlines.

  The main purpose of visiting Shenzhen was to go to Huawei a global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Apparently they allow very few tours so being granted access was a special opportunity. It was interesting to see the products they make and the beautiful building, however the tour was quick and not overly informative.After the visit we had about 2 hours to go out and procure lunch on our own. After struggling a bit around a random shopping center, my group decided on a restaurant based on the menus pictures. We were ushered upstairs (which was a trend the whole trip) and seated in typical fashion around a rounds table with a lazy susan. The dishes were wrapped in plastic and we were given pots of hot water and tea simultaneously. Apparently we were supposed to wash our dishes in the warm water, FAIL. Struggles ensued as our waitress did not speak English and our Mandarin on the whole is wretched, nonetheless we managed to order, get cold beer, and have some pretty good dishes (though I am pretty sure one of them was cat). We left in a hurry to meet our deadline and were horrified and entertained by taking a peak into the kitchen and the litter box outside of our dining room. Oh, I didn't mention the cats running in and out...real life, fresh food? The high point though was the vanilla soft serve cone from KFC, it was honestly heaven sent.

We boarded the bus once again to go further south to Dongguan where we stayed in the Hotel Sofitel, Dongguan Royal Lagoon...it was more heavenly than the ice cream! It is an incredible resort complete with incredibly plush rooms, beautiful pools, restaurants, clubs and a water park. We didn't want to leave the hotel!

Thanks MBA program for putting me up in a 5-star!

 The cat restaurant!

Lobby at Huawei

 Alex and I at a dinner hosted by Bernhardt

The Art of Business In China and I Ate A Scorpion

Monday, March 12th

Sunday was basically given over to touring and shopping and since we are MBAs we had to do something businessy...just kidding the trip actually was very business oriented but in a fun way (yes, business can be interesting and/or fun). The morning began with a visit to Lenovo (which bought IBM's computer segment), a very prominent computer company and especially successful in China. We toured the manufacturing facility (which unfortunately does not operate on Mondays) and saw how the production takes place as well as their extremely sophisticated warehousing system. Though I would never call myself a tech savvy person or really interested in the least, it was very interesting and exciting to be invited into such a large, successful company.

After a lunch interlude, we once again boarded the bus and headed to the US Embassy in Beijing. I was skeptical about this visit, why it was really applicable, and how boring it would be, HOWEVER I was definitely wrong because the presentation we received was not only interesting but informative. I had no idea that it was the job of the embassy to provide support for businesses looking to expand into China and to help build business relationships. Hearing about business in China was definitely eye opening and made a lot of misconceptions apparent to me. It also reignited my interest in government work, specifically the Department of State.

To celebrate our last night in Beijing, Dr. Cazier and Dr. Vannoy planned a dinner at the most famous Beijing Duck restaurant in the city.  Pardon me for not recalling the name as it is in Chinese and I could never pronounce or spell it anyway. Our Chinese friends from the first day were also invited, heightening the experience. I consider myself somewhat of a foodie and am always interested in trying new things but there are items that I am just unfamiliar with, duck being one of them. I have never been opposed to the water fowl, the opportunities to eat it have just been few and far between. Needless to say, I was eager to sink my teeth into the juicy, crispy, orange duck. A flock of perfectly cooked ducks were wheeled out on carts and chopped into perfectly consistent pieces. The duck is meant to be eaten in pancakes with a sauce and some slivered onion (almost identical to the way moo shoo is served). It was fab, I ate with abandon and was stuffed by the time I realized there were several more courses to come. The rest were all duck dishes equally as good as the Beijing duck and I wholeheartedly wished to be like a cow with multiple stomachs. Then the unexpected arrived, a plate of fried scorpions complete with stingers. I was not convinced of the necessity to eat one of the spindly creatures but Alex implored and played the "you're in China card". I gave in because she was right, I would have totally regretted that! While it was horrifying to put into my mouth, I can honestly say it didn't taste bad. After initially being poked by the stinger, I crunched up his little body legs and all.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is how I ate a scorpion and maybe enjoyed it (just a little).

Exhaustion, The Forbidden City, and Impulse Buying

Sunday, March 11^th

I stayed up entirely too late on Saturday night and woke up exhausted on Sunday morning. After rushing through breakfast, I jumped on the bus and we headed to the Forbidden City. Beijing this time of year is cold and most of the time I was chilled, even wearing my down jacket. The morning at the Forbidden City was particularly frigid, making the stroll through the gates a little tough to enjoy.  We started by passing through Tianamen Square, one of the busiest places in Beijing and the notorious site of peaceful rebellion. From there we entered the city with its traditional Chinese architecture and courtyard after courtyard surrounded by high red walls.

The Forbidden City is beautiful, intricate, and huge; though after visiting Wat Prakeaw in Bangkok it doesn’t seem quite as magnificent (more to come about that). It was awesome seeing such a famous ancient place, in fact, just being in China was a kind of surreal and exciting experience.  I would like to say that I took full advantage of my visit to the city but I was freezing, tired, and desperate for a bathroom most of the time. In a moment of panic I had to dash off from the group to find a “happy room” (the name our guide Wendy used to refer to the bathroom) and upon my failure to find one honestly considered finding a corner in which to relieve myself. Luckily, I found the happy room before I had to weigh the options between wetting myself and being arrested for public indecency in the People’s Republic of China. A friend later told me he saw the look of panic in my eyes, let’s just say it was the sweetest relief I can ever recall.

After the Forbidden City we all boarded the bus for the 1.5 hour drive to the Great Wall. We stopped at a restaurant a couple of miles from the wall and had an incredible lunch. I feel like every meal that we ate was a banquet with 10-12 different dishes placed on our lazy Susan each time. I enjoy the Chinese style of eating which involves placing dishes on the turntable and passing them at will so that everyone can pluck out what they want. And chopsticks, I love them. I want to use them EVERYDAY!  The Chinese food was also very good, with the exception of one spice that seems to be a staple and never fails to make my stomach turn. None of the Chinese could give us a name for the spice and generally said it was cumin, I assure you that this vial smell was not cumin. Other than that the food is honestly not all that dissimilar from the typically Cantonese style of Chinese food found in the U.S. There were no crab rangoons but plenty of lo mein and sweet and sour so and so.

On a terribly full stomach I headed off to the Great Wall, excited as I had always found the wall exciting and never seriously entertained the possibility of visiting it. The site did not disappoint and was particularly thrilling to view as I rode the chairlift to the top. The landscape is rugged, dusty, and barren. I know it is winter however I have a hard time imagining this place ever being green. It is so impressive that thousands of years ago people built this mammoth structure on the ridge line of a pretty tall mountain. It was spectacular and beautiful! The photos are more explanatory but I think being there is more impressive than just seeing it. Since we took a chairlift up, the means for descent was a toboggan ride. I was initially skeptical of situating my body on a tiny sled, fitted with a hand brake, and being shoved down a mountain on a tubular track which was a huge mistake on my part. My only regret was that I wish I had ignored more of the slow-down signs and gone faster. The toboggan was a totally unexpected way to experience the Great Wall and totally made me feel like a kid again, especially with my professors participating as well.

                At this point of the day I was completely exhausted but allowed myself to willingly be hustled into the Silk Market (basically the same thing as the Pearl Market, cheap and knock off goods that must be haggled for). Alex and I were determined to come out on top at the Silk Market after failing so miserably at the Pearl Market. I was beat but gave it my best go and left with a pair of fake converse (yes, I know it’s ridiculous) and some superfluous knock off luxury items. Being too tired to bother with eating, Alex and I headed up to the room and crashed!