The Richmond MBA

Monday, June 1st thru Friday June 5th:
Tsinghua University (http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/eng/index.jsp) and its’ School of Economics and Management was a short ten minute walk from the hotel.  The first morning we had a two hour campus tour.  The campus was beautiful and large, but we didn’t get to see inside any of the other buildings or dorms, which I thought unusual, though time probably played a factor. 

It was interesting seeing the differing building architecture on campus (and in the city).  There were a blend of old and new structures that seemed to make no particular sense or order in style or type.  The tour, given by two students (one, an American from San Francisco in the International MBA Program, and the other a native in the MBA Program) turned less enjoyable about thirty minutes in, as the heat of the day started baking us in our professional attire.After our campus tour we ate at one of the student cafeterias.  The food was buffet style like any cafeteria you could find in the U.S.A. and it was good, although I imagine it would get old, as they all do, when you eat it time and again.  Dessert was watermelon and you have to try, just once, to eat a full triangle with chopsticks.

We had five classes that week with five different Professors on the following topics: Mandarin, Chinese Cultures and Values, Business Communication in China, Managing Competition in China, and China’s Economic Status and Challenges.  I won’t bore you with the minutiae from the presentations, if you would like to know more, please let me know.In general, all of the professors (except the language instructor, that was strictly Mandarin) discussed and were very knowledgeable about our government and gave the appearance of taking our politician statements very seriously.  A couple even quoted President Obama and referred to his inaugural speech.  My perception is this is due to how big a role the PRC’s government plays in their daily life.  

Some of the discussions gave me an eerie feeling of big brother was watching and while I never felt personally threatened at any point, I had a hard time not challenging what I deemed violations to personal liberty and property.The professors were upfront about their government and its’ role, at least to my limited understanding.  While there was some criticism, the focus was more on the good outcomes with the bad minimized and somewhat trivialized as a small character flaw (not really different from anyone talking about their home country to foreigners).  And, other than Chairman Mao, the government was not really personalized or individualized as it is here in the U.S.A.; here a speech will be attributed to President Obama or an individual politician, a speech by a politician in China is a statement by the government.  What is released to the media seems to be deemed as backed by the government as a whole.

Another common theme was the importance of the movie “The Last Emperor”; we were often asked if we had seen it.  (I did come home and promptly watch it; I think my understanding of the film was better for having visited China and learned more about its’ culture and history directly.)

During the week we visited Microsoft, Li Ning (our ICP Company), Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and saw shows at the Heaven and Earth Theatre (acrobats) and the Laoshe Tea House (instrumental music, singing, opera, and comics).  A number of us visited bars in the Sanlitun Embassy area, near the University and traveled to a night market where the wares were fried scorpions, sea horses, starfish, assorted bugs and snakes for a dining adventure.  I only tried the scorpions, they were so small that it tasted like crunchy fried turkey skin.  I didn’t hear anything good about the starfish or snake.  I also tried a fried vegetable wrap which was wonderful, except I couldn’t taste it after I got to the spicy sauce that they barely painted on.  My lips burned from the chiles for over an hour, definitely not a condiment for those who don’t like spice.  

Alex, our student contact, invited some of us to play badminton one afternoon with his friends, where we taught them the word “whiff” because that is mostly what we Americans did!It is interesting looking back on this first week, because at the time, I felt like I was making a huge headway into learning about the Chinese culture and country.  We were exposed to so much and it was hard to take it all in. 

Since then I’ve read a couple of books that I would highly recommend: Peter Hessler’s River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze and Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present.  After finishing them I realized how little we actually touched on during the trip.  Beijing was just one city in a vast country with an extremely diverse population.  I wish I had read the books before going on the trip to possibly enable me to learn more about the individual people we met, and perhaps be able to ask better questions to connect on a less superficial level.

Saturday, May 30th: At last we arrived at the Wenjin Hotel in the Haidian District of Beijing.  Check in was chaotic, with 15 of us arriving at the same time, but it moved quickly.  That first afternoon/evening passed in somewhat of a blur, we managed to navigate “Jerry’s Bar” attached to the hotel, sampling both Russian and Chinese beers, learning basic money exchange, and had a few lessons in language from the manager, Alex.  Interestingly, the background music in the bar was a selection of Christmas songs, including some by Alvin and the Chipmunks.

With some navigational difficulty, nine or ten of us located one of the suggested restaurants about a block up from the hotel.  There was one menu in English and to eliminate confusion we had two people order the meal for the table: Peking Duck and assorted sides.  There wasn’t too much difficultly ordering, because we could point to the menu, but I was surprised at how little English was spoken by the wait staff.  I remember thinking that this would be an anomaly; however, with the exception of the tourist sites, it was pretty common to find no one with an understanding of the language except a few basic words like “hello”.  In fact if any vendor spoke English really well, we learned to bargain hard, because the prices they were offering were generally inflated by 100% or more.

The meal that evening was delicious, but not very filling as it required a lot of work for the little food that actually made it to our mouths.  All of us fumbled with the chopsticks, dropped food on the table and in our laps.  It did prepare us for the rest of our eating experiences though, as most restaurants had similar table set ups.  Each circular table had a Lazy Susan in the middle, where all food and drinks were placed.  There were a few dishes with serving utensils, but mostly it was a snag and grab with chopsticks.  This was a bit of a challenge to navigate because of the differing speed and skills with chopsticks.  We adapted to this new serving mode by grabbing food as it passed, rather than filling a plate.  Patience was required as, usually, the food desired was on the far side of the table.

Sunday, May 31st: The next morning, the group took a bus to the Great Wall at Badaling.  Apparently this is the location that most tourists (Chinese and Foreign) go to when visiting the Wall.  Our guide, June Liang, spoke good basic English, supplied some background about the Wall, taught us some Mandarin and pointed out various points of interest along the way.  It was arid scenery once out of sight of the city, a bit like inland California, with mountains and scrubby trees.

The Great Wall was our first introduction to public restrooms.  I can’t recall now if they had western and eastern toilets, but the eastern toilets are an adventure.  There are pictures and descriptions online if you’re curious; whenever possible the majority of us preferred a Western style toilet.

We had less than two hours to wander the wall and two ways to walk from the point we accessed.  The Heroes Way, to the right, looked longer to traverse and more crowded but the incline seemed more gradual.  The majority of us went left, “the difficult route”, with a shorter, strenuous and steep climb to the top ridge point.  It was a sunny, smoggy day, but there was also a brisk wind that kept us from becoming too warm.  The views were great, but jet leg, hunger and thirst set in, so some of us wandered back to the courtyard to wait for the others.

While sitting and waiting, a number of Chinese tourists came over and wanted to take pictures.  What initially seemed fun, ended up lasting about a half hour with different combinations of sitting, standing and posing with numerous tourists, before we tired of being celebrities.  This theme continued at any tourist place, the Chinese tourists would request to take photos with us and they would flash the peace sign, meaning “V” for victory according to our guide.

That afternoon a couple of us took a taxi to the Silk Street Market.  The taxi ride terrified me, as we weaved, honked and barely missed other vehicles, bikes and pedestrians.  By the end of the trip I had adjusted to the driving style and could usually refrain from flinching.

The Silk Street Market stands out as one of few places that I disliked in Beijing.  The cacophony of sound as vendors hawked their wares, the hunted feeling as you browsed, the inability to determine actual money value of the item you wanted to purchase, all contributed to my dislike.  Each aisle way felt like running a gauntlet: shouting voices, pulling hands and pushing of merchandise.  It was too much for me, although many of the group went back multiple times thrilled with the purchases and bargains they were able to find. 

We dined that evening at Ganges Indian restaurant (http://www.ganges-restaurant.com/en/find-us.php) across from the Hotel.  I would highly recommend the place as it was a perfect ending to our first weekend in Beijing.