College Bound

Day 2

Hitting the Campus: School stuff

Today we got to see the academic institutions and college life in China’s top two most prestigious school.  Tsinghua University’s campus makes a Big Ten campus look like nothing.  35k students, 29 dorms and enough botanical garden landscape to create tranquility among the entire human race.  Founded in 1911 Tsinghua University has historical ties to the U.S.  Unfortunately due to the very painful history China has endured over the past century the college has changed functions and focus many times in its 100 year history.  Lunch here was traditional Chinese, however was located in the Muslim Cafeteria there were no pork dishes.  Ironically the food was really good, and overall the dishes that were served resembled the American perception of Chinese food.  I must say that the quality was quite good, disproving the concept that cafeteria food is sub-par…. At least in China.

Tsinghua Univesity is regarded as the MIT of China, if this is the case than Peking University resembles something like Berkley.  With sidewalk art and beautiful architecture as well as superb landscape all over the campus, Peking U. was a little less intimidating and overall was pretty relaxed.  There was a huge lake and a million awesome little hide-a-ways ideal to curl up with a good book or study poetry.   University motto: Actions speak louder than words….   Pretty awesome!  Interesting fact, all students had to live on campus, and there were housing barracks for professors and their families as well.

Overall the tours and the lectures today helped give me a much greater understanding of what China is all about academically, culturally, economically and globally. 

Our one professor Claudia gave the most poignant analogy about China and its “ancient cultural that has no history”.   Forgive me I’m going to butcher this but it really was quite eloquent the way Claudia told it:

“There was an old wise man that had a beautiful estate for many many years with a great big house filled with many nice things.  When the old wise man passed away he had willed his estate to a very young man.  Unfortunately, by the time the young man inherited the estate everything was dilapidated and the walls and floors were cracking and the beautiful things were broken.  Instead of renovating the old wise man’s house and preserving the originally architecture and landscape, the young man decided to tear the house down and build a new one that is very cold and has no character.  Although the old house is gone at least the walls are secure and the house functions.  This is what happened to China”

Claudia explained the Cultural Revolution from the 1950-s thru 1970’s as if a Western academic.  Incredibly, she has never even been to America.  I considered her lecture a high privilege, and would compare it to listening to world renowned scholar that teachers at an ivy league school here in the states.  Trust me she had the credentials!

A great day overall. 

The Eagle has Landed!

Day 1

Arrival… After 17 hours flying over Greenland, Siberia, and the Gobi Desert we finally arrived.  After months of planning and preparation I took my first steps within “The Sleeping Giant”.  Unfortunately those steps almost immediately led me into a back room by myself for Security purposes.  OK, so I was standing at the immigration desk for about 5 minutes and it was clear that the immigration inspector did not believe that I was the same person in my passport picture.  In a thousand ways I am not that person in the picture; physically the photo was of me at age 18 just prior to graduating high school.  Since that snapshot I have gained a diploma, bachelors, and experienced 3 years of a diverse, fast paced, and vibrant young career while pursuing a master’s degree.  So there I am awaiting my fate, after roughly 4 different security immigration officials proceeded to bounce their eyes back and forth from my passport photo of what I looked like almost a decade ago and my mid/late twenties mug in the flesh.  Next I gained the “privilege” of moving on….. Into the back security room.  Surprisingly I was only nervous for a second, between the jet lag and disillusionment that I was really in China I only had a minor panic attack and then instantly I was hit with the sensation of calmness.  After I tossed about 6 ID cards at some very official looking gentlemen (which basically created a chronology of my aging over the past decade) they finally granted me entrance to the capital city.

The bus ride from the airport gave me a feeling of exuberance I haven’t felt in a long time.  I can only compare it to the gut excitement  when you’re about to experience something  100% new for the first time like entering a sports stadium or Disneyland when you’re a kid, or a first kiss as a teenager or even getting dropped off at College.  The small differences in infrastructure and the vast road systems on the way to the airport were amazing…. Everything was so new and fresh to me.  For that matter to be fair most everything in Beijing is relatively new, there was construction EVERYWHERE!

The Hotel is very nice, from an insider industry stand point I was impressed with the building and the interior decor.   The Royal King is HUGE and seems to offer a lot, personally I am not planning on spending much time here but it is cool.   

Dinner was at a destination restaurant where the authentic traditional Chinese cuisine dining was completely integrated into their landscape, it was comparable to a tavern theme at Colonial Williamsburg or Epcot Center.   We discovered an interesting occurrence that is related to their education system and migration.  Many young people come Beijing from small towns outside the greater Beijing area, to maneuver and change locations within China is very similar to us as moving to a different country to work (i.e. applying for a Visa).  Also the servers and the “actors” dressed in tradition Chinese garb did not have much more than an elementary education; in fact they couldn’t answer some of Dr. Chung's questions about the menu because they couldn’t read it.  With over 600 characters many children forego furthering their education do to circumstance and difficulty of even their own language.   The plating and garnishing of the dishes was beautiful and I really enjoyed trying Chinese food that I wasn’t used to in the states.    

the blog is up and running

My inaugural post:

This is my first blog and my first time to the far East.  I've been tuning into as many articles and specials on television during this month which also happens to be Asian Heritage month.  I'm excited for a number of reasons to take this journey, most importantly I am excited to see how it changes my perspective of the world and the concepts of business and trade that I've only known in a Western sense. 

I'll be in China in 7 days.... more then!