It’s Tuesday night, and I’m feeling sick to my stomach. Coming back to school after the holidays has been a rude awakening. I’m not used to working this hard again, and I’m craving a day off and a morning to sleep in. I’ve been extra quiet since school started up in the new year. I’ve been in more of a thinking mood lately, and haven’t felt like socializing much. I think I’m anxious to move on with the next phase of my life, which will be a move to Toronto and a new job.
My perspectives on what I want out of the last four months of this program have dramatically changed in the last few weeks. There’s no doubt that having some free time in China gave me an opportunity to think about my goals for 2009, and how I want to go about spending my time at school and with my colleagues, my friends, and of course my best friend; my wife. After a couple of very excellent conversations with some good friends and Geeta, I think I have a much more clearer picture of some of the changes I want to make in the last four months of school.
So what do I want for the last four months?
Out of School…I want to:
-Take the time to really learn and absorb from the classes and not to trade a deeper learning and understanding of the material for higher marks. I like to excel and therefore I like to aim for high marks, but I also know that I’ve sacrificed a bit of learning all year round in order to focus on getting higher marks. I need to get more comfortable with making this trade-off and I know that it will mean that I may not be able to do all the cases and class preparation everyday.
-To make a meaningful impact for the school.
Out of my social life….I want to:
-Spend less time socializing at the bars, and spend more quality time with friends and colleagues from Ivey
-Spend more time getting to know my colleagues that I don’t know as well or haven’t had a chance to connect with during the year
Out of my home life…I want to:
-Spend more quality time with Geeta
-Make more of an effort to connect with family more often
Other than the fact that school is whipping me back into shape, things are progressing: I haven’t been keeping up with my workouts as I would like, I’ve got a new learning team, and I’m working with another team on an exciting new consulting school project for a very interesting client.
Until next time…
Sacha
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
China Study Trip ~ Hong Kong...Part 4/4
We flew into Hong Kong from Shanghai on another domestic Chinese carrier by the name of Dragon Air. Once again I was impressed with their domestic airline service. As we pulled into Hong Kong and flew over the mountainous terrain surrounding the city one could see the lit up skyline of Hong Kong. It looked like Manhattan, but with the lights of Vegas. As we landed at the international airport, I remembered all of my friends and family that had told me about the infamous landing approach at the Hong Kong airport. Landing at Hong Kong is quite scary for those that don’t like a bumpy ride due to the positioning of the airport and the local geography. Sure enough as we approached the runway, the plane took a steep dive into an area that appeared to resemble a valley…pretty freaky!
After a 45 minute bus ride into downtown, we reached our Hotel. This hotel was far superior to the dump in Shanghai. I remember being really excited about having landed in Hong Kong and finally having the opportunity to see the city. I love photographing skyscrapers and Hong Kong boasts a skyline that is arguably better than that of New York City. Over the next couple of days I would go nuts with my camera photographing much of the skyscraper architecture present in the city.
Picture: Hong Kong at night
Video: Kowloon Market
After a day in the city I had come to the conclusion that Hong Kong rocks! It’s cosmopolitan and commercial like New York City, hilly and unique like San Francisco, and tropical like Hawaii; three of my favourite places. I think I could easily live in Hong Kong! After taking a couple of cable car rides over the surrounding hills and having ascended the ‘Peak’ (a mountain overlooking the city), I was in love with the views and sights of the city’s beautiful terrain and forest of skyscrapers.
Picture: Hong Kong skyline
On the second day in Hong Kong we visited the Hutchinson Port, which is the third busiest shipping port in the world. We enjoyed a very entertaining presentation from two of the port’s executives. At this point, I was really feeling ill and had a hard time paying attention so I won’t comment too much on this activity other than to say that it was really neat seeing how the port operates and how it is completely computerized. Visiting the control centre was pretty awesome for a techie like me (lots of toys to look at). Did I mention that they were a Nortel customer ;) You knew I had to throw that one in! Anyhow, it was nice seeing a piece of Canadian technology at the centre of their operations (perhaps it will be Chinese technology as Huawei perhaps bids on Nortel in the coming weeks). Hopefully the government will step in soon and save them.
In terms of memorable moments, I will share a funny story with you. I say funny now, but at the time I was pretty peeved ;) I mentioned in part two of my China blog series that this was the first trip that I have taken where I completely relied on others to get around, and to keep schedule. I pretty much just followed the masses to the point that I didn’t even know my own hotel name or where we were supposed to be at any particular point in time. Well it kind of bit me on the butt on one day: A group of us were riding the subway back from the Kowloon market toward the Ivey School of Business (Hong Kong campus) for a presentation. I wasn’t feeling well and it was crowded on the subway. To make a long story short, I somehow wasn’t paying attention and missed our stop and got separated from my classmates. I seriously had no idea of where I was in the city, nor an idea of where to go, or where the hotel was. I think this was the first time in my life where I can say that I was truly lost. Ooops! On top of that I was feeling very ill at the time. As I wandered the streets of Hong Kong, I struggled to remember the name of our hotel; was it ”Nova,” “Intercontinental”? The name “Novotel” finally dawned on me and I was able to find a taxi driver who knew where it was. I got lucky, it was the right hotel. For those planning on doing the China Study Trip in the future, always ensure that you carry a hotel card with you at all times with the name and address of the hotel so you don’t get lost like me!
Probably the most memorable aspect of Hong Kong was the party scene and the night life. The class went pretty crazy in the last couple of nights hitting up lounges, clubs, and ‘Club 711’ often with the many Ivey alumni that inhabit this vibrant city. What’s ‘Club 711’ you ask? Well, 711 convenience stores can be found all over China and in the party district of Hong Kong. Since drinks are very expensive in the clubs, most of us were frequenting the 711 store (which is right outside many of the night clubs), and making our own party on the streets before entering the clubs. The clubs and lounges themselves were quite the experience. Some of them charged $60CDN cover (for men, women get in free) and up to $20CDN for drink…ouch! Not great for that student budget; hence “Club 711” to start things off!
By this point in the trip, everyone was getting pretty tired. There was definitely some excess partying happening, and we were all enjoying life to the fullest (perhaps a bit too much). The last couple of days were filled with ups, downs, and a bit of drama; all events that will make this trip a memorable one! By the end of it I think many of us were ready and happy to go home to our families. Many others were continuing their adventures over the holidays in the Asia Pacific exploring Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.
Well that about sums up the China Study Trip. I hope you enjoyed it!
After a 45 minute bus ride into downtown, we reached our Hotel. This hotel was far superior to the dump in Shanghai. I remember being really excited about having landed in Hong Kong and finally having the opportunity to see the city. I love photographing skyscrapers and Hong Kong boasts a skyline that is arguably better than that of New York City. Over the next couple of days I would go nuts with my camera photographing much of the skyscraper architecture present in the city.
Picture: Hong Kong at night
After a day in the city I had come to the conclusion that Hong Kong rocks! It’s cosmopolitan and commercial like New York City, hilly and unique like San Francisco, and tropical like Hawaii; three of my favourite places. I think I could easily live in Hong Kong! After taking a couple of cable car rides over the surrounding hills and having ascended the ‘Peak’ (a mountain overlooking the city), I was in love with the views and sights of the city’s beautiful terrain and forest of skyscrapers.
On the second day in Hong Kong we visited the Hutchinson Port, which is the third busiest shipping port in the world. We enjoyed a very entertaining presentation from two of the port’s executives. At this point, I was really feeling ill and had a hard time paying attention so I won’t comment too much on this activity other than to say that it was really neat seeing how the port operates and how it is completely computerized. Visiting the control centre was pretty awesome for a techie like me (lots of toys to look at). Did I mention that they were a Nortel customer ;) You knew I had to throw that one in! Anyhow, it was nice seeing a piece of Canadian technology at the centre of their operations (perhaps it will be Chinese technology as Huawei perhaps bids on Nortel in the coming weeks). Hopefully the government will step in soon and save them.
In terms of memorable moments, I will share a funny story with you. I say funny now, but at the time I was pretty peeved ;) I mentioned in part two of my China blog series that this was the first trip that I have taken where I completely relied on others to get around, and to keep schedule. I pretty much just followed the masses to the point that I didn’t even know my own hotel name or where we were supposed to be at any particular point in time. Well it kind of bit me on the butt on one day: A group of us were riding the subway back from the Kowloon market toward the Ivey School of Business (Hong Kong campus) for a presentation. I wasn’t feeling well and it was crowded on the subway. To make a long story short, I somehow wasn’t paying attention and missed our stop and got separated from my classmates. I seriously had no idea of where I was in the city, nor an idea of where to go, or where the hotel was. I think this was the first time in my life where I can say that I was truly lost. Ooops! On top of that I was feeling very ill at the time. As I wandered the streets of Hong Kong, I struggled to remember the name of our hotel; was it ”Nova,” “Intercontinental”? The name “Novotel” finally dawned on me and I was able to find a taxi driver who knew where it was. I got lucky, it was the right hotel. For those planning on doing the China Study Trip in the future, always ensure that you carry a hotel card with you at all times with the name and address of the hotel so you don’t get lost like me!
Probably the most memorable aspect of Hong Kong was the party scene and the night life. The class went pretty crazy in the last couple of nights hitting up lounges, clubs, and ‘Club 711’ often with the many Ivey alumni that inhabit this vibrant city. What’s ‘Club 711’ you ask? Well, 711 convenience stores can be found all over China and in the party district of Hong Kong. Since drinks are very expensive in the clubs, most of us were frequenting the 711 store (which is right outside many of the night clubs), and making our own party on the streets before entering the clubs. The clubs and lounges themselves were quite the experience. Some of them charged $60CDN cover (for men, women get in free) and up to $20CDN for drink…ouch! Not great for that student budget; hence “Club 711” to start things off!
By this point in the trip, everyone was getting pretty tired. There was definitely some excess partying happening, and we were all enjoying life to the fullest (perhaps a bit too much). The last couple of days were filled with ups, downs, and a bit of drama; all events that will make this trip a memorable one! By the end of it I think many of us were ready and happy to go home to our families. Many others were continuing their adventures over the holidays in the Asia Pacific exploring Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.
Well that about sums up the China Study Trip. I hope you enjoyed it!
Monday, January 5, 2009
China Study Trip ~ Shanghai...Part 3/4
We boarded a domestic airline to make the trip to Shanghai from Beijing, ‘China Eastern Airlines.’ Wow, did they ever put Air Canada to shame; non-stop beverage and snack service with free alcohol throughout the entire flight. The two hour journey passed very quickly and before you knew it the Shanghai skyline was visible.
Shanghai immediately demonstrated a very different flavour than that of the one Beijing left with us. For one, it was commercial and less historical/political with no soldiers visible on the streets, and it was densely populated. There were roughly the same amount of people in the city as Beijing encompassed in a land mass that was roughly 1/4th the size. The buildings were predictably taller and the city felt busier, despite having 1/8th the cars on the road.
Picture: Shanghai Skyline
The skyline in Shanghai is mighty impressive. It’s dotted with large financial institutions, and future-like architecture that almost puts New York to shame. Almost all the development is new (within the last 15 years). In the downtown area, the sights of the 101 stories World Financial Centre (2nd tallest in the world) and the 87 stories Grand Hyatt steal the show and give a good representation of what the future of Shanghai’s skyline will look like. Already, construction has started next door on Asia’s tallest building. The development scene is incredible. Some estimate that 30% of the world’s cranes are in Shanghai, with another 30% in Dubai.
Picture: Group shot in front of the Shanghai skyline
Shanghai provided an opportunity for us to meet with a number of Ivey alumni, visit a number of plants, and really get a feel for what it’s like to conduct business in China. We had a opportunity to visit Bao Steel, the #2 steel company in the world. Visiting the plant, or should I say city, was eye-opening to say the least. We had an opportunity to witness how steel is manufactured pretty much end to end. We toured a building that was roughly 500 metres in length. It was an assembly line with some of the biggest machines that I had ever seen. These machines were pounding the molten steel, shaping it, smoothing it, and cooling it with water. The molten steel glowed bright orange and one after another a new beam of molten steel would zip down the assembly line giving off strong heat. It almost felt as if you were in a sauna for a split second as the beam zipped by. Visiting the plant was something like experiencing the Discovery Channel in reality. One could almost sense that China’s economic growth was hugely dependant on this plant in order to build its skyscrapers, infrastructure, and manufacturing capabilities. We also had an opportunity to get a presentation from an executive at the company that spoke in Mandarin and had a translator covert to English. I must say that the translator did a great job and the presentation was actually quite effective despite the language barriers.
Picture: Bao Steel presentation
Shanghai also provided us with an opportunity to visit Shanghai General Motors, and take a day trip to a Suzhou. Shanghai General Motors is a 50-50 joint venture between GM and the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. We had an opportunity to visit the assembly line and witness how a car is manufactured end to end. What surprised me the most in China was how popular the Buick is, and I guess if there’s a bright spot in GM it is that they have a stronghold in China through this joint venture. We also got to eat with the local automotive assembly line workers to get a real taste of work life in the factory. I must say that the meal was delicious!
Picture: Visit to the Shanghai GM assembly line
Visiting Suzhou (about two hours outside of Shanghai) was one of the highlights of the whole trip. We visited a new master-planned high-tech community (as previously described in part 1 of the blog entries) where 6m people will call home. We visited a museum that demonstrated the future plans for this master-planned city and what it will look like. I think we were all blown away by the scale and dream of it. They seemed to be taking the best of all the world’s cities and implementing them into these new futuristic cities. For example, this new city will soon have a replica of the London Eye (Ferris Wheel), and the latest in skyscraper architecture with a number of 80+ stories building dotting a yet to be constructed skyline. Already, dozens of high-tech multinationals call this futuristic city home. On the flip side, we visited the historical side of Suzhou where we rode a boat through a canal that snaked through the village. It was our first taste of what rural China was like. One could see the poverty, and the lack of essential services. I must say though that despite some of the visible poverty, the historical Suzhou and the canal were magnificent. I think that the boat ride will be the part of the trip that I will most remember. It was very surreal, calming, cultural, and beautiful.
Picture/Video: Riding the canal through historical Suzhou
One afternoon, the class hit a popular market where we had another opportunity to barter and buy some souvenirs. The market was lively and came complete with Starbucks, which was a friendly and welcome surprise. Other highlights included dining with Ivey alumni, hearing a presentation from the author of a book on China's Supertrends, and riding the Magnetic Levitation Train (Maglev train). The author of the China Supertrends book, Jason Inch, was very insightful and provided a unique perspective on what the future China will look like, and the role that they will play on the world stage (probably the best presentation on the trip). The Maglev runs from near downtown Shanghai to the international airport. There are only two such trains in the world (the other in Germany). The train topped out at 301 km/hr (see video below). What surprised me was that it was not nearly as smooth as I thought it would be for a train that has no wheels and levitates off the ground on magnets? There was a distinct buzzing sound as the train accelerated and it was not nearly as impressive as the TGV in France.
Picture: Visiting a popular market in Shanghai
Video: Riding the Maglev Train in Shanghai
Shanghai immediately demonstrated a very different flavour than that of the one Beijing left with us. For one, it was commercial and less historical/political with no soldiers visible on the streets, and it was densely populated. There were roughly the same amount of people in the city as Beijing encompassed in a land mass that was roughly 1/4th the size. The buildings were predictably taller and the city felt busier, despite having 1/8th the cars on the road.
Picture: Shanghai Skyline
The skyline in Shanghai is mighty impressive. It’s dotted with large financial institutions, and future-like architecture that almost puts New York to shame. Almost all the development is new (within the last 15 years). In the downtown area, the sights of the 101 stories World Financial Centre (2nd tallest in the world) and the 87 stories Grand Hyatt steal the show and give a good representation of what the future of Shanghai’s skyline will look like. Already, construction has started next door on Asia’s tallest building. The development scene is incredible. Some estimate that 30% of the world’s cranes are in Shanghai, with another 30% in Dubai.
Picture: Group shot in front of the Shanghai skyline
Shanghai provided an opportunity for us to meet with a number of Ivey alumni, visit a number of plants, and really get a feel for what it’s like to conduct business in China. We had a opportunity to visit Bao Steel, the #2 steel company in the world. Visiting the plant, or should I say city, was eye-opening to say the least. We had an opportunity to witness how steel is manufactured pretty much end to end. We toured a building that was roughly 500 metres in length. It was an assembly line with some of the biggest machines that I had ever seen. These machines were pounding the molten steel, shaping it, smoothing it, and cooling it with water. The molten steel glowed bright orange and one after another a new beam of molten steel would zip down the assembly line giving off strong heat. It almost felt as if you were in a sauna for a split second as the beam zipped by. Visiting the plant was something like experiencing the Discovery Channel in reality. One could almost sense that China’s economic growth was hugely dependant on this plant in order to build its skyscrapers, infrastructure, and manufacturing capabilities. We also had an opportunity to get a presentation from an executive at the company that spoke in Mandarin and had a translator covert to English. I must say that the translator did a great job and the presentation was actually quite effective despite the language barriers.
Picture: Bao Steel presentation
Shanghai also provided us with an opportunity to visit Shanghai General Motors, and take a day trip to a Suzhou. Shanghai General Motors is a 50-50 joint venture between GM and the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. We had an opportunity to visit the assembly line and witness how a car is manufactured end to end. What surprised me the most in China was how popular the Buick is, and I guess if there’s a bright spot in GM it is that they have a stronghold in China through this joint venture. We also got to eat with the local automotive assembly line workers to get a real taste of work life in the factory. I must say that the meal was delicious!
Picture: Visit to the Shanghai GM assembly line
Visiting Suzhou (about two hours outside of Shanghai) was one of the highlights of the whole trip. We visited a new master-planned high-tech community (as previously described in part 1 of the blog entries) where 6m people will call home. We visited a museum that demonstrated the future plans for this master-planned city and what it will look like. I think we were all blown away by the scale and dream of it. They seemed to be taking the best of all the world’s cities and implementing them into these new futuristic cities. For example, this new city will soon have a replica of the London Eye (Ferris Wheel), and the latest in skyscraper architecture with a number of 80+ stories building dotting a yet to be constructed skyline. Already, dozens of high-tech multinationals call this futuristic city home. On the flip side, we visited the historical side of Suzhou where we rode a boat through a canal that snaked through the village. It was our first taste of what rural China was like. One could see the poverty, and the lack of essential services. I must say though that despite some of the visible poverty, the historical Suzhou and the canal were magnificent. I think that the boat ride will be the part of the trip that I will most remember. It was very surreal, calming, cultural, and beautiful.
Picture/Video: Riding the canal through historical Suzhou
One afternoon, the class hit a popular market where we had another opportunity to barter and buy some souvenirs. The market was lively and came complete with Starbucks, which was a friendly and welcome surprise. Other highlights included dining with Ivey alumni, hearing a presentation from the author of a book on China's Supertrends, and riding the Magnetic Levitation Train (Maglev train). The author of the China Supertrends book, Jason Inch, was very insightful and provided a unique perspective on what the future China will look like, and the role that they will play on the world stage (probably the best presentation on the trip). The Maglev runs from near downtown Shanghai to the international airport. There are only two such trains in the world (the other in Germany). The train topped out at 301 km/hr (see video below). What surprised me was that it was not nearly as smooth as I thought it would be for a train that has no wheels and levitates off the ground on magnets? There was a distinct buzzing sound as the train accelerated and it was not nearly as impressive as the TGV in France.
Video: Riding the Maglev Train in Shanghai
Friday, January 2, 2009
Sacha Gera: China Study Trip ~ Beijing...Part 2/4
It was the night before the trip and Geeta (my wife) drove a classmate and me up to Toronto to crash in an airport hotel so that we wouldn’t have to fight Toronto traffic in the morning. We were excited to say the least, and it was tough sleeping that night. The next morning, a number of classmates converged at the Continental airlines gate at Pearson International Airport. You could feel the excitement in the air that morning, although you could also tell that many in the class had been up all night packing and were exhausted.
My flight was composed of two segments, Toronto->Newark and Newark->Beijing. Upon landing in Newark, we had about an hour to connect flights. I sat down with some friends for a quick lunch and somehow we lost track of time. Yup… we almost missed our flight to Beijing. How embarrassing! Having the Continental boarding reps scream at me for being late didn’t make me feel any better, but I admit that I deserved it. Generally throughout my life, I’m the type of person who is quite timely, and relies on myself. I’m also the type that does a ton of research on our destination, follows a schedule to a tee, and often leads the group on a travel trip. This time, however, I decided that I would take a back seat, do absolutely no research on the destination, and would rely 100% on my classmates. I figured that there were enough type-A leaders in this class and that I could easily sit back and relax. Guess I didn’t get off to a good start ;)
The 14 hour plane ride to Beijing was enjoyable. I was sitting with two of my Team 5 teammates and close friends, which made for a comfortable and fun ride. As we landed in Beijing, my neighbour and I observed a puffy cloud that spanned for roughly 100 km around Beijing. It seemed like kind of an odd-shaped cloud as it had a number of pillars (like plumes) jetting out of the tops of the cloud. It didn’t take us long to figure out that this was not a regular cloud, but a pollution cloud engulfing the city. Those pillars jetting from the clouds were emissions spewing from factories! Upon landing, the pilot came on the PA and announced the current weather in Beijing; “cool and smoky.” It was hard not to laugh at that. I had never heard anyone use the word ‘smoky’ in a weather report. The Lonely Planet (popular travel book) reports that one day in Beijing is equivalent to smoking 70 cigarettes.
I shared a taxi with a couple of mates on the way to the hotel in Beijing. The taxi driver spoke no English and all we had was a name of a hotel. About 10 minutes into the trip, we realized that our taxi driver didn’t know where to go. On top of that, it appeared as though he was illiterate and couldn’t read the Mandarin title of our hotel (apparently 40% of taxi drivers are illiterate in China). My mates and I struggled to figure out a way to convey the location of our hotel to the driver, and after much struggle we found a suitable method. My friend had an iPhone with an English to Mandarin translator. We would type sentences in English and the phone would sound them out in Mandarin. That seemed to work and we finally arrived at the hotel.
After a couple of days, it didn’t’ take me long to formulate some initial thoughts on Beijing. For one, the infrastructure was far beyond what I expected. The highways were in excellent condition and very new, the airport was efficient, the subway was second to none, and the road system seems to do a fantastic job of handling 4m cars. There was some obvious real big $’s spent on the city in preparation for the Olympics and it showed. It wasn’t just the Bird’s Nest (Olympic Stadium) or surrounding Olympic Park, the entire city had benefitted from the Olympic spend and it showed. The pollution on the other hand was out of control. It appeared foggy and hazy on most days and often times one couldn’t see the sun. The only time I had ever seen it so bad or worse was in India. Apparently, Beijing had implemented ‘Project Blue Skies’ in an effort to curtail automotive pollution whereby only even or odd number license plates could drive on specific days (most families were buying two cars with one even and one odd numbered plate to get around it). Based on the air pollution and particular matter in the air, it was difficult to judge whether the program was effective or not. Overall, the city had a historical and political feel to it as opposed to a commercial one. In some ways it felt like a big, historical capital city with a few thousand military personal roaming the streets, and was less commercialism than expected.
On the first full day, a group of us set out to do some sightseeing in Beijing. We covered a wide footprint of the city and nailed most of the top sights: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Silk Market to name a few. I like to do a lot of sightseeing on trips and one my biggest pet peeves is when I’m with a group of people and we aren’t moving quick enough such that we miss seeing out on sights, or if someone gets tired and alters the plans for the day. What I realized on this trip is that most of us in the program are very similar in nature. Most of us have the travelling and sightseeing bug implanted deep within us; perhaps this is a common trait amongst successful Ivey applicants? Not only did we function as an efficient sightseeing group, but there were no expectations of each other. If someone wanted to depart or do their own thing there were no hard feelings. Anyhow, what a great day!
Picture: Tiananmen Square
Hitting the Silk Market for the first time was insane. Silk Market is a famous market in Beijing where you can buy a variety of goods ranging from clothing to jewellery, and where no fixed prices exist. It’s bartering nation! Having Indian origins and having visited India a number of times, I must say that I was used to the aggressiveness and bargaining ways of the store keepers. I think a number of my classmates, however, were blown away and overwhelmed by it. In terms of bargaining, the prices were very elastic! Generally, one could bargain down to 1/8th of the starting price and sometimes even more. A classmate and I spent a number of hours trying to finish up my shopping list that my wife gave me, and it was tough and tiresome to say the least. The two of us recently took a negotiations class and functioned in a good cop/bad cop manner, and it seemed to work very effectively for us. After a couple of hours the two of us were feeling exhausted, and I had a pounding headache from all the screaming and insanity in the market. By the end of it I had so much stuff that I had to buy an extra suitcase. It was only day 2 and I was up an entire suitcase…argh! We decided to grab a coffee at Starbucks (yes: Starbucks is everywhere in China and is a bit more expensive than here) before looking for a taxi to the hotel. Getting a taxi home was a horrible experience. No driver wanted to take us home on the meter (as per law) and instead they were trying to set a fixed price which was roughly 10x the normal amount (they claimed that it was cheaper in rush hour). It wasn’t the amount of $ that they were attempting to charge us, but rather the principal of being cheated: We refused to set a fixed amount. The two of us decided to walk out of the Silk Market district (roughly 15 minutes out), and we finally found a driver that put the meter on (although we needed to repeat it to him in Mandarin about five times before he actually turned it on). I think I speak for most of the class when I say that taking taxis in China is not a pleasant experience!
Another highlight of Beijing was the ‘Cultural Plunge’ activity that we all had to take part in. Essentially, as part of the China Study Trip elective we were assigned to learning teams and had to partake in the ‘Cultural Plunge’ whereby our team was allocated a budget and had to complete a number of activities. As part of those assigned activities we had to engage in a personal service, barter and buy a good, do something kind for a local, take part in a local activity, and visit a number of locations around Beijing (to name a few). One of the memorable parts of this day was meeting a rickshaw driver and having him join us for lunch. He took us to a local Chinese restaurant where I had the best Chinese food I’ve ever had in my life. What a cool experience.
Picture: Lunch with local rickshaw driver
On the last couple of days in Beijing we had an opportunity to listen to a number of keynote speakers including an executive from South African Breweries (SAB), a partner from IBM Global Business Services (consulting), and an executive from Fruits and Passion (Canadian retail chain expanding in China). We learned about the do’s and don’t of conducting business in China. For example, we learned about how the different levels of Chinese government play an active role in influencing business, including taking investment positions in many of these companies and forcing joint ventures on foreign multinationals. We also learned about how joint ventures play an important role for foreign businesses entering China, particularly in the areas of establishing government relations, and setting up operations. It’s was obvious to me after only a few days that China was a force to contend with lots of business opportunity. If you can't beat them you might as well join them.
I guess I didn’t mention much about our visit to the Great Wall of China and the Olympic Stadium Tour. What can I say other than it was incredible and very memorable. Climbing that mountain up to the Great Wall and taking a toboggan back down (almost like a bobsled) was something I’ll never forget. Checking out the Olympic Stadium was also surreal having just watched it on T.V during the summer.
Video: Sliding down from the Great Wall of China
Picture: Olympic Stadium-Bird's Nest (left), Great Wall of China (right)
Stay Tuned for Part 3 of 4; Shanghai.
My flight was composed of two segments, Toronto->Newark and Newark->Beijing. Upon landing in Newark, we had about an hour to connect flights. I sat down with some friends for a quick lunch and somehow we lost track of time. Yup… we almost missed our flight to Beijing. How embarrassing! Having the Continental boarding reps scream at me for being late didn’t make me feel any better, but I admit that I deserved it. Generally throughout my life, I’m the type of person who is quite timely, and relies on myself. I’m also the type that does a ton of research on our destination, follows a schedule to a tee, and often leads the group on a travel trip. This time, however, I decided that I would take a back seat, do absolutely no research on the destination, and would rely 100% on my classmates. I figured that there were enough type-A leaders in this class and that I could easily sit back and relax. Guess I didn’t get off to a good start ;)
The 14 hour plane ride to Beijing was enjoyable. I was sitting with two of my Team 5 teammates and close friends, which made for a comfortable and fun ride. As we landed in Beijing, my neighbour and I observed a puffy cloud that spanned for roughly 100 km around Beijing. It seemed like kind of an odd-shaped cloud as it had a number of pillars (like plumes) jetting out of the tops of the cloud. It didn’t take us long to figure out that this was not a regular cloud, but a pollution cloud engulfing the city. Those pillars jetting from the clouds were emissions spewing from factories! Upon landing, the pilot came on the PA and announced the current weather in Beijing; “cool and smoky.” It was hard not to laugh at that. I had never heard anyone use the word ‘smoky’ in a weather report. The Lonely Planet (popular travel book) reports that one day in Beijing is equivalent to smoking 70 cigarettes.
I shared a taxi with a couple of mates on the way to the hotel in Beijing. The taxi driver spoke no English and all we had was a name of a hotel. About 10 minutes into the trip, we realized that our taxi driver didn’t know where to go. On top of that, it appeared as though he was illiterate and couldn’t read the Mandarin title of our hotel (apparently 40% of taxi drivers are illiterate in China). My mates and I struggled to figure out a way to convey the location of our hotel to the driver, and after much struggle we found a suitable method. My friend had an iPhone with an English to Mandarin translator. We would type sentences in English and the phone would sound them out in Mandarin. That seemed to work and we finally arrived at the hotel.
After a couple of days, it didn’t’ take me long to formulate some initial thoughts on Beijing. For one, the infrastructure was far beyond what I expected. The highways were in excellent condition and very new, the airport was efficient, the subway was second to none, and the road system seems to do a fantastic job of handling 4m cars. There was some obvious real big $’s spent on the city in preparation for the Olympics and it showed. It wasn’t just the Bird’s Nest (Olympic Stadium) or surrounding Olympic Park, the entire city had benefitted from the Olympic spend and it showed. The pollution on the other hand was out of control. It appeared foggy and hazy on most days and often times one couldn’t see the sun. The only time I had ever seen it so bad or worse was in India. Apparently, Beijing had implemented ‘Project Blue Skies’ in an effort to curtail automotive pollution whereby only even or odd number license plates could drive on specific days (most families were buying two cars with one even and one odd numbered plate to get around it). Based on the air pollution and particular matter in the air, it was difficult to judge whether the program was effective or not. Overall, the city had a historical and political feel to it as opposed to a commercial one. In some ways it felt like a big, historical capital city with a few thousand military personal roaming the streets, and was less commercialism than expected.
Picture: Beijing freeway and pollution (left), soldiers (right)
What was interesting on a personal level was the fact that after a few days in Beijing I felt more confident about the possibility of living in an Asian city or reaching out beyond North America as a possible place to live in the future. I realized that the city was in fact quite liveable and that I could function just fine independently if I needed too. In some odd way navigating the city via public transit, bartering with aggressive shop keepers, struggling with the locals over language, dealing with corrupt taxi drivers, and getting lost on a couple of occasions, was a huge confidence builder. The trip was already having a positive effect on me and an in addition I felt that I was forming strong bonds and friendships with my classmates. I already knew that this trip was worth it and that missing it would have been a big mistake.
Beijing is a city of 18m in the metro area. It’s expansive and spread out and well connected with infrastructure. The boulevards are very wide open (very Paris-like), and the buildings are spaced out which seem to make the city feel very non-dense. I must admit that I was expecting a heavy population density, and big crowds everywhere, but I found that Beijing was quite the opposite. I still can’t figure out how 18m people live in the city. Where does everyone live? Sure the city is filled with thousands of mid-rise buildings, but few skyscrapers, and it only took about 20 minutes to get into the outskirts of the city. Frankly, in my opinion Toronto appears far more congested, dense, and expansive for a city of roughly 5.5m in the metro or 1/3rd the size.
The following are some of my highlights from Beijing:
On the first night, a group of us hit a local hole-in-the-wall restaurant where we experienced authentic Chinese food and beverages. What a fantastic night it was; one in which we had a nice meal, drank lots of local beer, and shared a number of good laughs with some good friends. The entire bill for eight of us was about $45 CDN; we couldn’t believe it! Definitely a night I will remember.
On the first full day, a group of us set out to do some sightseeing in Beijing. We covered a wide footprint of the city and nailed most of the top sights: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Silk Market to name a few. I like to do a lot of sightseeing on trips and one my biggest pet peeves is when I’m with a group of people and we aren’t moving quick enough such that we miss seeing out on sights, or if someone gets tired and alters the plans for the day. What I realized on this trip is that most of us in the program are very similar in nature. Most of us have the travelling and sightseeing bug implanted deep within us; perhaps this is a common trait amongst successful Ivey applicants? Not only did we function as an efficient sightseeing group, but there were no expectations of each other. If someone wanted to depart or do their own thing there were no hard feelings. Anyhow, what a great day!
Hitting the Silk Market for the first time was insane. Silk Market is a famous market in Beijing where you can buy a variety of goods ranging from clothing to jewellery, and where no fixed prices exist. It’s bartering nation! Having Indian origins and having visited India a number of times, I must say that I was used to the aggressiveness and bargaining ways of the store keepers. I think a number of my classmates, however, were blown away and overwhelmed by it. In terms of bargaining, the prices were very elastic! Generally, one could bargain down to 1/8th of the starting price and sometimes even more. A classmate and I spent a number of hours trying to finish up my shopping list that my wife gave me, and it was tough and tiresome to say the least. The two of us recently took a negotiations class and functioned in a good cop/bad cop manner, and it seemed to work very effectively for us. After a couple of hours the two of us were feeling exhausted, and I had a pounding headache from all the screaming and insanity in the market. By the end of it I had so much stuff that I had to buy an extra suitcase. It was only day 2 and I was up an entire suitcase…argh! We decided to grab a coffee at Starbucks (yes: Starbucks is everywhere in China and is a bit more expensive than here) before looking for a taxi to the hotel. Getting a taxi home was a horrible experience. No driver wanted to take us home on the meter (as per law) and instead they were trying to set a fixed price which was roughly 10x the normal amount (they claimed that it was cheaper in rush hour). It wasn’t the amount of $ that they were attempting to charge us, but rather the principal of being cheated: We refused to set a fixed amount. The two of us decided to walk out of the Silk Market district (roughly 15 minutes out), and we finally found a driver that put the meter on (although we needed to repeat it to him in Mandarin about five times before he actually turned it on). I think I speak for most of the class when I say that taking taxis in China is not a pleasant experience!
Another highlight of Beijing was the ‘Cultural Plunge’ activity that we all had to take part in. Essentially, as part of the China Study Trip elective we were assigned to learning teams and had to partake in the ‘Cultural Plunge’ whereby our team was allocated a budget and had to complete a number of activities. As part of those assigned activities we had to engage in a personal service, barter and buy a good, do something kind for a local, take part in a local activity, and visit a number of locations around Beijing (to name a few). One of the memorable parts of this day was meeting a rickshaw driver and having him join us for lunch. He took us to a local Chinese restaurant where I had the best Chinese food I’ve ever had in my life. What a cool experience.
Picture: Lunch with local rickshaw driver
On the last couple of days in Beijing we had an opportunity to listen to a number of keynote speakers including an executive from South African Breweries (SAB), a partner from IBM Global Business Services (consulting), and an executive from Fruits and Passion (Canadian retail chain expanding in China). We learned about the do’s and don’t of conducting business in China. For example, we learned about how the different levels of Chinese government play an active role in influencing business, including taking investment positions in many of these companies and forcing joint ventures on foreign multinationals. We also learned about how joint ventures play an important role for foreign businesses entering China, particularly in the areas of establishing government relations, and setting up operations. It’s was obvious to me after only a few days that China was a force to contend with lots of business opportunity. If you can't beat them you might as well join them.
I guess I didn’t mention much about our visit to the Great Wall of China and the Olympic Stadium Tour. What can I say other than it was incredible and very memorable. Climbing that mountain up to the Great Wall and taking a toboggan back down (almost like a bobsled) was something I’ll never forget. Checking out the Olympic Stadium was also surreal having just watched it on T.V during the summer.
Video: Sliding down from the Great Wall of China
Picture: Olympic Stadium-Bird's Nest (left), Great Wall of China (right)
Stay Tuned for Part 3 of 4; Shanghai.
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