Business (and Pleasure) in Beijing

I travelled to Beijing last week with my Executive MBA class from George Washington University to participate in a two week residency in China. Our International Economics professor - the pride of Shandong, Jaiwen Yang - is our leader, and he arranged visits for us to Chinese Government offices, International Business Associations, and both Chinese and American companies. In addition to our comprehensive visits during the day, we have been eating very well and enjoying traditional Chinese entertainment in the evenings (some shown, some not...). On the weekend we visited a number of historic sights and played tourst - complete with bus and guide.

In this post I will do my best to show what the class of 2008 has been up to in both areas - business & pleasure...

(Disclaimer)
I should note that this blogpost is based on my own observations and photographs and does not necessarily reflect the opinion or experience of my classmates.

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Our first stop was the Chinese Trade Development Bureau at the Ministry of Commerce. We met with a number of officials including their prominent economist - Professor Mei Xinyu. This organization is quite active in assisting Chinese companies - both in China and abroad.

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For our first lunch in Beijing, we went to a famous Peking Duck restaurant. It was a wonderful experience - every bit of the bird was available to sample, from the standard breast meat on a pancake with onion to the less common feet, lungs and brain...

Steve and Alan happy after their duck:

The remains of the critter - poor guy didn't have a chance... Note the head and tiny cranium - I guess that is why we are eating him and not the other way around...

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In the afternoon we visited the Commercial Section of the United States Embassy to learn about the role our government plays abroad in assisting U.S. companies, then we headed to the U.S - China Business Council to hear an association perspective.

It was a day full of thought provoking visits, and although we were all pretty tired at that point, we rallied and headed over to a private club for a reception for the George Washington / China Alumni organization organized by its President, Bo Jin. As a special suprise, it was Pam's birthday and a cake rolled out after the meal to the strains of happy birthday!

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The following day we were off early to the north west part of Beijing to visit the headquarters of the Lenovo Computer Company. This Chinese company purchased IBM's Thinkpad division a few years ago and is the largest seller of personal computers in China (and in the top four worldwide behind HP, Dell and Acer).

After a quick tour of the fabrication plant where we saw Chinese workers assembling standard and custom PCs, we visited their model showroom. Our guide, whose name in English is "Alma", gave us a tour:

Mr. Elvis Oxley inspects their line of new notebook computers:

At the end of our visit, we met with Mr. Cory Grenier. Cory is a Project Manager in Product Marketing and told us more about Lenovo's global Marketing Plans and shared a little bit about what it is like as an American working in China.

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Lunch was atop a the tallest structure in Beijing - the CCTV Tower. Alas, it was so cloudy that day that we couldn't see more than a few feet up top.

Here is a shot of Bo, Sean and Joe:

The Dragon Guarding the tower:

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After lunch we headed to the Beijing offices of the Microsoft Corporation to learn a bit more about doing business in China. Our meeting was with Eric Ashdown - Microsoft's Chief Security Officer for China - and Mr. Joeseph Lee, their national Technology Officer.

As we waited for our speaker to arrive from the airport, Professor Yang told jokes to keep us entertained:

Ashdown was a very interesting speaker who was very candid about the challenges and opportunities for an American company in China.

Here is a nice shot of the class and Mr. Ashdown in Microsoft's lobby:

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Our next day of visits began at the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park in Beijing. This quasi-government organization provides support for new companies throughout the region. We visited their headquarters and one of their "incubators" for fledging businesses in the tech sector.

Our hosts point out their various facilities in the region. One of the reasons this concept (based on what exists in Silicon Valley) is so successful is the presence of so many established universities and research facilities in the Capital City.

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In the afternoon we visited the Ministry of Finance and learned about Chinese Tax Policy from Mr. Zhu Guangyao, Assistant Minister of Finance.

Later in the day, we were warmly welcomed at the Beijing Municipal Engineering Consulting Corporation, a Beijing Municipal Development Agency. This firm is responsible for many of the large scale projects for the 2008 Bejing Olympics. They rolled out the red carpet for us...

A shot of the Olympic Stadium in progress - many call it the "bird's nest"

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For an evening's entertainment, our tour guide arranged a visit for us to the Beijing Opera. Some of the group pictured below after dinner and before the show - pictured: Kathleen, Blair, Scott, Constance, Professor Yang and Mark:

This particular cultural tradition goes back to the 17th century and was like nothing I had every seen (or heard). I enjoyed the costumes and the music, but I must admit that I was a bit lost at times as to the plot of each Act. Some images:

The overture:

Act One:

Act Two:

Act Two:

Act Three:

Act Four:

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On our final morning of visits, we met with Dr. Gene Ma, Chief Economist at Citic Securites in Beijing. Citic is the larges such firm in China and is part of a conglomerate that is China's larges company. Dr. Ma helped us understand the complexities of the Chinese Stock Market and how it is different from other international exhanges and how they interact.

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After our last working session in Bejing, we drove out of town a bit to a traditional Beijing restaurant for a banquet luncheon. The place was beautiful:

Although the identity of much that was put in front of us was a mystery, the food was delicious. Bo certainly thinks so....

Kathleen seemed pleased as well:

The group raises a glass of traditional Chinese Alcohol in celebration of a successful week - Gambai!

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Upcoming posts - "Walking the streets of Beijing", "Beijing: History and Architecture" and "The Great Wall - You Gotta Do It!"