March 12, 2012- Beijing- Lenovo, US Embassy and Quanjude Rd. Duck Restaurant

March 12, 2012
Trip to Lenovo

Got a very nice tour of Lenovo in Beijing. Lenovo is the world's second largest PC manufacturer and the single largest producer in Asia. Lenovo was incorporated in Hong Kong in 1988 with its previous name, Legend. Lenovo purchased IBM's PC business in 2005. Lenovo is mostly owned by the Chinese governement. I could not get a straight answer as to what percentage is publicly traded, but I do know that shares trade on the Hong Kong stock exchange. It was explained to us in the tour that Lenovo is focusing on bringing new products to Asia that satisfy the Asian consumer. They believe that this is where their largest potential market is. They test new products on the Asian market first. We got a short tour of the assembly plant, but workers were off, so not much to see really. Did get to see the warehouse which was 100% automated. Pulleys pluck components from the shelves. Lenovo does not pay for any of the parts until they are pulled from the shelf for production. Very efficient. Dr. Crandall would have loved to have seen it!

Headed back to US Embassy, got to see modern Beijing. Many new skyscrapers and apartment buildings. This town is being rebuilt. Real estate bubble for sure as Chinese are investing all their savings into apartments hoping to flip them.

Modern building construction everywhere in Beijing



On the way, we got some stratistics form Wendy.
Literacy rate in China now- 93%
Life expectancy now- 74
Before 1949, life expectancy- 36
Farmers now- 55% or population
Before 1949, farmers- 85% of population
Chinese characters- 9 basic strokes, Mao simplified Chinese characters, young people not learning all the Chinese characters because of computers
unemployment rate now- 3.7% but this does not include farmers who consider themselves self-employed and are not counted
Medical insurance was only available to city workers, last year was offered to farmers

1 million trees are planted each year in Beijing to keep dust storms down and protect city from desert outside city.

Lunch at Hua Jia yi Yuan- Hot Pot- Restaurant. Was very good. Typical to most meals, but Hot Pot centered at the middle of the table was a little different. Hot Pot cooking with pork, peppers, vegetables, etc. Lotus root included in hot pot which was very good. Like a potato but unique shape.

After passing through security, we got inside the US Embassy in Beijing where we heard a lecture from Landon Loomis- Commercial Officer at the US Embassy in Beijing.

US Embassy in Beijing

Loomis works with small and mid-size US companies that are trying to get established in China. For a small fee, they can help with their connections and knowledge of the Chinese system for much less cost than consultants.

Loomis' presentation was very interesting. He and his wife are both diplomats currently in Beijing. He will be moved to Mexico City in the next year. He gave us a nice overview of Chinese business and relations with the US.
US trade with China- $503 billion in 2011
US exports to China up 13%- 2010- 2011
China is US second largest trading partner after NAFTA
Chinese FDI into US- over $4 billion in 2010
77% of US debt owned by Americans
Only 1% of total US debt owned by Chinese
170 cities in China with populations over 1 million
Middle class now 23%- in 2020 will be 48%
Chinese reaction to 2008 Financial crisis- Total stimulus- $586 billion- $1.45 trillion from banks
Goals of stimulus- to stimulate economy, fund infrastructure
Problems with the stimulus- non-productive assets, debt horizon not matching, $250 billion unrecoverable

US- China Relations:
Xi Jinping- Vice Chariman- will be next president
Hu Jintao- current president

China's Challenges:
healthcare- no quality
inequality
affordable housing
food prices
demography
inflation
pollution
corruption

Per capita disposable inccome:
urban- $3,454 / year
rural- $1,105 / year

70% of electicity produced by coal
50% of water resources are severely polluted

12th Five Year plan:
Focus on Quality Growth
moving up value chain
Addressing Inequality
Enabling Consumption

Economic Restructuring:
7 strategic Industries- Technology 3%- 8%
Services- 47% of GDP
urbanization 51.5%

Innovation:
R&D funding to 12.5%
2.2% of GDP

Livelihood:
Healthcare
Housing
Population Control

Obstacles to US companies in China:
rising labor costs
protectionism
unclear regulatory environment

Website- www.buyusa.gov/china

Back on bus to Quanjude Rd Roast Duck Restaurant

Lex and Icy at Quanjude Road Duck Restaurant

The Quanjude Road Duck Restaurant is Beijing's most famous roast duck restaurant. We had several courses including scorpion appetizers. Scorpions were very good- deep fried. Duck was delicious. Skin was crispy and duck was not greasy. Duck is carved into 12 * 9 pieces, since both are lucky numbers. Typically served with hoisin sauce on a pancake with scallions. Best part of dinner was that students from BISU joined us and we got to see Icy again. She is so sweet. Lex has attempted to email her several times since we got back. She has not responded, so we are afraid our emails are being censored. We really wanted to keep in touch with her.

End of our last day in Beijing.



March 11, 2012- Beijing- Forbidden City and Great Wall

March 11, 2012
Up early for breakfast at the hotel.

Tour of Tian'anmen Square- Very crowded. Cold crisp day with clear blue skies

Entrance to Forbidden City

Forbidden City was Amazing. Went on, and on, and on, through 9 gates (9 is a lucky number to Chinese), until we finally got back to emperor's living quarters.

First Gate in Forbidden City



Entrance to Emperor's Private Quarter



Emperor's throne room





Emperor's private bedroom

Concubine's quarters

Left the Forbidden City which was breathtaking. Amazing to think that the last emporer- Puyi,  was only 2 when he became emporer. Can imagine him riding his bike around the palace oblivious that the almost 200 year reign of the Qing dynasty is about to come to an end.

Back in the bus on route to the Great Wall. Stopped close to the top of the mountain for lunch in a country style place. This area appears to be a vacation destination for Chinese with many small hotels and restaurants. Mountains are beautiful.

Lunch is very good, served family style. Mushrooms, chicken, rice, etc. All very good.

Bus stops at top of hill. Got on chair-lift to the top. Most of modern Great Wall was constructed during the Ming Dynasty in 1300's to protect against Mongol invaders. Total wall is 5,500 miles in length. Many sections are in disrepair. The section we saw close to Beijing had been renovated.

Took the luge down the mountain. Great fun!

On the way back to Beijing, stopped by a Jade factory. I bought a beautiful set: bangle, ring, earrings and necklace. My favorite purchases from the trip.

Jade factory

Got back to Beijing and stopped by the Silk Market. Large mall with many vendors. I was too tired to deal with the negotiations and pushy vendors. Lex and I waited in the pizza place for the bus back to the hotel. Beat. Long day and adventurous day. I needed a good night's sleep.

March 10, 2012- First day in Beijjing

March 10, 2012- Up at 6 am, local time. Showered and went down for breakfast at the Hotel restaurant. HUGE breakfast salad bar with American eggs and bacon, as well as fruit, salad and a few Chinese entries. Tried the "marinated"eggs and liked them. Back to the room to get our things and then on the bus for our first day in Beijjing where plan was to go to Beijing International Studies University.

In the bus on the way to BISU- Wendy gave us some information on modern China as we were taking a look out the window at our new surroundings. Noticed lots of new high-rise buildings a lots of traffic. Many nice new sudans on the road including Mercedes, BMW, toyotas and hondas. In China, common greeting in addition to Ni Hao( hello) is Chi la ma? (have you eaten?) This goes back to the days of starvation and shows concern for your neighbor by asking, "Have you eaten?" Only 15% of China's land is ariable, so food production has always been a problem. 1.3 billion people live in China. 90% of population is Mandarin Chinese with 10% other minority groups.

"Have you gotten your personal problem solved?" Means- "Have you gotten married?"

4 things a Chinese man needs to get married:
1. - good income
2. - 2 languages spoken
3. - 3 bedrooms
4. - 4 wheels (car)

Chinese can not own the land, but can buy right to use land for up to 70 years. Cost of real estate in Beijing has gone up 3-4X in past 5 years. Chinese are investing in real estate and flipping. Definite sign of bubble. Cost of apartment is 40,000 yuan / meter or about $4 million yuan for a house. This is about $666,666. Must put 25% down. Housing is becoming unaffordable to all but the wealthiest Chinese.

20,000 licenseplates released each year. Rotate which day of the week you are not allowed to drive to cut down on traffic.

1949 PRC founded-
1949- 1997- 1 million cars on the roads
1997-2003- 2 million cars on the roads
2003-2007- 3 million cars on the roads
2007- 2009- 4 million cars on the roads
2009 - 2010- 5 million cars on the roads

1 child policy: During the Chinese revloution, Chairman Mao encouraged as many children as possible. 1976- 1 child policy introduced. Chinese prefer to have son. Now young children are all only children and are spoiled. Overall population 106 men / 100 women. Young population 117 men / 100 women.
This will become a problem.

Schooling in China:
Elementary School- 6 years
Intermediary School- 3 years
Students can go to assigned government school or pay 20,000 yuan - volunteer pay for another school
Entrance exam for middle school
High School- common high shool for university- 1/2 go to technical school- no univeristy
only 1/2 middle school grads will go to high school
Entrance to university now 69%- was 5% that passed 20 years ago
high school- 8,000 yuan per year
vocational school- about 8,000 yuan / year
college- 20,000 yuan per year
evening school for adults

Arrived at Beijing International Studies Univeristy- Lecture with Professor Wang Lei
Warm welcome for the Americans

BISU- Lecture with Wang Lei





Lex with Lily and Icy- Students at BISU

Lecture at BISU by Wang Lei covered aspects of Chinese history which dates back 5,000 years

Spring Festival the most important in China- January or February, 15 day celebration, most Chinese return home during this time, fireworks

Beijing opera- Singing, dancing, Sheng- main character, masks

Wushu- exercise and philisophy

Architecture- balance and symmetry, 2 wings to every building

Great Wall- built to protect from invaders- Mongolians, 1,500 miles

Cuisine- 8 regional cuisines

Religions- Buddhism, 166 AD- Indian- dominant

Taoism- cooperation and natural forces

Confuscism

Daoism- to be moral- those who know are silent

dao- first cause of universe, goal to be one with nature

We Wei- let nature take its course, art of doing nothing, go with the flow

Man is unhappy because he lives with man-made laws

To escape: reject formal knowledge and learning, rely on senses and instincts, discover rhythm of the universe, yin-yang balance

Confucianism- philosophy of Confucious, Stable society

1. Li- Rite, rituals, rules, be polite

2. Ren- benevolence, humility

3. Shu- empathy, do unto others what you want others to do to you

4. Yi- righteousness

Principal relationships in China:

1. Ruler/ Subject

2. Father/ Son

3. husband/ Wife

Legalism- Use of Law, Law reflected way of Emperor

Chinese care more about social relationships than legal relationships

Patience and persisitance, friendly, sense of humor and honesty

Giving face important- social image

Chinese do not like confrontation

Modesty and humility still main values

hierarchy- respect for elders important

Clocks- associated with death

Knives- associated with severing relationship

4- number of death

Green hat- symbol of adultery

Give preactical gifts

Dining Etiquette- wiat to be seated, host starts with a drink

Issues: Gap between rich and poor

Chinese Communist Party- corruption a big problem

Pension- State employees receive pension, but farmers do not

Housing reform- limited to 2 apartments - permits required

housing seen as a good investment

If buy a house, can use for 70 years, what happens after that? no one knows, governement owns land

Lunch with students at BISU:

Very nice Chinese meal. Students were very anxious to talk with us. I sat with Lily. She is from Wu Han Pe in Sezhuan province. mountains there and small towns. she is in Beijing to study English as BISU.

Games after lunch with students. Ice breaker kinds of games. Chinese students were very good singing and playing games in english. very impressive.

We were late finishing lunch, so did a quick trip in the bus to Olympic Village. Got out of the bus and it was VERY cold and Windy. Walked to the Bird's Nest and saw Water Cube Swim Center.



Water Cube Swim Center at Olympic Village



Lex in front of Bird's Nest at Olympic Village

Stopped by the Pearl Market that evening. Upstairs was mostly jewlery and pearls. Required much negotiating. We liked the basement area and purchased several Buddhas and jade Buddha necklaces.

Back to Sunworld hotel. Wandered around downtown Beijing to food market. Lots of interesting foods there like eels and donkey somethings ??? Ate dinner in Chinese restaurant next to hotel.

Evening group exercises in Beijing

Fish market

March 8-9, 2012- Greensboro to Detroit to Beijjing

March 8, 2012, 2 pm- Met at Greensboro International Airport for our Delta flight 3093 to Beijing, connecting through Detroit. We had not been to the Greensboro airport since the renovation, so we were very impressed. The Greensboro airport is new and clean and very accessible. Even though it was a bit out of our way to travel through Greensboro, the airport itself is much less of a hassle than the Charlotte airport. We also stopped through Salisbury to drop off our dog, George, at my parents house- Camp Wellie. They cancelled their trip to Edisto Beach so they could keep George while we were in China. Since we don't have kids, they treat George like a grandchild. He will be very spoiled while we are gone. It is so nice not to have to worry about him while we are travelling.

Met Brittany's mom and husband who waited with her until we went through security. Brittany's mom was worried about her allergies with all the pollution in China. She told us she had asked Brittany to get a Z-Pack before she left. Brittany was obviously annoyed with her mom at this point. Lex and I promised to take care of Brittany and make sure she had plenty of benedryl if she needed it.

Security was not bad and were on the plane for Detriot on time. Our adventure was about to begin!

Plane to Detroit was TINY! I had to check one of my carry-ons at the gate as it didn't fit in the overhead compartment.

Landed in Detroit and had quick tranfer to plane to Beijjing. Noticed a lot of Asian travellers at the Detroit airport. The flight now flies up and over the North Pole to Asia so I suspected Detroit is  the main hub for Asian travel for Delta. Got to our gate pretty easily and had a little extra time, so we went to a Japanese restaurant across from the get for a quick sushi role. Ended up sitting beside  a couple who were both Law professors as UofM. We told them we were taking a trip to China with ASU, and they remembered ASU without me having to explain where the school was. He said, "that game will go down in infamy!" They told us our trip sounded like a great one and wished us luck.

Got on flight to Beijjing which took off on time, 8 pm, headed for Beijjing.

I watched several movies, "My week with Maryln," and "The Decendants." Got several nice sized naps. Notices a lot of Chinese people on our flight. The announcements were made in both English and Chinese. Once I tried out my Chinese by ordering some "Sway (water)" when the attendent came around. He looked at me like he didn't recognize what I said before he realized I was attempting Chinese rather than English. I found this happened a lot in China too. I could say the word correctly, but I was not expected to speak in Chinese, so was misunderstood. Lex saw the Northern Lights out the window and woke me up once to see. Several times I looked out the winder and saw nothing but snowy-white below us.

We had two meals on the plane. Food was very good.

After 13 hours on the plane, we landed in Beijjing! Walk through airport is a blurr since I was tired. We lost all of Friday and arrived at 11 pm Friday night after leaving Detroit on Thursday at 8 pm. Adjusted our clocks forward 13 hours.

Found Wendy, our Beijjing tourguide and the bus to take us to SunWorld Hotel. Got checked in and straight to bed in a blurr. We made it!