Lucinda
|
I got up at 5, finished packing, checked out, ate breakfast, and took a quick and easy taxi ride to the airport. Not much traffic early saturday mornings. Checking in was uneventful, a welcome change from my last domestic flight to Lhasa. I met Claire at the gate and we boarded on time. Unfortunately we then sat in the plane for over an hour before take-off. After that it was an easy flight. We took a taxi into town. Im staying a the Shangri-La, one of the best in town. Four people checked me in (literally, two people behind the counter, the bellhop standing next to me with my bag, and a guest relations person standing by me too, for no apparent reason), and two escorted me to my very nice but not huge upgraded room. There was a very nice bowl of fruit waiting. If I didnt know that there was a huge earthquake here just three years ago, I would never guess it. Theres a huge statue of Mao in the main square here, and theres a joke that a traveller going by wondered why Mao was waving. Only a resilient people can make jokes about an event that killed 68,000. We left immediately for Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. For visitors, its a very nice panda-only zoo with almost 100 pandas (both giant and red) in mostly decent natural habitats. You can get really close to them and we even saw 7 babies about 3 months old, but werent allowed to take photos of them. The only odd thing was that there were almost no children there, it was all adults. I was an attraction again, with my photo taken with/by a Chinese tourist but at least they asked. I should have gotten a photo too, but I didnt think of it until it was too late. After the Panda Base we strolled around a rebuilt traditional Sichuan area, Kuai Zhai Lane. Among other things, it has the nicest Starbucks Ive seen anywhere. We bought some souvenirs at the panda shop (Claire is crazy about them), then took off in a light rain for a traditional Sichuan hot pot dinner at Huang Cheng ao Ma on Qintai Road. Its a hugely popular local place. We had our own tiny room and ordered a long list of things to cook on our own personal hot pot (a combination of broth with peppers, spcices etc.). You put your own food in, let it cook for a while and fish it out into a bowl of sesame oil with tons of garlic in it. It might not sound great, but it is absolutely delicious.
By then we were exhausted and went back to our hotels (the locals stay in the local hotels when we travel together).
0 Comments
I got up at 5, worked out, and had the wrong breakfast. The off-hours phone staff isnt very reliable I ordered an egg white fritatta and ended up with an American breakfast. I met Claire at 7:30 to start my last day in China in the dark (the downside of the otherwise efficient single Chinese timezone). We took yet another taxi ride about half an hour to a 9:00 meeting (Claire being overly concerned about travel time) at the Chengdu Hi-tech Zone Innovation Service Center (mysteriously CDHT). We were given a brief tour by Jiao Xian Feng, Chief of the Enterprise Department and stopped by to see the Director, Li Gang Three buildings that were CDHTs, but were taken back by the government CDHT is an incubator, primarily for electronics and biotech companies. They have had as many as 600 in the park, and currently house 120. Most come as start-ups with just a few people. In addition to low rent (2-5 yuan/meter squared/month, or less than $1/sf!), they receive an array of support services. Most importantly, CDHT helps with government relations. They also have a platform of software (from Microsoft, IBM, BEA, etc), training, legal, etc services. Again, there was mostly empty capacity in the data center, despite an investment of about $1 million. I didnt get very far with the question of how results are measured, but that might have been the language barrier. They do have a display for visitors: The Director invited to lunch, which would have been very interesting and easy, since his English is excellent, but we already had plans. We were picked up there by two professors from the Chengdu Textile College, who were to accompany us to my next meeting, with Sofmit Group. A hilarious series of parking misadventures ensued. They had parked inadvertently in a lot belonging to a bank in the same building as CDHT. To exit the lot, you need a ticket from the bank which they hadnt been told when they parked there. Of course, since they hadnt gone to the bank, they didnt have a ticket. The guard couldnt take cash. We sat, half in and half out of the lot for almost 15 minutes while they went back and forth and back and forth. No one got angry, but no one shifted positions an inch. I have no idea why or how, but finally the guard let us pass. We then arrived at Sofmit Group, where there were at least three times the cars as the parking spots. for a huge office building there is one underground level and maybe 50 outdoor spots there are cars squeezed in every tiny bit of space. After a bunch of honking, going back and forth. An aside on cars The only people who can drive half-decently in China are the professional drivers. As David Chen from GM told me, they made 600 changes to the Buick when they brought it to China, the main one being to increase rear leg room: people who own cars in China sit in the back seat. An ex-pat on my last trip described driving in Beijing: imagine every 16 year old driver in Kansas dropped into Manhattan. Really, they cant drive, they havent had enough time to learn and they have very poor role models. Finally, we managed to find a ramp to go down. But it was an exit ramp and had to back up, got stuck in a tight spot, which the parking attendant in full police-like uniform helped us out of and went down an entrance ramp. To find that the machine wouldnt dispense a ticket. After sufficient pounding the machine the arm went up and we happily drove in. But the guard in that lot said that we couldnt park there because we were under the wrong building. So we exited to find ourselves back where we started. This time we found the correct ramp, again couldnt get a ticket from the machine, but were saved by the guard who put up the arm, and we parked. Phew! We then went to meet Zhang Wei the Founder and President of Sofmit. We were a few minutes early, but they were very ready for us. Many if not most of my meetings other than with start-ups have been prepared this way: Sofmit is a 1,500 person 200 million yuan ($30m) offshoring company founded in 2002. Zhang had emigrated to Canada and helped a friend in Dallas with some offshoring, and decided that there was an opportunity so he moved back to Chengdu to pursue it. Today, in addition to typical offshoring, they do complete packaged China market penetration deals, mainly through joint ventures. You bring the product, they bring the sales (mainly government relations), service, support, and maintenance. I have no idea how it works, but it sounds like a very smart option. Sofmit is looking for partnerships and acquisitions with 50-100 person consulting firms in the U.S. let me know if youre interested or know anyone who might be. Next we took a long drive to have lunch and a meeting at the Chengdu Textile College. The banquet was outstanding and I finally remembered to take photos! Plus, somehow, I missed the dumplings and the rice. My host, Vice President Xia Ping, recently went to the U.S. for some sort of program at SUNY Stonybrook and had travelled around the country to see various colleges and universities. His english was quite good, and I enjoyed our conversation. He commented on the beauty of American campuses and how fat Americans are. Right on both counts. We then drove over to the college for a meeting. The room was beautifully prepared with 15 places set They thoughtfully had an English version of the agenda for me I was concerned that it would be very stilted and that I wouldnt know what to say, but it turned out to be a lively and interesting conversation and genuinely enjoyable experience. Claire did an excellent job translating. It was chilly though. Many of the buildings in Chengdu arent heated the windows are open even though its 50 degrees out, and everyone just keeps their coats on. At the conclusion of the meeting they presented me with a beautiful embroidery (remember, its a textile school), celebrating their 70th anniversary I was very proud of making a real, culturally appropriate joke: I said that this was much more beautiful than the gift I received at Tsinghua University and got a big laugh. I presented Dr. Xia with a pen in reciprocity (it is key in China to have a small gift at times like this. The college called a driver to take us to my last meeting, since there are no taxis out this far from the city. One thing Ive learned is to not worry about things like this here they always work out. Gestures work well when no one speaks English, which is rare, and everyone is extremely helpful and friendly. I wish Id gotten into more such trouble than I did, just to learn how OK it really is.
Next was meeting with students at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. The main building is simply astounding, its brand new and enormous. There were about 20 students, mainly software and CSE majors, who came because the event was posted on their web site. Claire did an introduction of Eisenhower, and I introduced myself, then I took questions for over an hour. These students were mostly studying software development, but we discussed topics including how to turn a project into a product into a company, ecommerce, differences in Internet use between China and the west, and privacy. The latter was fascinating it made all of the attendees, students and teachers, extremely uncomfortable that anyone would know their purchase history and might recommend products to them based on that history. This in a country where you cant move without permission. This group provided an intriguing contrast to the Tsinghua students. They seemed less constrained and more creative, more enthused. The final challenge was getting back from the suburbs where there are no taxis. The coordinator called an illegal taxi for us, and we rode in Chevy comfort for an hour back through rush hour traffic for 80 yuan ($11). I stayed in, worked, packed, and went to bed by 11 in preparation for my trip home. I was excited about meeting Joey Rennert, lho works at the American consulate and is a budding entrepreneur. I had seen him at startup weekend and asked Andy Mok for an introduction. Ed met in the hotel lobby, where we were served hot water with lemon. Joey is in Beijing now because his wife works for the State Department. He has worked for the Olympic Committee three (or four?) times well as doing aid work, including running the United Nations workers camp in Haiti, which is where he got his idea. One of the most fundamental problems in disaster relief is distributing the aid that pours in today there is $3.4 billion waiting to be distributed in Haiti alone. One of the key hurdles is that the currency system breaks down and is replaced with bartering, which contributes to the intractable economic mess. His idea is to distribute aid though an alternate SMS-based currency. Theres lots of complexity in almost every aspect of the idea, but it iOS very intriguing. It has the potential to unlock aid for the most needy people in the world in a way that would allow them to ignite their own economy. If successfully introduced, the system could then replace existing money transfer solutions (Western Union) in those areas to become a big for-profit company. I was. Shocked to learn that $1 billion a year iOS transferred to Haiti this way, with an average of $100 sent ten times a year. Although Joeys idea and market are different from what i usually see, his situation is not. He needs ad prototype (anyone out there interested in building one?) and doesnt really know how to get started. Im hoping to help him, first by describing the idea more clearly then by making introductions. Next I took a brief taxi ride to an area called 798 to meet Roberta Lipson, an Eisenhower Fellowships selection committee member for lunch. 798 was an old factory area and artists started to rent the large, affordable spaces for studios. Now its going upscale with galleries and shops. I throughly enjoyed the half hour I spent wandering around and wish it wasnt so cold I wold have spent the afternoon. Roberta has been in China for 30 years and runs a medical equipment distribution and healthcare delivery company, Chindex, that she started soon after she arrived. Today it is focused primarily on building and operating small private hospitals servicing ex-pats and wealthy Chinese. It is traded on NASDAQ, with a market cap of $250 million, up from $8 million when they first went public in 1994. Her perspective on many things was very different than others, the effect of time or personality (clearly shes a maverick and perfectly suited to China) or a mix of the two. I took a taxi back to the hotel and went out and sat at a cafe. Then Claire met me and we took the subway towards Tsinghua to meet with Eisenhower Fellow Tsinghua Zongkai Shi, Vice Chairman, University Council. He had a car pick us up and take us to an absolutely amazing reception room, in what was a summer palace in the middle of the campus. After passing by huge stone guardian lions and through enormous gates, we walked through a series of courtyards and were ushered into a formal reception hall, with two head chairs and a line along each wall at their side. I cant believe that I didnt take any photos, but I didnt! Heres what I found on Wikipedia: Jian Gao, Assistant Dean, Chair of Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship was there already and we sat and talked until Dr. Shi arrived. We chatted for a bit and then David Chen, VP Public Policy & Government Relations, GM China Group arrived. After a half hour or so, we walked to a restaurant in what used to be the University presidents house. Dinner was very good, and the conversation was amazing. David Chen opened China for General Motors with five people in the Holiday Inn (which is a 5-star hotel here). He had great stories and perspective. (Including one about flying to China with the GM chairman in the corporate jet, only to be so foiled by traffic that he ended up taking the subway home. Traffic is democratic.) I tried out a couple of my theories and was thrilled when he said (seemingly quite genuinely) that I was insightful. I was very grateful for a ride back to the hotel after dinner.
Happy Thanksgiving! (not so much in China) Up at 5 this morning after a solid 8 hours (yeah!), quick visit to the gym then breakfast and off to South Station for the high-speed train to Tianjin. After missing photos of kids on the way home from school on the backs of bicycles, mopeds, etc yesterday, I missed them this morning on the way to school the same way. Here's the best one I got: The station is new, huge, and beautiful. With 58 RMB and 30 minutes you can ride about the distance from Philadelphia to New York in perfect comfort at 200 mph. Very cool But to get to the Tianjin Economic Development Area (TEDA), you have to ride another hour in a taxi (100 RMB). It seems like youre in the middle of no where then suddenly another city pops up. Tianjin is growing at 16% a year for a decade. In 20 years Chinas cities will have added 350 million people (thats 2 New York Cities a year!) and it shows in Tianjin Tianjin is the third of three areas targeted for development in Chinas 10-year plans. One of the many strengths of the authoritarian system is that resources can be concentrated to achieve impact. Deng Xiaopig initiated this approach, and it works. Its possible partly because there is s bone deep difference between American and Chinese culture that supports it: the Chinese see themselves primarily a a part of a whole, whereas Americans see ourselves first as individuals. The Chinese view of the concentration of resources in Tianjin is to be proud of what China is achieving they are genuinely happy to wait for their citys turn because they view themselves first as Chinese, second as a member of their family/work etc and third as an individual. This difference is in evidence everywhere every day the Chinese even put their family name first and given name second. In America we see ourselves as individuals first and our democracy ensures that resources are spread widely, if not evenly. Often, the result is that the investment is too small to have an impact. We arrived at the TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital and were greeted by Yin Cheng, an administrator, who gave us an exhaustive tour. It was fascinating to see every aspect of a hospital the outpatient operations, the radiology and labs, the pharmacy, etc We even got to see the operating rooms, including one in use! The system is very different. Patients pay for service (although no one is denied serviced in a life-threatening situation). But the costs are extraordinarily low. A consultation, which lasts 20 minutes on average, costs 20 RMB or about $3. An MRI 1500 RMB or $200. One striking difference is the view of privacy we were allowed to see and take photos of everything, including computer screens with peoples test results etc. This hospital is extremely modern and well-equipped. Its approach is unique, and based on Dr. Lius ideas. He follows two principles: humanity and capitalism. The first leads to programs like free surgery for over 500 orphans a year. The latter to astounding medical suites. Importantly, regardless of the room a patient is willing to pay for, the quality of medical service is the same. Dr. Liu , who is a cardiac surgeon, President of the hospital and an Eisenhower Fellow, is sincere in his vision and has solid management strategies to drive it towards success. For example, he outsourced everything that is not a medical service. Doctors anode nurses work in teams. Bonuses are based on performance: quantity, quality, difficulty, cost, and satisfaction, each of which has specific measures. Note that revenue is specifically not in the equation. Our visit to the hospital ended with a banquet and a very enjoyable conversation. Plus, naturally, a photo op. Not just with my little point and shoot this time, but with a real photographer. From the hospital we took a short cab ride to the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City. The project is literally unbelievable. Out of waste land a city of 350,000 is being created. It was planned to take 10-15 years, but they think it will be completed sooner, and it looks like it. There are cranes everywhere, dozens of them. Its impossible to get a photo to capture even 10% of the feeling of it. While Tianjin grows at 16% a year, the Binai New Area grew 23% in 2009. The lowlight of my visit was getting locked in a stall in the bathroom. I made a ruckus until someone came, who of course spoke no English, but it was clear that she was getting someone and she also told Claire. We were extraordinarily lucky to get a taxi quickly in the middle of nowhere and rode 45 minutes to Tanggu station. After an hour wait in the freezing station, we rode the high speed train an hour back to Beijing. I ate room service and was asleep by 10.
After some work, I took a Taxi to see the CEO at Gridsum, a company not unlike my own. We had a terrific sharing of ideas and perspectives and identified four potential ways to work together.
I was very happy at that point not to have a dinner and was in bed at 10:30. |
Categories
All
Archives
May 2021
Me
I blog in spurts, about all sorts of things. |