It’s my second day here in Beijing. It’s been great so far. Flew in via Cathay Pacific Thursday night and got to the Jin Ma Hotel in the Haidian District, Beijing. First of my 10 day trip.
Came for the Greater China Project Management In Action 2005held at Tsinghua University, the MIT of China and one of the top universities in the world rankings. About 200-250 people from the Greater China Region and some Westerners (US, Kiwis, Aussies) sprinkled the crowd. The energy and the enthusiasm of the crowd was great. It’s nice to see people like really interested in learning and hungering for knowledge. Today’s session was a lot better than yesterday’s which was basically an event for sponsors to have their advertising pitch but that’s not unexpected. Met interesting colleagues in the PM field and good networks.
The next 3 days will be the training aspect of the program and so we’ll see how that is. After that, more business meetings but maybe I’ll be able to see a little bit of Beijing and do some sightseeing. Although didn’t intend to. It’s about 5-6 Celsius and I don’t really have any winter clothes…. And no camera. Digital camera is on my X-mas wishlist. I have my SLR but that’s not practical when business travelling.
Nice to experience winter again. But Beijing is really dirty, hazy, foggy, on the 23rd floor, there’s nothing to see because of the haze. People are lively, the Haidian District has stuff to do and I’ve got a Starbucks downstairs at the lobby in case I miss it (I don’t).
Report back later… sorta boring. All work work work 😐
Do they have Starbucks at every other corner in Beijing like they do in NYC? Oh, wait – I think I read saw the news somewhere that there’s only one Starbucks in China right now? Well, I suppose I could check Starbucks’ website on that bit of info…
Well, Jin Ma Hotel has a Starbucks in the lobby. I saw another one near the university so Starbucks is around. Saw a couple of KFCs (also at the Beijing International terminal exit area) and McDs.
Zhongguancun, Haidian District is pretty happening. They are putting up nice concrete facade here. Traffic is a mess but looks nice. They are tearing down a lot of the old and putting up the new for Beijing 2008.
The downside of Beijing 2008 is that it’s solely responsible for the removal of any old, traditional, landmark type of buildings/look around the city. Not as bad as Shanghai but I’m sure by 2008, it’ll be very complete. Such is the price for advancement.