Around the World in 26 Days

Oh, China. Such an interesting place. It’s honestly like nowhere else I’ve ever been. Even the hotel breakfast is insane. It’s the biggest breakfast buffet I’ve ever seen – offering every kind of breakfast food you can think of, including omelets and waffles, as well as Chinese foods such as dumplings, noodles, and pork. I don't even like to eat breakfast, but I spent half an hour here. It's a problem.

After breakfast we started out the day by visiting Deloitte, a multi-national accounting firm. The two presenters were from Hong-Kong and Canada but have worked in China for many years, and gave us the low-down on how the Chinese do business and where the future of China is headed. It was really fascinating – China is just so morally different from the U.S. in how they conduct business. Bribery is no big deal; in fact it’s even encouraged. They even leave the price tags on their gifts so they know how much you spent on them! The word yes doesn’t necessarily indicate agreement, and it’s very important to build a strong relationship with a person before you do business with them. It takes a lot of patience to break into the Chinese market, which is why not too many foreign companies are here yet. The future of China is heading in the direction from labor and manufacturing to more innovation and talent-intensive development. They’re also putting more stress on the environment, which is a good thing, as China contains 16 of the top 20 most polluted cities. You can’t even see the blue sky or the sun here in Beijing! 

I don’t think I could work here – the language barrier would be one thing. I’ve met practically no one that speaks any English. Some of the younger people, like university students, speak some. But it’s much harder to communicate here than it was in Europe. 

We then went to Tienanmen Square (which most Chinese don’t understand the significance of since you can’t even Google what happened there during the cultural revolution. The censorship here is intense.) This place was seriously the funniest experience of my life. Hordes of Chinese people, mostly teenagers, would come up to us (especially the blondes) and ask to take pictures with us. It was like we were famous or something. It was kind of awesome. The place was crawling with police, though, so we couldn’t explore the square much, but it was interesting to see Mao Tse-Tung’s picture everywhere. 

Next, we went to Silk Street market, where I spent the next several hours arguing with Chinese women over prices :) The Silk market is a huge building, 8 stories high, with booths containing every possible item you could literally imagine. I bought a pearl necklace for about $8 and two pairs of pearl earrings for $15. I also bought three silk scarves for about $5 each, and she started at $200 each! Crazy, huh? I also got a (knockoff) Coach purse, a D&G purse, and two Louis Vuitton wallets for a total of $200. I probably could have gotten them for even cheaper, but my haggling skills aren’t quite refined yet. We’re going back tomorrow, where I’m going in for the long haul. I LOVE arguing with Asians! It’s the funnest thing ever. Here are some of their favorite lines: