Thursday, August 30, 2007

Hong Kong 6.10.07


Our last destination in China was Hong Kong. Talk about a change of pace. The skyline was awesome and the feel of the city was lively. It was again mostly tourism although we did visit the US Consulate one of the days, which I found quite interesting. The man who spoke with our group was born and raised in Hawaii before living in Beijing for 4 years and Shanghai for 9 years only to move to Hong Kong a year ago. As you can imagine he had a broad perspective on China and was able to put Hong Kong’s history in proper perspective.

Hong Kong was a dependent territory of the United Kingdom from 1842 until the transfer of its sovereignty to the People's Republic of China in 1997. The Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Hong Kong stipulate that Hong Kong operate with a high degree of autonomy until at least 2047, fifty years after the transfer. Under the policy of "one country, two systems", the Central People's Government is responsible for the territory's defense and foreign affairs, while Hong Kong maintains its own legal system, police force, monetary system, customs policy, immigration policy, and delegates to international organizations and events.


International Finance Centre, Tower 2. It is the tallest building in Hong Kong, the third tallest building in the Greater China region and the 7th tallest office building in the world, based on structural heights. By roof height only it is the third tallest in the world, exceeded by Taipei 101 and Sears Tower.


View from Victoria's Peak. The Peak offers views over central Hong Kong, the Harbour and surrounding islands and the tram ride up is fun too!


Despite the cargo traffic, Hong Kong's economy is dominated by services, which accounts for over 90 percent of its gross domestic product. In the past, manufacturing had been the most important sector of the economy, as Hong Kong industrialised following the Second World War. Driven by exports, the economy grew at an average annual rate of 8.9 percent in the 1970s. Hong Kong underwent a rapid transition to a service-based economy in the 1980s, when growth averaged 7.2 percent annually. Much of the manufacturing operations moved to mainland China during this period, and industry now constitutes just 9 percent of the economy. As Hong Kong matured to become a financial centre, growth slowed to an average of 2.7 percent annually in the 1990s. Together with Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, Hong Kong is known as one of the Four Asian Tigers, or Dragons for its high growth rates and rapid industrialisation between the 1960s and the 1990s.


View of Causeway Bay, in the eastern part of Hong Kong.


Another look at the skyline.


About 95% of Hong Kong's population of 7 million is of Chinese descent, the majority of which are Cantonese or from ethnic groups such as Hakka and Teochew. Cantonese, a Chinese language originating from Guangdong province to the north of Hong Kong, is Hong Kong's official dialect. English is also an official language widely spoken by more than 38% of the population.


More people.


I still can't figure out where this pastime originated. For several hours in the afternoon hundreds of women gather on scraps of cardboard in the heart of downtown in aboveground metro connection tunnels to play cards, snack, and chat.


More great views.





Cool buildings.


Busy streets.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Chengdu Part Two: Pictures

Downtown Chengdu. The tricycle taxis were everywhere!


My friend Wen wen (Dawn) downtown.


Dawn and I.


With the kids of one of the guards on Children's Day. From what I understand it is celebrated on June 1 every year for kids under 12.


Friends Yang Ying and Shen Di on a double decker bus.

Yang Ying extatic about the duck neck she just bought. How could I say no to spicy chunks of a duck's neck, bones and all?


A tourist street in Chengdu, the same place Yang Ying bought the deck neck in fact, which might I add sparked the interest of all the other Chinese students with us. Needless to say, I was a little surprised when they all promply returned with a bags of duck hearts and duck organs raveled up on sticks. The heart actually wasn't half bad!


With my professor, Sterling, from Mizzou. He was born and raised in Beijing and now teaches finance at Mizzou. He was recently offered tenureship after publishing 11 papers among other things during his first six years at MU. Definately a bright guy, and a lot of fun to travel with.


With Michael, Dawn, and Shirley on the last day we spent in Chengdu.


On the way to the park with Dawn, Shirley, and a friend.


In the first of three courtyards inside a Buddhist temple. We lit 3 new sticks of incense in each courtyard and bowed to the Buddha in the next doorway before proceeding.


With American-born Chinese, my roommate Tom, and students from Chengdu on the last night.


Inside Carrefour (a French retailer that has been more successful than Walmart in Asia, and I believe Europe)


Tea with Dawn and Michelle.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Chengdu 5.28.07


Chengdu was the third city we visited. It has a population of 11 million and it is located in the Sichuan Province. After so much tourism in Beijing and Shanghai, it was nice to finally get to interact with Chinese people in Chengdu. There much anticipation as several Chinese people in Beijing and Shanghai informed us that Sichuan is famous for its spicy food and beautiful women (we weren’t disappointed in either area!). We stayed on the campus of Jincheng College for 2 weeks, where we spent time with Chinese students from dawn until dusk.


I spent most nights in the bar on campus talking or playing cards with my new Chinese friends. The guy in the middle and in the picture to the right is Duheng. We hit it off pretty well from the first day. And as friendship turned into more of attachment (on his part) and subsequent gay jokes by my American counterparts, we had a good time hanging out. Talk about an animated person though! Below is a link to a video where he sings one of his favorite songs (by Eminem).




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVYJh2nunl0






Religion:
At lunch one day I spoke with my friend Li Wen Bing (pictured right). After already asking a couple other students in conversation if they were Christian, Buddhist, etc, and hearing each respond along the lines of, “I believe in myself,” I thought I would engage him in conversation about the same topic. Of course, he too was atheist and told me the same story about how if he finds success it is because he has worked hard. Anyhow, I wanted to know why all the students I spoke to seemed to give religion or God little thought. Here, they don’t all live the life of luxury, in fact, most don’t even feel too strongly about going to school because it is so work intensive and competition for a job after college is still incredibly high. Yet, they still don’t seem to give much thought to the idea of a loving God (or any God at all).
When I tried to frame the question of God and religion in the context of how the Earth was created, Michael again seemed to pass right over the idea of God. He and the girl at lunch with us both offered ‘science’ as the explanation for how the Earth was created. Probing deeper I found that they admitted there were many mysteries in the world that could not be answered, but still no consideration for a higher power to explain such mysteries. Sensing that neither felt too strongly about the topic (simply because neither had given it much thought and apparently didn’t care to), I switched the conversation to politics, another great subject foreigners are advised not to speak about. But of course that didn’t elicit much of a response either.


Panda breeding center:
One of the days we were in Chengdu we visited the Panda Breeding Center. The breeding center in Chengdu is the biggest in the world, housing some 60 pandas and supplying the rest of China’s provinces with the endangered species. I took a lot of pictures and a couple videos. I’ll try to post the video soon, it failed the first time.


Education:
I found the education system in China to pretty interesting. Note also, pictured above is one of the main classroom buildings at Jincheng College. Here’s a synopsis of the education system in China:
1. Primary School: Grades 1-6: Free for farmers. Otherwise 100-200+ (yuan, current fx: 7.6yuan = $1) per semester (obviously nicer schools can run much higher)
2. Junior School: Grades 7-9: Free for farmers. Otherwise 100-200+ (yuan, current fx: 7.6yuan = $1) per semester (obviously nicer schools can run much higher)
3. Center School: Grades 10-12: 600-1000+ (yuan, current fx: 7.6yuan = $1) per semester (obviously nicer schools can run much higher)
4. College/University: 13-16: 3,000-10,000 (yuan, current fx: 7.6yuan = $1) per year on average

Higher Education Ranking:
1. Beijing University and Hong Kong University (5000 yuan per year for Beijing and 40,000 yuan per year for Hong Kong…(7.6 yuan = $1) ~$650 and ~$5200 respectively per year). Admittance into the university in Hong Kong also requires an interview. I don’t know how important English in either application process.
2. Smaller universities in Beijing
3. Shanghai University and Sichuan University (? yuan per year and 3000-4000 yuan per year)
4. Smaller universities in the big cities
5. Independent Colleges like Jincheng, which vary in quality of education. Admittance is still based on test scores for the quality of college. (10,000 yuan per year (7.6 yuan = $1) ~$1300 per year)

Thus, with the exception of Hong Kong University, higher test scores earn students a better education at a lower cost than other higher education institutions. In this merit-based system even the students with lower test scores such as those here at Jincheng College remain highly motivated to succeed. As mentioned in other parts of the journal, I have spoken to several students who do not/cannot date people because they feel obligated to devote the majority of their time to their studies. Moreover, two of the six majors offered at Jincheng are civil engineering and computer science. And these 6 majors were chosen because they are the most popular majors at more prestigious universities. Thus, a much higher percentage of a much bigger pool of Chinese students choose to study science and engineering and to do so requires exceptional test scores because of the overwhelming supply of highly motivated and intellectually gifted Chinese youth. That’s a little scary…



Hospitable Chinese:
The Chinese are extremely hospitable people. First, upon arriving we were greeted with banner over the entrance to the school that read, “Warmly Welcome the delegation from university of Missouri Columbia.” Three or four other big red banners said the same thing in Chinese throughout the campus. The president of the college also set aside the morning to welcome us to the college.
The second night of our stay at Jencheng, the school held its annual sing and dance competition. We were told that about 1000 students attend. Sure enough, all of the 700 or so seats were full and the side aisles were packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people. Now can you guess where were seated? Front and center. 1000 people and we are given the best seats in the house one day after our arrival (even professors and head masters were in the rows behind us). I thought that was pretty neat. By the way, if you are wondering why the firl singing has balloons in her hands...During just about every song, frineds of the performer would come on stage and give them flowers or balloons mid-song. I thought the balloons would be more of an insult than a compliment but they seemed to go over pretty well!


All in all, I loved the time I spent in Chengdu. It was great to sit down and talk with kids my age and learn about their lives, their beliefs, their aspirations. Just being a part of another culture and another way of life was incredible. If you haven't taken a look already I have posted some pictures of friends in a second note on Chengdu

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Shanghai 5.23.07


I’ve been bad about sharing the rest of my experience in China, but better late than never! Shanghai was the most impressive of the four cities we visited in terms of the development. Here’s a look at the city:


One of the many cool skyscrapers. Driving through the city I must have saw 30 skyscrapers under construction within 30 minutes. And architects come from around the world to showcase unique designs, as virtually every building looks different.


Brief economic highlights:

Shanghai is the largest city of the People's Republic of China and the seventh largest in the world. Widely regarded as the citadel of China's modern economy, the city also serves as one of the nation's most important cultural, commercial, financial, industrial and communications centers. Administratively, Shanghai is a municipality of the People's Republic of China that has province-level status. Shanghai is also one of the world's busiest ports, and became the largest cargo port in the world in 2005, handling a total of 443 million tons of cargo. In terms of container traffic, it is the third busiest port in the world, following Singapore and Hong Kong.

After the communist takeover in 1949, Shanghai languished under heavy central government taxation and cessation of foreign investment, with many of its supposedly "bourgeois" elements purged. Following the central government's authorization of market-economic redevelopment of Shanghai in 1992, Shanghai has now surpassed early-starters Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and has since led China's economic growth. Some challenges remain for Shanghai at the beginning of the 21st century, as the city struggles to cope with increased worker migration and a huge wealth gap. Despite these challenges, Shanghai's skyscrapers and modern lifestyle are often seen as representing China's recent economic development.


The Bund is the main river that runs through the city. On the right is the Pearl TV Tower, a popular tourist attraction.


The smog was pretty bad. This is a view from the Pearl Tower looking out over the heart of the city. Shanghai has the highest cancer mortality rate in China. Also, a daily flow of approximately 4 million cubic meters of untreated human waste enters the Huangpu River, creating a serious water pollution and supply problem.


One of the nights we went to Hooters for dinner (Yes Grammy, the wings were great). Little did I know that Shanghai Hooters can throw a pretty good birthday celebration. So of course my friend Mike explains to the waitress that it is my birthday (November come early). Minutes later, ten waitresses make their way over to the table cheering and instruct me to get on one of the bar stools. After being given two menus for wings, the girls all shout in unison, “It’s your birthday!” and then look at me as if I am supposed to know what to do. After some instruction I shout (softly), “It’s my birthday!” The girls shout again and all give me the same look of anticipation. So I shout again and them begin to flap my menu wings when prodded. After doing this four times over I was finally released from the birthday stool, allowing the laughter from around the restaurant to die down after a couple minutes.


We also had a chance to visit a couple companies when we were in Shanghai. First we visited the Shanghai GM plant. SGM is a 50-50 joint venture between GM and a Chinese car company by the name of SAIC. SGM has grown at a pretty steady clip, selling some 400,000 cars last year, up from 20k in 1999, its first year of operation. Several local car companies together make up the bulk of the market share. However, SGM and VW are the biggest individual players, accounting for something like 30% of Shanghai market together. The second company we visited was a bit smaller.


Silicon Valley Bank recently opened a Shanghai office to serve as a consultant to SVB clients looking to start up operations in China. Due to the current push of the Chinese government to reform the banking system, it takes $20 billion in assets among other things to get a banking license in China. Thus, the SVB office in Shanghai acts exclusively as a consultant. The branch fills an interesting niche. Since most of their clients already have a relationship in the States with SVB, the Shanghai office spends almost none of its resources on customer acquisition nor must it fret much about the consulting giants in the market.


We spent one day in Zuzhou, a town about an hour outside of Shanghai by train that is known for its beautiful gardens. It is also one of the locations where Nike and Adidas have manufacturing facilities.

This tike strayed from his parents at one of the gardens in Zuzhou.


This picture was taken on a Saturday at a sweatshop that produces wedding dresses. Apparently on weekdays the room has twice as many people. We were told that a $600 dress in the States could be made here for $200 so long as the ladies had a picture to look at and could take your measurements.


This is another one of the gardens we visited. There were not a lot of flowers, as we had expected. Instead, rock formations, trees, and water were utilized.

That’s all for Shanghai. Chengdu to come.

Beijing 5.18.07


I just got back from a month-long tour and wanted to share some of my experiences with you. To briefly summarize the trip, I was part of a group of 17 students from Mizzou along with a bilingual professor of finance. We visited Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu (Sichuan Province), and Hong Kong. After the China tour several of us also stopped in Tokyo for 4 days where I had the chance to see my Uncle Ken. We visited 7 companies in the 4 Chinese cities and saw many of the biggest tourist attractions. In Chengdu, we stayed at an independent college (for 2 weeks) where we took 3 hours of class and spent a lot of time with Chinese students.


While there was no one thing in China that blew my mind away, the economic progress of the country on a whole was incredible. Moreover, a sense of cultural pride was evident among Chinese of all ages. We started our trip in Beijing where we saw preparations for the ’08 Olympics everywhere. We also made our way to the Ming Tombs, Great Wall, Summer Palace, and Forbidden City & Tiananmen Square. Hopefully the pictures can do the city justice.


100 or more workers filled a 2-block stretch of downtown Beijing. In preparation for the Olympics all of the old tile on the streets was being torn up and replaced by nicer looking stone. In downtown Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu alike all of the streets downtown were made with stone. Apparently quarries are in abundant supply, making for cheap stone to accompany the cheap labor for the government. The speed at which things get done in China is impressive as well. If the government wants something done there is no red tape to crawl through, no lawsuits or unions to worry about, it just gets done.


In the cities however, the GDP per capita now stands around US$7,000, pushing the standard of living higher and widening the income gap between city dwellers and farmers. With 60% of the Chinese population living in rural areas, this gap is a constant concern for the Chinese government. Although peaceful protests have recently been facilitated through the spread of wireless communication devices, social uprising are not the primary concern for the central government when it comes to dealing with the rural population. First, uprisings would be directed against local governments, not the central government, thus the initial responsibility to quell instability would not fall on the central government. Second, the government has admittedly devoted most of its resources to the economic development of the coastal cities over the past several decades of economic prosperity, but it had good reason to do so. It was in China’s national interest to develop its coastal cities as the growth of the cities and increase in international trade facilitated through commerce in the cities has helped China achieve double digital growth each year for the past 26 years. Of course as the coastal cities continue to develop, the appeal to migrate to the cities has also developed at alarming rates. This is where the government has recently run into problems.


Rural Chinese have begun migrating to the coastal cities in larger numbers as jobs are plentiful and the standard of living is much higher. Consequently, many social services have been strained and the government is having trouble keeping up. For instance, traffic has worsened despite the constant construction of new roads and the education system cannot support the number of new students despite an increase in the number of teachers. Thus, to slow the migration of people into the cities, the Chinese government has more of an incentive to keep the rural population happy than it has over the past couple decades.


Several apartment complexes built within the past 5 years. Dozens of similarly large buildings could be seen within the confines of just a couple blocks when driving through Beijing (and Shanghai). The number of new apartments housed by high rises was startling, speaking to the density of the population in the cities.


Moving outside the city center, we did see some famous sites around Beijing, the first of which being the Great Wall the day after we landed. The views from the Wall were breathtaking. There are currently 3-4 sections of the Wall open to tourists. We chose to climb the steeper, less visited section, which was harder than I expected. None of the stairs are the same height or width. Needless to say I am glad we made the climb at the beginning of the trip before I lost what muscle I had (15 pounds) from lack of exercise the rest of the trip.


A view from the bottom of the Wall with 3 other students from Mizzou. The short shorts got a lot of use as we were instructed to pack light. Little did I know they were a big hit among my companions as several (in the center of the picture) liked to crack jokes at them. Of course, I thought they were comfy, and that’s all that matters!


Another interesting site to see were the many puddles of fresh urine in the towers of the Great Wall. Public restrooms (and trash cans) were uncommon in China so Chinese tourists found ways to improvise. Take a look at the photo below. There must have been 8 or 10 corners in this particular tower that had all had been showered with blessings.


Interestingly enough, peeing in public was not uncommon in the city center in Beijing either. In four days I must have seen five or six mothers hold their children out in front of them over the sidewalk to do their business.


The Summer Palace was one of my favorite day trips. On a hill overlooking a lake with Beijing in the distance there were several palaces that have been built over the past 2000 years. They were used as summer getaways for emperors. If you ever make it to Beijing the Summer Palace is must-see in my opinion.


Unsure of what the copper pots outside one of the palaces were used for I decided to take a look inside to find out. This Chinese woman and her family sitting nearby thought it was so funny that I would get inside a pot for a photo that she insisted on taking one with me.


On one of the days we visited the Ming tombs, which are located below temples built on various mountains. We only visited one of the 15 and I wasn’t too impressed but I did find it amusing how fascinated the Chinese tourists were with some of the simplest things. We saw a huge crowd of maybe 50 Chinese people all nudging each other out of the way (quite common throughout China) for a closer look at this fascinating part of the tour. What was it…?
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A metal grate over what I assumed used to be a well. Although judging by the sloped pavement around the mystery hole, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the commotion could be attributed a sewer drain. Amazing what people will pay to see.


On our final day in Beijing we visited the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The picture on the wall in front of the Forbidden City is of Mao Tse-Tsung. Everyone in China that I spoke to loved Chairman Mao, as some of his greater qualities were apparently taught in school while the government suppressed the truth about the brutality of his regime in the media.


Of course the many cultural sites in Beijing were interesting to see but the most memorable part of the city may well be the excitement about the ’08 Olympics, as I briefly mentioned at the beginning of the email. When our group visited Lenovo to learn about the Chinese way of business this countdown until the games begin was standing by the door, along with a small showroom about the history of the Olympics. Interestingly, Lenovo is the first Chinese company to ever sponsor the Olympics, as the company has invested heavily in an array of sports advertising in an effort to gain name recognition among consumers internationally.


Beijing was a city worth seeing simply for its history as the political center of the country. The traditional Chinese sites were impressive and the development of the city was eye opening as well. Of course, the development of Beijing was nowhere near the magnitude of that of Shanghai, where we visited next.