Day 3 Update - CANGO, Jun He Law Offices, Peking Duck, and Karaoke

Ni hao from China on our third day in country. Today was our first "business" day. Everyone got to the bus on time and we all put on our Purdue University Calumet lapel pins and headed off to CANGO (China Association for NGO Cooperation) to meet Mr. Huang Haoming (Vice Chairman & Executive Director) and Mr. Zhao Daxing (Deputy Executive Director). CANGO was one of the first NGO organizations in China and serves social organizations and public works organizations. Their mission is to create a network of Chinese NGO's to address poverty alleviation, environmental protection, and social development particularly in poor, remote, and rural areas. Our hosts noted that they recently raised RMB 425 mikllion for project implementation with local matching funds received of RMB 250 million. Our hosts were very gracious with their time and answered many questions from the group. Learn more about CANGO's activities at http://www.cango.org/english/.

We had a wonderful family-style lunch in the building housing our next visit. We were seated at two large round tables near windows with a lovely view of the city. As the lazy susan went around we tried many dishes such as a delicious sweet and sour pork (NOTHING like the sweet & sour in America), spicy tofu, mushrooms and cabbage, and kung pao chicken. Check out the video and see how good Prof. Obi is getting with his chopsticks!

Guess what we found for an after lunch treat? STARBUCKS! Many of us were delighted to see this and got our caffeine fix.

After lunch we went into the beautiful offices of the Jun He Law Offices and met Ms. Audrey Z. Chen, attorney at law and partner in the firm. Ms. Chen charmed us with her stories and wit. We learned that Jun He was China's first private law firm, founded in 1989. They have five founders, three of which are US educated. The firm was set up originally to serve US clients. Now the firm is home to more than 70 partners and 350 associates. She proudly told us that her firm was named China law firm of the year for 2008. Did you know that the China Bar pass rate is 5%? Compare that with California at 50% and New York at 70% (both states in which Ms. Chen is a member of the bar). You can learn more about the Jun He Law Firm at http://www.junhe.com/en/index.asp.

After this visit we had a few hours until our Peking Duck dinner and karaoke. Many of us went shopping, some took a nap, and others went on an adventure. Tricia and Lori took a rickshaw tour of the Hutong. The Hutong is the traditional area of Beijing where people live. It is now a protected historical sight. We saw a very interesting neighborhood, had a wonderful guide named Pong, and were able to visit with a pensioner in his home. The main buildings in the hutong were almost all quadrangles--a building complex formed by four houses around a quadrangular courtyard. Many hutongs face south for better lighting and heating.

At 6:00 we were off for the traditional Beijing dinner of Peking Duck. We had our dinner at the Loushe Tea House - a very famous venue visited by many celebrities including Henry Kissenger, President Bush, and Purdue Calumet MBAE!! While there we were entertained by young ladies playing traditional Chinese instruments and a puppet shadow show. After dinner many travellers visited the tea shop upstairs.

Our next destination was KTV for an evening of karaoke. It did take some hunting to find songs that we wanted to sing along to, but we did find some. The videos accompanying the songs were hilarious! For those of you who lived through the 80's clothes and hair, you'd have been right at home..... One of the highlights was Shontrai's rendition of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" complete with his traditional flips (ask any of the MBAE 10 students about the flips). Also active participants were Ozzie, Tricia, Stepanie, Patrick, and Barbara. Prof. Obi got into it with a classic reggae song!