Day 4 Update - ZPark, iSoftstone, and the Olympic sites!

We had a very interesting last day in Bejing. Our visit just seems to get better and better.

This morning our first visit was with the Chairman of ZPark, Ms. Zhou Fang. ZPark (Zhongguancun Software Park) is an industrial park and a business incubator for software companies. The park produces one quarter of China's software GDP and more than 20,000 people work at the park each day in all of the member companies. The Park's mission is to unify the enterprises, integrate resources, and promote the development of the software industry. The park houses many international companies such as IBM, Oracle, Reuters, Neusoft, China's Unionpay, Hanwant Technology and Ark Technology as well as close to 100 emerging software companies. The park, as you can see above, sits on more than 130 hectares and is environmentaly friendly. Ms. Zhou kindly answered many questions from our travellers. She shared that her long term strategic goal for the park is to become one of the top ten industry focused parks in the world. If you would like to learn more about ZPark, please visit their website at http://www.zpark.com.ca/ .

After yet another delicious lunch at which Pamela only used chopsticks (even for peas) - hooray! - we visited one of ZPark's client companies - iSoftStone (http://www.isoftstone.com/). The company is a global IT services provider focusing on capabilities in Financial Services, Telecomunications, and hi-tech industries. We were hosted by Mr. Seth Pinegar, Head of Corporate Development for the company. Prior to joining iSoftStone, Seth was an investment banker for nine years, most recently at UBS Investment Bank, based in New York and Tokyo, where he led the firm's technology outsourcing sector practice in China, Mexico and Brazil. He also worked on transactions involving well-known India-based outsourcing companies. Seth was also with JPMorgan's technology investment banking group, based initially in San Francisco and later in Hong Kong. He came to China, not as an ex-patriot, but as an independent citizen after having been offered this position by the Chairman whom he met on a business visit earlier. You never know were networking will take you! My favorite quote of the trip so far came from this former investment banker. He said "Investment banking is very much a marketing job." So, you see.... Marketing really is EVERYTHING! (smile, Hugh!). In the picture to the left, you can see Prof. Obi and myself along with our indefatigable hostess Jenny Pan. She is the consumate professional and has made our trip a pleasure.

Our trip back to the hotel included a stop for pictures at two Olympic venues - the Birds Nest (where the opening ceremonies were held) and the Water Cube.

We want to take a moment to thank Steven, our tour guide in Beijing. Steven has been so very helpful to us in many many ways. On our bus rides he has given us a lot of interesting information about the city, he lead us through the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, and helped many of us to arrange special tours. He also played an important role in helping us determine what was in each dish at our special meals. Throughout it all, Steven has been kind, patient, and efficient. He has been a very important addition to our trip. This picture shows Steven leading our group during our tour of the Forbidden City. We will miss him very much!

Tomorrow morning we are headed for an in-country airline trip to Shanghai. As we have afternoon business visits, we are taking a VERY early flight. Jenny wants us checked our and ready to board the bus at 6:00 AM - yes, you did read that right!