Today was a VERY long but interesting day in so many ways. We all got up very early, and got on the bus at 6:30 am for a ride to the Beijing airport for our domestic flight to Shanghai. Check-in was smooth and efficient. However, weight limits are different for flights within China and we were over our limit - as a group - by 80 kg. You can tell that we had a good time shopping in Beijing!
Our flight on China East airlines took off on time and even thought it was only a two hour flight, we were served a very nice breakfast including congee, vegetable salad with 1000 year old egg, yogurt, and a pork sandwich. Pretty different from the drink and peanuts we've grown accustomed to in the US!
All of our luggage arrived without delay and met our Shanghai tour guide, Felix. On the ride to the hotel he told us about Shanghai - did you know this is a city of approximately 19 million residents? Our own Chicago has a population of just about 3,000,000 residents. In China that would be considered a third, and possibly fourth, class city. Just think about that for a minute. The scale of everything here in China is different! If Shanghai were a country, it would have approximately the world's 40th largest economy! Shanghai is a gorgeous, cosmopolitan world class city. And yes, driving in Chinese cities is very interesting. There are busses, cars, bikes, and pedestrians all believing they have the right of way! From even our short exposure to the city, it seems to be living up to its reputation as the "New York" of China. Continuing the analogy, Beijing would be the Washington, DC of China.
After arriving at the beautiful Shanghai Central Hotel at about 1:00 pm, we unpacked, grabbed a quick lunch and headed out for our business visits for the day.
Quick aside - both of the hotels we have seen have a very interesting energy saving
feature in the rooms. When you enter the room there is a slot for your key card on the
wall. When you insert your slot, power begins to flow to the room. When you remove
the key, say when you are leaving, the room goes into a "power save" mode and lights
and appliances will not work until the key card is re-inserted.
Our first business visit was with Mr. Brian Sun (Founder and Managing Partner) and Mr. Partick Courtois (Principal Consultant) of Orion China. Orion China is an executive search firm. Mr. Sun talked to us about "Common Characteristics of business leaders who can seamlessly navigate across borders, and how you can develop them." Some of those common characteristics included being a functional or domain specialist, exportable academic credentials, sound communication skills, sound decision making, multicultural sensitivity, and the ability/willingness to be mobile (that is, move across the world). He also noted that two very critical success factors for managing in a foreign country are EQ and the ability to manage remotely. Brian and Patrick answered many, many questions from our group. Perhaps one of them - or one of you - will consider a foreign posting some day! If you would like to learn more about Orion China please visit http://www.orionchina.net/.
Following our conversation with our hosts from Orion, we met with Mr. Francis (Chip) Peters
who is a Commercial Officer with the US Commercial Service - part of the US Department of Commerce and with the US Consulate General Shanghai. Mr. Peters is a career diplomat with the Commercial Service, has been in China about 3 years, and will be heading to Thailand at the end of year. The US Commercial Service counsels US companies wanting to do business in China, conducts trade promotion encouraging companies to do business in China and advocates for US firms. He shared with us why Shanghai is an attractive commercial target for foreign companies - it has an ideal geographic location, a high concentration of multi-national companies, a more transparent business environment (good relations with the government), an educated workforce, and excellent infrastructure. He also noted some challenes to doing business in China - high workforce turnover (about 14% in 2005), intellectual property rights protection issues, transparency issues, predictability of regulation changes, inconsistent implementation of standards, and a fragmented logistics industry. You can learn more about the US Commercial Service at www.buyusa.gov/china . Chip also referred us to an important website for companies considering doing business here. You can find the "Are you China ready" quiz at www.export.gov/china. Mr. Peters' presentation provided us with critical background and framework for our other visits.
Following this visit, we again had time for only a very quick meal. A few of us went to KFC - one of the first fast food providers to do business in China. The concensus was that it was different from the US, and possibly better. I had a wrap with fried chicken pieces, hoisin sauce, and cucumbers. Because we wer so hungry the salty and greasy fries were just delicious!
Our evening event was a sight never to be forgotten! We went to a Chinese acrobat show called ERA: Intersection of Time. Their website http://www.era-shanghai.com/ notes that "ERA is a multimedia odyssey whose inspiration is a direct result of the combination of traditional Chinese acrobatic arts and modern technology. ERA is a love story, yet it is also a contemplation across the millennia, a fascination with that other dimension man has yet to conquer: time. 
ERA's acrobats are on a quest to find that tenuous point of balance, the intersection between X, Y and Z. Not only will the audience be amazed by the acrobats' control and precision, they will be enchanted by the world that is created through the use of multimedia, technology, lighting and sound effects, elaborate costumes, original live music and a lot more. As such, ERA can remain universal, without language or cultural barriers. A thousand-year-old gesture is worth a thousand emotions, a thousand images, a thousand words ……". Frankly you have to see it to believe it. We were 
stunned and amazed at the amazing feats they performed. Since we could not take pictures during the show, here are some from their website. The picture to the above left shows motorcycles, driving at high speed, inside a steel ball. At one time there were more than 7 in the ball at one time. Amazing, just amazing. Finally, here is one picture we were allowed to take after the show - Patrick with some of the wonderful performers.
After arriving at the beautiful Shanghai Central Hotel at about 1:00 pm, we unpacked, grabbed a quick lunch and headed out for our business visits for the day.
Quick aside - both of the hotels we have seen have a very interesting energy saving
feature in the rooms. When you enter the room there is a slot for your key card on the
wall. When you insert your slot, power begins to flow to the room. When you remove
the key, say when you are leaving, the room goes into a "power save" mode and lights
and appliances will not work until the key card is re-inserted.
Our first business visit was with Mr. Brian Sun (Founder and Managing Partner) and Mr. Partick Courtois (Principal Consultant) of Orion China. Orion China is an executive search firm. Mr. Sun talked to us about "Common Characteristics of business leaders who can seamlessly navigate across borders, and how you can develop them." Some of those common characteristics included being a functional or domain specialist, exportable academic credentials, sound communication skills, sound decision making, multicultural sensitivity, and the ability/willingness to be mobile (that is, move across the world). He also noted that two very critical success factors for managing in a foreign country are EQ and the ability to manage remotely. Brian and Patrick answered many, many questions from our group. Perhaps one of them - or one of you - will consider a foreign posting some day! If you would like to learn more about Orion China please visit http://www.orionchina.net/.Following our conversation with our hosts from Orion, we met with Mr. Francis (Chip) Peters
who is a Commercial Officer with the US Commercial Service - part of the US Department of Commerce and with the US Consulate General Shanghai. Mr. Peters is a career diplomat with the Commercial Service, has been in China about 3 years, and will be heading to Thailand at the end of year. The US Commercial Service counsels US companies wanting to do business in China, conducts trade promotion encouraging companies to do business in China and advocates for US firms. He shared with us why Shanghai is an attractive commercial target for foreign companies - it has an ideal geographic location, a high concentration of multi-national companies, a more transparent business environment (good relations with the government), an educated workforce, and excellent infrastructure. He also noted some challenes to doing business in China - high workforce turnover (about 14% in 2005), intellectual property rights protection issues, transparency issues, predictability of regulation changes, inconsistent implementation of standards, and a fragmented logistics industry. You can learn more about the US Commercial Service at www.buyusa.gov/china . Chip also referred us to an important website for companies considering doing business here. You can find the "Are you China ready" quiz at www.export.gov/china. Mr. Peters' presentation provided us with critical background and framework for our other visits.Following this visit, we again had time for only a very quick meal. A few of us went to KFC - one of the first fast food providers to do business in China. The concensus was that it was different from the US, and possibly better. I had a wrap with fried chicken pieces, hoisin sauce, and cucumbers. Because we wer so hungry the salty and greasy fries were just delicious!
Our evening event was a sight never to be forgotten! We went to a Chinese acrobat show called ERA: Intersection of Time. Their website http://www.era-shanghai.com/ notes that "ERA is a multimedia odyssey whose inspiration is a direct result of the combination of traditional Chinese acrobatic arts and modern technology. ERA is a love story, yet it is also a contemplation across the millennia, a fascination with that other dimension man has yet to conquer: time. 
ERA's acrobats are on a quest to find that tenuous point of balance, the intersection between X, Y and Z. Not only will the audience be amazed by the acrobats' control and precision, they will be enchanted by the world that is created through the use of multimedia, technology, lighting and sound effects, elaborate costumes, original live music and a lot more. As such, ERA can remain universal, without language or cultural barriers. A thousand-year-old gesture is worth a thousand emotions, a thousand images, a thousand words ……". Frankly you have to see it to believe it. We were 
stunned and amazed at the amazing feats they performed. Since we could not take pictures during the show, here are some from their website. The picture to the above left shows motorcycles, driving at high speed, inside a steel ball. At one time there were more than 7 in the ball at one time. Amazing, just amazing. Finally, here is one picture we were allowed to take after the show - Patrick with some of the wonderful performers.
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