Is winter in Beijing really that cold?

Okay, okay...I've been told by (Chinese) friends and classmates that the winter is "cold" in Beijing. But come on - it can't be any colder than Boston - can it? Which city really is the winner when it comes to being a tougher city in the winter?

• According to Google Earth (which is just plain fun to fiddle around with), technically, Boston is further north than Beijing.

• Boston: 42°26'08.55 North
• Beijing: 40°00'33.33 North
  

Advantage = Boston

• According to Weather.com, from October-March, the avg low temperatures for Beijing are colder than Boston. Avg high temps for Beijing are as-cold, or colder than Boston for November-February.

Advantage = Beijing

• From Weather.com info, Boston gets 13+ times more total precipitation than Beijing for the months of October-March. I bet people in Beijing have never had a chance to cross-country ski to work! (I still remember the 2003 President's Day Weekend storm when 27.5" (or 69.9 cm) of snow got dropped on Boston.)
  

Advantage = Boston

• In China, the government regulates when the heat gets turned on for the entire city! So in Beijing, you can curl up like an eskimo until November 15th - when the heat comes on. Then you return to your igloo on March 15th when the heat gets shut-off again. Whereas in Boston, you can jack-up the thermostat if you prefer tropical weather year-round.

Advantage = Beijing

• In Boston, most normal people don't have to use bicycles every day for transportation (unless you're an extreme sports enthusiast).
  

Advantage = Beijing

Since it's only late-October, perhaps it's a bit premature to assess what this winter is going to be like - but the mercury has dropped the last few days so it's got me thinking about what's to come. ..

Vulture Capitalists
With my family arriving at the end of this week, I forgot to mention my search for a (1 month) November sublet. With most apartments requiring a 6 month minimum commitment, and the upcoming Olympics next August, it was not easy to find places available (or willing) to sublet for 1 month. None of the reasonably priced hotels (for long-term stays) were large enough, and those that were far exceeded what I was willing to pay.

Having checked out some websites, word-of-mouth, and posting an ad or two...I spent a Saturday (a few weeks ago) checking out various apartments around the city. None of them were close to campus, and my search - at first, was very unpromising.

The first set of apartment complexes I looked at were in the Northeast part of the city. The kiwi guy who showed me the places was really sketchy, and his girlfriend was a sophomore at a local university.

I didn't really trust him, so I spoke his girlfriend in Chinese; I learned that he/they were renting out short-term apartments for "reasonable" rates now (a little high on price, IMHO) and then they were planning to hike the nightly rates up 20 times during the Olympics. (From 150 to 3000 rmb/night for a 2 bedroom!)

Um yeah, good luck with that - since these apartments were far from most Olympic venues, and the entire road was constructing new apartment complexs from end-to-end. Even though these were new construction, they are FAR from the closest subway stop (15 minutes by bus) - and for me - the subway would add another 75+ minutes to where school is.

The 2nd apartment Mr. McSketchy showed me was okay, but the entire complex (pictured to the right w/ courtyard) seemed eerily empty and a bit sterile. Nice kitchen and bathroom, and more spacious (and clean) than the 1st place I saw. But the mere principle of this vulture capitalist getting any commission from my rent made me sick - plus, who wants to rent a place where they don't really look forward to going home at night? (especially when you have a toddler...) As a VERY last resort, I would have rented out that 2nd apartment...

From there, I took the bus to the subway - to confirm how remote these apartments were from the subway...then I headed to the next apartment to check out.

Things can only get better...
It was like night and day - in every way. From the boondoggles to the heart of Beijing; from new and sterile, to established and inviting. As soon as I arrived outside the apartment compound - even the weather signaled that things were going to get much better.

Ok, I should first preface that this was a foreign diplomatic compound with a uniformed security guard at the front gate inspecting anyone & any bag/package coming in...

As soon as I saw this place I had a good feeling the search was over. The location is REALLY amazing - aside from being a 1+ hour subway ride to campus. It's footsteps away from a subway stop, tucked away near the embassies, 2 (big city) blocks from the silk market, and a quick (1 rmb) ride to Tiananmen Square, Wang Fujing, and other great places too.

It's a 1 bedroom flat with great natural light, and hopefully enough room for my daughter to run all over the place! Outside there's a brand new playground and well-manicured courtyard - although it will probably see minimal usage as the weather turns colder.

Speaking of cold, the good news is that the heat for the apartment came on in mid-October! Apparently, the embassies and surrounding diplomatic housing neighborhoods have an exception from the limits placed on the rest of Beijing (an extra month at both ends...Oct 15 - April 15).

So...I exchanged the rent for keys yesterday, and I'll be moving in on Thursday - the day before the family arrives. Even though it's a bit of a hike to campus, it will be totally worth it. Truth is, there is not so much to do with a family near campus (aside from the Summer Palace), and it will be really convenient for Kyla to explore the city from a central location. Considering we've been divided by the Atlantic and 2500+ miles of North America for 2 months, a 1 hour commute to school doesn't seem so bad.

Back to the mines...
This next week is going to be crunch-time. The good thing about having a semester crammed into a few short months is that you get a longer winter break...but the workload is far from being a cupcake just because each of my 6 classes are 2 credits (plus a one credit course). Before I head to the airport on Friday for pick-up, I've got a business plan due, a paper, an exam, a BIG final presentation, and a few of other small presentations...and a group paper due next Monday (which I will just need to crank through early).--Plus I'm moving on Thursday. GIDDY UP!!


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Now playing: Barenaked Ladies - Everything Had Changed
via FoxyTunes

Why I love October...

It's always been my favorite month - since growing up playing soccer with early morning games on Saturday morning when the frost was still on the grass (and froze your toes)... Now there are even more reasons to love October!

1. I resisted the temptation to subscribe to MLB.com's live video feed throughout the playoffs, but for ALCS Game 7 - I couldn't resist! I was clapping and hooting on the outdoor deck of my (newest) favorite cafe on Monday morning - and I still had plenty of time to have lunch afterwards and go to my first class @ 1:30pm. (I'm seeing a trend emerge - the Sox have the best post-seasons when I'm out of the Boston area. In 2004, we lived in DC.)
   
2. The Lenovo plant tour was yesterday morning. It was a cool experience - and it was more focused on final assembly than industrial manufacturing. Totally different from the only other plant I've been to (and worked at) which was an automotive facility in Germany. For those curious about the operations, we couldn't take pics but here are some facts about this plant:
   
• produces 3 million Lenovo-branded desktop PCs/year (no thinkpads...sorry!)
  
• 6 production lines
• carries 15 days inventory
  
• two 8-hour shifts, no work on weekends, & no production schedule on Mondays
• 2500 employees (900 in factory) - largest plant in Northern China
• Largest plant in China is probably in Shenzhen, where all "think" products are produced (thinkpad, thinkcentre - desktops, and thinkvision-monitors)
3. 
   
4. Have to run in 3 minutes because of the Google information session at Tsinghua. I was told to get here early b/c the auditorium was packed last year (since non-students from around Beijing also come to the session - it only recruits at 2 schools in China..Beijing University [Bei Da] being the other one).
   

Be careful where you stick your thumb...

... you could contract a CTD (computer transmitted disease)! WTF? A thumb drive that is (aka - USB, flash drives, etc). Passing around a thumb drive to transfer files or print out stuff is nothing new. But around here, you can pick up some nasty stuff from the computer labs and print shops . It's a pain to have to remember to scan your usb drive on your computer every time you use it - or scanning a friend's drive if you want to grab a presentation or photos off of it.

This past week in preparation for a class we had to watch some recordings from the prior week, and the FTP server wasn't working for me. So I meet up with the TA from the class and got the files from her computer. Turns out her PC added a little gift to my thumb drive - with a file titled "taiping.exe"...yeah that was sketchy. Got watch out around here! (I'm actually going to start backing up my entire thinkpad on an online backup site...just in case)

Been a while since my last post and the past week has just been jam packed. A couple of test/quizzes and a few group presentations was enough to keep me buried most days. (Plus my classes had a total of 5 guest speakers this week.) Okay, so some late nights kept me busy too...It's been a while, but I forgot how much a 5am night can throw your schedule out of whack.

Monday night's class was just stellar. We ended up having 2 guest speakers...one was a managing director of a boutique investment bank, where he helped raise $850+ million in greenfield project financing for a start-up steel company...an amazing deal. Second speaker was the CFO of SOHO China, and she shared some insight to how the real-estate market is evolving here.

-------------------------------------------
But enough about that boring stuff, eh? The best news is that in less than 2 weeks my girls will be arriving! :) Ella is going to be a chicken for Halloween, although I think she's better suited to be a strawberry!

So anticipate come early-November posts will be less frequent, and may also include some observations/accounts of what it's like to have a toddler in China.


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Now playing: Guster - Homecoming King
via FoxyTunes

Beijing's underground growth

The Metro
Why does Beijing have a subway system with "Line 1", "Line 2", and "Line 13"?! Hmmmm...not a question worthy of another Pop Quiz, so I'll give you the simple answer... BECAUSE the other lines are not complete yet.

Well, Line 5 just opened last Sunday at 2:00pm - on the day many people returned from the National Week holiday. It runs a straight line of 27+ km from North to South through the city.

On top of that, on that same day all subway fares were lowered to a universal rate of 2 rmb/ride (about 27 cents). What most new stories fail to mention is that this is the cost for a ride to/from any point on the subway - including transfers. Previously, fares were 3 rmb - and I used to get slapped with a 5 rmb transfer (for a total of 8 rmb).

How's this for logic? Opening a brand new $1.7 billion (USD) line after 5 years, with LCD screen on trains and on platforms, air conditioning (yes, this is STILL exciting for some things in China!), and alleged top speeds of 80 km/hr (although I doubt those trains will ever go that fast)...all the while, you lower fares for the entire system! Hmmm...excluding ongoing staffing and overhead costs, that would mean a payback after approx. 6.3 billion riders on that subway. When we're talking about 27 cents/ride you can't make it up by shear volume!

Obviously, this infrastructure improvement has short-term benefits in advance of the Olympics - but the expansion of the subway, and locals adapting to using it more frequently, is critical to the future of the city. With 1,000 new cars registered every day (and 500 used cars/day) the traffic will eventually choke the city to a stand-still. To help put things in perspective, riding the bus costs only 1 rmb (1/2 of the new subway fare) and students can ride for just 20 mao - the equivalent of 2.7 cents! So even with the newly reduced fare for the Metro, it may not be a big enough incentive for the masses.

So yeah, before 08.08.08 (start of the Olympic Games), Line 4, 10, and the airport line will be completed and in full operation. Hopefully by then the combined efforts of - new rails, lowered fares, and alternative driving laws (based on whether the last digit of your license plate is odd/even) - will give worldwide visitors that China's capital city has it's you-know-what together.

"Underground" market
Speaking of stuff underground, how can one be in China and not comment on the wonder of the viability and legitimacy of some businesses here!

With the Silk Market aside (b/c I have ZERO idea why that place has been allowed to stay in business, particularly post-WTO ascension for China), here are a couple of examples that might leave you scratching your head....

1. Photocopying - Tsinghua is the marquee MBA program in China, and aspiring to be world-class. For full-time students all books are included in the cost of tuition (wish we had that at Babson!!) Still, photocopying textbooks and other course materials are not uncommon, just as it is among students at any (education) level in any country. Now here's the kicker...located just footsteps from a school building is a row unmarked shops that can copy anything FAST and CHEAP. (In this photo, the bldg you can only see part of on the left is an academic bldg - the low story bldg houses the shops) Okay...so these types of shops are all over the place here, but still - this is within the school's own gates!
   
1. Guess businesses like FedEx Kinko's don't stand a chance in the near term...with only 15 locations in China, looks like they'll continue to focus on businesses in the central biz district.
   
2. I know what you're thinking next...what kind of books do I have? Well, I'll just mention that most copied & bound books cost 15-30 rmb, and let you figure out this puzzle...
   
2. Video Rental - Pirated DVD's is nothing new. Not here in Asia, not on the streets of mid-town Manhattan (which always cracks me up b/c the sellers ALWAYS have a scout eying for cops...and all hawkers have black sheets ready to pull over their movies/watches/purses/etc), so perhaps this one isn't as interesting. But if (knock-off) DVDs cost 7 RMB/each - how many would you have to sell to actually have an entire shop dedicated to DVDs and CDs?...How many to cover rent & overhead? Well in the college-area outside campus, there are at least a few places like this that are wedged in between legitimate businesses (like restaurants, dry cleaners, retail stores, etc) Who needs video rentals when it's cheaper to buy them?
   
3. Pet stores - Only 10-15 years ago, pets probably consisted mainly of crickets and fish. Now, with rising middle-class, Chinese are making the move to four-legged friends. So most night's there is a guy who is selling puppies out of cardboard boxes on the side of the street - near Tsinghua. (I should mention that lots of things are sprawled out for sale at night - like shoes, clothes, gadgets, etc...)
   

There are strict laws about owning a dog in Beijing. (I'm not sure if they also apply to other provinces/cities in China.) You've heard of the one-child policy...well how about the one-dog policy!! In addition, dogs taller than 14 inches are not allowed within the Fifth Ring Road of the city - so if you get a puppy, make sure its a smaller breed (or mutt).

Let's assume there are hundreds (or thousands) of people like this guy selling pets on the street in Beijing. .. Since this is CHINA, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to regulate the pet industry if health issues are a major concern? Come on, how hard would it be to throw the gauntlet down on the street sales of pets? Sell pets that are "fixed" (due to the one dog policy), have their vaccinations, require registration at point of purchase, and consolidate operations in fixed (state-approved or sponsored) locations?

Anyway..let these stew in your mind for a while. (It's sure a lot more interesting than pondering why A-Rod gets paid $25+ million/yr to sizzle in April, and fizzle in the post-season...)


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Now playing: U2 - Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
via FoxyTunes

Tsinghua, in a league by itself...

Special Tsinghua Visitor

"Guess he's gone!" (said a good friend of mine as we were walking out from the main lobby of the business school.)

"Guess, who's gone?!" (I asked with great curiosity and urgency...)

"Zhu Rongji."

Um, yeah...at what other business school in the world might you have the former Premier make a "Keyser Soze"-like appearance (with the exception of maybe HBS)? Seriously, I had to repeat his name out loud 2-3 times because of the surprise!

You know...Something seemed a little different when I arrived at the building a few minutes before today's 8:30am class. When I went to park my bike, I noticed that certain areas of the sidewalk were void of the long snarled rows of locked up bikes normally found. Between then and when class got out at noon, Zhu Rongji had come and gone. All that was left now were a few SUVs parked outside on the sidewalk, one of which was a Jeep Grand Cherokee - windows rolled down. In it was 4 soldiers in black (military) uniforms holding some serious hardware in their laps...

Maybe I shouldn't be that surprised of this high profile visitor...since he is the founding dean of Tsinghua's School of Economics (aka - business school), and is honorary chairman...but still, it's totally unexpected even though I've read about him being connected to the b-school.

Okay, I've opened this post BIG - so everything else won't be as colossal, but equally as exciting (to me at least).

Me like learning!
Out of 7 classes, 5 are GREAT...and here are some more about the ones that really get me fired up!

One of the coolest profs I have teaches Operations Strategy. In addition to being engaging during classes, he's not only making an effort to get to know everyone outside of class (in small group lunches), but he's also lined-up a plant tour at Lenovo later this month!!! I think I'm looking forward to this, but I am not sure... :) Also, we've got a guest speaker in next week's class - all good stuff...

The initial class of my (GOOD) finance course kicked-off tonight. You know how some people look really accomplished on paper, but they turn out to dissappoint when you meet them? This "professor" lives up to his billing - and more. An accomplished businessman in telecommunications (for decades), he's got a down-to-earth demeanor, and he's (as Bostonians might say) "wicked smaht"! For example, he's on the board of Soho China, a company that recently IPO'd this week and raised $1.7 billion - about as much as Google did back in 2004 (when it IPO'd at $85/share).

As for the other two courses...they are not worth boring you with how painful they are. I've done my share of complaining in earlier posts. At least the redemption is that I Go GaGa** over the other ones.


**Pardon the plug, but I just had to mention that a friend (and recent Babson alumna) is starting to get some great traction with her start-up company called Go GaGa! [Check it out the first product "The Slide"...one of the Desperate Housewives wants to have one!]


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Now playing: Seu Jorge - Samba que nem Rita à Dora
via FoxyTunes

Flashback... My name is ______ & I'm an 'expressive'...

Two weeks of classes have gone by, and I've got that nice steady (MBA) buzz of being so fired-up that it is tough to go to sleep at night b/c the mind is racing... Rest easy, I am infinitely more satisfied with my classes since that 1st week. The improvement stems from add/dropping courses (like axing SCM!), and also just adjusting to the "diversity in teaching style" in China...(meaning straight-up lectures for 3 hours at a time)

Speaking of "styles"...does anyone out there remember "People Styles at Work" from Mod I? For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a quick synopsis:

• Prior to orientation in the 1st year at Babson, my entire class had to read this book - and figure out the style we most identified with (Expressives, Drivers, Amiables, and Analyticals).
  
• Throughout our first month of school, it felt like we were constantly referring to each other's "style" - both in class, and jokingly out of class too.
  

Well, in my 2nd Global Leadership class (which is absolutely stellar, BTW) we spent the better part of the session on the four types of styles. Although it was interesting to read and discuss the first time around back in Mod I, revisiting it at Tsinghua - it really sunk in. In class - I began thinking back on events/experiences of the last year (BCAP project, summer internship, etc) and then I started reflecting even further back on previous employers/managers/etc. Good stuff...if you still own that book, it's worth reviewing it again.

Advanced Managerial Communication - another great class. Hmmm, probably because it is the antithesis of the all-lecture format. Last class, we divided into 2 teams to represent French & Chinese parties of a contract negotiation. 60 minutes of plotting strategy among our teams, 50 minutes of negotiations b/wn delegates of the 2 parties, and about 60 minutes of class debrief at the end. So yeah, needless to say, I was really wound up after that class...

Interestingly, there are no Chinese students in that class - which I think is a shame. Everyone could use infinite amounts of practice and simulated negotiations (esp. since 46% of the Class of 2008 have degrees in engineering or sciences).

However, in all fairness, I should probably provide a quick demographic breakdown of Tsinghua's Class of 2008 for the international MBA program...

• 118 students
  
• 34 international students
• 78 Tsinghua students (presumably Chinese) studying abroad this semester
  

Okay...so that leaves only 6 Chinese students from the Class of 2008 able to take this class... Uh - Don't mind me, I'm just answering my own questions right now.

Ironically, in my initial courses registered, I stayed away from the management-type classes b/c I thought the strength would really be in the finance and hard quant classes...obviously another small surprise in big China. I'm still in 2 finance courses - and the one that's had class so far has made my ears bleed, and my eyes sag. [I know, I know "Cry me a river..."]

One class that I can't take for credit, but that I sit-in as much as possible (2 x's/week, 5 hours total), is a macro-economics course for the 1st years. Prof. Marthinsen @ Babson literally wrote the book on macro-econ and he is great! Speaking of which, does anyone recall Marthinsen's 4 Rules of Thumb?...Rule #1: "Above the line, below the line", etc...

The professor teaching macro here is an all-star in a different way. Yeah, 40% of a class is focused on text-book macro stuff (reserve ratio, balance of payments, etc)...then the rest of a class session is just all-out specific information on China from a macro view.

Prof. David Li is one of the top economists in China and is involved in closed-door policy meetings (etc) and he is just ridiculous. Several 2nd years highly recommended checking out his class, and one phrased it boldly..."If you do just 1 thing here at Tsinghua, it would be to go to his classes!" Would you be able to pass that up? Me neither. Plus, considering we compress macro into 4 weeks @ Babson...a little review can't hurt!

To further put a little perspective on things...the 1st year at Babson seemed like a TON of work (totaling 32 credits). OH, YEAH?! Well at Tsinghua, MBAs have to buckle down for a goody basket of 40 credits in the 1st year - and it was revised down from 42 credits last year! (Let's hope for future Babson 1st year students' sake that OPM doesn't find out about this...) 2nd year students are then freed up to do semester exchanges, launch their own businesses, job search, thesis, etc.

Classes start back up tomorrow after a week off, and I'm ready to go...

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Now playing: A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation
via FoxyTunes

Pop Quiz #1 - Results

For those who are eagerly awaiting to see how they did on last week's quiz, here are the results:

27% said....1) so bugs don't climb up the trees
36% said....2) so drivers can see where to drive at night
9% said...3) so the road looks nicer
27% said....4) so China can create some extra jobs (tree painters)

The correct answer is: 1!

On the road again...

Day 1 - Getting to Hohhot
We left on Saturday morning for Inner Mongolia, and flew out of a Beijing airport I've never been to before...and there's a reason for that. According to our cab driver, Nan Yuan airport was only opened about 2 years ago to commercial (domestic) flights. (It still serves as a military academy and field.)

When we arrived to Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia (which is a province within China), I was totally amazed! I was expecting a run-down airport, not quite as extreme as a dirt strip in the middle of a field where the livestock disperse when you land - but something crappy. Instead, the airport is BRAND new...and looks as nice as Denver International Airport from a distance...

Also unexpected was the total lack of touts, which I was looking forward to - so that I could gather some information from them (and then walk away). So we headed to the next best place to find travel agencies and/or touts...the train station.

Again, NOTHING...except for lots of Chinese people boarding trains and buses on their way for their own travels for National Week. Long story short, we found a hotel...asked for a travel agency, and they sent someone over to talk with us. As the only Mandarin speaking person among us, I worked out the trip logistics (private van, overnight in the grasslands, and second day to the desert, then back to Hohhot...and including all accommodations for our stay in Inner Mongolia). Then I let Peter handle the negotiations on price/person b/c I was now mentally drained, and physically beat (b/c we were all out until 3am in Beijing, just a few hours before we had to go to the airport).

After everything was all settled (around 5pm) we went out for dinner. Fortunately our hotel was located in a very local part of the city (the fish market was in the basement!). Just a few blocks away was a restaurant that only served Mongolian hotpot...so naturally that's where we dined. When we got there, the place was 1/3 full, but by the time we were wrapping up, there wasn't an empty table.

As you can tell from the pic, the hotpot is in the middle of the table with some broth - and you just cook up beef, lamb, tofu, noodles, spinach, etc in the middle. As everything gets cooked & the broth evaporates, you're left with a thick sauce at the end.

After dinner we wanted to walk-off our full bellies and explore the city a bit. Again, it was totally NOT what I was expecting. Buildings with bright neon lights?...no, I was actually anticipating a large industrial (meaning ugly) city without much to stick around.

At least the part we walked around was modern, clean, and had a public square that actually served its purpose...bringing people together to socialize and to get out of the house (unlike Tiananmen Square, where the people who gather are mostly cattle of tourists following colored flags on poles from one site to another). There was a person drawing calligraphy on the sidewalk with a Sprite bottle converted into a water brush, small rides for children to scoot around the square, a group of people singing songs, young rollerbladers doing stunts between cones, etc. We left after a while because we had an early start the next day, and most of us were only on a few hours of sleep after a late night out.

Day 2 - Grasslands
After setting out at 7:30am from the hotel, we arrived to the grasslands after a 90 minute drive. It wasn't as far north as I (and Peter) wanted to go, but based on the stories we were told, the road to further grasslands were in repair & the "villages" up there were closed for the season b/c it was getting too cold.

If the tagline for the 2008 Olympics is "One World, One Dream", then the slogan for traveling this vast country should be "One China, Two Prices". We knew in advance that we'd have to pay out-of-pocket to go horseback riding,motorbikes, and other activities...but what we weren't told was exploring some of the "sights" would require a mode of transportation. (And we couldn't ride horses for just 1 hour, b/c "! there was a 2 hr minimum.) There were "pretty pictures" of pre-determined sights - but each one was a minimum of (x) hours by horse.

Since we were among the first people to arrive at the yurts, we decided to pass on the on the horses/motorbikes/ATVs and set out on foot without a particular destination. Eventually, other people on horses passed us, and we followed their general direction for 30 minutes or so. Then we decided to forget about the other groups b/c they were headed to the hokey sites we saw photos of earlier...and that there probably wasn't much to see there anyway.

Off in the distance we spotted a shepherd with little white flecks on the hillside (sheep & goats) - so we set our sights in his direction.

Without any constraint on time, it was GREAT to be in the open air devoid of cars, people, and computers...although we all had 5 bars on our cell phones in the middle of nowhere...thanks to China Mobile. ("can you hear me now?...GOOD!") Actually the cell towers were good, not b/c we had reception, but because without them, we would have had trouble getting back to our yurts. They served as our sole landmarks for orientation! By the end, we succeeded in making a big loop and we were tired by the time we returned to the yurts. After 10+ km of wandering we were starving and ready for lunch.

Since there is literally NOTHING to do at the yurts, after lunch we bargained the locals down to 100 rmb/hour/person to rent ATVs and the 6 of us headed back out to the hills. (Now, before you give me flack for how non-environment friendly ATVs are...picture yourself in Inner Mongolia. Would you pass that up? Nah...didn't think so!) Peter, a quasi-mechanic, found the gas line - and after that, we were all cruising a lot faster and driving our unofficial chaperone (a young local on a motorbike) CRAZY.

When we got back, we chilled in the yurt (all 6 of us fit into one) and played cards until dinner...Dinner was Mongolian BBQ --> if you agreed to shell out 280/360/420 rmb for it - depending on serving size. What did I tell you?...One China, two prices. So we passed on the BBQ. (280 rmb can buy you a FEAST back in Hohhot, or even in Beijing.) Another table ordered it, so we were able to see the presentation and cutting of the lamb.

During and after dinner there were songs sung and traditional dances performed. It was difficult to enjoy much of it b/c the amplifier was blown-out and the sound was so distorted (and loud). Still, it was interesting...and sure provided variety as compared to the typical evening in Beijing. Bundled up in our yurt (w/o heat of course), we went to bed early b/c of another early start to the desert in the morning...on a drive that is usually 4 hours.

Day 3 - Desert
The drive to the desert was definitely an adventure. We buzzed through hillside towns where farmers were working in the corn and potato fields...often with just one tractor for an entire community. The winding roads provided beautiful scenery, and overtaking trucks and cars definitely led to some good laughs (even by the driver).

In addition to eventful road obstacles (including crossing livestock, donkey-pulled carts, etc), our vehicle had certainly seen better days! We all got some light rest until about 2 hours into the ride, when the gearbox started to act-up...we either had no clutch or lost 1st gear (it was hard to figure out which one). So now going up hills was even more entertaining!...how long could we go before the driver had to downshift...could we reach the next descent without stalling out. Then, of course, we got a flat tire. :)

We needed to stretch anyway...so it was good to get out, because the drive was DEFINITELY going to take more than 4 hrs.

We stopped for lunch in the largest city in Inner Mongolia, Bao Tou. The population is 50% greater than the provincial capital...and it was EXACTLY the way I envisioned Hohhot was going to be (but wasn't). An industrial city, not focused on modernity or cleanliness - but rather on energy with little to offer for travelers/tourists, and no reason to stick around than absolutely necessary. Still, it provided an interesting contrast to Hohhot (and Beijing). Plus, we pulled into a mechanic's shop and he fixed the clutch/gearbox. Fifteen minutes and 20 rmb (about $2.50 USD) later, we were back on track to get to the desert.

Two hours later we were in the Kubuqi desert. It wasn't the Gobi, which was to the North, but it was still one giant block of sand! :)

We took to open-air Jeeps up to the dunes, and the driver really started testing the authenticity of the Jeep the more we whooped and hollered!!

Naturally, there was an "activity area"...where people could ride camels, rent ATVs, and even a zip-line back back to the Jeeps...Most of us opted for a camel ride.

After that, I just wandered off into the sands in search of a dune w/ a good view and some peace and quiet.

The trip back to Hohhot was (thankfully) less uneventful than the earlier drive from the grasslands. We got back to Hohhot, went out to dinner, and then shot some pool at a local hall down the street from our hotel...a great way to unwind.

Day 4 - Hohhot
Okay...because I'm tired of typing (and you're probably not going to read down this far anyway), I'm going to give you the short-short version of Day 4! (Insert applause here...)

Morning/lunch - Feasted on a buffet at the nicest hotel in Hohhot. (Think pasta station, sushi, stir frys, etc)

Afternoon - Walking around different sections of the city: strolling through a public park, side street markets, Da Zhao lamasery, and we walked around in an area with Huimin people, a muslim minority (also commonly referred to as weegers) .

Dinner - Since it was Marie Louise's birthday, we went back to that nice hotel to the Japanese restaurant...dinner teppanyaki style! Afterward, we found an alley...pulled up some empty boxes and crates and played cards, Chinese-style! (In the middle of the street, slamming down cards, with some of the finest local brew.) Who knew ever knew that "asshole" is an international card game!

We were on the street until 2am...even though we had to make a 7:25am flight back to Beijing. So yeah, we were all hung over on the quick hop back home....Nothing like ending a trip the way it got started.

Ahhh...fun's over. This coming week is back to work. 3 group presentations, 1 quiz, and LOTS of reading to do.

Oh wait, this is an MBA blog, not a travel blog. :0) So here are some key skills/takeaways from Inner Mongolia:

• Cross-cultural communications (how do you get around NOT speaking English when you're with 3 people from Denmark, 1 from Holland, and a Canadian-American?...speak German!...and fill-in the Canadian-American later.)
  
• Negotiations (aka bargaining)
• Teamwork (in a group of 6, of course)
• Building consensus
  

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