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!