Weekend in Beijing

Beijing is cold. In fact, it is snowing! So, we have more hotel time than expected. Not a problem – my shared room has more personal space than my efficiency in Hong Kong. The extra time lets me catch up on this blog. However, the updates are on Word because I can’t access Facebook or Google Blogger in mainland China. I would be able access these prohibited sites if I purchased a VPN connection. I did not bother so these updates will just get posted back in HK. Other than Internet blocks, Beijing is a very different place than Hong Kong. It is a sprawling city, challenging for a newcomer to navigate and much colder.

We visited the Forbidden City, which is a 600 year old walled city in the heart of Beijing. If you have seen the Last Emperor, this is the place where he was born. This is where the concubines lived. It surprised me that despite all of the destruction caused by the communists during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, the Forbidden City, which is a monument to imperialism, remains in tact.

Afterwards we walked down a dreary side street to Tiananmen Square. It reminded me of the Mall in D.C. It is a huge lawn framed by imposing buildings, a couple museums and a theater hall. There is a monument in the middle, Mao’s mausoleum and a large photo of Mao at the end of the square. All the lampposts had multiple cameras. It is clearly a historically significant spot yet closely guarded against social unrest...

I loved the Wall. It was a cool, sunny day when we hiked through the part of the Great Wall called Mutianyu. It is a less touristy area so we have pictures without anyone else around. I did not know the Wall has broken into various sections over the years. I was amazed to find out that it's around 6000 km long, can fit 10 soldiers wide (or 5 horses) and follows the mountain ridge. It was an incredible experience. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.









We came across this wedding shoot. The red wedding dress looked fantastic against the gray background.

As an aside, I have been traveling with a few girls from my program and we have reached a fantastic point of goofiness and hilarity, especially at the Wall. Someone had the bright idea to buy a panda hat, naming it Chuchuchu (after the Mandarin word for 'taxi' - like most of my Mandarin efforts, this is a total botching of the actual word) and including it in most of our photos…(to be posted)

Today we visited a very hip art area outside the center of Beijing called ‘798’. They turned an old factory complex into an area for artists. I loved seeing this other personality of the city, considering that the rest of my experiences were relatively stark and cold, this was a charming creative mecca. Back to Hong Kong tomorrow…only one more week ☹

Decision

I finally decided that I would return to Durham. I am very sad about leaving Hong Kong because it has been such a fantastic experience.

When I was in Taiwan last weekend, I was still very torn about whether to return or stay. Upon the recommendation of some travelers from my hostel in Hualien, I rented a scooter to drive 30 km north to the Toroko Gorge (incredible! - equivalent of the Grand Canyon for Taiwan, as one Taiwanese put it). I was alone because they had gone the previous day, but it was such an adventure. I felt like James Bond's sidekick zipping through unknown Asian villages, driving deeper into the mountains, clouds moving through the peaks around me and marble rocks rising along a rapid. It's indescribable. (see pics)

I eventually reached my destination, Tienhsiang, a "village" or road stop 12 km up into the gorge. I ordered some friend rice and, of course, wrote in my journal. My mind wandered towards The Decision and I concluded that I needed to return to Fuqua. Now that I have a job, I will finally be in a position to focus on my classes and my friends. The past 1.5 years in business school have been challenging. In short, I want to leave on a positive note toward Fuqua and I think this is my opportunity to do so. I have yet to change my mind in the past 6 days so it's final. I just need the airline to confirm my return flight!

Lesson Learned: In confronting difficult decisions, go to the top of an incredible mountain with a journal. Expect clarity of mind.

To Stay or To Go

This is my outlet for the agony of indecision over extending my time in Hong Kong. The extension is so brief, it is almost ridiculous that I am still in debate. I am scheduled to leave on March 20th, but I realized that I could take a couple more classes here and stay until April 10 completing my graduation requirements.

Why am I so torn about it? Hong Kong is fun but it is not a rigorous learning experience. If I return to Duke, it is less fun but I will take a few good classes and learn quite a bit next term. I will be busy with my classes - Healthcare Policy (taught by a leader in the field), Valuation (opportunity to round out my insecurity towards finance), and Pricing (a window to my future career). I will also finish my internship on green building. The valuation class will help me figure out how to do the internship project. I will try to immerse in my work, but I will be distracted by social pressure and getting ready for the move to SF. Here's a memory from Durham: the sorority house.

If I stay in Hong Kong, I will try to budget a trip every weekend, finish my studies here, where I am not building finance skills, but I'm learning about doing business in Asia and meeting businesses in Asia, which feels almost as relevant as building my finance skills. Potential trips include Yunnan province, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vietnam or Laos. Additionally, I will continue to meet people in Hong Kong, network with Fuqua alum and friends of friends. I've made a good group of friends who I enjoy. Also, I will return to fuqua with enough time to bond with folks before we all depart. The cons are that I am slightly afraid of just 'hanging out' in Hong Kong and not taking advantage of the quality education for which I have paid. I feel guilty for not taking the more challenging classes that will supposedly build my skill set. Although it's true that I often forget what I have learned in class. Trips through Asia will be more memorable than valuation. Here's Hong Kong - not quite Durham.


In short, I will be happier in Asia but not sure that is why I am in business school. People say that I'll be so busy when I start work, it's worth enjoying myself now. That could be true. These periods usually energize me to work harder when they end.

Tuesday Night

Being on business school exchange in Hong Kong is exactly that - it is not "study abroad" - it is simply exchange from one side of the pond to the other. There is very little study and very little pressure to study. Instead, on a Tuesday evening when most of the world has an early bed time to be refreshed for a Wednesday working day, 5 business school exchange students in Hong Kong proceed on a night of drunken debauchery in LKF. Through researching the previous night's texts later the next day, we discover that our bed time was approximately between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. So much for studying...Here are a few highlights from the evening.

For those not in-the-know, LKF is Lan Kwai Fong (sp?), a neighborhood composed of a few streets in the larger area of Central on Hong Kong Island. It is a landscape of bars and clubs where drunken escapades can be had every night of the week. It is also centrally located for most of my crew on exchange and quite close to our evening classes (we might not study, but we put up pretense by making a show at class). LKF has an atmosphere that blends Stone Street in Lower Manhattan and the French Quarter. The night starts as if on Stone Street and ends as if on the French Quarter. On weeknights Western bankers (the majority of the crowd) are in their suits sans jacket and tie. Lady bankers are in business dress, of the type that demonstrates sex appeal after hours. (I'll post pics later)

Regarding race in Hong Kong, it surprised me how many Westerners live here. Many more than I expected. Wikipedia doesn't give me the exact number, but I see them everywhere. So, it's China but it's also still a British isle in a sense. This is mostly true for one part of Hong Kong. There are other parts of Hong Kong where there are very few, if any, Westerners (more on that later).

Who are those crazy, drunken fools in the photo? Those are my exchange friends. Since I have yet to receive their permission for exposing them on my widely read blog, I will withhold names. Needless to say, it was an amusing evening.

(As an aside, we also appreciate the real culture of Hong Kong, but this particular evening was worth memorializing. Highlights of our hikes, dim sum adventures and travels to come...)