Shanghai Trip Day 2

We started the day off at the Oriental Pearl TV tower. We traveled up to the observation deck for a nice view of Shanghai. It is amazing how quickly this city has grown. There are so many sky scrapers. It's unreal.
Here's a shot of all the MBA students going to the tower.
This is the tallest building in China, the Jin Mao tower. It is 88 stories high. Several people have been arrested for climbing it and I could see why when we drove by. The outside of the tower has a multitude of handholds - it's like they built ladders running all the way up it. I would rate it at as a very long 5.6. It's a good thing Lance isn't coming to Shanghai because I don't think he could resist the climb.
Another shot of the pearl:
A view from the observation deck. This is what is known as "The Bund" it is where the British set up their financial center and is lined with historic buildings.
After the pearl we went to a nice hotel convention center to hear from some business leaders from the Shanghai community. A mergers and acquisitions lawyer taught us about the steps for US companies to acquire Chinese companies and the amount of regulation involved. A consultant spoke to us about mistakes he sees US businesses making in China and some of the reasons why US policies toward China are politicized and sometimes misguided. We then heard from a executive at Citicorp. His focus was on the banking industry and the differences between US and Chinese consumers. The Chinese are actually far better at saving their money than US citizens. They don't really use credit cards. A common theme that I am picking up from our speakers that is scary is that it appears that many of the US companies have goals to make the Chinese more like us - today Citi discussed how to get the Chinese more into debt through credit cards and yesterday at Coke when they mentioned that very few Chinese drink diet soda but Coke expects the market to grow in the future I couldn't help but feel like they are just waiting for the Chinese to get as fat as Americans from drinking regular Coke that they will have to switch to diet.

Our final speaker was another lawyer who spoke about the business client and more about M&A.

After classes a friend of mine and I went to a Chinese tailor shop and ordered some cloths. The prices are really cheap. Each suit cost about 500 RMB( $64). Custom dress shirts were 80 RMB($10). It remains to be seen if they will actually look decent.

This evening I wandered the streets for a while. I found a nice little Chinese BBQ place where I got some duck and rice and a drink from 18 RMB( $2.33).

The area the hotel is in is one of the swankiest shopping spots in China. All the stores are Prada and Louis Vittan. The prices are no cheaper than you could buy the stuff in the Galleria back in Houston.

Tomorrow we are visiting a university and have a lot of time on our own. It should be a good time to just explore the city.

Shanghai International Trip

I've been in Shanghai China for about 30 hours now - almost as long as it took to get here.

The flight was as good as sitting in a tiny chair for 14 hours could be. I was delayed in San Francisco for an extra three hours since our first officer got sick and I guess no one in San Francisco knows how to fly a 747 so they had to fly someone in from San Diego. Luckily I ran into three fellow McCoombs MBA students at the airport and we were able to hang out together.

We arrived in Shanghai too late to ride on the famed Magnetic Levitation train (220 mph). Instead we stood in line for a Taxi for over an hour. The line was amazingly long. Part of the problem is that one of my fellow students was smoking and a Chinese guy asked him if we wanted him to get us a Limo right now for 500 RMB (about 8 RMB = 1 USD). Since the line was so long and we are gullible Americans we said sure and he hauled us all over the airport for the next 15 minutes until we finally got fed up and we back to stand in the taxi line. Luckily we didn't pay him any money. I supposed you could say that we had only been in Shanghai for 30 minutes and we had already been "shanghaied".

We ended up getting to our hotel, the fabulous Portman Ritz Carleton around 12:00 am. I unpacked and wandered around the hotel a bit. Luckily I am able to talk to Carrie over the internet.

Here's a picture of the view out the window of my hotel and some pictures of the room:
The next morning we began our program for school. We met at 7:00 for breakfast at a Chinese restaurant at the hotel and I was very happy that the first item in the buffet was dim sum shrimp dumplings. Unfortunately the rest was your typical white man fare.

Next we all assembled for a few instructions and to get directions to the bus. There are about 130 of us here from the University of Texas so we are a pretty imposing bunch in our business suits.

We traveled from the Hotel to the Shanghai urban planning museum. It's basically a showcase of the history and growth of the city. They have a 1:500 scale model of the entire city that was amazing. However, when I looked at it I couldn't help but think of going all Godzilla on the whole thing.

We then went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch and some speakers about the city and real estate. The Shanghai real estate market is insane. A lot of money is flowing in here from HK and Taiwan. The number of skyscrapers is unreal. Shanghai makes Houston feel like Blackfoot. The food was good. I'm loving it since most of our food so far has been Chinese. Others in the group are less excited by that fact.

After lunch we went to a Coke manufacturing facility to learn about marketing a product in China and tour the facility. It was interesting but by now Jet Lag was really setting in.

In the evening some of us went out for a quick bite to eat at a Chinese restaurant near the hotel. Luckily I have a few Chinese speakers that are my friends on the trip with me and they helped with the language barrier. One served a mission here and one was born here. I had some tasty chow fun.

After dinner we went to a show by the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe. It was amazing. They did all kinds of balancing and juggling and tumbling. It was ridiculous because they would launch someone off a teeter-totter onto a guy who was sitting on the shoulders of a guy who was sitting on the shoulders of another guy who was sitting on the shoulders of another guy. Let me tell you, the guy on the bottom looked like he was working the hardest.

Here's a random picture I took from the bus. I thought the number of cables looped on the power line was a good example of the way things work in Shanghai.