Beijing.

This is going to be a long entry. Read it another day if you are in a rush.

The last few days were spent in Beijing and among the three times that I went to Beijing, this has to be the best because it was a real eye opener for me. I mean, the first time I was there this year I was always running against time (refer to this entry); then the second time was basically just work (refer to this entry). So it was nice to be able to go to Beijing for pure leisure. OK so it wasn’t 100% pure leisure, but at least there was no stress, I was able to take my time in walking around, seeing around. So that was nice.

Friday (18 Nov 05)
The train pulled over in Beijing at 7.30 after 12 hours. I was bedded alone in another carriage because of some issues with the purchase of the train tickets, but it was OK as I spent much of the night chatting with the rest of the guys and only went back to my bed when it was time to sleep. After reaching Beijing, we had the torrid time of trying to find a cab at the railway station. The situation about the Beijing railway station is that you can never get a cab because all the cabs are hiding somewhere else around the station, and they will only agree to take you if you are either travelling very far, or pay them some incredibly ridiculous amount (like charging 60 RMB from Beijing Station to Beijing West Raiway Station even though it was like a 15 minute ride). So we ended up walking to a hotel some distance away from the train station to get a cab. Eventually we got one, hopped on and paid 24 RMB. I think it was cheaper than the price we were quoted.

After checking into the hotel and settling in, we set foot to the first company of our list of visits, and it was an eye-opener as we saw for ourselves how a startup company moves through the startup process into what it is right now. Coupled with the fact that the CEO was such a young man, that really gave us a lot of inspiration. Following that, we had Peking Duck for lunch before moving off to the second company. The second company was equally impressive, because it was a Singapore company that is doing relatively well in China. We also went to the site of one of the projects that this company is doing – though the cab ride there was nothing impressive because apparently most of us lost our ways! The project site was quite cool and I really loved the place, even though apparently no one else among my peers seem to share the same thoughts as me. Dinner was some American style food that I had difficulty eating towards the end because the share was huge.

Saturday (19 Nov 05)
Went to Peking University in the morning and we were hosted by some PKU students. They were a very friendly bunch and we chatted about a lot of things and it definitely opened my eyes to a lot of things that I previously only knew bits and pieces of. And then we were given an introductory session about the Chinese political system, which was so unique and complicated that all of us kinda struggled to come up with questions to ask. It’s like, there were so many things we want to know more about, but we just didn’t know where to start asking! Had Peking Duck for lunch.

After the visit to PKU the Beijing trip is so-called officially over because there was no more scheduled visits, so me, Edwin, Min Chuan and Fionna hopped onto a cab and went to Tsinghua University – the ride was impressive and memorable because 3 minutes and 10 RMB later, we were at the gate of Tsinghua University! Tsinghua and PKU were two vastly different colleges. PKU has a very strong element of tradition and you can tell from the buildings. Most of the buildings were your old-fashioned Chinese architecture, while in Tsinghua all we saw were modern buidlings. Well it made sense though, after all PKU is more famous for their arts and social sciences, while Tsinghua is more famous for engineering and technology. After Tsinghua, the four of us decided that we were too tired to carry on walking around, so we took a cab and headed back to the hotel. I took a nap and went out again with Edwin and Fionna to Wangfujing. Had a walkabout there, went into a foreign language book store, before being summoned by the lot who went to the Summer Palace for dinner. Had Peking Duck for dinner – apparently we were heeding no advice from the health advisory issued by the Ministry of Health with regards to avian flu.

Chin Keong, Yvonne, Huixian and I went to Tiananmen after dinner and I think the place looked elegant in the night.Went to Houhai after that, and it was kinda disappointing for me. But then again I was constantly comparing Houhai with Maoming Road in Shanghai, so the basis for comparison was wrong in the first place. That said, Houhai isn’t a place that I would contemplate visiting in the near future even if I were to go to Beijing again.

Sunday (20 Nov 05)
Checked out of the hotel, waved goodbye to Edwin and co who were flying back to Shanghai (I think they reckon 12 hours are too long for a train trip. *LOL*), and started wandering around Beijing alone. I went to the Beijing West Railway Station, got onto a bus for 1 RMB, and headed towards the Beijing Station. Like the previous time, I dumped my bag at some deposit counter before heading off to somewhere else. This time round I knew I had almost the whole day, so I wasn’t in any kind of hurry. I headed to the Yonghegong Lama Temple because I heard it was quite grand. But the 25 RMB admission fee was too steep for me, so I gave it a skip. Took a bus from Yonghegong to Dongdan and walked the short distance over to Wangfujing. Had lunch there and the Zha Jiang Mian together with the Xiao Long Bao were about the worst ever I’ve eaten in my life! I’m sure that there are better Zha Jiang Mian and Xiao Long Bao around. Also had some other snacks, which were consolation from the poor proper meal that I had. Well, at least I didn’t have Peking Duck again.

Went to the McCafe in Dongfang Xintiandi at Wangfujing, ordered a coffee and sat there to read my book. Stayed there for about an hour and a half before suddenly decide that I should go to the Military Museum. It turned out to be a wise choice because the museum was great. I spent two hours there and saw a lot of interesting artefacts. After leaving the museum, George Bush’s delegation even had the honour of having me standing by the roadside to see them pass through. However the local Pekingese weren’t too impressed – they were not entirely pleased that “the entire Beijing has to stop just because Bush is coming”. Oh well, talk about Sino-American relationships.

Went over to Tiananmen just in time to catch the flag lowering ceremony. Unlike the last time, I was strategically placed to see the ceremony close-up. Well of course the flag lowering itself was nothing special – it was just someone getting the flag to come down, but I can understand that for a place like China, and Beijing in particular, why such a ceremony is so important. To the locals, it is a symbol of national pride. They see it as something that is very important to the country. And I admire their patriotism. After the flag lowering, I took my time (literally) to get to the train station. In fact it was only 5.45 in the evening when I reached the station, grabbed my bag and went into the waiting hall. Boarded the train at 6.15, settled in nicely and off the train went at 7pm sharp.

Today (21 Nov 05)
The train pulled over in Shanghai at 7, and I reached home at about 7.40. Did my wash-up and headed for work – it wasn’t a nice idea because I was very tired! The sleep on the train was OK, but compared to sleeping on a stationary bed, the experience on the train is always going to be not as great.

Work today was fine, but I kinda realised that I am getting slower with my thinking. I spent the entire morning plus part of the afternoon thinking about one particular task – certainly not a nice thing especially I have quite a bit of things on my hands as well. In any case it was still OK, I got the task sorted out and I think I will spend tomorrow working on it.

Met TM at his office to get the filming of his part with our NCS marketing video done. After the filming, we sat around and had a very interesting conversation. It’s always nice to hear from these people as they have so much experience to share.

Hope tomorrow would be great. After all, the diarrhea that plagued me for my entire stay in Beijing has gone away, so it should be OK. That said, I was still slightly upset by some of the things that happened in Beijing, and I understand how difficult and unthankful the job of organising a trip can be. I mean, if it was a trip for just a few close friends I think it would have been fine, but when the group is so big, it became difficult to satisfy everyone’s needs, and when I have to sacrifice one thing over the other, some people will not be happy about it. I know there’s no pleasing everyone, but when some people don’t appreciate your efforts or other people’s difficulties, it just makes things very upsetting for me as an organiser. Oh well, at least I can say that I learned another great deal through this trip.

Thank you for the encouragement when I was in Beijing. I really needed it then.