It's a Beijing thing

Today, I had a good adventure. I have been kicking around some business Ideas and decided to see what China had to offer. I set up a meeting with a chinese company that makes a little bit of everything. At Thunderbird there are lots of different classes on how to do business in other countries. It consists of a lot of case studies and readings. I thought to myself I'm in China, the largest emerging market in the world and I can go see chairman mao at his tomb or I can go on a real life doing business in China course conducted by me. Trust me Thunderbird's courses can get expensive and mine only cost me the morning.

I went to Guangzhou Tomku Trading Co. and met with Penny the manager. We then drove out to the outskirts of Beijing and visited their factories. They had some crazy stuff and in the factory everyone was hard at work. Everything is made by hand. It doesn't seem very efficient but I guess when you only make a few bucks a day. It was interesting to see the process. We went to another factory where they make small products and paper products. It was pretty wild, everyone was huddled in the factory and they had some stovepipe stoves to warm the factory. I was really cold. The workers are not from Beijing they are from outlying towns so, they stay at the factory. It is almost like they are slaves. Ok maybe not slaves but I imagine part of their wages go to their living expenses at the place. The other thing that was interesting was the manager of the second plant we visited was a woman. I asked Penny if that was common and she said not really. It was a very interesting visit. I had lots of good questions and got some good answers.


After the Factory visit they took me to eat at a restraunt and we had a hot pot. It is exactly what it sounds like. It is a hot pot. They put charcoal in a large metal contraption which heats the water and then you put meat and vegtables in it. It was pretty good. They were really impressed by my Chop stick skills. I don't mean to brag but I'm pretty talented when it comes to the chopsticks. I think it stems back to when I was younger and McDonalds did this promotion where they had an asian flare to chicken McNuggets I think I was the only one to really get into it and it was like when I was 8.

So that was fun. Then I told Penny that I was going to get a charger for my camera because I got a new digital that on Ebay that didn't come with one. So we went to the eletronics market and convinced some guy to sell me one. I got it for about 15 dollars cheaper than in the states.

Then Penny and her assistant a young man name lu (I forgot to mention he was with us but he didn't say much we were teaching eachother the other's language).
Anyways, After that I went to the silk market and bought some knock off stuff and ate of McDonalds.
It tasted so good. I don't love McDonalds but I haven't been eating a lot since i GOT HERE.

Now I'm writing this and going to bed. I've got another choose your own business adventure tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

Til' then.