Category: Beijing

Today was a much nicer day here in Beijing… sun came out, from the 23rd floor, I could actually see something, not a lot but not bad. Needed the warmth because am coming down with a cold, sore throat and sniffles and sneezing :(. Haven’t had that in a while.

Last night’s dinner was interesting. Went to a restaurant specializing in Guizhou cuisine. What that means is goose was prominent. We had goose roasted goose heads, goose intestine, goose soup in clay pot. The other interesting speciality of this restaurant located in Zhongguancun area was dog meat. Particularly dog meat in a hot pot :-o. My friend and I took a pass.

Tonight’s dinner was cool, very interesting variation of the hotpot. Spicy but with hoisin sauced mixed in there. You can choose a bunch of different ingredients that’s cooked in a thick sauce on a hot plate. Yummy. Good winter food. Had to come back early for a conference call, otherwise would have gone in for some spa action… maybe tomorrow. My classmates and dinner mates will probably hit up some Korean food tomorrow night. There’s a little Korean town thing near Zhongguancun and our hotel which we can do. It’s fun.

Seminar is pretty weak but I’ll get my PDUs so I don’t care much. Hit up a supermarket this evening after dinner and got some OJ, vitamin C drops and Halls for my cold. Hope it’s not too late. Can’t afford to be sick :-|.

If it gets too lame, I might join my new friends on a Beijing sightseeing tour…..

It’s my second day here in Beijing. It’s been great so far. Flew in via Cathay Pacific Thursday night and got to the Jin Ma Hotel in the Haidian District, Beijing. First of my 10 day trip.

Came for the Greater China Project Management In Action 2005held at Tsinghua University, the MIT of China and one of the top universities in the world rankings. About 200-250 people from the Greater China Region and some Westerners (US, Kiwis, Aussies) sprinkled the crowd. The energy and the enthusiasm of the crowd was great. It’s nice to see people like really interested in learning and hungering for knowledge. Today’s session was a lot better than yesterday’s which was basically an event for sponsors to have their advertising pitch but that’s not unexpected. Met interesting colleagues in the PM field and good networks.

The next 3 days will be the training aspect of the program and so we’ll see how that is. After that, more business meetings but maybe I’ll be able to see a little bit of Beijing and do some sightseeing. Although didn’t intend to. It’s about 5-6 Celsius and I don’t really have any winter clothes…. And no camera. Digital camera is on my X-mas wishlist. I have my SLR but that’s not practical when business travelling.

Nice to experience winter again. But Beijing is really dirty, hazy, foggy, on the 23rd floor, there’s nothing to see because of the haze. People are lively, the Haidian District has stuff to do and I’ve got a Starbucks downstairs at the lobby in case I miss it (I don’t).

Report back later… sorta boring. All work work work 😐