Work(s) in Progress

Days 9 & 10: Guangzhou

You can find pictures from my trip on Flickr.

Day 1 is here. The next two days were all about getting acclimated.

Days 2 & 3 are here. These days were pretty much spent as a tourist in Shanghai.

Days 4 & 5 are here. Lots of meetings with companies and other experts on Chinese business development.

Days 6 is here. Our journey to Hangzhou.

Days 7 & 8 are here. Hangzhou, Alibaba.com & Harsco Metal Company & travel to Guangzhou.

Day 9 (January 10)

On Sunday we played tourists again. A business school student led us around the new Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center. Several years ago they decided to consolidate campuses from 10 universities onto a single campus (on a separate island), almost all for undergraduates. These universities still have other campuses throughout the Guangdong province. They built 300 buildings (including student housing) using something like 3000 construction crews in just 3 years. For the purpose of efficiency, electric, water, and internet were installed as shared services. The campus was lush and beautiful but few students were outside.

We toured the Sun Yat-sen University student library which was jammed packed with students. 

Later we toured the Chen Family Museum which is a major repository for Chinese folk art. Our group is definitely supporting the Chinese economy. Now number 2 in the world. Many have needed to buy additional luggage to hold all of their souvenirs.

Our hotel, the White Swan Hotel, is an interesting place. It's on Saiman island in Guangzhou where many of the embassies are located. This is a place many American couples come to adopt Chinese baby girls (and yes only girls). Several couples we met were adopting their second or third child. One girl told me on the elevator that they came here to get her a new sister and also a cell phone.

You never really know what you are going to see here. And obviously, the Chinese take security very seriously here. The amount of construction going on in Guangzhou in preparation for the 2010 Asian Games is simply incredible. For example, this was the view from our hotel room at the White Swan Hotel.

Everywhere buildings are covered with scaffolding for renovation. They are resurfacing and “capping” the buildings. New roofs are being installed everywhere in various colors except green. One of our tour guides told us that green roofs were unlucky and suggested that a husband or wife was being cuckolded so no one wants a green roof. Of course later in our trip he told many jokes that were sometimes lost in translation so I don't know if this was a pun or fact. The expansion of infrastructure for highways and rail lines continues at an amazing pace. Some people on our trip who had been in China 10 or 20 years ago say it is currently unrecognizable.

Day 10 (January 11)

We spent the morning at the main campus of Sun Yat-sen University which has 80,067 students on all of their campuses. The business school (with 6305 graduate and undergraduate students) was founded in 1985 and is already a leading institution in China. It's the #4 Chinese Business School, the #4 MBA program, and the #5 Executive MBA program. Back in the 1920s, Sun Yat-sen founded SYSU as well as the Huangpu Military Academy. The goal of the business school is to become the business version of “Huangpu Military Academy in the business community with a view to education of senior executives with international perspectives, high ethical morality and professional competence.”

This was a very formal visit. An Associate Dean of the Business School was our host. After a formal presentation on the school and an extended Q & A session we went to a campus coffee shop to meet and speak with many of their faculty members and department heads. They had reviewed our credentials and expertise prior to our arrival and so had us sit and meet with people with shared interests. Their coffee shop had a terrific lunch buffet which they shared with us. Impressively, their MBA program has a 98% placement rate with the average starting salary of $10,000 RMB per month (~USD $1500 per month). While this is not a great salary in the USA, it's terrific compared to some of the jobs we've observed on this trip. A variety of high tech jobs (biotech, IT) here seem to start at $4,000 RMB per month for college graduates. Salaries can be a bit misleading though. For example, we toured a manufacturing plant where the migrant workers were payed perhaps $500 RMB per month. However, they were also provided dormitory housing, health insurance, as well as lunch and dinner each day. The cost of living is much lower here so it's difficult to make comparisons to US salaries and even more difficult to factor in the value of these additional benefits.

Sun Yat-Sen University also just established a separate school for Entrepreneurship. The Netbook I'm traveling with does not have a DVD player but they made me DVD of their promotional video for this new program. I'm looking forward to viewing it when I get home. Of course it's in Mandarin so I'm going to need some help getting it translated.

In the afternoon we toured the Guangzhou Zhujiang Beer Company which markets its products as Pearl River beer. Interestingly, the CEO and essentially their COO (head of management department) were both women. Our group asked many questions about the role of women leaders and difficulties faced by women in such positions but as at other companies the women being asked always seem perplexed by these questions. It's interesting that a place, which so values male children, really does not seem to discriminate in any way against women in leadership positions. The beer company, which partners with InBev (a Belgium company), like so many other businesses we've toured, was massive. Production capacity for bottling was approximately 40,000 bottles per hour. Beer consumption in China is growing rapidly and this year the Chinese may consume as much beer as people in the USA, although they still have some catching up to do on a per capita basis.

The brewery was attached to a beer history museum and tasting area. Our group really enjoyed the Pearl River white beer as well as beer made from pineapple. While the majority of their customers are in Asia, they are rapidly expanding across the globe with their products.

Days 7 & 8: Hangzhou

You can find pictures from my trip on Flickr.

Day 1 is here. The next two days were all about getting acclimated.

Days 2 & 3 are here. These days were pretty much spent as a tourist in Shanghai.

Days 4 & 5 are here. Lots of meetings with companies and other experts on Chinese business development.

Days 6 is here. Our journey to Hangzhou.

Day 7  (January 8)

We started the day with a visit to Alibaba.com. This company was founded in 1999 in Jack Ma's apartment and now has 17,000 employees with offices across China as well as in London, California, Turkey and Southeast Asia. The company is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and at US $1.7 billion had one of the largest Internet IPOs since Google in 2004. The scale of this company is simply incredible; it's like Ebay for business to business (B2B) transactions, like Amazon for business to consumer (B2C) transactions, like paypal but with an escrow function, like Google for affiliate marketing, and they run China Yahoo! They are also expanding into many other areas.

Alibaba's goal is to enable the success of small and medium sized enterprises. Like in the USA, these smaller companies pay most of the tax and employee the majority of the people in China. Alibaba and its subsidiary companies help entrepreneurs and small businesses to establish and develop their e-business expertise. They provide extensive training to their members on how to reply to email, set up a website, etc. For now, all of their revenue is generated from membership fees and advertising. There are no costs to the users. Ebay had initially come to China but was largely nudged out by Taobao.com, a subsidiary of Alibaba.com by 2005. While Taobao is still privately held, in the first half of 2009, transaction volume reached US $11.8 billion serving 145 million registered users. Our tour guide suggested that Taobao alone was selling more than Amazon.com. They have also bundled in affiliate advertising and classified advertisements into their portfolio of offerings.

Several of us were interested in their Alipay.com platform (free to both buyer and seller). They hold the buyer's money in escrow until the product is received. At this time the buyer will release the money to seller. This decreases consumer risk and allows the seller to build trust and a good reputation in the online community. Since the Chinese people do not use credit or credit cards the way we do, this allows them to pay for items over the internet safely and with cash.

Many comparisons were made to Google on our tour. Like so many dot.com companies, they even had foozeball and pingpong tables in the break areas. The average employee age is only 26 years old. We toured their very colorful call center which had many decorations (cows, flowers, etc.) We learned that the one team had cows because this was their “cash cow” initially. Alibaba.com is considered a very desirable place to work with competitive salaries, lots of training and a much flatter corporate structure than traditional Chinese companies. We even joined them in their staff cafeteria for lunch.

In the afternoon we toured a joint venture between Harsco Metal (80%) & the Hangzhou Iron & Steel Group Company (20%)  This partnership is just one of many that Harsco has in China (see e.g. this news release).  This was an extremely formal meeting. We were greeted by many representatives from both companies, drank tea, heard formal presentations from company leaders and got safety training prior to touring two of their production facilities. Because Harso is a US company, many more regulations pertaining to worker and visitor safety were required. We geared up with neon vests, hard hats, ear plugs, safety googles, masks and gloves.

In one area, we watched the steel bars get turned into large reels of wire. The other area was their Superfine production plant. They grind steel production and mining manufacturing waste into an additive that can be added to cement. This additive causes sequestration of carbon dioxide from the air making it a very clean product. The cement takes slightly longer to cure with this additive but it's much better in the long term. Overall, the facilities at Harso were not as impressive (or large) as those at Baosteel, but they are very environmentally conscious in their practices.

Day 8 (January 9) 

I skipped the group tour of the historic MeiJiaWu tea village at Westlake in Hangzhou. People who went said it was terrific. I had a great workout, a leisurely breakfast and long walk around Westlake. It was beautiful but very foggy. Hangzhou is a definitely a tourist destination but mostly for Chinese from other regions and visitors from Japan.

 
In the afternoon we began our journey to Guangzhou. We flew out of Hangzhou airport and into Guangzhou. Like everywhere else we've been in China, the airports were spacious and modern. The flight was uneventful and on time. It was late evening when we arrived at our hotel, the White Swan Hotel, in Guangzhou. Everywhere along our drive there were buildings under construction. The 2010 Asian Games are coming here in November 2010 and major renovations are underway to beautify the city.

Day 6: Traveling to Hangzhou

You can find pictures from my trip on Flickr.

Day 1 is here. The next two days were all about getting acclimated.

Days 2 & 3 are here. These days were pretty much spent as a tourist in Shanghai.

Days 4 & 5 are here. Lots of meetings with companies and other experts on Chinese business development.

Day 6 (January 7)

Thursday was largely a travel and cultural experience day. We had about a 2 hour bus ride to Haining China Leather City. The Chinese know how to build shopping malls. Haining Leather City is massive with about 2000 leather companies. All of the stores were selling leather or fur items. In the USA, it seems that malls will sometimes restrict the types of stores that are near each other so that competitors are at other malls, not across the hall. In China, the competitors are all grouped together. While it was jam packed, there were very few non-Chinese tourists here. Many in our group stocked up on coats, gloves, shoes, slippers, hand bags and luggage. There were many products that were crafted to look like well known American or European brands. The etiquette in this mall was quite different than I'm accustomed to in the US. Here stores throw their trash into the hallways of the mall as there are people who go around to collect the bits of trash. So it can be pretty surprising when you are standing in the hallway waiting for someone and the storekeeper comes and sweeps or throws trash at your shoes. Similarly, spitting is very common and men would simply spit onto the hall floors. Smoking is also pervasive; it was fairly common for shopkeepers to be smoking while trying to make a sale to you.

I'm not much of a shopper so that best thing about this leg of the trip was Chen Ji,  our host, talking about his experiences as a young man during the Cultural Revolution. From ages 17 to 25, he was sent away from his parents (University professors who'd done translations for Americans) to live in the country to be reeducated. While the conditions sounded fairly brutal and primitive, he spent a lot of time talking about the benefits of this experience to him personally and professionally. He also shared how the village he lived in, and China as a whole, have evolved since he had this experience in the 1960s and 1970s.

From Leather City it was another 2 hour bus ride to Hangzhou. The landscape became much more rural. The buildings were shorter with cultivated land and some farms. In many areas, old buildings had been turned to rubble with tall office towers being constructed in the background. They are also in the process of constructing a high speed train rail line (159 km) from Shanghai to Hangzhou.  All along the way the cement pillars had already been established and many crews were working to add the rail connecting them. The goal is to have this new line finished by 2011.

Hangzhou is a very rich city with many entrepreneurs. They even market it as such. This picture was taken at a screen (with a repeating marketing video) near Westlake just across the street from our hotel.
Our hotel, the Sofitel, was in a very impressive neighborhood. There were BMW & Mini Cooper dealerships on the first floor of our hotel. On our drive over, we passed by dealerships for Bentley & Lamborghini. I did not expect to see these in China. There are many VWs and of course Buicks and Chevys, but in Hangzhou there are also many Audis, BMWs & Mercedes. Mostly the larger sedans as people who can afford such cars typically have drivers.

You never know what you'll see in China. We passed the following sign and message “Excellence Pursuer, Prevail Forever” as we went through the toll to enter the city.
Similar signs, with similar messages of optimism, perseverance and dominance are everywhere (and I'm only noticing the ones with English translations). I find myself wondering about the long term impact on the people being exposed to such messages daily and the lack of similar messaging in a meaningful way in the USA. Instead we now give trophies to youth for just showing up. Everyone is a winner. This concerned me before I came to China but I find my concern and worry about this American practice to grow more each day I am here. I'll write more about this in the coming days as I find myself wondering how we as a nation will remain competitive in the future.

Days 4 & 5: Shanghai

You can find pictures from my trip on Flickr.

Day 1 is here. The next two days were all about getting acclimated.

Days 2 & 3 are here. These days were pretty much spent as a tourist in Shanghai.

Day 4 (January 5)

The quality of the fitness center and breakfast buffet at Le Meridien Shanghai hotel should not be understated. I used the gym each day and the buffet had a terrific selection of foods from around the globe. Most mornings I had a traditional Asian breakfast of rice, fish, and fruit. Sushi, congee, normal American choices (pastries, pancakes, custom omelets, bacon, etc.), cheeses, cereals, and salads were also available.

Today we began the real content portion of our FDIB program. We started by meeting with Stephen Jacques, the Deputy Principal Commercial Officer of the US Commercial Service  which is somewhat like an FSO position but it is part of the Department of Commerce and not part of the State Department. He spoke candidly about his role trying to help US companies start businesses or branches of businesses in Shanghai and nearby areas. In 1990, Shanghai was first opened to foreigners and the economy is growing strongly. He shared both success and horror stories of companies that have located here. Most of the horror stories stemmed from the US company's lack of due diligence prior to entering China or after initiating contracts. We spent some time discussing “quality fade”  and some of the recent product safety issues like the melamine in the milk, lead paint in Mattel toys and the less than optimal practices of some prescription drug manufacturers (see e.g. this article). Stephen recommended that if your company was considering relocating to Shanghai that you start by exploring the resources available from the US Commercial Service (his organization) as well as the branch of the American Chamber of Commerce   located in Shanghai. He outlined several major challenges to establishing a business or branch of a business in Shanghai and other regions of China remain especially when compared to Hong Kong: (1) the RMB is still not fully convertible, (2) there can be a lack of clear Intellectual Property protection or enforcement and (3) there are regional variations in enforcement of certain laws. In comparison, Hong Kong has a long history of British Common Law, 100 years of Western (British) influence, and a more established financial system. In spite of this, he has observed that some companies moving to China for the first time are choosing Shanghai as their corporate headquarters.

We had a very different presentation from Kyle Sullivan, Manager, Business Advisory Services of the US China Business Council, a 200+ member non-profit NGO that was established in 1973.  Their role is to provide members business services, government advocacy and host educational programs and events. Their website has a number of reports and articles that highlight much of what we discussed with Kyle (US-China trade deficit, the volume of trade the US does with China, the growth and change in China over the last decade). Kyle was much more optimistic and positive about the opportunities available to businesses in China.

These meetings were followed by a group lunch at the Red Chicken Restaurant.  This trip was memorable for the roller skating waitresses and the non-Western toilets (see my Flickr pictures).

In the afternoon we drove to tour Baosteel. They are the largest steel company in China and the third largest (or most comprehensive) in the world – the grounds of the company are larger than Macau. An entire city has built up to support the steel production and processing facility. There was a university, high end shopping mall, and all of the normal city infrastructure. We toured one of their hot steel pressing plants seeing large sheets of hot steeling moving down conveyor belts getting pulled, thinned, narrowed as water was sprayed across it. At the end, big rolls of steel were being produced about every minute or two. If I understood our guide correctly, each roll has a value of approximately $15,000 US. Almost all of the iron ore is imported from other countries: Australia, Brazil, etc. They built an entire port and delivery system to transport the coal, iron ore and other materials needed to efficiently manufacture the steel. The steel is used almost exclusively here in China with a small percentage being sent to the pickiest international customers.

The infrastructure that has been built around Baosteel and in Shanghai is simply incredible. For example, 20 years ago the Pudong District, where the airport is located, was farm land. Now it is a massive metropolis with some of the tallest buildings and biggest highways in the world. All of them less than 20 years old. This is a country that builds for the future.

Day 5 (January 6)

We toured two additional major businesses today: Desano Pharmaceuticals  & GM Shanghai. 

Desano  is a large (5500 employees) pharmaceutical company founded in 1996 and located in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park. They are primarily involved in the creation of generic and biosimilar drugs with an emphasis on anti-retroviral drugs (especially for HIV and Hepatitis) and anti-malarial drugs. The production capacity for some of their drugs or active ingredients was impressive and on the magnitude of 14,000 kg per year per drug. Desano Holding Company has several other subsidiaries in development with different foci: Cdymax (oncology & steroids), Hegno(vitamins & animal health ingredients), and Biomabs (monoclonal antibodies, biosimilars).

GM Shanghai  is a joint venture with SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) producing Buick, Cadillac, and Chevy. Some models have been 100% designed and sourced here in China. Some of the new models, such as the Chevy Cruze , are currently available in China and will be coming to the USA in 2011. We were able to tour one of the GM Shanghai manufacturing plants. We saw the steel get converted to frame, and then get painted prior to final assembly. It looked like one new car rolled off the assembly line every 2-3 minutes. Even though they are producing about half a million vehicles each year in China, they cannot fully meet the current demand. Even in this economic downturn, sales have been strong. While we might hear that GM is struggling in the USA, in China, it's one of the largest and most profitable car manufacturers.

After several days of Shanghaiese cuisine, I was delighted that we dined at a Thai restaurant for dinner. I love Thai food. It was a very special restaurant with singing and dancing waiters and waitresses. They sometimes performed solo (e.g. they did a great rendition of Michael Jackson's beat it - complete with choreography) and sometimes invited restaurant patrons to dance with them. Our more extroverted group members enthusiastically joined in. If pictures or video (I know some were taken) come available I'll edit them in here.

Days 2 & 3: Shanghai

You can find pictures from my trip on Flickr.

Day 1 is here. The next two days were all about getting acclimated.

Day 2 (January 3)

I woke up hungry with a plan of finding the breakfast buffet, heading to the gym, showering and then exploring. Instead I ran into two people from our group, Lorie and Noe Noe, at breakfast. They invited me to join them after breakfast to begin touring People's Square  and other sites of interest. We started by wandering the streets and pedestrian mall near us. I've never seen so many tiny stores selling just one type of item with the different stores seeming to be grouped by industry. So, instead of a massive Home Depot, one store would sell fixtures, one store wiring, one store plumbing, one store just electric outlets, etc. I have not been to any city that has an equivalent crush of people. There is a never ending stream of people inviting you (clutching at your arm to take you) to stores selling “real” fakes. 'Please follow me' down this dark alley to get a really great fake.

Because we were scheduled to tour the Urban Planning Museum and the Shanghai Museum with our group, we went to the Shanghai (Modern) Art Museum. Their main exhibit was called Super Generation @ Taiwan, which was a mix of traditional and digital art. I became quite aware that I was in some place very different from the USA in touring this exhibit. If you've ever seen a dog cock its head sideways with a questioning look on his face, then that's likely the expression I was wearing in this museum exhibit.

On our walk through People's Square, three young female students from a nearby university asked to practice their English with us. After a brief conversation, we planned to head back to our hotel. The more we tried to the leave, the more eager these girls were to take us to observe a very special tea ceremony just a short walk from our hotel. We apologetically declined. I've since learned that this is a very popular tourist scam to separate new visitors to Shanghai from their money. Indeed, I found news articles pointing out that several tea shops participating in such scams have been closed by police.

Noe Noe and I went to a local food court for lunch. Not speaking Mandarin, I pointed to bowl that I thought contained tuna, salmon and some type of white fish. However, what I received I think was some type of fish skin, perhaps Spam and liver from some type of animal. The press of bodies in the food court was hard to describe. There were numerous tables with chairs attached for eating. Behind each chair was a queue of people with a tray containing food waiting for seat to eat. One kind lady caught my eye and made sure that I was able to sit in her former seat. Noe Noe and I were long separated but she eventually found a seat at a table relatively near to mine. Like me, she was uncertain what exactly was in her meal. But in each case, the soups were good. For dinner we found a place where we could sit down to eat and be served. I ordered jasmine tea expecting something like you'd see in the USA but instead it was a very special jasmine tea with flower. In general the tea seems to cost as much as the main entree.

Day 3 (January 4)

This was the first official day of the FDIB program. Our scheduled plan was to first tour the Urban Planning Museum (unfortunately closed) and then tour the main Shanghai Museum. We spent about 2 hours at the Museum before heading on a 1.5 to 2.0 mile walk down Nanjing Road on a quest for the Dragonfly spa. My roommate, Carol, had used this chain when she'd been to Beijing in the past. While we started out with 10 people on this quest, only 5 of us walked the entire way to the spa. The neighborhoods changed dramatically over the distance we covered. The area near the spa would not have looked out of place in Beverly Hills or 5th Avenue in NYC. Indeed, it was near the Ritz Carlton where President Obama recently stayed. I chose the 2 hour Ultimate Massage – 1 hour full body & 1 hour feet only (cost $40 USD). I had a very tiny girl with incredibly small hands. Chinese massage is conducted fully clothed (they give you a soft pajama outfit to change into) and filled with deep tissue work and pressure points. The foot massage was outstanding. I have many new techniques to try at home.

We rushed back to the hotel to catch the bus with our group to Old Shanghai. In some ways Old Shanghai reminded me of attending a Renaissance Festival – lots of small stalls, high prices, people hawking their wares, the need to haggle, fried street food, and an usual and eclectic blend of modern items such as the neon display made of Pepsi cans and the ever present blue blob that is the mascot for the 2010 Expo. We had dinner at a historic restaurant where Bill Clinton, among other dignitaries, have apparently eaten. All of our group meals are family style. Our guide orders for us and food is placed on a large lazy susan at the center of the table. Generally one dish will have enough for one bite for each person at the table. With multiple appetizers and entrees, there is plenty for everyone.

After dinner we headed to the Bund. It's been cold in Shanghai at night, perhaps 30 degrees Fahrenheit, so we only took a very brief tour of the area.

Day 1: Shanghai

A few months ago, Manuel Serapio  who teaches International Entrepreneurship  at the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship asked me if I was interested in participating in an program on Chinese entrepreneurship that the CIBER (Center for International Business Education & Research)  he runs would be hosting in January. I immediately said “sure.” It was only when his assistant sent me the materials that I realized the FDIB (Faculty Development in International Business) program would be hosted in China and not in Denver, CO. I'd never been anywhere in Asia and the program (pdf) looked amazing. Thank you Manuel!

Getting there

Even thought I set up this trip a few months ago, it did not become real to me until I got on the plane to Shanghai from San Francisco. I recently got a United Airlines credit card from Chase. It has a fairly ridiculous annual fee but a relatively low interest rate along with standard mileage earnings. It's supreme feature is that I now automatically fly economy plus on all flights. While this can be irrelevant for shorter flights, it's a 13 hour flight from San Francisco to Shanghai. The regular economy cabin had very few empty seats; however, economy plus was more than half empty. I had an aisle seat with 3 empty seats adjacent to me. Yes I know how lucky I was! Thirteen hours is a long time to be still and awake. I watched 3 forgettable movies (Whiteout; 500 Days of Summer; Love Happens) that I would never have seen otherwise. I also watched Nora Denzel's “The top 10 ways you shoot yourself in the foot in the workplace” address at UC Davis on my iPod.  You can get it free from iTunes University. While I cannot recommend the movies, Nora was outstanding.

I also read through the 183 document for this trip – including a number of reports and articles from the US-China Business Council  and the Economist. Some of these were terrific and really put the China-US trade deficit (among other issues) in perspective.

Day 1 (January 2)

With the time zone differences, I left Denver at about 8:20 AM on January 1 and arrived in Shanghai at 5:20 PM on January 2. I don't have much to report for my first day in Shanghai. Pudong Airport was expansive. It seems like it was built for much more traffic (and travelers) than are currently utilizing it. Signs were conveniently posted in both English and Mandarin. I easily passed my health inspection, collected my bag and cleared customs. I exchanged some US dollars for RMB at the airport which had a much better exchange rate than either Denver or San Francisco. Luckily, two other people in the FDIB group were on my flight so we were able to share a taxi to get to our hotel, Le Royal Meridien Shanghai.

My first impressions were of the smell (smoke, diesel, grime) and the sheer size of the place. The highways are large and largely empty (at 5:30 PM on a Saturday). Drivers were creative. I was feeling very grateful on the way to the hotel that I enjoy amusement park rides and do not get car sick. As we approached downtown I was amazed at how many pedestrians, bikes and scooters that we did not collide with given how our driver was navigating the vehicle. Traffic signs, lanes, lights all seemed optional to him and just about everyone else with a car.

Our hotel, Le Royal Meridien Shanghai,  is modern and very well appointed. The room is quite nice but cozy for two people as I will have a roommate for this trip. Some terrific features include the shower/tub/rain shower area of bathroom, the modern lighting that can all be turned off with a single switch, the massive flat panel TV, the floor to ceiling windows along one wall and the soft and clean white linens & towels. The only real downside is the smallness which causes things like the two twin sized beds to be perhaps 4 inches apart. By the time I got to the hotel, checked in, figured out the internet access and had a shower, it was time for bed. I could see from my window that the hotel is just across the street from People's Square  but I did not do any exploring.

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas! I hope that your 2009 was as joyful as mine.

This is a scan of a card I sent to family and friends. Apologies if I don't have your mailing address. Send it to me and you too can receive my Christmas card/letter next year.

This year has been all about traveling: Carmel, Monterey, Beverly Hills, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Vail, Washington DC, Beaver Creek, Napa Valley, Sonoma, Hawaii (Big Island, Oahu, Kaua'i), Colorado Springs, Breckenridge, and all the roads in between. I feel so blessed to have seen so many majestic places this year.

United Airlines just sent me a $100 voucher for flying so much or should I say for using my United Airlines Credit Card so much...

2010 is already looking similar. In January, I'm heading to China for 2.5 weeks to tour Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou & Hong Kong with a group of business school faculty from around the USA to discover how China does economic development and entrepreneurship. And yes, some days I do pinch myself to make sure that I'm not dreaming.

Some of my goals for 2009 got lost in my adventures but oh did I find the Bliss (#3 on my list).  I also got my PADI certification updated (as planned) though I have not yet been diving (oops). More about that in a few days as I set my goals for 2010 but at least I can still run a 5K in under 30 minutes. 

I hope that your holidays are spent as your heart desires. Happy New Year.
 

Whirlwind Tour of Hawaii

At long last, I can finally say that I've been to Hawaii! Last March, at a silent auction, I purchased a week at the Hale Ho'ola bed & breakfast on Big Island Hawaii that I had one year to use. The bed and breakfast owners, Bob & Mary, suggested that I get  Hawaii The Big Island Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook before I arrived so that I would not miss any of the wonderful attractions.

We arrived in Kona midday on November 20 and promptly went to the Kona Brewing Company: Kona Pub & Brewery  for lunch. Our first day was all about settling in, picking up various necessities such as sun block, liquor,  Kukui Lotion (great stuff!), and fresh fruit. I now love rambutan and dragon fruit in addition to more normal tropical staples such guava, pineapple, banana, papaya, and passion fruit. By the time we decided to find dinner most places had closed so we ate at the Fish Hopperin Kona. Don't make this mistake. Later in the week we ended up eating several meals at Senor Billy's in Captain's Cook - fast, fresh, friendly and depending what you order, great for your nutrition plan. I also became a huge fan of "the plate lunch."

Those who know me well know that my typical vacations involve reading through countless trashy novels, sleeping, eating out and browning my skin on the beach. This trip was quite different. I've never explored more or been so physically tired at the end of each day. Each day was an adventure. We tried to see and do just about everything. I've put some pictures up on Flickr. Saturday, we drove Saddle Road to the east side of the island and spent the day in Hilo. Sunday we headed to South Point, the Green Sand Beach, the Black Sand Beach and the Volcano National Parks. Monday we hiked into Pololu Valley (one of the prettiest places I have ever seen! See picture below) and watched the sun set near Kua Bay.

 
Tuesday we rented kayaks from Kona Boys and spent the day at Kealakekua Bay. We had the pleasure of seeing a pod of about 7 dolphin swimming near us.  Wednesday, I started my day at Nail Trixx wanting to get my hands and feet touched up (and massaged!). We then toured many less know beaches that were listed in Hawaii The Big Island Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook. The directions were very detailed (such as turn left at phone pole #22 and head 0.72 miles down a dirt road) but most of the beaches weren't as magnificent as described. We also toured the Petroglyph Park in Puako.

Bright and early Thursday morning we flew to Oahu for Thanksgiving.  Other than a brief trip to see the magnificent waves along the North Shore, we spent the day with my traveling companion's family.

We arrived in Kauai at about 9 AM Friday morning. The Grand Hyatt thankfully let us check in very early.  We dropped our bags and immediately drove to the prettiest beach I've ever seen in Polihale State Park - the white sand beach literally goes on for miles and miles. We walked along the beach for perhaps 6 to 8 miles. I felt this journey in my calves for days. The surf was too rough to swim in but was majestically beautiful. On our way back we stopped at the Shrimp Station for a snack and ran into friends of my traveling companion from Denver. We are ever reminded that the world is very tiny. We splurged on dinner at Merrimans that evening - great food, great service. Wow. Saturday we drove the eastern coast of Kauai so that I could get a brief taste of the ecological diversity of the island. Kauai is the most breathtakingly beautiful place I have ever been. That afternoon we went for a helicopter tour of the island. Much of Kauai is privately owned or not accessible by road. The only way to see it is from the sky. This was my first time in a helicopter (Jack Harter Helicopters)- it was tinier than I expected and had no doors (Hughes 500) but the view was magnificent. That evening we flew back to Oahu.

After a terrific breakfast as the Like Like Drive Inn for one last traditional Hawaii breakfast,  we spent Sunday touring Pearl Harbor. I am sometimes embarrassed by how little history I know. Granted I knew that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in World War II but that was pretty much it. I now know much more. This was a fairly somber way to end such a delightful vacation but I'm glad we took the time. We toured the Arizona Memorial, the USS Bowfin Submarine, and the Pacific Aviation Museum before flying back to Denver.

I am already wondering how quickly I can get back to Kauai; 36 hours was not enough.

 

My First Trip to Napa Valley

A few months ago I mentioned that I needed a traveling companion for an excursion to Napa Valley that I "won" in a silent auction at an event for  Dani's Foundation.

Wow! I returned early Tuesday morning and I am still thinking about what a wonderful time I had.

I flew into Los Angeles on Thursday evening. My flight was delayed and just about every flight mishap that could happen did. In spite of the ominous start, the rest of the trip was simply outstanding. The weather was terrific - mid 70's or mid 80's and sunny the entire time. Everything else transpired without mishap.

My traveling companion and I drove up route 1 stopping in Big Sur at Nepenthe for lunch. What a magnificently pretty drive. We arrived in Sonoma in time for a delicious dinner at the Eldorado Kitchen before settling into the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa. I learned later that Boyes Spring is a bit past its prime, but the Fairmont was a beautiful place to stay and had a terrific fitness center.

Friday we drove around the Sonoma & Napa Valleys stopping in at Hess (to see the museum), Stag's Leap, Clos du Val, and Twomey. Of these, Twomey was by far our favorite for the quality of wine and the tasting experience. Just about all of the vineyards charge for a tasting; however, we learned that if you just wanted to taste a single varietal (e.g. "just the cabernet please") or ended up buying some wine that these fees might be waived. In general, portions are large enough to share so I highly recommend doing that as some vineyards had more that one tasting package and many are willing to pull together a package that suits your tastes (e.g. "just the reds please").

Friday afternoon we checked into the Meritage, the resort & spa I "won" in silent auction. The Meritage was tucked into an office park and so one view faced office building and the other a vineyard. In spite of the location it was new, immaculate and had all of the amenities one might hope for as a business traveler (bare bones gym, free wireless internet, 24 hr everything, etc.). That evening we enjoyed our Wine Train experience. I'd recommend doing this at lunch or mid-summer so you can enjoy the views out of the windows. It was fun if kitschy. And while great wine can be purchased on board, you might be better off bringing your own and paying the corkage fee.

The next day we explored Napa Valley in the back of a comfortable sedan hosted by Beau Wine Tours again as part of the silent auction package. I suspect that this may have led to the first and I hope last time I start drinking at 10AM. We started at Duckhorn, which makes several wines that I knew I loved. In terms of easy to access vineyards, Duckhorn was the highlight of the trip for me. Great wine, wonderful experience, terrific service, etc. From there we moved on to Prager Port Works, Cakebread & Salvestrin. The people at Salvestrin were terrific, giving us a tour of their wine making areas and process. The tawny port at Prager was excellent but not a part of their normal tasting package. Cakebread was somewhat disappointing. I've enjoyed their wines at several restaurants but the experience (and wine) was not on par with some of the others we had on this trip. Service matters and while I was a customer in the past, I suspect that I will not be in the future. Their loss really as I went in expecting to buy and to have a wonderful experience.

If the trip stopped here it would have been excellent, outstanding even. However, from this point forward, the trip veered into the surreal. So utterly outstanding that I barely have the words to describe it.

Sunday evening was filled with wine and a tour at the Napa Valley Reserve - beautiful grounds, an inspiring cellar & caves in process and incredibly delicious wine. We followed this treat with dinner at the Press in St. Helena. I never thought I'd say this but have the chicken! Really. Amazing.

We woke up early Monday morning to head to the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma where I enjoyed the Audi Sportscar Experience and got to drive the Audi R8 5.2 FSI quattro with its "soul stirring" 525 hp V10 engine on the track.

My traveling companion and I shared a private lesson. We each had our own car. I really did not want to get out of mine.  

This was a very high tech experience. We inserted flash drives into the cars' computer for our final laps on the track. In theory they'll send an email when we can view our laps on-line. I suspect they'll look something like this:  You Tube. The goal is to keep 1 to 1.5 car lengths between your car and the instructor's car. I know that my gap was too large for most of my laps (much like the linked video). The cones on the track mark the turns and apex. Helpful. As you can hear, the instructor coaches you (or in my case, makes fun of you!) through the track, commenting or giving guidance or encouragement as needed. I had no clue I'd enjoy this sort of thing, but I'd put the experience among the top ten days in my life.

Joy. Bliss. Fun.

I want to do it all again!

Traveling Companion Needed

I went to the movie Yes Man at Christmas with friends. I do not normally go to movies of this kind, but I enjoyed it and think of it still. I find myself saying "yes" more often to things I intended to do eventually. I'm just doing them sooner. It's all part of my quest for Bliss and my realization that there is only now.

My friend Martha is always the executive director of some health related non-profit. This year it's Dani's Foundation which focuses on Ewing's Sarcoma.

Dani's Foundation recently held a fund raising dinner (video here) with several hundred silent auction items. I started the bidding on four items and 'won' two of them, both on my "to do eventually" list: 1 week at a bed and breakfast in Hawaiiand 3 nights in Napa Valley at the Meritage Resort- complete with airfare, limo tour, and wine train tour.  Side note: it's really a sign of our economy when the opening bid on items such as these are the winners.While there are some blackout dates, I essentially have until March 2010 to go on these journeys. People ask me when I'm going. I am not yet sure. I need to line up a traveling companion. While I can easily chill in Hawaii by myself for a week, I definitely want a wine loving traveling companion for Napa Valley. Let me know if you are interested...

For my birthday I finally got the Kindle 2. I'm currently reading Outlierson it, another book by Malcolm Gladwell. Like one of his prior books, Blink, I am utterly enjoying this book. I cannot overstate how much I am enjoying my Kindle: it's smaller than a trade paperback and with its Leather Cover is much, much sexier.

I did not achieve the 6-pack abs I wanted for my birthday. I have been working out regularly - 5 or 6 times a week. However, for every 350 calories I've been burning off per workout, I've probably been eating an extra 600 or so. So, yes, I'm stronger and faster but also heavier. Oops. For the most part, my clothes are still fitting but I'm up a few pounds that need to be shed to see the muscle underneath. I currently belong to two athletic clubs. I really need to decide which one to stick with going forward.

While I have not been writing much on-line (my offline writing is going strong), this has been an amazingly good month. My friend who had the stroke last fall, is now almost fully recovered and back at work.  To quote a physician friend of mine "Cathy I don't believe in miracles, but A's recovery is a true miracle." Indeed. I went to her welcome back party earlier this month. I've never seen so many delighted people at a work event such as this.

Work has been insanely busy, but in a great way. We opened our annual business plan competition to the entire state of Colorado, not just our University family. So far, we're getting terrific interest from the community. We've been filming our orientation sessions (feel free to watch the first one). If you are a local reader and know someone who is starting a company, please have him or her contact me. Executive summaries are due April 16th so it's not too late to participate. We award more than $100,000 in cash and in-kind awards to the winners. The CEO of one of our incubator companies has been working with me on my presentation skills. He used to do corporate training for public speaking among other things. Since I open each session, I will soon have ample video footage for him to review and critique. This is not exactly fun, but will eventually make me better.