The Weather

What's the weather like? Hot and humid, except when a rare light breeze comes off the China Sea. It's summer in southern China and the Pearl River Delta, which means it's the rainy season. It's tropical. It reminds me of New Orleans in May/June. That hot, humid oppresive kind of heat where it's best to move slowly. It will rain typically in the afternoon from time to time like in Mexico, and this past weekend, we actually had a couple of days of rain most of the days. Air conditioning truly revolutionized and modernized this part of the world. Thank heavens for fans and air conditioning! GREE Air Conditioning Company tour coming up soon! Barbara

Friday, May 25, 2012, 5 pm, from Ba Ba La

After classes this morning, my buddy Rainey and I head to the faculty cafeteria to eat. At our table, a young female student is visibly praying, with her head bowed, eyes closed, and hands together. After she has finished and looks up, I venture a "Ni-How." She responds: "Hello." She then shares that she speaks English; so we converse in  English. She shares that she is a Christian and from Tibet. "To see the real China, you need to visit Tibet," she says. "Most of China nowadays is too modernized, too westernized."  I let her know, maybe next time as there is no way to fit in Tibet right now.

After lunch, we head to Rainey's "Investment Banking" class which is taught in both English and Chinese. It is three hours long with 10 to 15 minute breaks in between each hour (2:30 to 5:20 pm). Her professor is Dr. Ning Zeng. I learn that she is a tennis fanatic, and went to Wimbledon one year and ended up staying in London for eight years to earn her advanced degrees. She asked if I would speak today since I have firsthand experience with an "IPO" and an "M&A”。

I see a familiar face: Michael Vaughn, the son of Dr. Tim Vaughan, operations management professor at UW-Eau Claire, who is teaching a class here for four week. A Chinese student in the class introduces Michael as they are tennis partners. And then Michael reads his poem. My neighbor and creative writing professor B.J. Hollars would be proud of Michael's reading.

Michael then introduces me, and I share my experience with an "M&A" and "IPO" with the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), a global energy company, which processes uranium for use in nuclear power plants. I keep it simple, and I'm able to access the website: www.usec.com. The Dept of Energy's uranium enrichment enterprise became a non-government organization in about one to two years, and then it became a private corporation on the New York Stock Exchange in another one to two years. Then we come across a concept that is totally foreign to them: Privatization. China has many state-owned businesses, and they remain state-owned businesses. Nothing is privatized from the government.

I know from my research in advance that the Chinese classroom is very traditional. The professor lectures and the student listen and take notes...or not. My teaching style is more interactive, and I consider it a success that at least three students respond to my questions. Shy or not. Some of them are willing to speak up.

Later we look at the stock price history so they can see the opening price at the IPO, approximately $15/share. Today's price is 60 cents per share. Any ideas why? Slowly I coax out of them the Fukishima Nuclear Plant disaster in Japan. Sometimes, such as incident can impact an entire industry and thus this company, USEC.

After my impromptu presentation, we listen to BBC economic news, and then the last hour is spent listening to seniors defend their theses. They speak in Chinese and I make out GDP, PPI, CPI.

Class ends, and Rainey hands me off to Theresa. It's her birthday today; so we are meeting her and some of her friends for a birthday dinner. It is Cantonese style and simply delicious. I meet her freinds, Ting, Sassa, and Woo (two girls and a guy). Ting lets me know that they have brought a birthday cake; so we sing happy birthday in English and then Chinese (I try). After dinner, each of them wants a photo with me, and then another guest in the restaurant, requests a photo with me too. I've never been photographed so much in my life as here in China.

Barbara

May 29, 2012 Update from Jinan University Computer Lab

Bad News! Heard about the 80 mph wind and rain storm to hit Eau Claire late last week. Good News! My house is still standing with no damage to it, and only parts of trees down in the yard "but nothing too terrible" according to my AWESOME housesitter Charlotte. Thank you Charlotte for your email and report. I can now rest easier. And hopefully, my yard guy Mike has come by to clean up the branches and use the chain saw if necessary. Charlotte is also posting the blog since I'm not able to connect with Google here in mainland China. (BTW, I knew that. It's just interesting to actually experience it in Chinese.) And I heard Google bought Motorola Mobility, the former cell phone business at Motorola, where I used to work.

Now back to Jinan University-Zhuhai. I'm back in the computer lab with my darling buddy Rainey. We were assigned two buddies the first day, and I am so blessed with Rainey and Teresa. They tag-team me based on their school schedule. And their English is excellent. My Chinese not so great! But we make everything work. Once I get back to the states, I'll upload their photos. As I mentioned before, it's problematic in the computer lab. Heh, but at least I have access to a computer.

Since I last blogged, which I think was last Friday, we had a three-day weekend cultural tour. Our tour guide and bus driver were topnotch. Driving here can be quite a challenge. As can walking. Pedestrians do not have the right-of-way like in the states. So we need to keep an eye out when we cross the street. I can understand now why many expats working here have drivers. Mike from the International Business office and Robbie, another student buddy, accompanied us. They are excellent guides, all of them.

The first day, we traveled to Shenzen, the hometown of Kate Wang, my "adopted" Chinese daughter. I LOVE IT! It is China's fourth largest city, and its population is 13.5 million. So it's definitely a big city, about four Chicagos, if you can imagine that. There we traveled to the Shenzen Museum. We were there about an hour. Definitely not enough time to see everything, but it gave us a good taste about Chinese history, and how Shenzen was created. My classmates had a blast taking lots of hilariously staged photos. Shenzen in the 1970s was a fishing village. Today, thanks to stimulus funding from the Chinese government, it is a thriving, bustling metropolis, with tropical greenery aligned with high-rise office and residential buildings everywhere the eye can see. From an economic development standpoint, it's amazing to see such growth in about 40 years.In the afternoon, we visited H &T (Honesty and Trust) Shipping Company, which handles the logistics but not the actual transportation by air and sea. Melody, our host, was very accommodating, as the office has a resident office-cat, and a couple of our students are allergic; so we moved conference rooms three times. After she answered our questions, we headed to the Yantian Port, which reminded me of working for USEC, when I "visited" ports on the west coast. Sea to land shipping containers for as far as the eyes could see...everywhere.

On Sunday, we traveled to Guangzhou, also known as Canton, and the capital of the Guandong Province. There, we had lunch with David Schroeder, the economic attache to the U.S. consul. Very insightful visit. What I noticed the most along the road on the bus trip was all of the factories, and of course, all of the transmission and distribution lines. When I worked for Com Ed in Chicago, we actually sold a coal-fired plant that we were shutting down, lock, stock and barrel to an organization in China. So somewhere it is producing electricity for all the factories that are producing all of the exports.  We also visited the Memorial Hall of Sun Yat-sen, sort of like China's George Washington, prior to Mao. Guangzhou is known as the city of flowers, and they were everwhere. I'm going to rely on classmate Alexis' photos of the flowers. We also visited the Chen Clan Academy which was created by the Chen familyh in 1894 during the Qing Dynasty. Its purpose was to educate all the Chens. I'll add photos to this blog later, as words simply do not do justice to the architecture and craftsmanship. We also visited the site of the Asian Games in 2010, and the highlight was the Pearl River Night Cruise. What a light show from all the buildings and the tower there. Since I used to work for an electric utility, of course, I wonder about the light bill.

Monday, we were back in Zhuhai, but on the way, we visited the home village and home of Sun Yat-sen. He was educated in Hawaii, and designed the home himself. Being a huge Frank Lloyd Wright fan, I was interested to see how he incorporated the two architectures of Hawaii and mainland China. In the afternoon, we also visited the Meixi Royal Stone Archways, and our guides then Dr. Fong and Frank shared that one of these archways was destroyed during the cultural revolution, but the people of the town banded around the remaining archways, and saved the two that remain. We also visited the home of Chen Fang *(1825-1906) who was China's first millionaire. He had two wives (one from China and one from the States) and 16 children. The more children you have, the closer you can get to heaven.  In the late afternoon, we visited the Hengqin New Area, which is a new economic development area. My grandfather, father, and brothers would be very impressed with all of the construction going on. I took lots of photos to share with them. Lots of mud, and an interesting rebar and concrete on the sides of the new expressway going in. Hengqin in essence will connect Hong Kong, Zhuhai, and Macau.

Well, I better stop by as I need to get back to the hotel for a tour of GREE, which makes air conditioners. I would say they definitely have a monopoly on the market. They are everywhere. The food here is delicious; typically nine plates, and we never can finish everything. And yes, the squatty potties leave a lot to be desired. It's not that different from camping and going in a hole in a ground in the woods. You just need to go with the flow. CHI.  Ying. Yang.

Barbara    

The last time I blogged was from the Holiday Inn Golden Mile in Hong Kong. Today, I am seated in the Computer Lab at Jinan University-Zhuhai. I cannot access my google blog or the COB blog from here; so I've asked a friend to input this blog for me.

The attendant in the room just made an announcement, and my two buddies translated. There will be a class in the computer lab at 2:30 pm; so we will need to leave. So having classes in computer labs appears to happen around the world, not just UW-Eau Claire.My scheduling colleagues in the Registrar's Office will appreciate this thought.

We arrived in Zhuhai after a ferry ride from Hong Kong on Wednesday afternoon. We met our buddies that afternoon and headed to a market. My buddies are fantastic: Rainey and Teresa. They prefer I use their American names. Photos will need to come after the trip due to the fact that my buddies and I tried to download photos from my camera in the the computer lab, and it has not been working, and I don't want to risk losing the photos entirely.

The welcoming ceremony on Thursday was amazing! They consider our group lucky and prosperous because there are 8 students, and 8 is a lucky number in China. All the Chinese officials and the American officials spoke, including Dr. Tim Vaughan, Dr. Jean Pratt, and Dr. Scott Swanson. Then Sam, one of our students, did an awesome job of sharing the feelings of our groupin English. His BCOM teachers would be SO proud! Robbie, a Chinese student, did an excellent job of expressing himself in English. Maybe someday our students will be able to express themselves in Chinese. After the welcoming ceremony, we had the pleasure of a superb Cantonese banquet, where as the Chinese say we eat anything on four legs except tables and anything that flies except planes.

Thursday afternoon was a bike ride to the fish girl statue, which is a landmark of Zhuhai along with a bike ride around an island. Some of the Chinese students had never done that before, including riding a tandem bicycle.

Today is Friday! Classes so far have been in conversational Chinese and culture. I'm going to an English class in Investment Finance right now with a couple of my buddies. I want to see what their classes are like here. Thank God the class will be in English!

Ba Ba La and Joni Departure, Flight, and Arrival

Right now, I'm in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Golden Mile in Hong Kong using their computers to check email and block. The past two days have been a blur. It's Wednesday here, about 11 am. We are 13 hours ahead of Eau Claire, WI.

On Monday morning, Joni and I arrived at the same time early early at the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport and ran into Dr. Tim Vaughan and his son Michael . Dr. Vaughan will be teaching here this summer,.

We arrived in Chicago O'Hare about 6:45 am with the Chicago skyline, my kind of town and former city. Then the wait began for our 1:30 pm flight, and the time passed quickly.

Sitting in C18 while waiting for a flight to Shanghai leave, and being surrounded by Chinese speakers all around, I truly felt like a minority. It reminded me of one of my first visits to Chicago with a friend from college to the south side of Chicago Black Muslim Louis Farrahkahn Family Day. One stylish black woman walked up to me, and asked me, the only white woman for miles, what I was doing at Family Day. I replied "to learn," and my friend Carlos Mohammed Green interjected: "she's cool, she's cool, she's a journalist." 

By midday, we move to C16 as our flight has been delayed due to maintenance problems, and we're unsure exactly when we're going to leave. But having been a road warrior in the corporate business world for years, I'm unphased. You learn to control what you can, and what you can't, you go with the flow. But in addition to maintenance problems now, there are weight problems, and United Airlines is offering $500 plus hotel stay plus guarantee on the next day's flight to Hong Kong. A group of students of 8 steps up to the plate. Still not enough. Closer to the boarding time, United has upped the ante to $600.

Finally, we start boarding at about 3 pm. And once we are on the tarmac, we are delayed once again for Air Force One. President Obama is in town for the NATO, G-8 Conference, although I recall hearing on the news that most of the conference occured at Camp David. So everything at O'Hare is shut down to clear the airspace for the President of the United States. Makes sense to me.

The wheels come up and we take flight at 5 pm. And I settle back and meet my seat mates Mr. and Mrs. Poon, a retired school teacher and IT professional from Hong Kong. Their children were educated in the United States, and have remained there. One is a physician in Boston, the other an IT professional in San Francisco's Silicon Valley. They have just completed their annual visit.

The flight is 15 hours, and remarkably the time flew by. Our flight pattener is northerly westerly through Canada and around Alaska, and then back down again through Russian, northern China, we even fly over Zhuhai where we are going to be most of the time. Every time I raise the window, it's sunny outside until we approach Hong Kong. Then dusk has fallen.

The hotel accommodations are luxurious even by western standards. And the breakfast buffet this morning, I can only describe as East meets West for the tastebuds. What didn't they have? I heard one of my classmates took photos; so perhaps they will post. Just about every nationality was covered: Chinese, Indian, English, American, French. I'm a huge breakfast eater, so I had a three course breakfast.

In 15 minutes, it's 11:15 am here right now, we'll be boarding the ferry for Jinan University at Zhuhai. And meeting our student buddies, who will be with us everywhere and help translate. This is the first time I've gone to another country where I don't have better grasp of the language. I'm so grateful for our buddies.

Who knows if we'll be able to access Google and Blogger on mainland China? If so, you'll hear from me again. If not, then later. Ba Ba La   

Commencement Day for Dee-Anne and Greg

China Program classmates Dee-Anne and Greg are graduating this afternoon with their MBA degrees from UW-Eau Claire. Congrats you two, and see you at the Starbucks at the Hong Kong Airport on Tuesday night at 8 pm Hong Kong time.  Ba Ba La

The 10 Myths of Modern China by Tom Doctoroff, CEO, JWT North Asia

"The Top Ten Myths of Modern China, " by Tom Doctoroff, CEO, JWT North Asia (J Walter Thompson Advertising Agency)  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-doctoroff/china-myths_b_1526079.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008  Just came across this intriguing article, and want to share. Ba Ba La

Four Days and Counting: Nihow from Ba Ba La

Ba Ba La

Nihow,

My name is Barbara, Ba Ba La in Chinese, and I'm a nontraditional, lifelong learner student who is going to the Jinan University at Zhuhai for UW-Eau Claire's Globalization in China class led by Dr. Jean Pratt and Dr. Scott Swanson. I've hosted international students Kate Wang, from Shenzen China, and Jamie Hoo from Sengalore, Malaysia, for the past two years as part of the 2+2 program. I'm thrilled that I'll get to meet Kate's family while I'm there.

Today, my classmates and I received our Jinan University buddies' names and contact info. I'm eager to meet them. I've emailed them, and I got an email back saying delivery has been delayed. James Fallows from the Atlantic Monthly gave this interview about 3 Signs that China May Be Ready to Innovate (and create its own Silicon Valley). He does mention the internet is slower over there compared to here; so here' s hoping for a faster internet real soon so I connect with my buddies before I step on the plane with my classmate Joni early early Monday morning.   http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2012/05/3-signs-china-may-be-ready-to-innovate/257014/