Charming Changsha

The second part of our trip to China involved a visit to the capital of the Hunan province, Changsha – a city I had never heard of before starting on this project.

That one time I got photobombed by the Chairman. This is Mao’s hometown, as everyone here will inform you.

Our client’s headquarters is located here, so we would be spending six days in the city visiting various companies and attending seminars at local universities in addition to working with our company. Although we were very busy, we still found time to see some of the local sights.

We also got our first taste of Chinese opera: “Eeeeeeeiiiiieeeee….”

I was surprised at how much I liked Changsha! We were only told that it was a “second-tier city,” which means something entirely different in China given that Changsha’s population is around 7 million! We were also warned about the unusual Hunan cuisine, characterized by the fact that it’s extremely spicy.

This food court, just downstairs from the Crowne Plaza where we were staying, was full of all sorts of delicious (and extra spicy) food

…as well as some more unusual cuisine. Yes, those are turtles. No, I wasn’t brave enough to eat one.

This city has a completely different feel from Shanghai, which as one of my classmates put it, “felt like visiting Epcot.” Changsha, being a bit off the beaten path, just felt more authentic. It was the first time since arriving in China that I really felt like I was back in Asia.

Case in point: a giant lobster mascot outside of a karaoke bar

Additionally, the people are extremely friendly. The city has a reputation for being one of the happiest in Asia, and we were greeted with such hospitality everywhere we went that it was hard to leave.

Talk about random: for a “second-tier city,” Changsha’s nightlife has got it going on! The club we went to was like something you’d find in Vegas.

This region is famous for its embroidery, so on our list was the Hunan Embroidery Museum. At first we weren’t that excited – I mean, it’s fancy sewing. But we were astonished at what we saw when we entered.

At first glance, the works look like paintings (such as this depiction of the Zhangjiajie mountains, which served as the backdrop for the film Avatar.

But on closer inspection, they’re not paintings at all, but embroidery that takes months or even years to complete!

This artist has been working on this embroidery for the past three years, and will require another two to finish!

We also visited Yuelu Academy, a 1000-year-old school that’s still being used today as a university. It’s up in the mountains, which added to the ancient-feeling ambiance.

This school was first established during the days of the Song Dynasty

An edict laying a curse on the descendants of all prospective cheaters.

After days of hard work and preparation, we gave our final presentation on our last morning there. The president of the company seemed to really like it, and the board was pretty happy with our findings! It felt good to have this victory, especially since on our practice run before we left DC, my team had gotten raked over the coals. We learned from our mistakes, however, and after some reorganizing we were able to put together a presentation we were not only proud of, but one that made our client happy. And at the end of the day, that’s the most important thing.

One of our judges, Professor Shun from Hunan University and a fellow UW alum. Go Huskies around the world!

I feel so fortunate to have been able to work with such a great team; they really made my job as project leader quite rewarding and educational. The nice thing about our schedule for this China trip was that since our final presentation happened about halfway through, that left almost an entire week to relax and enjoy the rest of our trip stress-free. So almost immediately after we were finished and said our final good-byes, we hopped on a plane to Beijing for some well-deserved leisure time!

One night (or two) in Shanghai

After a relaxing five days in Cambodia, I hopped on a plane to Shanghai to begin CAP.

Shanghai skyline

I’ve been looking forward to this trip for a while, not the least because I’ve been working on this project since January, and it feels good to finally start seeing the fruits of our labor. My class has been working with a nanotechnology company in China on what is basically pro-bono consulting work, helping our client formulate various business strategies. The class was split into three teams, and I had volunteered to lead one of the teams since after a semester of watching and learning from my business school classmates who were coming from the industry, I finally felt ready to take the lead on a project. So far it’s been a great experience, and I’ve been very lucky with my fantastic, hard-working teammates.

Yeah, I know business

Anyway, after months of reports, mock presentations, and Skype calls with our client in China, this project is finally culminating with us flying to work with them for several days at their headquarters in Changsha. The trip isn’t all business, however; we’ve also got some educational and tourist activities built into the schedule, and we’ll get to spend some time in Shanghai and Beijing.

Walking around town

Our China adventure began on Sunday with two days in Shanghai. What a beautiful city! To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived. One thing about having spent so much time in the U.S. military is that for so long I was conditioned to believe that China is our enemy, and that bad and terrible things would happen if I associated with the country or its people in any way.

“I hate you”      “Likewise, loser”

Other than an experience with a very aggressive fake taxi driver at the airport (dude took my luggage and tried to steer me away from the official airport taxis and toward his private car in the parking garage; thankfully I was able to grab it back from him) my experience has been pretty positive so far. The language barrier is significant – this is the first country I’ve ever been in where the standard broken English + subpar attempt at the local language + various hand signals have not quite been enough. Also, it’s taken a little bit to get used to the fact that people don’t line up in China, they just barrel through with no regard to anyone else. It makes getting off the airplane an interesting experience.

Crowds, crowds everywhere

Shanghai is a very beautiful city, and during our one full day there we were able to tour some of the more famous sites.

Looking up at three of the tallest buildings in China. Fun fact (and by “fun” I mean “horrifying”: the Shanghai Tower (bottom left) was closed because a glass pane fell off and hit someone below!

Walking around Yu Garden in the middle of the city

Visiting the Temple of the Jade Buddha (no photographs off the jade statue are allowed, so here’s some gold ones instead.)

I haven’t been religious for many years now, but I’ve always like the idea of Quan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. I found this part of the temple to be very tranquil.

The day culminated in an awesome dinner cruise along the … river, enjoying some local cuisine while getting to see the city lit up at night.

Shanghai city lights

Soon, however, it was time to head off to Changsha, where the home stretch of our work begins. We were sad to spend such a short time there, although we’ll be back next week for a couple more days. We did take the opportunity to sign the guestbook at the airport.

Silly Americans

In the meantime, it’s off to go work. Next stop: Changsha!