Basking in Beijing

I attended a conference held at the Shangri-La in Beijing on Tuesday through Thursday this week.  It has been a while since I've been in Beijing (I think the last time was 2007, and prior to that was 2002), so I was eager to return.  I have fond memories from when I was there to study Mandarin at the Beijing Normal University with Princeton-in-Beijing.

Beijing may be one of the ugliest cities in the world, but it is steeped in history and as the political seat of an-ever growing world power, a truly fascinating place to visit.  For example, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could access both the New York Times and CNN.  I was less thrilled when I realized Facebook did not work.    

Beijing is set up in concentric circles, and the traffic has only become worse as more and more people have acquired cars.  It took me nearly an hour and a half to get from the airport to my hotel.  However, the weather, notoriously terrible in Beijing, and the pollution, even more infamous, surprised on both counts. It was sunny and a warm 72 degrees, and the sky was quite clear.  The contrast was great from my first two weeks living in Beijing in 2002, when I carried an umbrella everywhere because I thought it would rain.  Finally I figured out that it was actually sunny out - it just looked cloudy due to the pollution and smog.  I also used to come back from wandering the city with a gray ring around my white t-shirt.  This time, I was not outside long enough to do the same little test.

My trip consisted mainly of networking at the conference, attending seminars and workshops, or else slipping in some time for regular work, so I did not have any time to do any sightseeing or shopping.  I had a little bit of time on my first night to go out and check out the city.  I chose to go to a street lined with restaurants serving traditional Beijing cuisine, such as hot pot and grilled skewers (pronounced "chuanr" with a satisfying tongue curl if you speak it like a bona fide northerner).  The street was lined with red lanterns, and called Ghost Street.  

I've never given away as many business cards as I did at this conference.  The business card is very important in Asia, presented and received with respect (proffered with both hands like an offering).  Unsurprisingly, considering that the conference was in China, the business cards were all bi-lingual.  Some people had some nice Chinese names.  I was particularly impressed by how fluent in Mandarin some of the business people were - at such a high level of fluency that they could converse on various topics, legal, business and current events, in Mandarin.

I met a bunch of young corporate types who were either in private equity or else working as service providers to the private equity industry.  On the second night we went to a hotpot restaurant called 海底捞, literally translated as "catch from the bottom of the sea", close to the hotel.  Going with bona fide natives, I gamely pronounced myself up for eating anything.  There was nothing that was really too terrible, except for bullfrog legs (which were shockingly tender) and the one dish that gave me pause for thought -- pig's brain.  I generally stay away from eating brain, but I bravely pushed aside thoughts of mad cow's disease and Contagion, and I have to admit that the two pieces I sampled were delicious.

My favorite part of the whole conference may have been my hotel room.  I was in an executive suite with floor-to-ceiling panoramic views: