Thursday’s class began as a lecture. Our guest speaker was a Middle Eastern guy in
his late 30s who imports diamonds from S. Africa.
He was a fascinating speaker. He
arrived in China only after attempting to import diamonds into the US
about 10 years ago. He was dressed to
the Tee and on his ear he sported the fattest rock I have ever seen. He
told the story of how he pretty much developed the diamond market in
China. Before he arrived, the Chinese
did not buy diamonds, there was no demand or understanding for what diamonds
represent. He had to build relationships,
teach people the desire for diamonds which would create demand for his
product. He said he spent lots of time
at dinners and late night karaoke bars earning “Guanxi”- the central idea in Chinese society that
represents a person’s networks of influence through
relationships. Understanding guanxi, is
crucial for anyone wanting to do business in China.
After class we headed out for some shopping. We checked out the
fake market. As we arrived, the shop
owners said it was the day that the police were having a surprise visit so all
the “good stuff” was put away. Hummm……..I
like how they schedule it out. A
classmate got a couple of the rosetta stones for like $10. I keep meaning to
email them and ask if they actually worked!
Then we were off to “Old town” or Nanshi. I loved old town there were pagodas and traditional Chinese style
buildings as far as the eye could see. It’s exactly what I pictured China to be like. I could have spent several hours there, but
like everywhere else we were on a tight schedule. However we did have time to walk
across a famed zig zagging bridge
and take a peek into the local temple, were I snapped a pic of the monk secretly
texting by holding his phone in his desk- BUSTED!!
That night a few of us checked out the Shanghai
Circus World. Chinese are known to be
very flexible and this was certainly the case at the circus. It is crazy how many people they can fit into
a basket- seriously. OMG, then there was
the motorcycle stunt that took place inside a mid-sized sphere thing… they put
in 3 people on motorcycles and had them drive around inside the locked bubble
thing, not just driving but going as fast as possible in circles upside
down. Then right when I was thinking,
god they have to be getting motion sick, they pulled in another motorcycle. And then another. I couldn’t even look- there was 5
motorcycles in the ball only about 6 inches apart, tire to tire, flooring the
gas, flying in circles….nail biting. No
pictures allowed and just like everywhere else, we were highly under watch so I
didn’t get sneak any shots.
