Business In China

The Drury MBA program's capstone course takes students halfway around the world for a cultural lesson in business and life.

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In late May, I had the good fortune to travel to Beijing  as part of the Drury University masters in business administration program. The trip, along with a  summer session in-class, serves as the capstone for the Breech School of Business Administration’s MBA program, from which I graduated in August. It doubled as a series of case studies (we visited a number of businesses) and a cultural awareness exercise. We saw almost all of Beijing’s high points, with a special-but-somewhat-cheesy emphasis on wearing our “Chinese Glasses” in all endeavors (i.e., seeing the country as a native, not just as Americans). Our guide was ChinaSense, an U.S.-friendly agency that specializes in business-oriented travel in China (chinasense.cn).

The takeaway: Beijing, while huge and foreign, can be quite accessible. If you fancy an adventure, I recommend it as a destination. Here are some high points.

The City

Beijing is big. Like, really big. Picture New York, but without Manhattan; instead the skyscrapers are scattered literally everywhere, covering almost 6,500 square miles, or well more than twice the size of Delaware.

Beijing is also modern. Much of the city has sprung up over the last 25 years or so, meaning the infrastructure was designed for cars, unlike most European cities. And while it comes with the crowding and congestion of any city with 17 million people, most spots felt no more cramped than, say, downtown St. Louis. On a cleanliness scale I’d put it up against New York any day. Overall my impression of Beijing was one of progress (much of that, I’m sure, due to last year’s Olympic Games).

What to Do (Historical)

You can’t visit the capital of the world’s oldest continuous civilization and not immerse yourself in the history.

Any trip to northern China begins at the Great Wall. On a rainy Thursday we visited the Mu Tian Yu section of the Wall, one of a few accessible from Beijing and open to the public. Now, I don’t know what history books I’d been reading, but I was shocked at just how far up a mountain the Great Wall is; it required a five-minute ski-lift ride just to get up there.

Consider yourself warned: If you are not in decent physical shape, you would be wise to save the money and enjoy the shops and tourist traps at the base of the mountain. The Great Wall—particularly this section—is highly physically taxing. At one point I was literally climbing a stone staircase as if it was a ladder. By the time I got to the end of the section, I was severely out of breath. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and I’ve run a marathon. But it was also rewarding. The wall itself is an architectural marvel, and the views are truly unbelievable, even on a misty day.

Getting down from the wall is possibly the most thrilling part; a toboggan—really nothing more than a luge with a hand-brake—is there for able-bodied persons to ride down. The track looks like a death-trap, to be honest, but also looks like a total blast. Too bad for us, the track was closed due to the light rain. Maybe next time. My wife says maybe not.

The Great Wall is hardly the only site to see in Beijing. Our group also spent an afternoon at the Forbidden City and Tien’anmen Square, which are just across a wide street from one another in the heart of Beijing. The Forbidden City is impressive, though hard to wrap your mind around. I suggest giving yourself several hours to read all the signs you can; we had to hurry a bit so some of the actual history of the place was lost on me. I did, however, take time to gawk open-mouthed at the trio of massive stone courtyards that are lined up near the front end of the ancient palace.

Tien’anmen Square is perhaps the most famous public square in the world, as well as the largest. You could fit a million people in there without breaking a sweat. Admission to Tien’anmen Square is free, but not easy; it’s crawling with security. Indeed, it was the only spot in our entire visit where I felt the presence of the Chinese government, which is more than just an American assumption. On the bus, our guide told us that if we wanted to ask him about the 1989 Chinese government crackdown on student protesters in Tien’anmen, we could do it on the bus. “In the Square, I will pretend to not understand you,” he said.

Despite the atmosphere, Tien’anmen is thriving, a must-see. To avoid the crowd, I recommend getting up early—like 4:30 a.m. early—and being there for the flag-raising, which is a sight to behold. Tien’anmen was only a short walk from our hotel, and a number of our group made it, helped by the fact that, without Daylight Savings Time, the sun is already rising in Beijing at that early hour, at least in June.

Another historical must-visit was the famous Summer Palace. Built for the mother of infamous “Last Emperor” of China, the Summer Palace is a Disney World-sized marvel of architecture, Chinese culture and even a little shopping.

What to Do (Non-Historical)

Oh, but did I mention that Beijing is modern? It is, and when we weren’t touring toy factories or visiting the homes of long-dead emperors, we were enjoying the ample shopping, dining and nightlife that Beijing offers.

On our first day, we visited the famous Bird’s Nest and Water Cube, of Olympics fame. The site—for which slums were famously razed, the inhabitants relocated to the city’s outer rings—is a wide-open area that was virtually empty the day we were there, surrounded by some office buildings and a number of hotels. Touring is cheap. The Water Cube tour is about 30 RMB (or Yuan, the national currency). We didn’t go inside, but it was cool to walk around the house that Michael Phelps (and one really wacked-out architect) built.

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