Chinese street walker
Day 3
First off, Hey James, did you get the name and number of that Chinese street walker last night? yes, James was violated by what was most likely a hooker last night. A lot of what went down I’ll have to keep under wraps but it was pretty entertaining.
Yesterday we went to Fan Tong, which is essentially a Chinese version of open table, foursquare and yelp all rolled into one. The CEO, who’s name I know but cannot spell, was by far the most interesting host thus far. I found in intriguing how he has managed to reach this phase and how he determined what was successful. His little nuggets of wisdom and stories should be published.
During the Q&A session, I Asked what has been the primary challenge during the start up phase for his executive team. He responded that training people (both quality and timing) has been the most difficult.
For lunch, I devoured a fish eyeball for desert and can prove it (thanks Ilya for filming it). I’m hoping to get some extra credit for going above and beyond the cultural experience since apparently it happens quite often around here.
Morgan Lewis was next, and we discussed the legal implications of doing business in china. To summarize what we were told should be easy - there’s always a way to get around the rules. For example, a foreign company can do business in china by setting up an offshore company held by a parent company. Through some legal trickery, the company doing business in china funnels all profits to the offshore. It’s called theVIE model, and Mr. Chang believes that e Chinese government will soon chip away at this, but it will be replaced by something else. I didn’t get a chance to ask him of becoming a member of the CCP aids in becoming a PRC-qualified lawyer. Maybe next time.
Walmart! Yup we did a walmart trip. And not just any walmart trip, a scavenger hunt walmart trip! We still dont know who won but im confident we did, even thou james did beat us out on at least one question. Sea cucumbers were the most expensive item at around 9000 yuan (around 1300 dollars).
There were lightning and thunder storm that evening, and the gym manager got concerned during one of my workouts. He was watching me for a good five minutes. Not sure if he was admiring my hard work row was concerned that I was going to kill my self.
A few Interesting tidbits: couples wear matching shirts in public (aw cute), and all meals are served communal style which is what I believe to be a good representation of their Confucius philosophies versus the individuality of the US where food is typically served directly to the individual. Lastly, pull-tab beer needs to be brought to the states.
