Its the fall of 2013 and time for short business trip to Beijing - China's cultural and international business hub. Last time i went on a biz trip was back in January 2010. 1st thing you notice in Beijing is the large amount smog in the air (especially in the economic zones, there is still lot of greenery and peaceful life around the city, when i say peaceful i meant to say is less traffic and much lesser pollution).
1st day at work and it started little early than expected at 7 am!! One of my colleague from client's office picked me up from my hotel, not much of traffic at that time in the morning. He introduced me to all other teammates and straight to work right after that.
Language was bit of a challenge, especially when i am training them on how to use the software and how to run the tests. It wasnt easy but i picked it up pretty fast and i was able to explain better in the afternoon.
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| Street vendor! |
Lunch time and i like the way the chinese do! "Sharing is caring" is the right word for. Moslty followed the same culture back in India for almost 23 years, so it was a good feeling. We ordered variety of dishes that will be placed in the center of the table. Dining is something Chinese see it as a social pastime. Lot of dishes to taste and eat, you can cover many chinese dishes in a short travel. When we get back from Lunch, almost everyone in office used to take a short 15-20 nap. They said that it helps them concentrate more after that, i did test that theory and rightly so.
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| Bird's nest |
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| Water cube: Olympic aquatic center |
Since i was here for a week, i covered most of the places right after work. since we used to start work at 7am, that helped as well. I covered olympic city, Water cube (Olympic aquatic center), Forbidden city, Great wall of China, Summer palace, Ming tombs.
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| The amazing GREAT WALL!! |
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| Summer palace |
Bargaining: It's impossible to say that "a quarter of the starting price" or a tenth or anything else, is the price that you should pay. On the other hand: if it was that easy, bargaining would lose a lot of its charm, wouldn't it? Brought 1 laughing Buddha gift item for 10 rmb; Shopkeeper qouted it 180 at the beginning! Yay! :)
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| bargaining time!! |
tags: #Beijing #greatWall #summerPalace #china #bird'snest #biztrip
