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The academic element of this trip included 20 UW students who signed up for an Exploration Seminar called “Entrepreneurial Explosion in Modern China.”  The goal of the seminar was to expose students first-hand to the incredible economic growth happening in China, to help them understand the forces driving that growth, and to get them thinking about the impact that growth will have on the world economy and on their own futures. 

The students were mostly business and economics majors (undergrads) and about half came from Chinese or Asian heritage.  Most had only a cursory knowledge of recent Chinese history, so we spent the first week seeing an excellent PBS documentary on China’s “Century of Revolution” and touring Shanghai.  The second week we spent visiting companies in Shanghai and getting educated on key economic changes and the drivers behind them – the domestic banking system, foreign investment, manufacturing outsourcing, state-owned enterprises, and the emerging legal infrastructure.  The last 2 weeks we travelled to other places – Hangzhou, Wenzhou, and Yandang Shan – to meet with Chinese entrepreneurs, observe the rural-to-urban contrast and migration, and to have some fun.  Students learned a great deal, as I’m now seeing as I read their final papers.

For me, as the instructor, this seminar provided a tremendous opportunity to explore and learn about China alongside the students.  While I’d spent the last year or two reading lots about China’s recent history and growth, I’ve now had a chance to “live” the experience of that growth – to see the construction cranes in action everywhere, to view the entirely new skyline of Shanghai, to hear directly from entrepreneurs who’ve built and grown their companies in the unique atmosphere of the last 20 years, to ‘feel’ the sense of opportunity and hope that permeates the streets, to smell and taste the smog, to speak with recent rural-to-urban migrants about their experience – and from all this, to draw my own conclusions about China.  In addition to learning a lot, I found the interactions with students to be much more gratifying than any classroom teaching I’ve done at UW back in Seattle.   First, our daily proximity allowed us to learn more about each other and I could relate to students as whole people rather than just members of a class.  Second, many of the students came from Chinese families and could relate personal stories about China’s recent history and cultural mindset that added a rich and enlivening perspective to the discussions (not to mention fluent Mandarin translating!).   And third, students were more comfortable in this relaxed environment to bring their own personal passions – about environmental concerns, about poverty vs. plenty, about moral issues of government control vs. personal freedom – into our daily discussions, giving them an intensity and personal relevance that caused some real deep thinking.   I was impressed by how seriously students treated the subjects we covered and how thoughtful they were in their comments.

For several months before coming to Shanghai we had several concerns about our time here that we now realize are mostly unfounded or insignificant, including: 

1. Hot Weather - We expected 100+ degree weather and very high humidity, but it’s been in the low 90’s with about 65% humidity. And though it is quite hot out when we’re out in the direct sun, it’s not too bad in the shade and there’s often a refreshing breeze. There have also been two brief rain storms that helped cool things off. 

2. Grey Skies & Smog - We’ve been pleased to see blue sky with nice white clouds just about every day for most of the day. And although there’s more smoking here and odors we’re not used to out on the streets, there doesn’t seem to obvious excessive smog or unhealthy air. The only people I’ve seen wearing face masks are the street cleaners. 

3. Crowds - There is certainly more activity out on the street than we’re used to, with lots of people out walking or riding bicycles, mopeds or motorcycles. Also there’s continuous honking from cars and the drivers here are shockingly aggressive and seemingly careless - you get the impressions they’d just as soon run over you then wait or maneuver around you. But after just a few days we’re up to speed on the ins and outs of taking taxis and the subway - so even the busiest subway stops during the end-of-workday rush hour doesn’t faze us much.

 4. Our Boys Getting Separated From Us - We already have a system worked out with the boys that we’re all used to. When we’re out on the streets or in the subway I hold Lucas’ right hand in my left hand at all times and Thomas always stays on my right side within reach - so I can always see him quickly and easily, and hold his left hand or just help steer him around obstacles or through crowds when necessary. Each of the boys also has a special pouch inside the waistline of their shorts that has a card with my cell phone number and the address and phone number of our hotel, and they understand what they should do if they were to get separated from us.

For these reasons and others Shanghai doesn’t seem quite so “foreign” any more. I think we’ve begun acclimating to being in China!

Today is my first real day in China. China is really different. They have nothing good on TV, and there’s not much else to do in the hotel room. The way people drive is really weird too, because people waiting to cross the road stand almost in the middle of the road. When a car drives by they stand and wait for it to pass - but like 3 inches away from it! It also seems like there’s more bikes, mopeds and busses here then there are cars.

Our adventure in China has begun!

As you likely heard, with this blog we will be keeping an online chronicle of our 4-week trip to China - in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Wenzhou. As a father-and-sons effort, my two sons and I will be writing, editing, and photographing our way through China and sharing our images, impressions and perspectives with you - our welcome visitors. In the process I plan on leaping into the blogosphere, so to speak - so that after our return home to Seattle Washington I may introduce and facilitate my Internet Marketing clients through blog-related technologies and initiatives for their businesses.

Our initial voyage - via bus from Seattle to Vancouver BC and flight from Vancouver to Shanghai - went very well, thanks to some excellent planning by my wife Cindy. She has organized and is leading this trip through the University of Washington’s Exploration Seminar program, whereby students are given the opportunity to take a 4-week in-country course on some topic - ours being an exploration of the “Entrepreneurial Explosion in Modern China”. This course will, in Cindy’s words “give students a first-hand experience of the economic transformation currently taking place in China and an opportunity to understand and discuss the impact of China’s growth on the global economy”.

During our time here, Cindy and her 20 students will be doing background reading on the history and culture in China, going on local factory tours and visiting Chinese and American companies to hear first-hand from local Chinese entrepreneurs and U.S. business representatives who have outsourced to Chinese companies. I will be participating in some of these fascinating activities, but my main “job” will be two-fold - to enjoy introducing and exploring China with my two sons - Thomas age 11 and Lucas age 7- and to continue the Internet Marketing work I do for my clients - via laptop from behind The Great Chinese Firewall.

But I digress - back to our initial voyage in words and images…   Our bus trip and and our time in Canadian customs were uneventful, which is just the way we wanted it actually - since we were traveling on a group visa which essentially means an “all or none” scenario: one person not showing up on time could have derailed the trip for all of us.

At the Canadian border we all had to get off the bus, unload our luggage, and present our passports to Customs. 
It all happened to quickly I had to wonder whether they checked our bags.  At the airport, the first  time through I went through the Security metal detector I forgot I had my cell phone in my fanny pack and the alarm went off, so I was given extra attention – I had to remove my shoes and go through a rather intensive pat down with a body scanning wand, front and back. But they never opened and inspected my laptop. One student in our group had to have his laptop inspected, and he later joked that when the security person told him they wanted to do a body cavity search, he told them he had eaten Mexican the night before and that they didn’t want to go there…

 At the airpot while we were waiting for our flight, Thomas made friends with a large stuffed eagle at the entrance of a gift shop and started calculating how many Yuan he’d be able to get and spend from his weekly allowance.

 Lucas started making friends with several of the students, being his usual cute and friendly outgoing self. Lucas is also “our little wanderer” and our biggest concern on this trip – given his ability to wander off and disappear from sight, seemingly in the blink of an eye. I’ll have to keep my eyes wide open when we’re out in the crowds of Shanghai.
 

 During our 12 hour flight I read Jung Chang’s Wild Swans, her very personal account of life in China across three generations from 1909 to 1978, through the Civil War between the Communists and Kuomintang, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Thomas and Lucas were very well behaved on the flight, and were mostly occupied watching the in flight movie.

I found myself finishing the last chapter of this excellent book as our plane descended for our landing at Shanghai’s International airport.

 The Shanghai airport wasn’t crowded, and to my surprise our whole group moved through customs quickly with only a brief check of our group visa and passports - no body scan or search through anyone’s carry-on bags or checked baggage. 

At one point I attempted to take a photo of a customs officers in front of a “Nothing To Declare” sign, but he barked something in Chinese and shook his head to indicate to me that this was NOT a Kodak moment …    I sheepishly put my camera away and avoided any comment or eye contact with him, and I was able to pass through unchecked. 

So after a long voyage across the world, we had arrived in a place I knew we’d find to be a quite different and very interesting place – Shanghai, China…