A Blue Ocean Strategy!!!

Using a phrase from our MBA strategy class, "Go to where there is a Blue Ocean", is how to describe my next destination. While my classmates are traveling around to the coldest regions of China (e.g. Tibet, Lhasa, Lijiang, and Shangri-La), I decided to continue my travels to the warm weather regions of China on Hainan Island where there is an actual blue ocean.

I arrived to the 80F temperatures, strong breeze, and partly cloudy skies of Sanya, the southern coast of Hainan Island. As part of China, this region of the island has been newly developed over the past several years, targeting new Chinese tourists. Most of the hotels are resorts hotels located on the beach facing the south seas. After getting out the airport, I was bombarded by these private taxi drivers. Still trying to figuring how the transportation works, I was followed into the parking lot by a private driver. After a few minutes of negotiation and telling him where I want to go, I jumped into his car. It paid to do my research to know how much to pay for my taxi ride as most taxi drivers don't use the meter and charge a flat rate. Luckily, I knew I paid only 100RMB for my ride to Crown Plaza resort which 30miles from the airport. I assumed incorrectly that people on this island spoke Cantonese since it's southern China but I was wrong again. Everyone here spoke Mandarin so I continue to practice my mandarin on the taxi driver. We had a good conversation. Him telling me about his life in Sanya and me telling him about my background. I did find out that he has seven siblings, 6 more than the one child policy rule in China. Since he was a bit younger than me, he probably had siblings that was born before that policy enacted. In addition, since this island is pretty secluded and a farming community, the government probably don't crack down on this issue as much back then. I was further enlightened by the fact that this place don't have many western tourists. The only foreigners traveling to this area are Russians who I assume travel to this place instead of Hawaii for convenience (distance from Russia) and affordability. Most signs in this place are in three languages - Chinese, English, and Russian. A quick factoid-there are three Chinese ethnic groups that inhabit this island all being darker and shorter than the mainland Chinese groups.

I was a bit out of my element when I arrived at my hotel. A beautiful Chinese palace like grandiose lobby area with a warm breeze sweeping through from the driveway to the back steps leading to a fountain courtyard overlooking a plaza. I was helped by the bellboy who carried my bags and I was served a iced sweet citrus drink as I was getting my hotel card key. My hotel room was plush with great comfy beds, open sliding doors from the bathroom and bedroom. My balcony overlooked the large Vegas style swimming pool with wrapping shapes of a lagoon. Very cool! I later figured this hotel resort is the hotel that hosts the Miss World Pageant which was held the week after I leave. Darn!!!!

For the next three days, I was able to just relax, start my day with a complimentary five star buffet western/Chinese style breakfast, followed by emails (MBA, C4C, news, etc.), then hitting the beach for a few hours, hit a few laps in the swimming pool, hit the weights in the gym, and followed by resting up, dinner, and a movie. The warm weather and sunny skies did my body good with a good dose of Vitamin D which was needed. It also helped even out my tan or sunburned neck I got from traveling to Huangshan last month. Even though I traveled by myself to this Hawaii of China destination which is really meant for families and couples, it was a nice, calm relaxing trip compared the cold, hiking, train jumping, navigation minded person you need to be to travel in western China. It affirms that I love the sun, warm weather, blue skies, and nice hotels!

Hong Kong and Macau - Another Holiday Travel

People say, including myself, say Beijing is similar to Washington DC with its rich history and culture as well as being China's capital city. Further Shanghai is like China's New York City. Bright, Vibrate, new wealth, and a huge financial market for investments and trade. Then you have Hong Kong. Having traveled a good part of the US and the world, you can't really compare Hong Kong to any other western city. Hong Kong is, for a lack of better words or comparison, Hong Kong. A rich, diverse, populated port city/island on the SE China. A literal hop, skip, and jump away from the two major cities in southern China - Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Having spent some time living Hong Kong with my folks as an very early child, I have no recollection of this city but have always imagined to come back after hearing so much about it from other people who been there.

I arrive in Hong Kong via an 2 hour train ride after my weekend stay in Guangzhou. I checked into the Holiday Inn on Nathan Road, one of the busy tourist districts in New Kowloon. New Kowloon is a peninsula directly facing Hong Kong Island and is considered part of Hong Kong territory. Within the first hour or two being in Hong Kong, I felt I was at home and could easily navigate my way around the city. There are considerable differences between Hong Kong and a city like Shanghai. First, all the Chinese locals speak Cantonese, my original dialect. Most educated Chinese locals are also fluent in English. I could finally eaves drop in the subway and used both languages when walking into a restaurant or shopping. Second, people didn't spit, litter, or jay-walk the streets - all are violations and against the law. A nice and refreshing site. Third, things cost a whole lot more compared to mainland China, closely resembling big city life in a US city. Fourth, the diversity of people in Hong Kong was like a united nation council meeting. With a Brit I spoke to on a ferry, Aussies in an Aussie owned bar, to a variety of languages spoken in the streets, it was a big contrast to China where you have to speak Mandarin to live and survive.

Hong Kong is made up with several smaller islands that includes Hong Kong Island. HK Island itself is easy to get around. You could walk the entire north side in a day. I didn't attempt to do that but I did my fair share of walking in one day by hitting the Tram up the hill overlooking the city, the world's longest escalator, catching a cheap ferry ride to the island, running into a small zoological park to see a jaguar and monkeys, and walking around in two of the trendy shopping areas. Thankfully, I had amazing weather with blue skies and 80F everyday. With cuisines from all over the world and theme bars and lounges, I understand why my classmates (Paul, Heidi, and Annie) who studied in Hong Kong loved it so much. You don't even need to learn any Cantonese as everyone can speak English in the city. Shopping is great here with trendy and more stylish men's clothes that I could wear. You could see by the clothes that people wore in the streets. Almost every office worker wore suits and professional attire. Paul, my classmate at UW, was able to hang out and show me a few places while I was there. It was great meeting up with him and catch up with a good classmate whom I have seen since I left. He took me to SOHO and Lan Kwai Fang, the happening night spots in the city. We swapped and shared our experiences living in each city. We both really understood the importance of having a global (not just business) perspective when viewing the world. And living abroad helps bridge the gap in understanding what the rest of the world is thinking and experiencing. We agreed that we could see ourselves living here for some period of time in the future.

Paul and I decide to visit Macau the next day. We took a quick ferry ride on these small but fast boats that took us to Macau Island. After an hour on the boat, we arrived. At the ferry terminal, all the major casinos had free shuttle buses taking visitors to their casinos. It is early November, probably the low season but still saw swarms of people hitting the gambling casinos. From what I saw, it was mainly locals and Southern Chinese mainlanders who were the visiting these casinos with very few foreigners. Paul mentioned he had a winning slot (ATM cash) machine that has won in the past at the Wynn Casino. So we headed there! These newer casinos were amazing. I didn't know if I was in Vegas or Macau. The only difference are the customers (all Chinese of course) and the background noise in these places. Paul did briefed me that they don’t have slots machines that make that ringing noise and people are a bit more subdued. With club lounge music playing in the background, I liked it and preferred it over Vegas style. Since most of these casinos were relatively new, it was immaculately clean and caters to the people who obviously have money or willing to give away all their money. Paul and I hit the slots, craps, and other gambling machines. I tried my hand at a game not found in the states called Sic Bo. It's like the roulette table but instead of using a ball and wheel to guess the winning number, they use three dices. A guess at the combination, total sum of the dices, and other things could make you money. We took a break from gambling and stumbled to find a great all you can eat, high-class buffet at the Lisboa Casino. One of the best meals I had in the last few months with fresh produce to produce great food. It beats most high-end buffets in Vegas. 5lbs heavier and $25 lighter in the wallet, we headed to the Venetian Casino. Located on the a different island or part of Macau, we took a 20min taxi ride over a long bridge which makes the I-90 bridge look small. Once we got to the Venitian, my mouth dropped to see that this Venetian almost looked identical to the one in Vegas. Situated along a long flat strip of land, I could see a dozen cranes and at least 3-4 more large casinos being built. If Vegas was hit by a hurricane and wiped out the casinos, I would be seeing the first phase of construction. This part of Macau was large to fill most of the casinos on the Vegas strip. I can't imaging the billions of dollars by US and FDI (foreign direct investments) as well as local investments to build up this place. No wonder people in Vegas are sweating that this place could cannibalize the Asian market of gamblers.

After a long day of gambling, I was out $200 USD and Paul probably broken even, we headed back on the Ferry at 3am. A great day to a great experience!

On Holiday in Guangzhou

November 2007-Some people say after visiting several major cities in China, they all look and feel the same. I would that's true for famous Chinese gardens but I can't say its true for cities. My journey on this trip takes me to Guangzhou, one of the largest cities in Southern China. Located in the Guangdong Province, its rich history goes back hundreds if not thousands of years. More recently, it is well known for the place where Dr. Sun Yat-Sen started the Chinese revolution that overthrow the monarchy in China which stood for thousands of years. I was heading here because I have some distance relatives who live there. After landing at the airport and hopping into a taxi, I could see that this city with 6 million people felt like a real blue collar working town. Guangzhou and Shenzhen is known for is manufacturing industry where many foreign companies have their production or manufacturing operations. Guangzhou appears to be a blue collar type of town. A bit gritty with urban sprawl as the eye could see. However, with a river running through this city, close to Hong Kong, and developed for a Chinese city, it is a vibrant city with many things to do if you’re a local.

With the help of my distant uncle (my dad's side of the family), I spent my first night catching a three hour night cruise up and down the river. I was surprised and impressed at how all the buildings are lighted along the river. It probably gives Shanghai a run for its money. It was probably a four mile stretch along the river where all the building are light up with hotels, restaurants, and a boardwalk lined up along the bank of both sides of the river. Truly impressive!

The next day was pretty packed as I got a tour of the city via bus, taxi, subway. Its unbelievable how well the Chinese government throughout most major cities have planned the subway and bus infrastructure. Makes you wonder most of the time where did Seattle go wrong with its future planning of public transportation. Ok, back to Guangzhou. I got breakfast with my uncle at the corner food stall in the morning. We had the typical Cantonese breakfast of Congee (ie Porrige), Chinese Donuts, and some chow fun (rice noodles). Hmm…delicious!!!! Takes me back when I was a kid. Filling for two people and all for $4USD. Next up, I was able to visit a nice park where many retired people do their daily exercises. Most people in China can retire by the age of 55. We then walked across the street and visited Sun Yat-Sen Park. We then caught a bus to downtown Guangzhou and walked around the main streets. Beijing Road, similar to Nanjing Road in Shanghai, was filled with people walking along a busy pedestrian street lined with shops and restaurants. We decided to take a break and had lunch at a fantastic Vietnamese. I asked my uncle that I wanted Vietnamese food b/c after having Chinese food for awhile, I needed a break. The place he took me too was awesome. We got several dishes to share with a combination of curry, Pho, and broken rice with BBQ pork along with some typical Vietnamese iced coffee. Very good to a busy morning thus far. We then caught a taxi back home where I met up with my cousin, Ving, whom I haven't seen since I was three years old. He recently got married and his wife gave birth. Because my Mandarin and Cantonese is not as fluent as I wanted to be, we had a limited set of conversations. But we were able to communicate. I also met my uncle's kids who also were working professionals in this city. We drove to his condo to visit with his new family. I always wonder what life would have been like if I lived and grew up in Guangzhou or Hong Kong. Would I turn out to be the same sort of person I am now? Would I be going through the same career and education track, think differently, and even be married with two kids. Who knows. Something to ponder over.

Home Away From Home

Living China has been definitely cultural immersion experience. With Cantonese and Mandarin (the two major Chinese dialects) being my distant second and third languages, it was a bit of a struggle and continues to be challenge in communicating with folks in Shanghai. I cannot easily walk into any café or restaurant and order off the Chinese menu. When eating out by myself, I have find places with English or picture restaurant menus. Sometimes, I take a chance and order foods that are common in all Chinese restaurants - the usual bowl of noodles, soup, or fried rice. It takes some work when shopping, buying train tickets for travel, or telling the taxi driver exactly where to go when he gets lost himself. But this is part of the experience. I guess I wouldn't have it any other way. Otherwise, life would be too easy here. It has pushed me to continue to learn new words and phrases in mandarin in order for me to communicate. With some help from Jerri, Jane, and a few other classmates, I slowly become more and more self sufficient. There are things I've done that has made me into a local just in the first month.

After spending two months here, I feel at home most days especially after returning from my traveling throughout China. Like most of folks, I tend to like find a set of routines and places to go around my neighbor. So much so, people have recognized everywhere I go at my most popular neighborhood destinations. Here's a few of them.

Pancake girl - She works down the street from my condo and probably starts her shift at 6am. Working alongside an older man (the cashier and possibly father), she sets up her shop as a street vendor renting out small store front the size of single car garage. With just a small table of ingredients such as chives, cilantro, eggs, and some sauces, round barrel size grill, a tub of batter, she whips out these Chinese pancakes/crepes in one minute. A constant long line of customers awaits her pancakes, a good sign and litmus test for all street food. At 2.20RMB (30cents USD), it's a great deal at any currency. While the older man takes in the money and wraps up the pancakes, she works at fast pace technique as she builds a sweat on her forehead and brow. So busy is her stall that she doesn't have time to wipe that sweat off. I usually buy a pancake from her weekly. With guests and friends in town, I usually buy several as well as buy a few fried egg crepes from the vendor next to hers to give some business to him as well. His fried egg crepes are not as good but worth a taste for friends.

Fruit lady-I drop by the fruit store fronts down my street several times a week to get my fresh fruit such as Satsuma, bananas, apples, and an occasionally exotic fruit. I buy what I need for that day or two and no more. It is in contrast to what I or other people do in the US. It's nice to shop for just that day because food is fresher and I don't have to haul or carry around my groceries. I usually drop by a particular fruit stand because I build a friendly rapport with this fruit lady who is probably in her late thirties. She along with her husband runs this stall. Her stall is a size of a single garage filled with her fruit. She competes with four other fruits stalls on the same street. I probably go to her because she is friendly and usually greets me with a smile. A simple customer service goes along way with me in China, since it is void in most places I go to except for restaurants.

Local café - My classmates (Jerri, Jeri, and Matt) and I found this café one day while walking to find a new lunch spot. We stumbled to this place that looked like a diner you would find in Taiwan or in the US back in the 1950s. It has a bit of a art deco theme and stood out from the typical Chinese neighborhood restaurants with dark, old, wooden furniture. With its comfy booths, white walls, clean looking plate setting, it looked promising. When they brought out the food, it was delicious. The best part was it was local neighborhood prices, cheaper than major sections of town where most locals or tourist would go. You can feed four people including beer for less than $12 USD. Unbeatable prices, food, and atmosphere. I started returning to this place weekly after my first experience to this place with my friends who were in town. With only a Chinese menu, I challenged myself to go in there and order from dishes I knew they would have. I also asked our server to recommend a few dishes for us too. She kindly helped me out by describing the dishes in Mandarin. Fortunately, I am proficient enough in understanding various Chinese dishes and ingredients to comprehend her. I only wish I had this place near my house back home. No need for me to cook or reheat stuff in the microwave.

Noodle Shop- Everyone has their favorite hangout or food place to go after a long night of partying or enjoying too much of adult sodas. My place happens to be downstairs from my condo is a noodle shop that serves a variety of simple dishes such as hand shaven noodle, hand stretched noodles, and fried rice. At only 60cents (USD) per dish and fast service, this place is constantly busy during the day. At night, they are usually sleeping on the tables after working a long day. This place is open 24hrs a day. Crazy but has a good niche market when food places close usually around 11pm in this city.

DVD Vendors- With a dozen located in a 1/4 mile radius and open up shop on the streets, DVD suppliers are everywhere. At 60cents a movie and 2 dollars for an entire season of a US TV show, need I say more.

1st MBA Course - Int'l Business Global Strategy

Dressed for success in his three-piece, Professor El Nemaki, shows up always 20mins before class setting up his computer and PPT slides for the day's lecture. While his students straggle in 5-15mins late for class everyday.

After sitting in his class for two weeks, I really enjoyed his class tremendously. I did learn content, gathered some additional analytical frameworks of breaking down global business issues, and improved my free-hand chart making skills on flip chart paper rather than a white board. However, it was Prof. Nemaki's real life work experiences, his travels, and stories that sticked with me. He worked at Philips Medical, McKinsey Consulting, providing consulting services to Fortune 500 companies and maintain ties to various government organization around the world. Needless to say, he's a man with global business experience. This is something that is hard to find in any top US MBA school. Who can say that he has three properties around the world - Dubai, Holland, and Thailand. A person who meets with dignataries from China on a frequent basis. He was able to bring his real life stories and understanding of a country's culture of doing business was the to key a success or failure of a business decision or strategy made my a big corporation or by one person.

The exercise of analyzing the case study of the day with your group was fun. My teammates were Margot, Gemma, Jane, and Eric. I had a good team. Not too big like other teams which had more than 8 people. We worked well together with good discussion, involvement, and contribution by all. But when it came to frameworks, charts/graphs, and diagrams, I took the initiative. The professor called us the chart making team. Our team stood out with our charts as well as our analysis as pictures was used to convey our message to our international group of classmates mainly made up with Chinese and European students. I was surprised that the rest of the team didn't bring their chart making skills until toward the end our the course which brought out my competitive nature to bring newer and better frameworks out of my tool bag.

In short with the first class completed, there are major differences taking a MBA course at UW and SJTU. I will not say for good or bad, but different.

What is takes to be a good host

Living in big US cities such as NYC, LA, and Washington DC, you will experience the fast pace life of lots of people, cars, and sensory overload. Shanghai, just like all big cities around the world, fall into this category. With this fast pace life, you inevitably encounter people from all walks of life. This includes rude and impatience people. I have my share of folks shouting at me , giving me bad customer service, or laughing at me at my poor mandarin speaking skills. But my impression of China and the people is that you know someone, even if its through 2-3 degrees of separation, people are willing to help you out in many ways.

For example, my classmates Jane and Gemma agreeable to take time to give me some Chinese tutoring lessons to improve my vocabulary and pronunciation. In addition, Jane was able to take my friends (who were in town visiting me) to a club last week, the night before she was leaving for vacation.

At SJTU, the program office teamed us up with China MBA students as local host buddies. Mine is Bruce Du. He is a 1st yr evening MBA student. He works full time as a data analyst at a US based company. He has class twice a week during the weekday and class all day on Sunday. He decided to get together this past Sunday right after class. He brought Jeri, Matt, and myself to a billiards place where we met up with a few of his classmates. Bruce made every attempt to introduce and integrate us to his classmates. We played pool and ate dinner there. It was a great experience as we would never gone there since it was a real local hang out. He made us feel very at home and comfortable. I felt bad b/c he lives 1.5hr away and he's hosting us right after an all day class and now he'll probably need to take a taxi home b/c the subway closes around 9pm. I really appreciate his efforts to be a good host. This is in addition to the help he gave me earlier in the week when he gave me some good information on how and where to buy bus tickets to the local water towns around Shanghai. I would never have found the right place if it wasn't for Bruce making a few phone calls and recommendations.

Thanks Bruce, Jane, and Gemma!

Recent Pics of my travels and adventures

For those who interested in what I've been up (w/out reading my blog posts), here are my pics of my travels and adventures thus far in China.

http://picasaweb.google.com/kien.c.ha

Cheers!
Kien

Buying a Bike in a Typhoon?

It's the start of the typhoon season here in Asia. The news report that this typhoon is the biggest typhoon to hit the east coast of China in decades. After enduring 90F days for over a week, I was thinking that we get some relief. I had no idea we were getting hit by a big storm after watching the news reports and it started raining like cats and dogs here in Shanghai. I never experienced rain like this except for when Jonathan and I went to the Global MBA conference in Singapore this past year.

It rained, rained, and rained for most of the day. During lunch we found a lunch spot to get our of the rain. Matt and I talked about getting bikes would a great idea to travel around our local neighborhoods b/c we were tired of walking around which was tiring and time consuming. We also discussed that we wanted to be productive with our time and not sit around in our condos doing nothing. Then a light bulb turned on in our heads. Let's get bikes at Carrefour today once there's a slight break in the rain.

It was getting dark and rained lightened up a bit. We decided to go for it. So, we walked to the subway to get to Zhongshang Park subway station where Carrefour was located. We looked at the slim bike selection. Matt picked yellow, I picked red. No purple or pink was in stock. We tried riding around in the store. Right away we knew why it costs only $25USD. Price and Quality was in effect. No complaints here. It was a good deal. We took them. Got them tightened up and adjusted.

The experience of riding back in the rain was priceless. Kinda of scary but thrilling also as we had to dodge taxis, other riders, and pedestrians in the dark. We made it back in one piece!!!!

Here's our total damages for this outing.

Two Bikes=$310RMB

Two Baskets=$42RMB

Two Locks=$36RMB

Two Bike Ponchos=$38RMB

One air pump=$15RMB

(In total USD=$35 per person)

Riding back in a typhoon=priceless

1st Week in Shanghai, China

I really didn't start thinking that I was going to live in China for 3.5months until I boarded on a plane to Shanghai on Sept 5th. For most of us studying abroad, we had a busy summer interning at our company right up until we had to pack and head for the airport. Besides taking care of business and personal matters, I wanted to make sure I got to see my family and friends before I leave.

Fortunately, this would be my second time to Shanghai (the first being last summer). Knowing very little mandarin, this would be definitely a challenge for me. I packed my mandarin language books from the college courses I took 10yrs ago.

When we landed in Shanghai after a nice 14hr flight, I headed for my hotel in Pudong. It was nice staying at the Intercontinental Hotel for a few days. I felt like I was on a much needed vacation. But soon reality settled in - I needed to find a permanent place to stay for several months. I started calling around real estate agents offices who spoke English. I left messages or was in contact with over 5 offices but no real luck yet. Meanwhile, I crashed at Jerri and Jeri's place for two days. With good fortune, Jerri was able to help me by having her real estate agent find a place for me. She was able to translate and set-up times to view condos around Jiao Tong University where we will be studying.

After two days, some stress, several showings and walking around, I finally found the a place that fit my criteria - price, location, cleanliness, etc. After seeing it, it was time to sign the paperwork and give them money. They wanted all cash upfront with deposit and commission, so I had to go the bank and walk around with lots of bills which was a bit nerve racking but had my security force of Jerri and Jeri with me. With key in hand, time for my next set of tasks, get household items and unpack at a place I can call home now.

Take home lessons:

• Plan far in advance in finding a place


• Calling many people to find a place for you, preferably someone you can trust or who is a local resident.


• Be patient b/c you will find a place eventually


• You will pay much higher prices for a lease that is short term


• Bring lots of cash with you (no check or credit card here for this type of transcation)

Business opportunity:

• The rental market is done thru real estate agents who get a nice commission


• Real estate agents cover their own local neighborhood that is in walking distance.


• How can you build better business model to disrupt this channel and model while providing better service, pricing, and efficiency for landlords and tenants? hmmm......