Hong Kong has been extremely full of classroom sessions so we haven’t really gotten a chance to see much of the city yet. It will be good to get the day off tomorrow to finally get to go do some fun stuff and I also have most of the day Sunday to go exploring also.
Monday we went to the US Consulate early in the morning for a briefing on Hong Kong (and Macau). It was a lot of basics about the size, population, GDP, etc. but was also interesting to hear about how they try and help US businesses both here and in China. I never realized that this Special Administrative Region (SAR) agreement expires in 2047 so it will be cool to see how politics, etc. evolve leading up to then. After that we went to Ernst & Young for a long day of presentations. The office was ridiculously cool, located in the International Financial Center with floor to ceiling windows looking out on the waterfront. Most of the businesses and our hotel are on Hong Kong Island but the part of HK that is connected to the mainland of China is called the Kowloon side, so the view looks at Kowloon and the mountains behind it (China is just beyond the mountains, just a 20 minute train ride to Shenzen). We had lunch provided and got sandwiches (a welcome change from all those lazy susan meals!). We had several presentations and during all of the breaks we got delicious snacks so that was really nice. This went until about 6:30pm and then we went to a reception with the UVa Club of Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Club (a pretty swanky place). They had food to snack on and unlimited wine/beer so it was a pretty fun night even though we were all pretty tired. Then we got back to the hotel around 11pm and I went to bed before another marathon day.
Tuesday we went to the Hong Kong Club building again but went up to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) satellite campus. We spent the day in a big classroom listening to lots of speakers – head of investment banking and M&A in Asia-Pacific for JP Morgan, director of a huge private equity firm, CFO of Asia banking for Citibank. It was cool to have such important people coming to speak with us even if it was a little over my head sometimes. We were free to have lunch around the area so we found a cute Italian café where I had a sandwich. I actually don’t think I have had any Chinese food since I’ve been here which is awesome.
Since we got done early a few of us decided to go to Macau which is supposed to be the equivalent of Las Vegas. It took about an hour to get there on the high speed ferry. It was still light out on the way over so we were able to see the scenery which was beautiful. When we got there they have free shuttles from the ferry station to all the casinos so we shuttled to the Wynn since it was the farthest away and we figured we could walk back. We ended up walking through the Wynn, MGM, Grand Lisboa, and Venetian. The Venetian is HUGE and brand new and the biggest casino in the world so that was pretty cool to walk through. I’ve never been to Vegas, but from what I understand this was not really as fun as Vegas because it was a lot harder to get around. There were little clusters of casinos but you had to take taxis to see things back and forth across the bridge. It was a fun night but I definitely spent a lot of money on transport and only gambled one time! We took the ferry back after exploring and I was exhausted so I went to bed.
But I have some sad news to report from this trip – I realized last night my camera has gone missing. I put my search feelers out and I’m trying to look for it but not having any luck yet. I retraced my steps and I know I had it on the ferry coming back so the hotel is trying to call the ferry company and I asked the hotel to look around for it so they said they would let me know. I don’t think I would be so sad because the camera is replaceable but I have only uploaded pictured from Beijing and Shanghai. We went to so many cool places in Xi’an and I won’t have any of those pictures so I’m pretty bummed. I wasn’t even drunk, just exhausted, which is why it is also a little frustrating. Who knows, maybe it will turn up someplace in my hotel room, but I don’t have very high hopes.
We had another early morning at the HKUST classroom on Wednesday with the CEO of Walmart Asia. It was pretty cool to have such a big wig there and he spent most of the time answering all of our questions. He had only been with Walmart for about a year (he was with Coca-Cola for 10 years before) so he had some interesting thoughts on Walmart too. We had lunch a lunch break and I went to the same sandwich place as Tuesday. Then our afternoon session was with a big wig consultant in Hong Kong who knows lots about China and publishes in all the big magazines and has tons of books, etc. Then we had a panel with some recent graduates living and working in Hong Kong to talk about their experiences and answer questions. After that we walked back to the hotel and I fell asleep so fast after being so exhausted from the late night in Macau – didn’t even eat dinner!
I was wide awake early this morning (mostly because I needed to get the ball rolling on my camera search) and we had a morning session at the main HKUST campus. This was an actual class session with an HKUST professor where we had a case to read beforehand (at least that was the first reading we’ve had to do the whole trip). It was at least a pretty engaging session where we talked about marketing and brand positioning in Asia (definitely more up my alley than all the finance stuff). We got the bus back to the hotel after the morning and went to a Thai restaurant for lunch. I had pad thai and it was so delicious! We have a little bit more of a break before we have an evening class session.
Tonight we will meet with Larry Franklin for class/dinner. He is also a professor at HKUST and gives money to the university for the Franklin scholarship that I received for the trip. Hopefully it will be another interesting session, and then I can’t wait to have the day off tomorrow to finally do some fun things!
No comments:
Post a Comment