Day 9: Tuesday March 7th.

Patrick and I met for a run at 7am. We went a different way out of the
hotel. It was a much faster run then the day before. I was craving a fast
run and I needed. Now to just get a long hard one it. I don��t really expect
that to happen here, maybe in Shanghai or Hong Kong. On the run we talked
about the differences between Beijing and Tokyu. I commented that it
appeared that Beijing was quite as advanced as Tokyu. Patrick made the
analogy of Tokyu and Japan are refined while Beijing and China are more
rough. Now that I have spent more time in Beijing and seen different sides
of it (granted I still haven��t seen enough to make a true statement) I
think that a blanket statement like ��Beijing or China are Rough�� can��t
really be made. The vast range of income, lifestyles and social-economic
backgrounds is so large that one statement does not fit it all.

After breakfast several of us headed to Tiananmen Square or Tian��anmen
GuGong. I don��t really know how to describe it other then surreal. To
think of the history of the square, both in the more recent past and as far
back as the emperors. It all blows my mind. We walked across the square to
the Forbidden City and made our way in side. They are doing renovation work
on both the Forbidden City and on the two free standing gates at Tiananmen
Square (The gate of Heavenly Peace and another that I don��t remember the
name of).

We took about 2 hours to walk through the city. There is no way that we saw
it all. You just have to look at the pics to get any sort of idea for it. We
exited out the back after ending in the garden. Yachin, Kelly and I caught a
cab to the Tea House where we are going to go to the Opera on Friday. Yachin
had to pay for the tickets up front. We also had lunch there and then
hurriedly caught a cab back to the hotel to make it in time for the 2
lectures. The first lecture was from a lawyer that has been in Japan, China
and Hong Kong for the last 18 years. He had some great things to say. He
also recommended several books I now want to read one of which is ��600
billion Customers��

The second speaker was Todd McKean who has been in and out of China for the
last 20 years. He originally worked for Nike as the Retail manager here in
China and then later as the labor compliance director both in China and
globally. He also started a consulting firm called NarrowGate, based here in
Beijing that focuses on helping factories make the necessary changes to meet
their audit deficiencies as according to labor practices. Todd is now the
General Manger for Trek Bikes here in China. He had some very interesting
things to say both China, Nike and Trek. Sully asked if I would go to dinner
with him and several other students, I gladly said yes. We really didn��t
let the poor guy eat as we picked his brain for the entire 2 hours.

I returned to the hotel around 8:30. I worked on my blog for a couple of
hours and tried to get a hold of Kevin at 10:30 my time (6:30 am his time).
No luck so I went to bed.

Patrick and I had decided not to run the following day as we were headed to
the Great Wall.