Monday, October 13, 2008

off to Sea

a well protected boat!
taking off into the Qingdao Bay
Me & Ms. Zhou touring Qingdao
a seaside space ripe for development
the "cranes" of China

Map of Qingdao, Shandong, China

Click to spin globe northwest Click to spin globe north Click to spin globe northeast
Click to spin globe west Map - Click to zoom
Click to spin globe east
Click to spin globe southwest Click to spin globe south


after a long absence on the blogosphere, I am back, writing live from Beijing China. I spent the last 2 weeks of September in the US and had a fantastic time. I landed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina at 11 PM on a Monday night, and was presenting my dissertation research to my PhD committee by noon on Tuesday. I think I was still asleep! Landing in sleepy Chapel Hill was like taking a flight back in time after the fast-paced futuristic style of Beijing.

Following a whirlwind trip to Chapel Hill and Washington DC, I headed West to San Francisco where my awesome family awaited. My uncles Gary & David, my mom & dad, my sister & her husband all came together for a visit to the Bay area that was full of bay area delights (ask Ozzie about his day at the Folsom St. S&M festival!) . We wined & dined in Napa Valley, visited The Samuels family and their darling babies Andrew & Talia, and had fantastic weekend.

Back in Beijing, It took a while to re-acquaint myself with the habits and etiquette of China. But now I am back in the swing of things. Last weekend I took a visit to China's beautiful port city of Qingdao. A friend who owns an urban design firm invited me to visit a potential development site in north Qingdao. It was an incredible experience to peak at China's urban development world. Full of deals, dinners, baijiu, and philosophizing on the development future of China.

We rode around the Bay on a speedboat with the leaders of Qingdao City and certainly noticed a lack of eye-catching waterfront development. Qingdao is a beautiful and clean city but lacks much allure to tourists, aside from its famed Qingdao beer and Annual Beer Festival each October.

My visit to Qingdao was awesome for several reasons. First, getting to see such a successful & savvy business woman, Ms. Zhou, in action was impressive and inspiring. She is smart, respectful, and ambitious -- I can learn a lot from her! Next, it was a interesting time to interact with land developers. After all, the development environment world wide seems to be tumbling in a sharp downward spiral, and we discussed the global crisis at length. Here in China though, they only consider this period, "the winter of development" and know that the "Spring of growth" for seaside development will be here soon. Developers are just waiting now, waiting for the ideal time to break ground and keep growing. Economic development here in China is still upbeat, with optimism and opportunity abounding.

1 comment:

Archives Alive said...

Welcome back to the blogsphere! Can you believe you are almost outta there? Seems like you just left. Mucho kisses. Can't wait to have you back stateside. But tell more tall tales first! xoxo