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Celebrating my arrival! (Hong Kong)

Someone somewhere has made a terrible mistake: Somehow I have been numbered among the hundred “young Chinese leaders”.

Congratulations! You have been selected as a delegate for the Dragon 100 Young Chinese Leaders Forum 2008! The Dragon 100 Young Chinese Leaders Forum 2008, will take place in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta Region in Mainland China, 22-30 August 2008, where 100 delegates worldwide would register to our hotel in Hong Kong on 21 August 2008.

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One World, One Dream? (Jianwai SOHO, Beijing)

When I first got to Beijing, my roommate Nick, who is a licensed tour guide, wanted to show me the central business district Guomao (国贸) where there’s been quite a bit of commercial development, such as the architecturally impressive CCTV building. One of the building complexes there is Jianwai SOHO, an upmarket mostly-expatriate residential and shopping area, where the glass-and-steel towers have rooftop gardens. Posh.

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In imperial China, essay contests could get you a cushy bureaucrat sinecure. (Confucius Temple, Beijing)

I get this question a lot from friends, even though I’m no expert on the subject - all I can write are silly stories about girls. It’s hard for me to find the right answer because generalizing about essay competitions isn’t terribly useful – they vary too much in their types and topics, and each has its own optimal approach. At the risk of overgeneralizing, I will limit my advice to a few principles that should be applicable to all kinds of essay contests on any topic under the sun. I draw mostly from my experiences writing for and judging.

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Climbing a mountain with Price Waterhouse Coopers (Mt. Santis, St Gallen)

1. An incredible experience

SGS is truly the best student conference I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve been to quite a few of them. I met the most amazing people there – networking opportunities abound – including Nitin from NextBillion. Naturally Geoffrey was there charming the ladies in his bespoke suit.

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Part 2/Teil zwei! (St Gallen, Switzerland)

It looks like I get to see the French-speaking side of Switzerland this time:

On behalf of Dr. Hans Blix, it is my great pleasure to thank you for participating in the Students for A Nuclear Weapons-Free World competition. The expert Panel of Judges, chaired by The Hon. Douglas Roche, was composed of people from all regions of the world. They assessed your contribution to be outstanding and to merit one of the 15 prizes. Please accept our wholehearted congratulations!

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That’s a… different kind of leadership (Forbidden City, Beijing)

So I get to stay at the Marriott again:

CONGRATULATIONS! You have been accepted to the 34th Annual International Conference, “The Dynamics of Leadership: Transformation and Innovation in the 21st Century” held at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, New York City from November 22nd-25th. Out of over 1,100 applicants, you have been selected to participate in our all-expenses paid affair. The applicant pool was outstanding, with over 100 schools and 30 countries being represented. The conference will be a phenomenal experience as you now have the opportunity to meet over seventy CEOs from across the United States in small seminars and explore New York City with fellow students from all over the world. Get ready to break down Harvard Business School case studies with your peers, discuss crucial topics in politics, business, and entrepreneurship, meet recruiters from top companies, and have an overall incredible experience! To give you an idea of the types of executives you will meet, I’ve attached a list of executives who have participated in our programs over the past year.

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Is microfinance the key to saving us? (Beijing)

As my internship on Chinese microfinance has begun, it is timely to consider the role that microfinance institutions are playing in the reconstruction and recovery of Sichuan. Many MFIs around the world operate in post-conflict zones and post-disaster regions (such as the 2004 Tsunami), and there are important lessons to learn from how they negotiate the challenges and risks involved. During my research I came across a Mandarin press release from an MFI in Sichuan province, the Association for Rural Development of Yilong County. I did a rough translation of it below:

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The to-blog list gets longer and longer:

- Tokyo trip photo essay
- St. Gallen Symposium photo essay
- J-drama: Hagetaka (private equity drama), Edison no Haha and Juken no Kamisama (education system), CHANGE (politics), Ryokiteki na Kanojo (remake of My Sassy Girl)
- Anime: Okami to Koshinryo (renaissance economics), Macross Frontier (OMG)
- Director’s screening of Blind Mountain (盲山), Dark Matter (黑暗物质)
- Broadway: Avenue Q, City Opera: Candide

I finally got my visa. The Chinese do have a sense of humor: It has a graphic of the Great Wall printed on the design. Life is full of irony.

The best visa I could get is a double-entry tourist L type with a maximum duration of 30 days per entry. Now my internship is likely to include a day-long bus ride to the Mongolian border and back to use the second entry. Thankfully I brought my econometrics textbook along for self-study, and I don’t think anyone would want to steal it while I’m napping unless he were some rogue social scientist. While I would love to visit UB and meet my friends there (one of which is a real life tribal princess), I hadn’t actually planned on going there this summer. Thank you Beijing, for working so hard to welcome me to the Olympics.

After a mad eleventh-hour cramming session, I sat for my final exam in statistics. I think the worst thing to possibly think during an examination is “Please let the curve be awesome”, next to “How many points do I need to not get a D?” (As it turned out the curve was pretty good, and I got an A) I staggered out of the stats department back to my room, picked up my suitcase, and made my way to JFK. My summer of adventure and discovery had just begun, but it would not be without obstacles.

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