On Saturday morning, we kicked off a full weekend of discovering Beijing’s historic, cultural, gastronomic, and commercial attractions. Some lessons learned: 1) the breathtaking Great Wall should be more aptly named the Majestic Mountain Staircase 2) Peking Duck is delicious and it takes three days of applied culinary science to get the crispy skin just right 3) The Forbidden City is not actually forbidden but one of the most traversed destinations in all of China 4) a lunch of traditional Beijing noodles is the true reason that Dr. Cochran led the trip 5) while negotiating with merchants, you always need to walk away at least once 6) traffic laws are merely suggestions—might makes right 7) taxi rides in Beijing are kind of a crap shoot whether you are being taken back to the hotel or on a more expensive joy ride, and 8) KFC is strangely ubiquitous. All in all, seeing the Olympic National Stadium and the National Aquatics Center, better known as the “Bird’s Nest” and the “Water Cube”, as well as the endless construction sites at every turn, made for a very impressive ground introduction into this metropolitan center of China.

On Monday, we began the true purpose of this journey: visiting eight businesses. Dr. Cochran must have known the power of the number “8” in China; for many, it is the number of happiness, prosperity, and essentially all things positive. On this tour of 8, we visited Lenovo, which is a global competitor in the PC and laptop market and one of the title sponsors of the Olympics. Lenovo is arguably China’s most successful company in history. Later that day, we visited a charity-funded vocational school for teens of parents who came to the city as migrant workers. We exchanged messages of encouragement, appreciation, and goodwill with the students, who touchingly sang for us before we left. After a trip through a Chinese Wal-Mart and a night on a sleeper train from Beijing to Shanghai, we visited an elite B-school named China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) on its I.M. Pei-designed Shanghai campus. CEIBS is a European-Chinese collaboration, and we participated in an informative Q & A session with two current students.

On Wednesday, in Shanghai, we embarked on four visits, beginning with the well-respected Jun He Law Firm, followed by the Office Depot warehouse, the Office Depot Shanghai Office, and last, but certainly not least, Dr. Ming Wang’s Aier Eye Hospital. Dr. Wang had been a guest speaker six weeks prior at one of our pre-trip classes, and in Shanghai, he gave us a personal tour of his impressive facilities. Never letting a teachable moment go by, Dr. Wang continually challenged us to think more deeply and creatively about the hospital business model as well as the differences between Chinese and Western approaches to medicine. On Thursday, our last full day in Shanghai, we witnessed the massive and astounding Shanghai Port, which loads and unloads ocean liners full of heavy cargo. As the logistic Mecca of Shanghai, it is where heavy global industries must go to send or receive cargo the size of tractor-trailers.

Filled with good Chinese food, our heads still spinning with the hustle and bustle of Beijing and Shanghai, we eventually had to leave. But at least we left Shanghai at the same pace as China’s economic growth—superfast—at 300km/h on a magnetic levitation bullet train, to be precise. In the coming weeks, there should be a link on the Belmont website for this China trip, which will include as much detail as possible regarding what was truly a broadening and enriching course.