After roughly 15 hours of travel from Boston to Beijing via Detroit, we arrived safely last Saturday afternoon and made our way to our hotel in the Haidian district of Beijing. As a frequent traveler, I typically research cities, attractions, logistics and key phrases ahead of time to make the transition as smooth as possible. With that said, I massively underestimated how enormous Beijing really is. In fact, the municipality of Beijing is approximately the same size as the country of Belgium! In addition to its huge size, the traffic congestion can be very heavy, particularly during the morning and evening rush hour. We are currently staying in Haidian which is a suburban district in north-west Beijing. Fortunately it is only a 15 minute drive to our client's office, however to get down to the center ring roads of Beijing it takes nearly an hour. Even near the center of Beijing, though, it is very spread out and difficult to get around. For context, the 3rd ring road (there are currently 6 ring roads that run around Beijing) has a circumference of 48 km! It goes to show how quickly cities are growing in China. 

It has been a fantastic experience traveling to China and having the opportunity to work onsite with a client. Action learning was one of the key features that attracted me to MIT Sloan, and I am quickly realizing that having boots on the ground and interacting with the local people really is the best and most impactful way to learn. I believe that China Lab, in particular, is a great synthesis of the several courses I am currently taking at Sloan. During the first half of this semester I took a class called "Global Markets, National Policies and the Competitive Advantage of Firms." For the final deliverable, our team examined the history of General Motors Corporation in China, and the goverment requirement imposed on foreign auto makers to establish a joint venture in order to enter the market. During this project we learned a great deal about the Chinese government's role in business and the opportunities and challenges that foreign companies subsequently face. Now fast-forward to our current China Lab project -- our team is working with a large IT consulting/outsourcing company. I am unable to elaborate much further about the specifics of our client or project as we have signed a NDA, but it is very interesting to see how much the government and its visions/goals impact the short- and long-term strategies of our client and the industries in which they operate.

Yesterday our team had the chance to sit down for lunch with the CEO of the company who is a Sloan fellow. He was extremely excited to be working with MIT Sloan again (there was a G-Lab team here two years ago) and believes MIT and Sloan alike have a great deal to contribute to his company and to China as a whole. We are looking forward to presenting our preliminary findings to senior leadership next week before we return to Cambridge and continue our work on the project. 

As promised, I want to take the opportunity to present the latest addition of "The Phrase of the Week." Given my lack of Mandarin-speaking skills, this week's very important phrase is: 谢谢 - xie xie - "Thank you". Aside from "hello" (nǐ hǎo / 你好), thank you is really the only word I can say, and let me tell you, it comes in handy often!!

Our team has been spent a lot of time in the office (9:30am-5:30pm daily), but don't worry we've made the most of our free time in Beijing so far. Last Sunday, we visited the Summer Palace which as a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces. It was a beautiful, peaceful way to kick off our adventures in Beijing! On Tuesday evening, the family of our fellow 2015's, Amy Wang, graciously hosted us at a lovely resturant in the Chaoyang district. Her parents are from the Anhui province of China so they introduced us to the local delicacies from that region. The food was delicious but some of the more interesting dishes/drinks included stinky fish, baijiu, and (warm) yellow wine. It was an amazing evening and proved how welcoming and hospitable Sloanies are around the world! On Wednesday evening we had dinner with American expats at a really cool place called "Dali Courtyard." It was a very authentic Beijing experience as it was located in a traditional "hutong" neighborhood. The hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. 

As you can imagine, the food and drinks here are a crucial part of the experience. With that said, the Boston Marathon is only 31 days away so I had to find time to get in some training (and balance out the indulgences!). Nadir and Tom graciously agreed to accompany me on a quick run around our neighborhood the other morning. As you probably are aware, air quality and pollution levels are hot topics in China and in Beijing in particular. The government publishes air quality ratings every hour so the people know how safe or unsafe the air is. Beijing is located in a valley between the mountains, so the pollution from the factories that surround the city and the dust/sand from the deserts of Mongolia in the north often get trapped in the Beijing area. We have quickly come to realize that wind is Beijing's best friend because it quickly blows away the infamous smog and improves the air quality. We are still feeling the jet lag so when I woke up the other morning at the crack of dawn (read: 4am), I started monitoring the air quality. It was in the Good/Moderate range so around 6:30am, the three of us headed out for a run (I wore a mask to protect the lungs!). It was a good workout, but we definitely got some strange looks! I guess running isn't too big in China. 

It is shaping up to be an action-packed weekend complete with 13 Sloanies, some of whom are traveling to Beijing from their client sites in Shanghai. We have great plans on tap including the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, a Peking duck restaurant, and a very authentic Chinese pub called "Paddy O'Sheas." Stay tuned for more next week!