BenPadnos.com

Air Pollution

It’s the real deal here.

There’s literally a greyish/brownish/yellowish haze that sets over the city. I woke up this morning (it’s Friday 3/12 here, while only Thursday afternoon back home) to blue skies, but the sky is not truly clear as this ugly film coats the sky.

People who know me have heard my opinion that I’m a believer in the science that aspects of “climate change” are real and have been expedited by man rather than purely from nature. However I’m also a believer that the earth has been through a lot over it’s 4.55 billion years, and have confidence in the Earth’s resilience — things will work themselves out. Of course I have zero scientific credibility to have an opinion on these types of matters, but I tend not to worry about things so deeply out of my control.

With that said, I don’t have a problem with environmental consciousness, and the least we all should do is be aware and responsible about our actions.

Placebo Effect?

Even if it’s just a placebo effect, I’m feeling good about the Airborne tablets I’ve been taking every day during my trip. Ellen included them in a mini care package, along with some chocolate and peanut butter chip cookies from Isabella’s Cookie Company, and a box of Clif Bars.

Between the time difference — Beijing is 16 hours ahead of California — messed up sleeping schedules, foods and spices my digestive system isn’t accustomed to, and the mix of all sorts of different germs my immune system has never been exposed to, plus a couple of late nights, I’m very glad to be taking some extra precaution about staying healthy.

I don’t know if there’s any any actual medical thanks I need to pass along to the folks @ Airborne, but the psychological boost has been worth it in itself!

Beijing Day 6

Memorable events of the day:

* Lunch with Tony Wei, CEO of MySpace China (www.myspace.cn), who gave us a tour of the offices and a 2-hour education on the Chinese Internet market. There are tremendous opportunities due to the massive size, but the market is still very immature due to the fact that the per capita GDP here is about 1/10th of the U.S.

* A negotiation with a woman at the Silk Market ended up in a minor assault — she literally hit me as I walked away when she did not like my “best price”. It was harmless and very funny! But as Steve can attest, the women are extremely aggressive…

* Passing out ice cream cones to our favorite vendors from the day. After literally 6 hours of intense shopping — every stop includes a serious haggling session — Steve and I took $20 to the mini-grocery store and had them give us as many packaged ice cream cones as that would buy (about 3 dozen) and we handed them out Oprah-style. “You get an ice cream cone. And you get an ice cream cone…” At one point, we literally almost started a riot!

* Getting fitted for a custom-made suit — for 900 Renminbi (~$133) I’m getting a suit and dress shirt made. “Susan” and her sister took great care of us. And the cool thing is, they keep your measurements on file, so once you’re in their system, you can re-order and they’ll ship to you!

* Returning underwear for a larger size at one of the Silk Market stations. See “Skid Row” post here.

* Rocking to 50-cent in the back of taxi home from the market. The Chinese cab driver, in splintered English asked, “You like the rap music?!”

* Enjoying “comfort food” — a hamburger, fries and a beer @ Molly Malone’s, an Irish pub across the street from our hotel.

Here’s my favorite pic of the day:

Skid Row

I am pleased to report I successfully executed an “exchange” at the Beijing Silk Market…

But here’s where the story gets really fun…or gross….

I bought 5 pairs for boxer briefs during our first visit the other day. I paid too much — 100 RMB (~$15) — although these would have been about $15/pair back home.

Anyway, I’m a US “medium” — large on a bad day — so I went with large to be safe.

Well, when I got back to my hotel room, I tried on a pair of the Dolce & Gabanna knock-offs, and they were more than a bit snug.

Joking with my buddy Steve, I said, “wonder what the returns policy is @ the Silk Market”. He had a great reply: “Man, if they’ll exchange underwear….if they’re actually willing to do it, do you really want to?”

For the sake of the experience, I marched back to the third floor, back-corner and the woman remembered me with a smile. “Will you please give me a larger size?” I asked.

The answer was YES, and I have 5 pairs in size XL!

Apologies in advance to the guy who gets my returns. Ha!

Sorry Starbucks!

They even have Starbucks knock-offs here!

Beijing Silk Market

The conference ended on Tuesday — Steve and I saw presentations from a number of companies and met with an interesting, small (~$10MM in annual revenues) Chinese gaming company based in Xi’an — and joined some of the Rodman & Renshaw folks in a trip over to the Beijing Silk Market. Rather than wait 30+ minutes for a cab, we trekked over via subway, which was crowded, but very cheap (~$.29 for a ticket) and efficient.

The market itself was amazing. Wikipedia puts the store-count @ 1700, so we’ll go with that. Floor after floor of vendors in stalls about 10 feet by 10 feet in size selling goods ranging from t-shirts and jeans to scarves, sportswear, handbags and suits. There are amazing deals to be had as long as you’re comfortable haggling — and I mean haggling — with the vendors. Often times in business, I don’t like aspects of hard-core negotiating — I’m more of a lead with a # that’s reasonable kind of guy — but the fun part of buying things at the silk market is fighting with the vendors to reach a deal.

Worth noting is the reckless disregard for Intellectual Property — most of the “brand name” items there are counterfeits. Brands ranging from Polo Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Paul Smith and dozens of other are attached to various products in the stores with the knock-offs selling at a fraction of the regular price. You can read more about that here, if you’re interested.

I did some shopping! I picked up a couple of suits, 2 dress shirts, 3 ties, a bunch of other stuff, and a “Swiss Army” luggage set — a large bag and a matching one in carry-on size.

Exiting the market, we were approached by a kid selling pirated DVDs — name the film, and you could buy a DVD for about $2. I was also chased into the taxi by a woman on the street selling socks — offering 15 pairs for about $7 for various black dress socks (with the “Boss” logo) and white work-out socks emblazoned with the Nike logo. I literally had to get the cab driver to pull away with the door open to get away from this woman!

Bombed in Beijing!

I’m happy to report it’s approaching 6am Wednesday morning and we just made it back to the hotel. We went to the Beijing Silk Market — I’ll post more about that shortly — followed by dinner and drinks on the top floor of the Park Hyatt Beijing. Incredible view of the city!

We then had another drink at more of a “local bar” and then stumbled over to Club Mix. For 4am on a random weekday, the place was hopping!

My head is still pounding from the music, but I didn’t drink too excessively, so I’ll be OK after a little sleep.