Category: Yeah, I didn’t forget about the blog, nor have I been particularly busy while in Shanghai. I think the mood of the residency so far can be best described as slow and comfortable, and thus, I’ve not had a whole lot worth writing about. Shanghai is so modern and developed, there’s really no feelings of discomfort from being in another country; hell, there’s a Ferrari/Maserati dealer in the hotel!
Of course, that’s not to say I’m just lounging here by the pool, drinking Mai Tai’s and smoking Cuban cigars; there is plenty of real education going on here in Shanghai. Finance has been a nice refresher from my prior graduate school days, and Strategy has been a welcomed change of pace with all the time allotted to just sit and think through issues. But by the same token, the course-load has been a bit thin these first four days, with nearly no assignments due and light reading as the next day’s prep work.
Last night, a bunch of us set out to do some market research for the Sam Adams/Boston Beer Company case study for Strategy, ending up at a Belgian Beer pub. This was actually the first time I’ve gotten outside of downtown Shanghai, into a more laid back part of the city. Given that Ashish is like a bottle rocket, all speed and no direction, the group had to take several cabs to finally get to the proper establishment and meet up with Ian. Eventually, the party moved to the Shanghai equivalent of a ‘Waffle House’ in the U.S., a brightly lit dim sum place where the only strategy was to bark out your orders and dodge the other patrons. As part of this cultural experience, I was able to “eat” a chicken foot; let’s just say, you haven’t lived until you’ve sucked on a barbequed chicken foot at 1:30 a.m!
Today, after class, I completed another ‘must-do’ experience while in Shanghai; I went to the ‘black market’. Funny thing that market, being located right inside a gigantic commercial office building. You walk in, and it looks like a regular mall (albeit, with nothing you want to buy). Then, being sized up as an American, the owners start whispering to get you to come over to their shop, where you start to peel back the onion and let you see the good merchandise.
While I didn’t purchase anything, it was amazing to see the level of secrecy built into this market. There were secret doors, shelves that rotated on hinges, electronic locks to move the walls…all to hide fake Gucci wallets and Louie Vuitton purses. Given that I’m a bit of a watch aficionado, I checked out the watch fakes that were available. Let’s just say, while some of them looked okay from afar, nothing was too impressive. For instance, the shopkeepers couldn’t quite understand that the buttons on a chronograph watch aren’t supposed to arbitrarily spin the dials…it’s actually supposed to keep elapsed time!
The reason for these low quality watches, as I understand it, is that the police are really out in force these days due to the Shanghai Expo. So I guess the truly impressive goods haven’t been shipped in lately, because while the fake market seems to be tolerated, it’s not legal either. Either way, just seeing this market in broad daylight was enough for me, that something so ingenious could be hidden out in the open. If only the shopkeepers and manufacturers took the same level of intensity to create their own designs, they wouldn’t need to try and live based on selling fakes…
This evening will be more of the same, relaxing and reading a few pages for Strategy. There’s also a 10 problem algebra test for Finance…there’s nothing like doing bond valuation and time value of money problems by hand, just to prove you can still do it!
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