Hong Kong Trip Impressions and Doing Business in China

In the spirit of catching up on overdue blog posts, I wanted to share some of my impressions from my trip to Hong Kong. I was able to take some classes from Chinese University of Hong Kong professors, and I found it fascinating how the "One Country, Two Systems" approach is working and enjoyed learning about all the various accounting problems with Chinese publicly-listed firms and meet with some local companies over there. It was my first time in Asia, and I loved the old temples and eastern architecture. The food was, to put it mildly, a bit too exotic for my taste (details below), but besides that, I had a great time. Definitely can't wait to go back and see other countries in Asia sometime in the future.

Arrival impressions

• Huge distances in airport and driving
  
• Huge number of people
  
• Tall ceilings in airport
  
• Super modern city
  
• Literally a concrete jungle
  
• Weird juxtaposition with beautiful harbor
  
• Bridges lit up by colored lights
  
• People very systematic, strict (taxi line, baggage in trunk)
  

Day 1 impressions

• 10,000 Buddhas Monastery awesome
  
• Lots of greenery
  
• Mix of traditional pagodas and modern apartment buildings
  
• Wong Tai Sin Temple
  
• Lots of religious observers
  
• Huge urban sprawl
  
• Clean subway, efficient
  
• Reminds me of Batman/Gotham City, The Matrix (modern, concrete)
  
• Feel suprirsingly comfortable though
  
• Dim Sum @ Maxim's (good)
  
• Most people speak English
  
• Interesting, exotic foods (bird's nest soup made of bird saliva, squid legs, deep fried baby pigeon, ox stomach, sesame ball, broiled crocodile cheek)
  
• Many eat soup for breakfast
  
• Asian bakeries in subway
  
• Victoria Peak cool ascent
  
• Beautiful harbor
  
• Dinner at harbor, light show
  
• Ladies' Market (hundreds of vendors selling the same counterfeit luxury goods and tech items, hundreds of copies of the same place)
  

Day 2 impressions

• Campus beautiful, modern, like Anderson (same classroom format)
  
• Problems with corporate social responsibility in China (corruption, other countries like Vietnam competitive, government not enforcing laws like work hours and overtime)
  
• How to enter Chinese market and transitions over last 30 years in openness of China
• Cash is king, equity and bonuses less trusted at start-ups
  
• Saving for healthcare expenses, buying houses and cars because no one borrows
  
• Healthcare system a mess, have to give bribes to surgeons, over diagnosing due to bribes for surgery, too many c-sections, have to pay entry fee in cash to enter hospital, births on street
  
• Weddings very different: 3 dresses, no eating, shots at each table, no seats for bride and groom, have to be walking around toasting, must do lunch or else think it's second wedding if do dinner, no dancing but karaoke
  
• Lightshow not as good as at Epcot
  
• People in China not aware of what's out there in terms of freedom so don't care about government control; it's how they grew up
  

Last few days impressions

• Mainland China green
  
• Shenzhen similar to Hong Kong
  
• Mao propaganda everywhere: special line for communist party members at customs, every currency bill has Mao, face appears above stage in theater
  
• Not too much fun people having there
  
• Working hard
  
• Big industry, old buildings
  
• Did see however a customer satisfaction survey at Chinese customs (whoa)
• Freeways right above roads, like Gotham City