TOP TALENTS BUMMING AROUND BEIJING

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Intro

After my last week in Tokyo and wrapping up my project there, I had the opportunity to travel to Beijing, China to meet with the rest of my Trainee group and learn how to work in an international and intercultural context. I flew out hours after dining on the most delicious sushi ever with Zena, and hit the ground in China late Friday night. It was quite a trip and really eye-opening to a lot of things in this new (to me) country.

China - Getting There

Me and Zena flew out to Beijing from Haneda. We got there a good bit early for the flight, and I'm happy we did, because Haneda is an awesome airport. It's super clean and expansive, they've got some traditional Japanese architecture in there (gates, a cool bridge), and they've got a really big viewing deck before security, where you can go up and watch the whole terminal and the runway as planes come and go. I've never seen something like that before, and I gotta say, it's absolutely great!

Well we meandered around the airport, but then got through security to our plane. Air China was our chosen carrier, and we eventually got boarded up and headed towards China. We had a beautiful day in Tokyo, and being able to get a full view of the whole city on such a clear day was a great overview of the city I'd enjoyed for the last few months.

The best part of the initial flight though was flying past Mt. Fuji. What a sight. Its setting, set apart from everything it is near, is quite awe-inspiring. It's such a fluid peak, with a large basin on all sides of it before going to the foothills. What a sight.

On our little tube of aluminum with Air China, I got a quick dive into the culture. First off, the people on our flight went nuts in the duty free store. At least half of all the hand luggage brought onto the plane were duty free bags. Chinese people sure do like to shop overseas.

Next, like most flights not in the US, there was an in-flight meal, which I didn't touch. But after they handed out the food, there was a huge symphony of smacking noises once all the passengers dove into their meals. I'm not one that enjoys a single person chewing with their mouth open, so having the majority of passengers doing it, hmmmmmm, definitely a cultural experience.

On top of that wonderfully horrible Lärm, there were a couple other pleasantries that I noticed (and surprisingly didn't let get to me). There were tons of loud voices, it was weirdly smelling inside the plane, and it was a bit hot, all inside the cabin. But, I watched Self-Less during the flight, and it turned out to be a pretty good movie.

China - Being There

We landed at the Beijing airport. That place is Fuuuuuuhking huge. It's super expansive, and to be honest, gave me a very modern communistic impression. Gigantic, imposing, likely government-mandated and designed, but regardless, it was really awesome and impressive.

After a super long baggage claim wait, we jumped in our personal shuttle and headed into town. The first night (as it was deemed a "personal travel day"), I stayed at a hostel downtown, so I took the subway down that direction.

On the train down to my hostel, I got some unwarranted but absolutely delightful assistance for an automation systems project manager from Siemens. As I was looking at the subway map, he just walked up and asked where I was headed and pointed me in the right direction. What a super hospitable guy and great first taste of the wonderful city and country!!!

Sometimes, especially on plane flights and travel days, I stop and realize what I'm doing with my life and am totally blown away by it all. It's crazy to step back and look at the big picture of what's going on in my life and really reinforces how unbelievably blessed I am.

That night, I went to bed pretty early in preparation for an early rise and exploration of the city.

Saturday

An early morning started me off and I got the exploring started by heading to the Temple of Heaven. I had a very cool, cold, and calm walk along the way through some shopping streets and backroads.

After getting there, it was a very cool atmosphere to experience. I loved the layout, landscape, and architecture of the whole area. But honestly, I was more impressed and captivated with the awesome people and humanity I experienced. There were groups of people playing some kind of badminton-hackisack hybrid. One of the guys pulled me over and got me to try it. Needless to say, I sucked, but he tried to sell me one anyways...

In addition to that, there were people Chinese line dancing in a few of the squares, little kids all over the place running around and one getting dragged over ice, people hanging out and gambling and stuff, and just a bunch of people hanging out and enjoying the cold winter's day. All awesome.

After exploring, I went and did some Christmas shopping and some more wandering around and exploring before meeting up with a few other Trainees. As was clear throughout my entire trip, everything in Beijing is huge. Huge buildings, huge gates and monuments, huge streets, huge. All of it's huge.

And to top them all of is Tiananmen Square. Holy crap is it huge, and is actually one of the five largest city squares in the world. But yeah, huge. And the buildings around it are gigantic as well. The National Museum of China and the Great Hall of the People (Govt. Building) sit on either side of the square, and are as impressive as every other building around. And they're all quite impressive.

I hung around for a bit, admiring the sheer size of everything there until I met up with the small group of Trainees. We got some pictures taken with the giant flag on the square, and then headed into the Forbidden City.

Sidenote: Forbidden City auf Deutsch is Verbotene Stadt. I think it sounds funny.

Well, it all kinda felt surreal, going into the Forbidden City. I've seen the first gate leading into it with the huge portrait of Chairman Mao on it so many times on the TV or a Movie or whatever. But being there in person, was really impressive. Again, following the theme of Beijing, it was absolutely huge. The gates and buildings in the place, massive. The squares between the buildings, also massive. The whole place. Just massive.

Unfortunately, we left way too quickly after going in. As I mentioned in a previous post (Mt. Fuji), I pride myself in, and usually do pretty well at preparing myself for a situation. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for my colleagues. Everyone out there got cold really quickly. And to be honest, at least in my experiences over the past three months, Germans are too particular with stuff. And in this case, they got too cold real quick.

Personally, I will suck it up in such a situation and continue to explore as long as I can, because how often do you get to wander through the Forbidden City?!? So I was a little peeved that we left before really exploring the Forbidden City and the hilltop behind it. But we went and warmed up at a way-overpriced coffee shop.

After that, we met up with the rest of the trainees, who got mad-delayed coming out of Germany, for some Peking Duck. OOOOOOOOOOHHHHH Boy was that delicious. They did the actually cooking of the duck in a pretty visible spot, so you can watch that, and then when they bring it out to your table, they carve the duck up for all to see. It's pretty cool, and it tastes absolutely phenomenal.

Overall, the dinner was a blast. Getting to see all of the people we met for two weeks a year ago, catching up and seeing how everyone else's program is going, and just a merry 'ole time with everyone eating and drinking and having fun.

Rather than go clubbing that night, me and two other American trainees headed over to a local microbrewery (Great Leap) to get some local craft beer and catch up with one of their buddies, who has been living in China for a while. Gotta love the international-ness of craft beer, and they were quite yummy too.

We eventually made it back to the hostel and headed to bed.

Sunday

To make a long story short, I ate and drank way too much the night before. The duck, as delicious as it was, was half duck fat. Additionally, the beer we drank at the duck place, like most if not all cheap beer in China, was just around 3%, which means I drank a ton of it but didn't even feel buzzed. Well, all this combined to give me nasty stomach aches and pains for a couple of days. I puked that morning at the hostel, and again when we got off the bus, but still didn't feel totally right until the middle of the week or so. So yeah, that was super annoying.

BUUT, we had an AWESOME day planned out for Sunday. The Chinese trainees in our group had booked us a private trip up to the Great Wall!!! And not just any section of the Great Wall, but to the non-touristy area, aka Badaling.

In short, the Great Wall is mind blowing. We got up there on a beautiful, clear winter day, and had a few hours to hike up and around on the wall, and it was really an amazing experience. The part we were at had a great view of the surrounding area, and there were sections of the wall crawling over all the hills in sight.

It was really impressive. And to think that this thousands-of-miles long wall was built hundreds of years ago with none of the modern technologies we implement in construction today. That in mind, and witnessing the sheer size of it, and the crazy terrain that it's built on, is quite impressive.

Needless to say, I really enjoyed our romp around the Great Wall. Some fresh mountain air (in China, crazy, in know!), a beautiful clear day, and the chance to experience some history in the snow with a bunch of fun people.

Afterwards, we headed to some restaurant, and I didn't eat anything other than rice because of my stomach. But, as with most of the food we ate over the week, everything was covered and cooked with tons of oil.

On the way back, as well as a couple of other times during the week, we got a taste of just how shitty traffic in and around Beijing can be. I hate traffic. I don't know how some people do it, "driving" in a parking lot all the time.

Training Module - Crossing Borders

So the main purpose of mine/our trip to Beijing was to participate in the second Training Module as a part of the CAReer Program. The theme for this one was international work environments, with the theme as stated above. I didn't really go into it with any big expectations, but was really surprised and pleased with the result and the things we went over.

At the start of the training module, the guy from HR that's been our Moderator/MC/Director/Lead for our two training modules gave me a bit of a blast from the past. The Training Module (TM2) is, for some, their first introduction into interacting with international cultures. One thing Thies said, to get people in a open mindset, was the following: "It's not better, it's not worse, it's just different".

OOOOOOOOHHHHH Boy did this sound familiar. All of my CBYXers will for sure know what I'm talking about. The 'Theme' for our year in Germany was, "It's not good, it's not bad, it's just different." After sticking with that mantra through my year in Germany, and my months in Japan, the value of that mindset is huge. So it's a damn good thing and shows a good bit of experience when corporate can come out with something like that to get people open to intercultural training. But, CBYX4LYFE.

In the spirit of personal development, yours and mine, here's a rundown of some of the highlights and things I learned during the training:

• As a manager, you're looking to find the:
• Right Person, for the
• Right Position, with the
• Right Mindset, headed in the
• Right Direction
• It takes two hands to clap, only takes one to slap
• Talking about how it takes both sides for teamwork and cooperation
• It's not about what you know, it's not about who you know, it's about who knows you.
• I really think this one is pretty important, but...
• Paraphrasing: let your actions speak louder than your words
  • Don't go being an idiot trying to get everyone to 'know you'. Do your thing, people will catch on sooner or later
• Team/Group Theory
• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• The trifecta of Cognitive Presence (EQ), Social Presence (IQ), and Leadership Presence, and the need to find a balance of all three of those when leading. All should be mutually developed and correctly implemented in each new circumstance and environment.
• What will be my starting point as a leader? Open-mindedness, trust, understanding, listening to the whole story.
• "Culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from another." - Geert Hofstede
• As a leader, do you ask or do you tell?
• Book Recommendations from our AWESOME trainer, Keith:
• The Art of War, Sun Tse (know yourself, know your enemy)
• The Speed of Trust, Steven Covey
• You cannot use normal methods to achieve extraordinary results
• What got you here, may not get you there
• Don't change yourself, switch...
• Adapt to the new situation and setting, don't necessarily change who you are

During the real interculturally-focused part of the training, our group had some very open and insightful discussions about different cultures and countries. As we were in Beijing, a lot of the conversation dealt with how China deals with things; how China came about; what kinds of traditions, habits, and norms exist in China; and so on and so forth. Below is a quick list of those such things:

• China is a huge sponge.
• The country has a history of absorption and 'acceptance'. There are 56 different ethnic groups in roughly the same size as the US, all living in somewhat harmony regardless of the differences between them all. Things get mixed and matched and what is China is really a amalgamation of a bunch of different backgrounds, similar in a lot of ways to the US, which really was quite a surprise hearing about all of this.
• It's hard to offend a Chinese person.
• With such a diverse group of people occupying the same country, there are countless different norms between each group, which get mixed together. So instead of getting pissed off and forcing groups to coerce or change themselves, the Chinese are open and tolerant to all of it.
• Admiration and Respect over jealousy
• In the US, when your neighbor get's a schnazzy car, one would on average become jealous of that. But in China, if that were to happen, one would admire and respect that person, and work hard to strive for similar success.
• China has the best of both political systems (capitalism vs. single-party socialism)
• The free-market competition and flexibility of a capitalistic society mixed with the immediate decision enacting and force of a single-party socialistic society has resulted in a wickedly fast-growing economy and populous, beginning to outpace and outrank many modern developed societies.
• With that, the government still has a lot of control over the country and media and all that jazz.
• I asked about the developments in the South China Sea, with the island building going on, and how the government has been portraying those developments. It sounded like the government has positioning these actions as if they're establishing their grounds in a "leave us alone" kind of way. i.e. it's not an offensive or assertion of dominance, just a "this is where we're at, ok?" kinda thing. Which I definitely disagree with, but that's how it's being portrayed there.

So overall, the training module was a huge success and a huge benefit to me and hopefully to everyone else as well. Working in an intercultural environment is a very important thing, especially in such a multi-national corporation.

Unfortunately, a lot of the people that work in such diverse teams with people all across the globe don't get the chance to go through such training to be made aware of how people from different countries and cultures really function, communicate, do business, and live life. But all I can do is be thankful that I've received such training, put it into use in my daily business and life, and help others open their minds to other ways of life, working, communicating, understanding, and dealing with others across the globe, whether it be on the other side of the world, or right next door.

One-Track Minded

I'm not perfect, and I've never professed to be. But I will say that I have definitely benefitted from the training I received through my CBYX year in Germany, and now with the training in TM2. Others have not been lucky enough to have such training or have not had the chance to live/work in such diverse countries and cultures. Unfortunately, this really came out in a couple of different colleagues' mindsets and approaches to the training.

During the intercultural discussions, there were a few colleagues who maintained a very one-track mind throughout. By coincidence (but maybe not, especially in respect to the Daimler world), they were Germans. As we were discussing differences between cultures and how people go about their business, they would constantly interject with, "It's not this way in Germany", "That would never work in Germany", "Well, we don't do that in Germany", "It's different because we're from Headquarters", and similar quips like that.

Holy shit this was annoying. First off, not all of the Trainees, and for that matter, not all of the employees in the company, are German. It's been really frustrating at times going through not just the training modules but even in the day-to-day work environment, seeing the mindset of some of my colleagues and their complete lack of awareness for any other country or culture involved in the company.

It showcases a huge overall problem with Daimler (from what I've seen) regardless of division, function, or company. Yes, that's what the training module is meant to help with, but seriously, this kind of training and development should be spread throughout the entire company. The overall lack of awareness for other cultures, people, work environments within the company is really drastic and quite toxic, which from what I've seen, has caused and continues to cause a lot of miscommunication and inauspicious work environments across the globe.

Present Yo-self

On the last day of TM2, we had a shotgun round of presentations over some business units in China, which was all really interesting, just super fast and a bit hard to absorb. Immediately after that, we were presented with a number of questions HR China provided for us to split into teams and discuss. (Which we think they just needed help with, and we were free labor and innovative minds to help them out with).

Well, my team split off and had the question, "Do you agree with, 'No Career without Abroad'"? Essentially, do you think it is vital to have international experience in order to advance to upper management positions. Our group had a very good discussion on this. We all agreed, but the manner in which we thought this should be achieved all differed.

Long story short, after a half hour of discussion, we had to present to the rest of the group. I'm not really sure how, but I got stuck with the presentation of our findings. It was a jumbled mess, and we were the last group so we were a bit crunched for time, but I kinda killed it.

I think I'm getting kinda good at giving presentations. Granted, I had a very familiar audience, and I was fairly comfortable with the material, but it felt pretty good, and I think I did ok. I even had a couple people come up to me afterwards and say they thought I did a good job. Who knows, maybe I'm more of an extrovert than I think I am? Either way, I kinda like being able to stand up in front of a group of people and share my thoughts and findings.

Oh, and since we were crunched for time, I knew I was gonna have to be snappy. So I walked up there, and as I was getting the flip chart in order, I said, "ok, this is gonna be quick and dirty, so let's get right to it." That was a hit. And for you Germanophiles out there, auf Deutsch sagt man 'kurz und knackig'.

The Smog is Real

The Monday and Tuesday during TM2, it was pretty nuts. We were lucky/unlucky enough to experience the very first red-alert in Beijing due to smog. And I gotta say, it was both crazy and cool to live through. To lay it out, here's what the rating system looks like:

And here's what we were experiencing:

So, you know, it was a LITTLE bit unhealthy outside, and you can see just how bad it was during that rough stretch compared to a clear day:

Well, regardless of the hazard and the smog and all that, me and a few others went out on one of those nights to the Wangfujing Street Market to be tourists and eat some weird stuff.

Even going outside for a couple hours and not doing any physical activity, I could definitely feel the effects. I got a bit of a headache from it, and could even feel it a bit in my lungs. It's crazy to think people live through that stuff on a daily basis. I don't think I ever could.

Olympic Park

On one of the nights, me and a small group headed over to the Olympic Park, where the Bird's Nest and The Cube are at from the 2008 Olympics. We had to go through security (a common procedure in a lot of public places, including every subway station) to get in, but wow. What a complex!

The buildings were extremely impressive and lit up excellently at night. The Bird's Nest was a cool yellowish red, and the cube was on a color rotation. There was also a color tower next to a shopping center within the complex, and the main Olympic Tower was huge and lit up for most of the night too. Really cool area to explore.

Crazy Eats

That night we went out in the smog, as I said, we headed out to the Wangfujing Street Market. We heard there was some crazy stuff you could eat, and needless to say, we were not disappointed.

Not the actual market itself, but there was a street with a huge stretch of street vendors selling pretty much everything, from seastars to sharks, scorpions to spiders, millipedes and snakes, and even little baby chickens. I tried out some scorpions and a snake.

All they did was stick what I was going to bravely eat into a vat of oil, let it fry for a couple of minutes, and give it to this tourist to consume. To be honest, I imagine it all tastes the exact same, like an over-cooked potato chip still dripping a little bit of oil.

It was an interesting experience, really cool to see, and pretty cool to eat and take part of. But as I found out later, it is anything but traditional. Keith said stuff like that is where Chinese people go to see idiot tourists like me/us eat dumb stuff like that. So yeah, it was totally touristy, but how often do you see scorpions on a stick, let alone the chance to eat one deep fried? Overall a cool experience.

KTV

On Thursday night, after dinner, we all headed out and went to a KTV bar. Aka, we went and sang some karaoke. I gotta say, it got pretty crazy, with a couple of birthdays to celebrate and the drinks flowing without pause, and it ended up being an awesome night.

I never sang karaoke in Japan, but it seems like it's as big in China as I imagined it to be in Japan. We initially split up into to groups in decent sized rooms, but before the fun got started, somehow we got sent into one giant room for all of us to sing and get crazy together.

It turns out, Everybody by The Backstreet Boys is a great karaoke song. Ewgenij said that was the only song that he'd sing to, so naturally I went and got it put on the list. And he rocked it, along with everyone else. What a great night.

A Bad Bone to Pick

From the stuff that we ate (which was unfortunately dominated by hotel food and random touristy restaurants), I got the impression that a lot of Chinese food is cooked with shittons of oil. I think that might be one contributing reason why I had such problems with my stomach early on in the week, but multiple places we went to throughout the week, you could see the sheer quantities of oil used in cooking the stuff. When I could eat the food, it still tasted usually pretty good, but using and consuming that much oil on a constant basis can't be healthy.

A Good Bone to Pick

On a high note, the last night of TM2, we went out to a restaurant for some Teppanyaki. In essence, it's very similar to Japanese Yakiniku, except you've got your own chef instead of you cooking it yourself.

Well, holy shit was this delicious. The food was absolutely awesome, and there was a huge variety of delicious offerings, which was sooooooooooooooo good. To top it off, we definitely had the best cook out of the whole group. After masterfully cooking all of the shrimp, beef, bacon, scallops, and all the other culinary fineries we ordered, he sang for us at the end. A beautiful Chinese song A Capella. It was absolutely beautiful and a beautiful way to top off a DEEEEELicious evening.

Best. Club. Ever.

After Teppanyaki, to cap off an amazing week together, a big group of us headed over to a club nearby (can't remember the name) for a helluva night.

To start, there was no cover charge. Our whole group got in fo free. Which was of course absolutely awesome. Next, all the drinks were free. There was a table right next to the stage/dance floor with a couple high-quality liquors and a bunch of juices ready for anyone to swing by and pour themselves a nice mixed drink. What? Is this real life? But yeah, free drinks all night.

And on top of all of that, the club was just wicked. The first DJ was killin it, with great tunes for all to get crazy with. There was a dude dressed up as Spongebob, a few different dancing groups that took over the stage every now and then, and some Canadian Bieber-wannabe that sucked on stage but added to the atmosphere I guess. Overall, a killer night, and easily the best time I've ever had at a club.

From discussion afterwards, it seems like that is the norm for a foreigner in Beijing. The VIP treatment wherever you go for nightlife. On the flip side, locals have to apparently pay through the nose just to get in and get served. Quite the weird contrast if you ask me. But, I was happy to take advantage of that at least that one time.

Also, I'm "officially the blackest white person" one of my trainee buddies knows. Not bad I guess...

Friday - Cultural Tour

The last day of TM2 was a bit more laid back. In the morning, we split up into two groups and headed off to different cultural sights in Beijing. My group headed to the Lama Temple, aka the Peace and Harmony Temple.

It was a beautiful morning to be exploring around Beijing, and this temple was cool to explore. It is a mixture of Tibetan and Han architecture styles, and has tons of halls and layers to explore. I really gravitated to this one sand painting inside one of the buildings. It was absolutely mind-blowing, the detail and care that has to go in to creating such a work of art. Every grain of sand, it was just awesome.

After we cruised around the temple, we walked through one of the Hutong districts, aka one of the old traditional districts in town. A lot of the original architecture, or at least renovations according to the traditional style, made up the district. It was really cool walking through the area, and to be honest, reminded me a bit of the Bukchon Village in Seoul. Either way, it was really cool to walk through a more traditional and 'real' area of town. That, and we topped off our morning adventure with a shit-ton of dumplings. Oohhhhh yeah.

Isaac

After the cultural tour, we took the bus down to our giant production facility. In the bus, I had a great conversation with a fellow American trainee, Isaac. In short, Isaac is an awesome dude and has a really interesting and insightful story behind his life.

Hearing more in depth of what he's been through and how he's come to be where he's at is really inspiring. As a highlight for him, he's stoked to be able to apply for US citizenship this year, and is spurred on by his family back home in Cameroon.

It's awesome to be able to learn about and connect with such a cool variety of people. Everyone is different and has a unique story to tell. I am extremely blessed with the chance to get to know and get in touch with such people. It never ceases to blow me away to hear about how people fight through the challenges in their life and come out the other side a much stronger person. So shoutout to Isaac, keep killing it and I'm damn glad to know you!

Saturday

Since Friday was the last day of TM2, the weekend was ours to use before heading back to 'real life'. Me and a small group of dudes put together a great plan for the day for some adventuring around a clear and sunny Beijing.

To start, we headed down to the CCTV building. We were unfortunately unable to go inside the building, but just walking around it was pretty nuts. It's quite a feat of architecture, with the top of the building jutting out to a corner over empty space about 40 floors up. It was nuts, and really crazy to think about what went into building that.

After admiring a giant building, we took the train up to the Summer Palace on the outskirts of town. We jumped out of the subway station and hit up DQ for a Chinese Blizzard (it was pretty good) and then McDonalds for lunch (also pretty good). From there we walked over to the Palace.

Wow. I didn't have any expectations other than seeing something cool, but I was absolutely blown away. The Summer Palace sits on a giant lake, with a couple of bridges and islands and stuff on it, but the palace itself is on a giant hill overlooking the whole lake. Wow.

We got in and walked over to the main palace overlooking the water and the beautiful sunset in front of us. It was a huge palace complex, with tons of cool buildings, features, and overlooks to captivate any visitor.

Post-palace exploration, me and a couple of the guys went down to a small pavilion further down the lake shore and went and explored along the 17-Arches bridge, aptly named for the 17 arches that support it across from the shore to one of the islands. Around that time we got smacked with an absolutely beautiful sunset. A perfect end to an amazing day and week.

That night, the big group of trainees headed out back to Germany, so it was full of goodbyes and see you soons. As always, it was a whirlwind to see everyone and share such a great week. Thankfully I'll be in Germany soon, so I'll get to see a good number of them soon and share some adventures in Deutschland. Ja wohl!!!

Sunday

Most people had left on Saturday, and a couple had flights out early on Sunday. My flight back to Tokyo wasn't until Sunday evening, so I had another half-day to explore. To be honest, it was pretty aimless and undirected.

Thankfully the day was clear, albeit fresh, but it made for a great day to walk around town. I started out walking through a nice park and got to see where they played Beach Volleyball during the 2008 Olympics. Then, I walked past the CCTV building again on my way to the Silk Market. There I got a couple of small gifts, and then headed back to my hotel before packing up and catching the shuttle with Isaac to the airport.

Again, Beijing airport is fucking HUGE!!! Me and Isaac got all checked in and stuff, then headed to our terminal, which was one of three and absolutely gigantic in all respects. We chilled for a bit and got some bibimbop before we said goodbye and flew for home.

The Air China flight back was actually pretty comfy. The amount of legroom was a really pleasant surprise! But something I've never experienced before then, they don't allow the use of cell phones in-flight. At all. Not even for music or anything like that. Phones have to be completely turned off during the entirety of the flight. Well, I kept mine on airplane mode. REBEL.

I landed at Haneda, took the subway back to my apartment, and got ready for another quick day to wrap up my time in Japan.

Propoganda Machine

Throughout the week, I took the subway in Beijing a few times. Overall, they've got a really nice, clean, and efficient system. One weird aspect of it though, regardless of when/where I was riding, there was at least some amount of airtime on the subway TVs showcasing the gigantic military parade that took place in September.

To me at least, this felt very propogandish and fit right along the lines of the image of a single-party system. Not sure if it was meant for propoganda or brainwashing, but it kinda felt like it. Either way, it was an extremely impressive show of force and weaponry that they set up. President Xi Jinping looked pretty apathetic in his special vehicle cruising past his whole swath of forces, but damn, they made a clear statement with everything they lined up and paraded past Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City on that 16-lane wide street.

Driving in China

In walking around and taking taxis and stuff, it seemed to me that street lights and road signs in China (or at least Beijing) are there purely for decoration. Turning right? Just go, no need to stop. Red light? But I need to get across the intersection, I'll just go (be it a car or a pedestrian).

Honestly, I loved it. It was a completely organized chaotic mess. People drove, were aware of their surroundings, and just did what needed to be done. It was awesome.

Nial's World Wanderers

Sometime during our adventure on Saturday, my buddy Martin said something to the effect of feeling more like a world wanderer wandering around with me, and gave me the idea of shouting out to some great people wandering the world just like I am. With that, I'm coming out with a (semi) prestigious list dubbed Nial's World Wanderers.

The honorary first member goes to Martin. He's a baus that's lived in China and clearly has a lot of experience and zeal towards living, working, and experiencing things abroad. Martin, you're a baus, it's been great wandering around Stuttgart and Beijing with you, and I'm pumped for that roadtrip you talked about next year. Keep doing your thing.

I could come up with a huge list detailing all of the awesome travel companions I've had that have been around the world exploring as many nooks and crannies as they can find. So in the interest of time, I'll back track via list form in no particular order.

A big shoutout to my pals I've explored the world with and who keep on doing so every day:

• Zack K.
• Dawn N.
• Katherine W.
• Lutz B.
• Hilary C.
• Erin C.
• Scott S.
• Colin H.
• Zach T.
• ALL of my fellow 30. CBYX/PPP alums
• Jan M.
• Daniel S.
• Zena B.

There are a TON of more people I could and should shout-out here. But from here on out, I'll be keeping better track of my World Wanderers as we hit the road and explore our awesome planet. Never stop exploring!!!

Original Publish Date: December 14th, 2015