Kogod Graduate Students - Beijing Visit

We awoke early and made our way to the airport for a two hour flight to Beijing where we met in the afternoon with a representative of the China Development Bank….the CDB has as its focus loans for infrastructure projects that contribute to the economic development of the country. We posed for a group shot in front of a column made from stone sourced from the Three Gorges hydropower project – this is the expensive and controversial project that was recently completed and which is contributing 1000s of megawatts of power to feed the Chinese economic expansion.

Saturday and Sunday were focused on typical tourist things in Beijing – visiting the Great Wall (along with what seemed like most of China) and the Ming Tombs. Sunday we met with a nice group of MBA students from Beijing Normal University where the discussion ranged from job prospects for MBA’s in China (poor at present time), Taiwan (the “bad little brother”) and the one-child policy (seems to be loosening up). In the afternoon we toured the Olympic facilities including the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube. I tried to get some of Michael Phelps magic water but alas it was not to be – apparently 99% of the people that enter the building have the same idea.