Only one week since we got back from China, and it seems already like an eternity. Probably because it was an intense trip with lots happening over there:
Tourism
- Imagine a few entrepreneurs from France discovering China. Of course we went to all the must-do places, and we enjoyed every bit of it: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall of China, the Hutong (old Beijing), the Temple of Heaven...
- we did a bicycle race (well, the guys pulling us really...)
- we also went to discover the local restaurants, and tried to discover how to eat scorpions, cockroaches and snakes! (Loic has more pix on chinese street food stands)
- we even ended up in places at 4am, trying to figure out how to order food in chinese, and we got caught in the middle of a a cream cake battle! We drank to the Chinese crowd, they returned the compliment, and so on! Campei!
Business
- we attended lectures by great professors of the University of Beijing, both in Economics and in Foreign Policy (I'll try to post a video);
- we even had working sessions among the n-star attendees, discussing various topics about the region
- we went on field trips to meet local businessmen and entrepreneurs. I went on the Media track: quite impressive to see how chinese entrepreneurs are working around (or with...) the government to create large and successul businesses! Mihai talks a bit about that field trip, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. And Rebecca is so right: this is definitvely a capitalist country, so when are they dropping the word Communist from the official name of the official Party ?
- and we got lectures from foreigners in China telling us their side of the story: in spite of all of the buzz, it ain't so easy... only 30% of foreign companies in China turn a profit it seems!
Networking
- it seems we spent most of our time there eating in fancy places, either chinese or vietnamese. But we had a great laugh, met fantastic people (they will all recognize themselves), and started exchanging business ideas or working on deals.
- I'll skip the comments on all the clubbing, an essential part of networking of course. Loic has more pix on the Karaoke night.
And some key highligths
- Boonty (on-line game distribution) CEO, Matthieu & Glowria (on-line DVD rental) CEO, Mihai checking out the quality of digital content in the Beijing shops;
- Joi Ito connecting to the Internet from everywhere, and blogging live;
- and a cheesy couple getting their wedding picture in a Beijing park
Again, kudos to the folks organizing the n-Star event, including Odile, Antonia, Josh, Rebecca and Martin. I enjoyed meeting each one of you.
