London's bazar

I had heard about the market at Camden town, but it was only when I was there on last Sunday, I came to realize this is London's bazar - vividly reminds me of the night bazar in Thailand. The similarities is that they both carry a lot of stuff from Asia, but the difference is that the market here is mostly indoors, fairly organized and less haggling than you would do in Thailand.

There are some interesting shops, and as the achievement of the day that I bought a coffee table for my living room. It is in simple style but quite nice looking, and good size to fit to my place. And a real wooden coffee table for 69 pounds is a bargain in London.

I always like walking around in the market, everywhere I go, sometimes not in a mood of buying anything but just sheer flair of so much life there is amazing!

Back in Beijing as a visitor

The plane slowly descends through the grey smog and land at the Beijing capital airport. I look out of the window, the sky is pale grey, and people are going around in summer shirts. Welcome home! I pick up my luggage and jump into a taxi outside the airport. “Where are you going?” the driver asks, after learning that it is only a short ride, he starts complaining, “I have waited for four hours in queue just to get a job like this…” Well, now I really feel I am home, having to deal with tricky issues like this again. I want to tell him that it is his choice to come to the airport and it is not my choice that I have to go to this hotel that happens to be just off the airport highway. But, I keep my mouth shut. It is no use arguing with him, it is only making it worse. They only want me to pay them some nice tip, but instead of offering a good service, they get grouchy and hope to use this to win your support. Sad really, I am sure this kind of trick would ever work for anyone. When I arrive at the hotel and pay him the taxi fare with a few Yuan extra, apparently he is not satisfied with my tip, so he just sits there and don’t even bother to open the trunk where my luggage is placed. I have to ask him very politely “could you please open the trunk so I can get my luggage”? Then he slowly pushes the button, fortunately by then the guy from the hotel lobby has come out and help me to get my rather heavy luggage from the taxi.

So three months have passed since I moved to London, the first impression is that the service level has not improved much in Beijing. The same ordeal you still have to deal with!

Taking a deep breath in the hot and dusty air, such a different world here compared with mild and cloudy weather in London. The traffic is not getting any better, but I noticed there are new grass and flowers planted along the third ring road – after all the government is trying hard to improve the image of the city.

It is a bit strange to be back in Beijing as a visitor and stay in a hotel. When I am out in the famous Yashow market and seeing the tourists doing the haggling, I have to say I am impressed by how lively the business is here. I guess the universal rule for shopping is that to get more for less, and that is the attraction for most people at least, and with the variety of things they carry, no wonder they think it is a heaven for budget shoppers. And I am even more amazed when I accidentally leave the market when it is just closing for the day. The crowd, including both shoppers and vendors are going out at the same time, moving like a wave in the sea to the main gate. The scene reminds me of the Chinese word “the human air” (Ren Qi) which I haven’t found the right translations. It basically describes a phenomena that presence of mass population makes the place or event more appealing and exciting.

On the last evening I am hanging out with some friends in a bar, it turns out two of my friends are leaving Beijing soon too, we are joking maybe 2006 is the year of leaving Beijing (not a bad choice considering the fact it is a major construction site right now), though I am sure there will be more people coming as well. This is a city still attracts people with its dynamics, history and unique culture. I would hate to see my beloved city turning to be just any of those metropolitan cities with no character. I have liked London a lot since I moved there mainly because it is a city with a character, that is what makes it an enchanting place to live. My worry for Beijing is that people tend to focus too much on material things, after all modernization doesn’t mean just ugly tall buildings which would only do further damage to the environment which is already endangered.

The race just started

Today the "super jumbo" had the test run in London heathrow airport, the new airbus A380 that will take up to 555 passengers for long hauls, and with less noice and more fuel efficiency.

The white monster looks fantastic, though airports have to expand their runways and other facilities to accomondate its size. It remindes me of the long gone concorde. What a beautiful plane and it really stretched the limit of our fantasies. At lease I knew part of my dream was shattered when the last concorde retired.

Boeing, on the hand, is suspicious if this kind of huge plane would be the way to go for the future. Instead of big, more efficient planes flying from hub to hub, they think point to point short commutes are where the growth is.

Well, I certainly hope this giant thing will fly our dreams across the globe. Though it is a huge investment, 200+ planes are needed to break-even.

This could be a very good business case study for the MBAs, the race between two giant airplane makers betting on the future market. Sometimes, being creative, courageous and taking on risks could get handsome reward as well, but sometimes they will fail and left people with its past glory, like the beloved concorde.

Dynamic environment and multi-cultural babies

Anther ordinary day in the office, yet, the rainy weather is finally over so we are blessed by sun and blue sky again. While sitting out having lunch, one of them said, “don’t you realize that we work for such a dynamic company, we have people from every continent in our office.” I guess I never really thought about this, well, I always know that I work for a multi-cultural company, the fact we are a joint venture between east and west does make a difference on the company’s culture.

Then I got into thinking, so exactly how many nationalities we have in our office in London.

Here is my count:

Come in office in the morning, I would be greeted by two nice South African girls at reception, and on the floor I work, we have Chinese, Japanese, English, Scottish, Dutch, Swedish, Chilean, Australian and American. And we also have Italians and French working here.

Considering we only have 70 people officially based in our office in London, that is quite a good representative of the continents.

Personally I am not a big fan of corporate conglomerate, even I have always worked for big multinational companies. And the truth is, in this new century, we have seen more than ever the flow of people across countries and continents.

But is it the dynamic environment that creates those multi-cultural babies who at least speak two languages and who thrive in a fast moving, seamlessly integrated global market. Or rather it is those people who are the driving force of the free flow of goods, services and naturally the people across boundaries?