Beijing is a city of opposites. It is diligently getting prepared to host the 2008 Olympics, so everything is under construction even the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City! Fresh coats of paint abound, the interesting thing is that even under —construction projects are draped in a sort of gauzy green tarp which makes it look appealing and mysterious. The architecture was fabulous…..very different, very modern and the newly constructed stadiums for the Olympics, wow! I can’t wait for you to see for yourselves next year on TV; one looks like a bird’s nest. The negative is the pollution. Someone said that 16 of the most 20 polluted cities in the world are in China. The smell of petrol is always present, but they are beginning to take steps to work on this. One of the most evident steps is the planting of trees and flowers, they are everywhere and you see people daily, watering them.

Shopping is great, once you get the hang of negotiating. I thought Mexico was a bargaining country, but China’s Silk Market takes it to a whole new level. It’s like a giant craft show or trades show with each and every stall wanting to “I give you best price, lady.” My biggest surprise in my first 5 minutes was that the Chinese have no concept of ‘personal space’. And those who know me know I definitely have a strong definition of personal space. When the first girl grabbed onto my arm and got into my face and wouldn’t let me go because I had merely inquired about a shirt, I learned quickly; and moved on to the higher floors where the ‘merchants’ seemed to be more gentle. The top floor of the Silk Market, by the way, has THE most famous peking duck restaurant. They say they prepare and sell 6,000 ducks each and every day!

The food is pretty much the same as in the US in that if you go to a nice restaurant, you get fabulous fresh food, but if you get the mass produced food like we had during our tours, it a little like going to the buffet in a Las Vegas casino. And of course there are Starbucks everywhere; even at the Forbidden City! I did get sick once. I have a client (British) that lives in Beijing and a previous client (Chinese) from Singapore who was in town. The three of us had dinner at what I would definitely call an ‘out of the way’ place and it was too ‘out of the way’ for my system. But I so enjoyed meeting face to face both of these lovely people.

I spent a lot of time in taxis. The hotel would write in Chinese, where I wanted to go and I would present to the taxi driver. They would also provide me with the Chinese words for the hotel so I could get back. This worked pretty good most of the time until I got a taxi outside ‘my district’ and they didn’t know my hotel. I learned the words for 'Correct', 'Not Correct' and 'Turn Right' during my humorous exchanges with the drivers. I never learned 'Left' so I would say 'Not Correct' or “bu dui’ and point. Outside of these words plus 'Hello' and 'Thank You', my Chinese suffered. But it was never a problem. Of course I used "xiexie" (thank you) most often.

The Chinese are not allowed to accept tips and there is no tax. It’s a communist country so when in a government building the temperature is very strictly controlled at 25.5 C (slightly warm) they also have the option to ‘roll’ someone if they decide they want to use a space. Our last two days which was a Corporate Social Responsibility and International Coaching Conference; the conference got moved from the Great Hall of the People which I understand is a site to behold to the Beijing Hotel due to this. So obviously it’s not a Hall of the People, but a hall of the government. Other than this and the guards and soldiers I saw, there were no obvious signs of communism (to me).

The conference was interesting. At one session, I volunteered to be the on-stage ‘guinea pig’ and took an online assessment that was very powerful. It seems that after answering all the questions about my lifestyle, I learned my Ecological Footprint or what affect I am having on the planet. It turns out that it takes 16.1 hectares or 38 acres per year to support me! Can you imagine? So if everyone lived like I do, we would need 8.5 earths. Wow! I felt so selfish and indulgent. We Americans do live well, but the average American only takes 24 acres. What made mine so indulgent is that I live alone and usually drive alone. Most of the people on this planet use mass transportation and have multiples living in the same square footage that I have. I don’t think I live extravagantly, but am certainly using up more than my fair share. This made an impact on me and I immediately began to re-think my car trips. For example, I had a meeting on the Strip on Tuesday so I dressed at the gym and cooled my heels until the meeting rather than return home. I also offered to pick up a colleague on Wednesday for a mutual meeting so we were not both driving cars. If you’d like to get your personal Ecological Footprint, copy and paste the following into your browser. www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp#