Hello everyone!
I just got back from Beijing.
It was a really short business trip that I had to make just two weeks before the wedding. This time though I managed to drag Shorty along for a quick break.
We flew on Sunday night and arrived Beijing on Monday morning at 6am. Right after that I went straight to work. As for Shorty, she took a short nap in the hotel then went on with an itinerary I had planned out for her. For the two days that I was there for work I arranged for a tour guide to take Shorty around Beijing to see all the historical sites or do whatever she wanted to do. I spent my entire day time in the office in meetings with the Nuffies there
but Shorty on the other hand managed to go visit the Forbidden City, The Summer Palace and even time to do her nails. For that side of the story you can probably read that on her blog when she updates it next.
On my end though the only time I managed to go out and enjoy Beijing was during lunch or dinner or at night after work. We did a few things then.
David introduced me to a fellow Malaysian who was working in the advertising industry there in Bejing. Her name is Nicole. She’s smart, witty and really funny. She brought us to loads of good food and on the first night brought us for a short walk around a shopping area there.
I can’t remember what it’s called but there’s a huge shopping district of designer brands in Beijing that often look empty. The reason isn’t because the Chinese don’t like their designer goods. Quite the opposite actually.. they love branded stuff… but in China all designer goods cost some 30% or so more because of the import tax.
According to Nicole though, some local Chinese still go to those stores sometimes and buy stuff just to be seen.
We’ve had some funny meals when we were there too. For lunch on one of those days, the team brought us to a restaurant that actually serves insects.
I totally opted out of it. Can’t bear the thought of eating maggots or worms or stuff like that.
One of the highlights for me this trip though was the last night. We had finished all our work so we decided to go celebrate and for that we went for ice-cream.
At one of the largest Haagen Dazs I have ever seen. It was like a whole building.
Here’s Ming, me, Shorty, Nicole, David and Aveline.
And here’s Aveline and Rebecca, visiting from our Singapore office.
It was an extremely tiring trip for me. Fly in, do work and fly out. It was though a very very productive trip and eventhough I spent so little time exploring Beijing this time round, I kinda grew to like it a little more this trip.
My reward for the tough trip is this.
Yes… I love ice-cream!
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space