Tuesday in Beijing

Today was filled with more meetings and fabulous food. In the morning we visited China Unicom and Facio. China Unicom is the second largest mobile carrier in China and Facio is a solution provider for blackberry-like services in China. Later in the afternoon, we met with Robert Yun from GSR ventures in Beijing. All had great insights into the state of the telecom industry in China.

In the afternoon, we ventured to Silk Street – the market for goods that are really absurdly cheap. Imagine you are in a store and see a “made in China” label and think, “this stuff has got to be cheap if only I was in China.” Well, this is where that is a real. The complex is 5 stories and about the size of a grocery store. Vendors fill the interior and sell everything from “Titeist” golf balls to underwear to “rolex” watches. No I didn’t get a “rolex”, but 5 bucks bought one hell of a “nike” watch.

The highlight of the day (so far – as I’m writing this quickly before KTV aka karaoke) was a peking duck dinner at the famous Da Dong restaurant. After missing our reservation, we opted to pay an extra fee for a private room and skip the line – only to realize on the way to our private room that if you waited for the normal section, drinks were on the house. Sigh, that’s opportunity cost. The new taste for the night was duck liver (we decided duck tongue didn’t have enough group support). Not to bad, but not too good either. The duck itself was incredible. Each duck was hand carved at the table. The skin was served separately and you dipped it into sugar before eating. Now, I’m not a big fan of eating such items but this was really good. It melted as soon as it hit your mouth. The duck meat was eaten w/ hoison (sp?) sauce with fresh sliced veggies with a tortilla of sorts. Unbelievably delicious. Final bill: 678 yuan for a party of eight or roughly 10 bucks US each.

nate