Excited
This trip has me excited to see a new country, anxious to experience new business practices that differ from those in the US, and nervous about how the Chinese population reacts to US visitors. I have been to Japan before, but I look forward to visiting another Asian country. From this trip I expect to learn about how business is conducted in a booming country. The economy of China is very different from that of the US, and I look forward to learning diverse business practices.
I read the book "China Shakes The World." This book details the past 10 years or so of China's business and economy. It opened my eyes to the risk of business ventures an the lengths the people in China will turn to in order to better their lives. It gave examples of one spouse from a family going abroad for 10 or more years at a time in order to make a living for their families. They travel out of China on freighters, illegally, and do not see their families for the whole time they are abroad. Others take out substantial loans in order to buy foreign businesses that have gone under. The labor is so much less expensive in China, that they companies take off again, even stronger than they were in the countries they came from. It has been within the last 10 years or so that China has really grown up and developed the booming cities we see today.