China Visit 5-1st 24 hours

I think after four previous trips I at least have the travel to Beijing down. You get on the plane about 1:00 PM, eat and then go to sleep for about 6 hours. That gets you up at 7:00 AM Beijing time. Then you get coffee and work till you land about 2:30. Business here is conducted about 50% over meals so that first night you plan on a dinner meeting. My IDEAS China partner is very cool so he always plans the arrival day so that I get a couple hours between getting to the hotel and the dinner. This is a complex deal we have been working on for a little over a year. This trip is for the final agreement so there are some chess moves that have to be made. Last night and today were about securing an important relationship with a very large partner. Relationship is everything in China so it was important for these meetings to go well and they did. Tonights mood around he dinner table (the food by the way is always awesome here and they go out of their way to make sure there is vegetarian stuff for me) was very upbeat as the guys we have ben working with got a good response from their boss on our proposed relationship. Tomorrow, we nail down our alliance and that sets us up for the main event with the client on Monday. Sunday is a free day and I am going to finally get to the Forbidden City. I’ll keep you posted.