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I have spent my second night in Beijing now, and it is so much different than Tokyo! After a four hour plane ride, we arrived at the newly renovated Beijing airport and waited for our bus to take us to our dormitory and the Communications College of China. There was a mix up with the buses, and we ended up waiting for a couple of hours before we could finally be on our way. When we got to the dormintory, our professor made a last minute decision to get a hotel instead. Apparently the hotel was really dirty - they hadn't washed the sheets, grime on the floor, shelves falling off the walls etc. The hotel we are staying at is in Downtown Beijing and it absolutely beautiful. We get enormous rooms! By the time we finally got everything situated it was around 1:30 am (2:30 am Tokyo time) and we had to be in the lobby at 8am...needless to say after a day of travelling we were exhausted the next day.
We met with our Chinese students at the Communications College of China. Our group was paired with two students, a girl named Sophia and a boy named Chris. They were enthusastic about our group project. We chose to compare and contrast sports marketing for basketball in China and the US. In China basketball is quickly growing in popularity and many Chinese closely follow the NBA. The Chinese also have their own national basketball league called the CBA. We want to see what kind of sponsorships they have, the use of NBA atheletes in advertisements in China (including famous Chinese player Yao MIng) and see how advertising has led to the boom in the popularity of the sport. It is such an exciting time to be in China with the Olympics right around the corner! I have already seen several advertisements around the city either using the sport involving basketball or using famous players to promote a product. I think this is going to be a great project and I will be able to take a lot with me when I return.
In the afternoon we visited Johnson and Johnson - their pharmaceutical company located here in Beijing. They were kind enough to show us around their business, and show us the spectacular 18th floor view of the city. They then prepared three presentations for us, one outlining the credo of Johnson and Johnson, one discussing the broad marketing goals for the company and one specifically focused on how as an Olympic sponsor, Johnson and Johnson was marketing for that specific event. As always, I am soaking up a lot of information.
Beijing is very different than the dozens of other capital cities of foreign countries I have been to. For one thing, up until the 1920's no buildings built in Beijing were allowed to be higher than the tallest building in the Forbidden City, so there were no skyscrapers or high rise buildings. I was reading in an article from the magazine on the airplane over that sociologists have done studies on the city growth of Beijing in the last year due to preperations for the Olympics and apparently the amount of rebuilding and rennovation is comparable to 30 years in other cities in the world. Some of the girls on our trip who are originally from Beijing, but hadn't been home since summer said there are numerous buildings they don't even recognize!
Last night a small group of us went to a large mall that had several delicious restaraunts in it. We choose a sichuan one, and it was delicous. The food is arranged on the tales on a lazy susan and we ordered 8-10 dishes for everyone to share including pineapple duck, hot and spicy tofu, beef noodles, dumplings and Chinese pancakes (our favorite!). It was delicious, and I am beginning to think that all the people who told me I would lose a ton of weight from the food in China were seriously mistaken. I ate until I was sure I was going to explode!
After dinner we went for a walk to Tinneman (sp?) square and the Forbidden City. It was really hot and humid all day long, and on our walk it started to rain. We went back to the hotel around 10:30 and the momeny I hit the pillow I was asleep, it was such a tiring day.
Today we are meeting with Microsoft around 2pm. There are going to be television camera's there, we will get to be on TV! Apparently Microsoft wants to ask us a lot of questions on the way we use the internet...like the use of Youtube, Facebook, Wikipediia, Bloggin etc...as they are sure that is the marketing of the future. I have a lot of questions lined up to ask them, we will get to meet with the VP of the company- what an oppurtunity! On that note, what with the big names we are meeting and the TV camera which will be present...I think I am going to go get cleaned up. I will update soon with some more Beijing adventures and update on my group project.
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Posted by brittanysovran on 2008-05-26 23:12:21 | Rating: | Views: 31
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