Beijing is the second stop in our tour of China, and it’s remarkably different from our first. Compared with the bustling markets of Shanghai, China’s commerce center, Beijing feels like the wolf’s lair – like the central nervous system of a country with an overbearing government. The city’s layout is one of concentric rings, with Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City at its center. The city blocks are purposefully large, leaving room for massive, imposing buildings. Because gray is supposed to be the “color of the people,” most buildings in Beijing are colored with varying shades of gray.
Two of Andy’s closest friends from LA now live in Beijing. One works for Ticketmaster, the other at a private equity firm. Foreign talent is relatively scarce in China, and it’s amazing how much responsibility one can get here at a very young age. Adam, who is 25 and speaks fluent Mandarin thanks to his studies at Yale and in China, is essentially the Chief Operating Officer of Ticketmaster China. In booking bands, he always has to be careful to research their earlier gigs. If the band sang at a “Pro-Tibet” rally at any point in the past, then the Chinese government won’t allow the concert to happen.
We saw all the major sites during our 4 days in Beijing. We spent one day climbing the Great Wall of China, which was about an hour outside the city. Mao Zedong, the founding father of Communist China, famously said, “He who does not climb the Great Wall is not a true man.” That was enough motivation for us. (more…)
