Repatriation

We are back in the good old US. The weather has been great with blue skies and fluffy clouds and nice humidity levels (low). I took one spin on the bike with EF and did ok. I did pick up a summer cold rather quick after returning. BF is continuing her calligraphy at the home. We are back with family which is really nice. We are back to celebrate our parents 50th wedding anniversaries>>>

I am wishing all our friends in Beijing all the best and stay in touch. We really hope the Olympics are a great success for China. I am confident they will put on a great show.

What a wonderful time we had in Beijing. Clearly very memorable event in our lives that we are sure has changed us in one way or another.

This concludes the Life In Beijing blog. It has been a wonderful chronicled adventure to be cherished for ever. Thanks for reading............

Emergency Green Plan

The pollution is Beijing has been bad ever since the new restrictions were put in place. The government is blaming it on the weather which has been especially hot and humid. Hopefully some rain or wind will blow this out of here before the Olympics. But just in case it does not get better, Beijing is contemplating an emergency plan for if pollution continues.

The emergency plan will be put in place within 48 hours of the Olympics start on Aug. 8th. The plan would take 90% of the private vehicles off the roads, all construction sites and more factories in neighboring areas would be closed.

Family Dinner

The VP of our partner bank invited BF, RW, WL, and me to dinner with his family. He and his family are from Henan province and moved to Beijing in 2006 like we did. He hosted us at the Henan provincial headquarter restaurant (Yu Fu Shen Chu in the Shang Du Hotel) in Beijing. The food and company was fantastic. We even had some local Henan musical entertainment (pictured above with entertainers) which was a very nice surprise.

New Olympic Restrictions

It has been unclear since we have been here what activities would be restricted by the government leading up to the Olympics. There has been a lot of rumors over the months. Here is what we now understand:

• Visa restrictions were imposed a couple of months ago which has made it difficult to enter China. The government says they have only imposed the rules that were already in place.
• The police are stopping foreigners and checking for passports and visas. We have not experienced this but know co-workers and friends who have.
• The police started checking residency permits by going door-to-door to expat communities over a month ago.
• On July 1, half of the government cars were pulled off the road. We were impacted by that at work.
• Also on July 1, trucks with yellow tags (don't pass emission standards) are no longer allowed in the city of Beijing (that impacted our packing and moving schedule).
• Tomorrow the new travel ban takes place for private vehicles. Cars can only travel on odd-even days based on license plate number until Sep 20. As a result I will be riding my bike to work for the next two weeks.
• Heavy industry will shut down factories from July 20 to Sept 20.
• Government office hours have been reduced to 9 to 5 instead of 8:30 to 5:30 until Sep 20.

I sure hope this all works to reduce the pollution for the Olympics. Here are some pictures from Saturday at Jingshan Park, Coal Hill, Gaobeidian:

Advisory Board Meeting #3

Executive Management came to Beijing this week for a number of meetings with our prospective business partner. The last time they were in Beijing was on April 29th.

On Wednesday we held our third joint credit card advisory board meeting. The meeting was scheduled for 2+ hours. It started with a nice draft video that the partner did on the evolution of the credit card business and the cooperation between the two organizations. Then two of JPM board advisors were presented with live plastics from our inaugural credit card product in China. I then presented the status of the credit card business and thoughts on strategic direction for profitiability. The Executives then had a discussion about transition plans (without me in the room. . . . . yahoo).

Later in the day we had an update on the status of the international business, JPM, and the Card business in the US. Then a nice dinner at the Ritz Carlton.