CJK business trip - China Oct 12-16, 2013

I was involved with a project to transition to a new CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. I helped provide requirements of the Tech Support organization to the developers and review the development progress. Because of my involvement I was asked to deliver the system training to the tech support offices in CJK. How could I refuse? I hadn't traveled for work since starting at MathWorks and was excited to be given the opportunity. Plus, I had never been to Japan before.

Hotel I stayed in, near the office.

My first stop was Beijing, China. I didn't really have time to explore on my own, I was only there for a few days. I stayed at the Crowne Plaza Zhongguancun, a very nice hotel with clean, spacious rooms. I arrived on Saturday evening and had not slept on the plane at all, so it was very easy for me to go to sleep. The jet lag wasn't so bad, I was able to make through the day and only started to feel it towards the late afternoon.

The office was only a 15 minute walk away, so I walked. The pollution wasn't noticeable to me, only when I looked out from my 13th floor hotel room could I see a haze in the distance.

MathWorks office building, shared with other companies.

For dinner I ate at the hotel. the most interesting thing I had was gelato that was Taro flavored. It was a bluish purple color and I assumed it was some berry flavor. The wait staff told me it was taro. It was surprisingly good and had a nice mildly sweet flavor.

Taro gelato

On the days I was at the office the trainees took me to lunch. On Monday we ate at the restaurant in the office building, which specialized in Shanghai style Chinese food. It was all very good. They ordered a few dishes which were mostly pork and some vegetables. I used chopsticks and they were impressed to see that I could use them at all! On Tuesday we ate at a Korean restaurant which they said was run by North Koreans. They said the ladies who served us never left the building, they apparently lived in the same building as the restaurant. I ate bi bim bab which seemed pretty much the same as I have had in the US.

On Wednesday I left for Korea.