Day 11: Distillery, Chemical Coating, and Fragrant Hill

Today we were supposed to visit Hyundai’s plant in Beijing, but they are retooling the factory so we weren’t able to go. So our faculty chaperones set up two shorter visits at two very different companies. First, we went to a distillery in the outer regions of Beijing. I can’t remember the name of the company but they make a drink called Bai-Jaiu. It is clear liquor that ranges in proof from 70 to 130. We went there are 9:45 in the morning, and were offered samples of the liquor to taste. I didn’t refuse of course, and it was just as strong as they advertised and we were warned. Later that day, the distillery, which is partly state-owned, took us out to lunch with some of the local government officials.

The second visit was to a coating company. This company works with protective coatings on the outside of buildings to conserve energy. They worked on some of the biggest buildings in Asia and also have started to develop a world-wide presence with a few projects on the other continents. At most of the companies here we were the most dressed up people there. In China, they want to keep the younger talent at their company so they allow them to wear pretty casual clothes to work. I saw a lot of jeans and t-shirt-wearing employees at all of the places except the distillery.

In the afternoon, we took our last sightseeing tour of the trip. We travelled to the Fragrant Hill, which is about 45 minutes away from our hotel and just outside the 5^th ring road. We climbed up the hill, which is about one and a half miles in total distance, but only about 1000 meters high. We were told the climbing was just as hard as the Great Wall was but I was skeptical. It turned out to be exactly that, and I thought even harder, because we didn’t stop as many times as we did on the Wall. The girls all took the cable car up, but it was very satisfying once we finally made it to the top of the hill. It offered a great view of the city, and it was a beautiful day outside with little smog, so we could actually see pretty far into the distance.

Tomorrow is our last company visit in the morning, to Lenovo, and then the trip is pretty much over. It’s a sad feeling because I’ve had such a great time here, two weeks just isn’t enough.