Took a long drive out to the Shanghai VW plant this morning. Got a presentation from their German CFO. It was good to see the viewpoint of a foreign JV partner. You could tell he watched what he said since his Chinese "partners" were in the room. He did admit that he didn't know why the Chinese did some of the things they did but also told us that this plant was the most profitable venture in all of VW. However, it was difficult to get profits out of the country ...

Woke up around 5:30 and couldn't really get back to sleep. Finally got up around 7:15. Got a weird call at 6:00 – some Chinese girl offering a "massage" for 500 yuan. Found out later a bunch of people got a similar call. Adam tried to talk her down to 200 but still no deal. Went to breakfast then off to CITIC Industrial Bank. Very nice, brand new offices with marble floors and a large etched glass picture of the Bund above the entrance. Next, we visited She...

I met my group at 7:00am to come up with questions for our first stop, Shanghai Automotive Industry Group. We are doing our project on the Chinese auto industry. We loaded onto the bus at 8:15 and headed out. We had a nice reception and presentation at SAIC and got a lot of good information for our project. Next, we crossed the street to China International Travel Service. Another informative presentation but the room was hot and the chairs were uncomfortable. Go...

Julie dropped Adam and me off at the airport (LAX) at 11:00pm. After we checked our bags, it was off to the airport bar. Had a beer and hung out for a while then onto the plane for the fun-filled 13+ hour flight. Switched planes in Seoul, Korea. Glimping out the window, I noticed the razor wire topped walls and machine gun carrying guards. That's when I realized the South is still technically "at war" with the North - that's a bit freaky. After the short layover ...