1 Year in Beijing – The next steps

I was supposed to give an update on the 24th of this month but it’s been a packed week-

On Tuesday I headed over to the East side of Beijing to get my US Visa at 6am in the morning. I thought that I’d be beating the crowds but to my astonishment when I arrived at the US Embassy there was a huge mob (and I mean mob) of people waiting at the gates. Amusingly, I realized that these people weren’t actually waiting to get into the embassy, but were family and relatives of applicants who were lining up at the door- sort of like moral support. I’ll be heading back on Monday or Tuesday to pick up my completed Visa, so I’ll snap a couple of pictures of this mob that I’m talking about. One thing I realized, though, is how much of a privilege it is for me to get a US Visa; and even just my mindset of ‘expecting’ to get the visa approved. Throughout the day at the embassy (yes, it took pretty much half of my day- I arrived at the door at 7:15am, and finally left the embassy at around 1pm) I overheard portions of people’s application interview; some were wanting to ‘visit’ family members in the States, or to ‘attend’ a business conference. I witnessed several rejections and it was sobering to think that many of these people were wanting to get into the US to take a chance at the ‘American lifestyle’. I digress…

On Wednesday to Thursday I attended the GMIC (Global Mobile Internet Conference) 2010, also on the East side of Beijing. It was a great opportunity soaking in and learning more about the mobile internet industry in Asia, and even to hear the pitches from the startups at the competition, and the grilling from the many investors on the judging panel. If there’s one thing I learned from the conference, it’s that you’ve gotta have thick skin if you’re running a startup, especially in China. The investors ask some tough questions and really dig in to get to the core of not only your business idea, but moreso to find out what kind of person you are. “We invest in people”, is the line that sticks in my mind from Joe Jasin with DNA Ventures. And about running a startup in China (especially as a foreigner), you’re going to get screwed over in China- it’s expected, so you just have to accept it, grow from it, and move on.

Finally- the update.

Basically, to cut to the chase, I quit my position with Morodo. I had finished off my three month probation period (a common practice in China for new employees to be placed on a probation period) and was waiting to sign my full-time contract, which gave me some time to think and reflect on why I had come to China almost a year ago. It was quite a timely opportunity for me to reflect, and I remembered that the two goals that I had for coming to China were: 1) To learn Chinese 2) To learn and assimilate into the Chinese marketplace, both of which I was seeing myself not being able to fulfill with Morodo.
I’ll now be studying Chinese full-time for about six months, and I’m hoping that that timeframe will be enough for me to get my Chinese up to conversational proficiency, and hopefully after that, it’ll be much easier for me to continue my language learning through watching movies, reading books, and conversing with locals.

Big changes, but I’m excited and looking forward to what this second year in Beijing will be like. After one year of ‘figuring things out’, I’m finally getting down to accomplishing the goal that I had when I first came a year ago.

-Duncan