Mean for This Area

We had a meeting out near Hong Qiao.  It’s wise for this company to have offices here.  Their headquarters is in Hangzhou.  From here it’s ten minutes to the airport and more importantly ten minutes to the high-speed rail network.  As implied those two facilities are located right next to one another.  I’m assuming housing and office space everything else is more reasonable out here as well.

The west regularly marvels at China’s logistics build out and surely there is much to envy.  But not all Chinese cities are equal.  Beijing with its airport and high speed rail stations on opposite sides of the city, still has a way to go.  Will the new southern airport that is being built change much?  Could be.  But unlike Shanghai, the rail station is still a good distance drive away.  And the main capital airport isn’t served by high speed rail at all. 

Perhaps Beijing’s new Xiongan project towards the south of the city, near Hebei as part of Jing-Jin-Ji mega city, will allow for the realization of inspiring convenience in the capital to match what Shanghai necessarily enjoys.  It will almost certainly have a high-speed rail stop.  It will have relatively easy airport access.  And what, one wonders, will that mean for this area out here, where I’ve spent much of the last ten years.  It’s hard to imagine this becoming more relevant or better served without better linkage to all that will be developed in the south of the city. 

We headed out from the Hong Qiao offices into city.  A colleague had forgotten his Mac charger.  We went to one store that had everything, including lots of Apple products.  But no peripherals like chargers to sell.  We got another big Di Di van and went to the place that was sure to have the chargers but once again did not.  And now we were out of time.  There was a café in the mall though.  I got everyone a coffee and couldn’t pay for it with my credit card.  The young lady surprised that I could speak to her.   And then surprised that I didn’t have wechat pay.  “Yes.  It’s tiring for me too, darling.”  The coffees took much longer to prepare than I’d anticipated.  The driver of my fourth car of the day, had to wait till the last espresso was poured. 

Thursday 10/25/18