Sandra Dube – Traveling Beijing Day 9

Coca Cola visit, Shanghai – We heard from the CFO of Greater China & Korea – Thierry Roques. This was a fun visit because we got to taste several of Coke’s local products – I tried out the teas. Of course, I couldn’t read the labels but I believe I had some type of jasmine tea and some type of white tea.

Dianping, Shanghai – Dianping is the Chinese equivalent to Yelp – so online reviews of local entertainment, restaurants, and more. To give you a sense of the size, the site has 45 million monthly web users and its valuation is USD 1 billion (2011). It’s goal: to be the leading ‘local life platform.’ We’ll see if it comes to the US soon and trumps our local sites. Overall, it was one of my favorite visits of the day – the workspace was very cool – very modern, open workspaces, gardens, a great feel.

The Bund, Shanghai – Went to see a view of Shanghai’s rivier area – the Bund. This was a beautiful view of the Shanghai skyline on both sides of the Huangpu river. The Bund is known for the buildings that surround it – “the world’s great commercial houses and banks build their Art Deco and Neoclassical office buildings on what became known as the Bund in the first half of the twentieth century.” So this was the financial district and more. They even had their own Wall Street bull!