 Pictured: the prize draw taking place in July 2005. Liontamer's Managing Director, Laeititia Peterson with Ross Bradding from NZ Permanent Trustees. |
There was a moment of anticipation as we all waited to see who would be the lucky winner of the Liontamer ‘Experience Beijing competition'. The prize was drawn ceremoniously by NZ Permanent Trustees in July 2005 after the first series of our Tiger fund. It consisted of a 7 night trip to Beijing for two people and a tour of the Great Wall of China.
Paul Hibbs of Christchurch (previously with Cameron Gladstone and now Hansa) was the lucky winner. Paul took the trip in October with two family members and had a fantastic time. If you ever speak to Paul personally, you'll know what we mean when we say his enthusiasm about the experience is contagious.
With a two inch thick photo album and 60mb of pictures on disk as evidence of the trip, we sat down with Paul at the end of February to hear about his impressions of Shanghai and Beijing.
The first stop was Shanghai, which Paul described as having "more vigilante" or "rebel" characteristics. "It's definitely very efficient and practical, but you do get a slight sense of lawlessness and the density really hits you as well". Paul went on to describe the "great energy" of the city and the immense contrasts between the very old Chinese architecture and the modern complexes. The modern apartment buildings have been built for functionality - housing the vast numbers of Chinese who are now urbanising. They're not pretty or architecturally appealing. The Chinese are simply attacking their housing issue in the quickest and most practical way possible.
In Shanghai, Paul stayed at the Peace Hotel, recommended by our House of Travel agent in Auckland. This turned out to be a great choice. The architecture was "very Chinese" and "you could feel the history in the walls" commented Paul.
Shanghai has created areas which blend tourism into everyday life. If you're at a market which sells items appealing to the tourist, you'll also find it dense with Chinese people shopping for all the things which are part of their everyday life.
On arrival in Beijing, what struck Paul the most was that this was the "working end of the country". It was also "very progressive".
 Tiananmen Square |
The city was full of history and evidence of ancient China was everywhere. There were opportunities to visit the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Summer Palace. One surprising element was the level of access you get to the Summer Palace - visitors can wander through and see everything. It's not as you'd imagine, as there are no tight controls on what you can see". Paul also described Beijing as having a comfortable compromise between state control and private enterprise. "There is no feeling that the two are battling with each other, as you would have seen in the past".
There was a surprising lack of military on the streets and no signs of oppression. "There is a huge sense of national pride, with flags flying everywhere". Paul went on to describe the sense of pride in the space programme. While he was visiting, they were putting two men in space and it was a huge event which overtook the nation.
Paul reported that pollution was boldly evident and it was easy to see the environmental costs of fast change. It's interesting to see the Financial Times reporting this week (6 March 2006) that China has announced it is dropping some of its strict growth targets as "part of an effort to change the country's obsession with growth at the expense of social programmes and the environment"
 Modern China |
China is a very fast moving and full of constant change. While the economic numbers are the envy of many, they will continue to have huge problems and pressures. Human rights records, the environment damage and the bubbling over of political and military conflicts, to name a few. All this adds up to a picture of higher risk. Of course, we had to ask Paul the devil's advocate question we sent him to China to get a close up experience of where his clients' money was going, but at any point did he think, "what have I done?" Lucky for us, his answer was an emphatic "no". Paul saw China's potential as huge, "in fact, having seen it, I don't see how the price of oil is going to go down", but he also acknowledged the risks were very evident and it did bring home the relief of having invested with capital protection.
