Governor Tim Pawlenty In China--Pleasure Before Business

Ni Hao from Beijing.

Today was the only "nonworking" day of the trip. That's been a good thing because most of us are quite discombobulated by the time difference (Beijing is 14 hours ahead).

We spent the day exploring Beijing's top two historical sites, the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. Let's begin with today's most humorous story first. The Oscar-winning film, The Last Emperor, does not do the real Forbidden City justice. It is a mammoth complex, the opulence of which is almost unfathomable, given the poverty beyond its walls. Deep in the heart of the Forbidden City, right next to where the emperors kept as many as 3,000 concubines, among the thousands of Chinese, German, English and other tourists, several Minnesota senior citizens recognized your publisher from TPT's Almanac. Not missing a beat (for once in her life), she told the group, "Look, there's a real celebrity in the tour group behind us, let me go get him." And so she did, and here is Gov. Tim Pawlenty mixing it up with the seniors, who turned out to be a group organized by the People's Bank of Cambridge, Minnesota.

Then there was a sudden shriek from the crowd as someone recognized WCCO's and TPT Almanac's Erik Eskola. The women from Cambridge decided that it was a bigger deal to run into Eskola at the Forbidden City than our Governor. Meanwhile, as Eskola was trying-in his wonderful, self-effacing way-to downplay his celebrity status, a Chinese street vendor started to draw Eskola's caricature on a small plate.

And, so, what was the now wonderfully embarrassed Eskola to do, what with the adoring age 65-and-older women watching his every move? He bought the plate. For seven dollars.

Earlier in the day, the Minnesota group went to the Great Wall of China. Here is Gov. Tim Pawlenty looking calm, cool and collected climbing the bottom of the wall.

And, 45 minutes after a steep, steady and sweaty climb up (which Pawlenty did not have time to make), are (from left to right), John Bowlsby, President of Hemotech, your publisher, and Myron Behm, president of Behm Seed Company. The oldest person to make it to the top was U of M President Bob Brunnicks.

Bits & Pieces From China

One of the more intriguing conversations that percolated among Minnesotans on their tourist day was about their guides, who were mostly young women in their early 20s. They are the first generation of young women to come of age under the 1978 Chinese government imposed "one child per family" rule. One guide noted that instead of arguing with siblings, she argued more with her parents. Another called herself and her peers, "a whole generation of the most completely spoiled." Here's a new fact in the Chinese population game: If you are an only female child who marries an only male child, you may now have two children.

For Minnesota businesses looking at the Chinese as potential consumers, there was a fascination with trying to understand the dominant consumer demographic. In Beijing, it's the one-child intact family, with perhaps one or two grandparents living in the household, which is a two-bedroom, one bath apartment that averages about $500,000 in the Beijing market.

Minnesota high school students listen up: the average Chinese student attends classes from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., six days a week. Homework usually takes several hours after that.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty began the day wearing a T-shirt with the Pillsbury Doughboy on it. By mid-afternoon, he had changed to one featuring a Spam can, after some good-natured ribbing from the Hormel representatives on the trip.

The Chinese government rates public toilets. This sign is posted in front of the facilities in the Forbidden City.