May 7

Today was a pretty typical May Term day, except for the fact that we are in China. We got to sleep in until 9am today. We then went to a lecture lead by the Dean of Business college. He presented a presentation titled "The Patterns of China Economic Development." Some interesting facts and statistics that he mentioned in his presentation.

(GDP, for you non business people can be defined as "the value of all goods and services produced ins a country. It is a broad measure of economic activity and performance.")

China's 2008 GDP is $4.421Trillion (2nd highest in the world, just passed Japan)

To compare the US's gdp was $8.110Trillion

China's GDP rose exponentially from 1990-1996 because the government opened to foreign countries (outsourcing)

Manufacturing is over 50% of the Chinese Economy

The economy has gotten better due to the fact that there are less government owned businesses.

The average income in china was 24046 yuan, roughly 3536US Dollars (2007)

In 1998 the average income was 7405 yuan, roughly 925 US Dollars.

Hangzhou's province, Zhejiang, information

100 square KM 51.2Million people

20 years ago it was a very small economy, mostly agriculture.

After our lecture about economics we had a bit of free time and I went to the market and got a Coke Zero, which I have grown very fond of and a bowl of noodles for 4RNB (50 cents). Then, after my first nap of the trip, we had chinese language class where we learned how to introduce ourselves.

After class, we had to get outside to enjoy the weather. It was 86 and sunny today in Hangzhou. We went to our favorite hotspot, the basketball pavilion. We started playing 3 on 3 (Mike, Shawn and I vs. Jarrett Angie and Professor Ewest). We then started playing with the locals, Tim was a big hit. Some observations that I have made from playing a few days with the chinese students is that they are more pass oriented while us Americans are focussed on dribbling. They are very quick without the ball and have very quick hands, they love when Jarrett dunks or makes any play for that matter, and they play very traditionally, jumpshots, hook shots,

passing, but they will also throw the ball up at the hoop without looking at it, and it will even go in some times.

Here are some pictures of us playing today

Tonight Megan, Lacy, Jarrett, Mike and Shingshing are speaking with Professors Clarkson, Campbell and Meyerann's classes about observations we have made. Shawn and I are just watching the NBA highlights on the Chinese sports channel. Today the Rockets were playing during our free time but instead they were showing the international badminton tournament. I know the Lakers won, but for my research I really wanted to watch the game in a public place to ask Chinese people what they thought during the game. They have shown replays of Game 2 of the Trailblazers' game and Game 1 of the Lakers' series. Also, I have gotten my first mosquito bites of the year today, they're no fun in China either.

Adios

Erik