Monthly Archives: October 2011

After a good night’s rest, we were met in the lobby by our guide, Shen Tao. What a lovely young man he is. His “American Dream” is to study at Baruch. He hopes to eventually do his PhD and become a professor.
Today we visited Jinsha Site Museum – an amazing museum build over the ruins of the 3000 year old kingdom of Shu. If you are interested in learning more go to www.jinshasitemuseum.com. Later today we visited China Lane (a street of wonderful restored shops and restaurants).
For my friends from SWUFE who kindly visited or emailed with many suggestions before I left NY, you will be happy to know that we ended the day in Huang Cheng Laoma (please excuse me if this is not the correct spelling) supposedly one of the best HOT POT restaurants in Chengdu. Since we had no idea what we were doing, Shen Tao handled the ordering – after I warned him to be sure to order the least spicy option! It was truly delicious and a delightful experience.
Chengdu is a very interesting city. I did not realize how incredibly big it is. SWUFE has a new campus – about 45 minutes outside of the city. Shen Tao tells me he prefers the old campus in the downtown area since it is much closer for students who may be interviewing for jobs here. The traffic is insane. It seems there are absolutely no rules – cars, buses, bicycles and people (even mothers with baby carriages) are all going in every direction – each seemingly oblivious to all the others. Somehow most get through unscathed. Interestingly there is no requirement to have auto insurance. When we asked Shen Tao what happens when there is an accident – he said people just shrug and say “I’m just not lucky”.
The sky has been overcast all day, but I was shocked when Shen Tao told us that it is always this way. He says they never see a blue sky.
Tomorrow we’ll do one more day of learning about Chengdu – and then I begin to work – after all that is why I came.

After close to 30 hours of travel (door to door) we arrived at our hotel in Chengdu, China. It was indeed a long day — which included a layover of approximately 6 hours in Hong Kong Airport. If you’ve ever been there you know that it is massive and really very nice. However, when your body is telling you it’s approximately 3 am, the stores become less enticing! I did learn, however, that even I can get comfortable sleeping across chairs in an airport.
We were met at the airport by Tao Shen, a smiling, enthusiastic 4th year student from SWUFE, who will be our guide for the next few days. His smile did wonders for two very exhausted travelers.
We look forward to a good night’s sleep.

Hello World! I’m ready to embark on a fantastic three week recruiting trip to China and Taiwan. This is my second recruiting trip to Asia. This year I thought it would be interesting to write a blog to keep you informed of the progress.

After weeks of intensive preparation and scheduling we leave tomorrow morning on Cathay Pacific Airlines. Over the course of about 2 1/2 weeks I will be meeting and interviewing 18 prospective Zicklin Graduate students in 5 different cities. 1st stop (after approximately 24 hours of traveling) will be Chengdu where I will be doing a presentation on Wednesday, Nov 2 at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE). Our hosts at SWUFE have been extremely gracious so, after getting caught up on some sleep, we will be taken around to visit the sights. Current Baruch students who are from SWUFE all tell me I must not leave unless I have “Hot Pot” – but they all warn me that it is “spicy”. Professor Martell tells me that I should be sure to ask for “negative spice”.

After Chengdu we will visit Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei and finally Hong Kong. I’ll keep you updated as much as I can.
Until next time … Fran Murphy, Director, Graduate Admissions, Zicklin School of Business