Business Delegation to Beijing - Forbidden City and Israel China Chamber of Commerce

This Tuesday we visited the Forbidden City. We have so far visited a few cultural sites in Beijing, but in my opinion, this site was the one that gave me a real feel of China. There are a number of reasons why I feel this way. The first was the amount of people, mainly Chinese, who were, like us, coming to see this famous sight. I have learnt throughout my Chinese history lessons this year that the Chinese are very connected to their history and the fact that so many of the natives were coming to see this historical sight was an expression of this connection. In addition, the vast amount of visitors helped me grasp the true size of China. Once in the Forbidden City, I could not help but be fascinated by the size, beauty and quality of the buildings and gardens. One can easily see that much work was put into the planning and building of this city, which shows the great power that Zhu Di, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty who built the forbidden city, had. The structures within the Forbidden City are made with such precision, and have been painted with such detail and symmetry and are very beautiful to look at. Being in the forbidden city helped me picture the Emperor's life style and the way that politics was run while the city was still in use.

After the Forbidden City we returned back to the present and visited IsCham. Ischam is a non profit organization and it's goal is to help Israeli companies succeed in China and visa versa. Their office is situated in the middle of the art district, 798, and is at the top of an Israeli art gallery which brings in new Israeli exhibitions every couple of months. Zlil, the woman who spoke with us, explained that the company is mainly business oriented, though it does combine some culture as well. Zlil explained to us that IsCham's goal was to make connections between Chinese and Israeli companies in order to try and help them be as successful and efficient as possible. The main objective of the company is networking. IsCham tries to collect as many "friends" as they can. The way that companies can become friends of Ischam is by paying a very symbolic fee. These companies then gain access to many other companies that Ischam can put them in touch with, and all in all it is a win win situation. After we had heard a bit about the company from Zlil, the manager of IsCham proceeded to speak with us. He spoke a lot about the differences between Israelis and Chinese people. He presented these differences as difficulties which are almost impossible to bridge. He explained that an Israeli company succeeding in China is a very big accomplishment which most people can not achieve. I very much enjoyed the visit to IsCham as it showed me that many Israeli companies are determined to succeed in China, and thankfully have people who can help them connect to other suitable companies. In addition it presented the hard truth that not everyone can succeed in China and that being successful entails having a real knowledge of the Chinese culture and way of life.