At exactly 12 hours time difference, China is just about as far away from Erie as a person can get.
With its ancient history, culture and customs, China is just about as far away from Erie as a person can get, too.
Spending nine days in the Far East leaves one with a jumble of emotions.
There is an overwhelming sense of history you get walking the steps of the Great Wall or the path the tanks took in 1989 in Tiananmen Square.
There is the queasy feeling you get looking at food made from brains, tendons and claws.
There is the sense of awe at the sheer number of human beings that exist together, a great jumble of scooters and feet and bicycles and trucks and cars that somehow all move and stop together between lights.
And then there is the sense of foreboding, of an economic giant rising to its feet, a swoosh of development and building offset by uncertain steps, and the feeling that we have only seen the beginning of the race as China gains her footing on the world stage.
How do we begin to understand a culture 8,000 years old?
Can we climb in our gleaming, high tech machines and compete with an opponent who wields people as we push buttons?
The answer, of course, is yes, if we can adapt to the new reality.
The emerging force of one-fifth of the world’s population suddenly taking the field is having and will continue to have a huge impact on the game and how it is played.
American companies must adapt China strategies that focus on niche markets and emerging technology that China’s cheap labor can’t replicate.
Our students must focus on achieving in the hard sciences needed to compete globally.
Our workers can’t sit back and wait for the shop doors to close. We must take charge of our own training and look to self-improve as new equipment and procedures come online.
China is a land of mysteries that will take far longer than nine days to unlock, but one thing is no secret at all.
A land half a world away is already making all of us work smarter to keep what we have.
HEY! For pictures and more insights into my trip to China, check out my other blog at www.wsee.tv.