Forum held in China, called âSummer Davos,â in the booming coastal city of Dalian. I would be the token laowai on our reporting squad. ( Laowai is the colloquial term for âforeignerâ in Chinese, literally meaning âold outsider.â)
I was at once flattered at being sent and slightly concerned that it would lead to actual responsibility at the paper, something I wanted to avoid so I could use office hours to covertly concentrate on finding freelance stories.
âYouâll be staying at a four-star hotel,â Ms. Feng said, with a nod that suggested, How about that?
Until the day of our departure a great deal of enthusiasm was generated among the business reporters about the âfour-starâ hotel in which we were booked. From the Beijing airport all the way to Dalian the talk was all about the four-star hotel. I got swept up in it as well, imagining the trip as more vacation than business trip: watching HBO in my four-star room and lounging in a sauna at the four-star spa downstairs.
After arriving in Dalian we drove in a cab through the city, passed the Shangri-La, the Kempinsky, the Sheraton, and a luxury Japanese hotel, before pulling into the Dalian Delight Hotel. It wasnât horrible, but four stars it was not. (At least not by international standards; behind the receptionist desk was a plaque from the China Tourism Bureau with four stars prominently displayed.) My room was small, with dim yellow lights, faded carpets, and cigarette burns in the sheets, despite a no-smoking sign on the wall.
The Chinese staff was two or more to a room. I was given my own room, which made me feel uneasy. The Chinese reporters worked hard and carried the burden of actually putting out a paper, while I knew that very little would be expected from me on this trip.
After check-in, Xiao Zhang, a handsome young editor who worked on the international desk, gave me my first assignment.
âPlease write a story about your impressions of Dalian,â he said.
âMy impressions of Dalian?â
âYes. What do you think of Dalian?â
âI donât know. We just got here.â
âMaybe you should go and walk around, and then write about your impressions of Dalian.â
âLike, related to business? Or travel, or what?â
âJust impressions.â
âOkay . . .â
So I set out to discover Dalian. The city was by far the prettiest I had seen in Chinaâclean, with wide, tree-lined streets and green spaces, and a decent beach close to downtown. Big squares defined the city center, paid for by growing software, tourism, and shipping industries. The city looked more like it belonged in Japan or Korea than China.
I strolled down by the shore, which was dominated by massive apartment buildings that looked like castles from Disneyland. A friendly young Chinese couple approached me. They were curious to know what I was doing in the city.
âChina is changing very fast,â the husband said via his wife, who translated.
âThis was all once seaside,â the wife told me. âTwenty years ago there was nothing here.â She spoke not with regretâthe apartments were colossal eyesoresâbut with tremendous pride. âWe hope you enjoy our beautiful Dalian.â
The city was emblematic of Chinaâs economic miracle and a fitting home for the Economic Forum, which was held at a new conference center across town from our hotel. The meeting, dubbed âthe Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions,â was to celebrate the emergence of multinational companies from developing countries. Business and government leaders from around the world were in attendance. Chinese premier Wen Jiabao gave a speech on the opening night. Three-time Pulitzer Prizeâwinner and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman was there, as were many prominent CEOs from global companies.
Journalists from Time , the Wall Street Journal , the Economist,