Chapter 572: Encounter
Chapter 572: Encounter
As a born-again person, and with the national voting day of the US election approaching, Feng Yiping didn't really want to fly to Washington. He also rejected Jacob's proposal to drive there. A bus was certainly not a good choice. In the end, the Stanford scholar booked a train ticket for the Tsinghua student, first class.
The train took more than three hours to cover the 400 kilometres. Compared to domestic trains in China, which have undergone several major speed increases over the years, these private railway companies in the United States are really conservative.
Pennsylvania Station gives a rather bad impression.
It is said that the original station building was very beautiful, but in the 1950s, the financial situation of the Pennsylvania Railroad deteriorated, and the main building was demolished. All of its platforms are underground, and the last renovation was years ago. In this underground space without sunlight, the walls and floors of the passageways are full of historical marks and stains. The flow of people is high, and the air quality is quite average. Compared with the prosperity and splendour above ground, it is truly one in the sky and one underground.
Jacob has been shadowing Feng Yiping for a few days now, and the service has become more and more attentive. Seeing that the young boss doesn't look well, he says something and runs towards the shop. It takes him a while to get back, and when he does, he's shouting from afar, 'Feng!'
Feng Yiping looks at him and sees that he hasn't bought much food, but is holding a thick stack of newspapers in his hands. "Why did you buy so much?'
'Look," says an excited Jacob, turning the pages for him, 'there are reports about you in here, Feng. You're famous now!'
Although Feng Yiping had read the news about himself in the New York Times while having breakfast, and the newspaper was still in his bag, he was still a little surprised to see so many copies. Had this really had such a big impact?
In fact, it was mainly because of his age. If he had done something like this when he was 40 or 50, there would not have been so much coverage, but a young man in his early 20s being treated so well by so many capitalists was very gimmicky.
Reading so many newspapers, Feng Yiping felt that the air underground instantly became a little fresher. 'Thank you, Jacob, my parents will love these,'
'Then I'll go find some other newspapers,'
So when it was time to board the plane, Feng Yiping had 11 newspapers with his report in them in his hands, carefully bundled up by Jacob, who had been a newspaper boy as a child.
Feng Yiping patted these newspapers, and of course he was not narcissistic enough to read them, but for his parents, bringing them these newspapers was probably more pleasing than bringing them back the most expensive gifts.
They arrived in Washington at ten past ten, on time, and Washington Union Station was really much better than the Pennsylvania Station when they left.
Except for the new domestic train stations in the capital, all the others are extremely modern and technological. However, in the United States, many of these train stations are built like Roman palaces, such as New York's Grand Central Terminal and the one in front of them.
Outside the train station, Capitol Hill is right in front of you. It's not really a hill, just a hillock at most, only about 20 metres high. The Capitol Building on top of it, which Feng Yiping has seen many times in movies, usually ends badly, with it being destroyed in various ways.
He had just taken a few photos when the people who were meeting him arrived. It was probably because of the little stir Feng Yiping had caused in New York that not only had an associate dean from the McDonough School of Business come, but Georgetown University had also sent an assistant to the provost.
These two people did not look down upon Feng Yiping in the slightest because of his age. The associate dean of the business school even spoke up and invited him, 'Feng, do you have any intention of coming to the United States for further studies? If you have such plans, our school would be very happy to extend an invitation to you,'
'Thank you very much, but I don't have such plans for the time being,' Feng Yiping politely declined his kindness.
Of course, he actually did have such plans, but the McDonough School of Business, although not bad, was still behind several other schools in terms of overall strength.
Moreover, starting from the second half of next year, there will be too many troubles in Washington, and it is not a very suitable place to live.
Unlike our capital, Washington, D.C., was designed as a capital from the beginning. On the way to the hotel, there are almost all kinds of government agencies along the road. Most of these buildings are built of marble, generally have a square appearance, and many of them adopt a colonnaded facade, which is heavy and solemn as a whole.
Georgetown University, founded in the same year as the United States, is the oldest Jesuit Catholic university in the United States.
This university is in close proximity to the US federal government offices, and what makes it even more proud is that the current US President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright both graduated from here.
Feng Yiping's speech was scheduled to be held at the business school, but these student-oriented audiences today did not have the same good attitude as the bigwigs yesterday.
Quite simply, the concept of blue ocean strategy is still far removed from most students. In addition, Feng Yiping, as a student at a university that ranks low in the world, has come to their territory these past few days to steal the headlines, which inevitably made these energetic guys a little upset.
Feng Yiping wisely refrained from talking about blue ocean strategy and focused his speech on two main areas: first, a review of this year's world economic situation, and he also did not forget to highlight the accurate judgments on some major directions in his own Frontier magazine; second, some judgments on the world's political and economic situation next year.
Finally, he casually paid a compliment to their country's electoral system, even though he was secretly thinking that there would be some interesting developments in the next few days.
After the votes are counted in this year's US presidential election, the various arguments between Al Gore and George W. Bush over the presidency will be the talk of the town for a long time to come.
The students were generally uninterested in Feng Yiping's speech, even though he predicted that those events would definitely happen next year. However, as soon as the host announced that the Q&A session had begun, the room suddenly became lively, and everyone scrambled to raise their hands to ask questions.
Feng Yiping immediately understood that these students were probably not holding back any good questions, and that they were probably all trying to impress him.
Facing the enthusiastic crowd, the host was quite reliable, and started by asking questions from more cooperative students. For example, the first one, a girl, asked, 'This is your first time in the United States, what are your feelings?'
This was a very timely question, and Feng Yiping answered without hesitation, 'I have many feelings, the deepest feeling is that, like my motherland, the United States is a very great country.'
The third question was not so friendly. A guy in a baseball uniform asked, 'Why was your book the first to be published in our country?'
This guy was no good! But how could such a question catch Feng the expert out at this point? It could even be said to have just helped him out.
'First of all, I am honoured that Harvard Business School Press has taken an interest in my work and has repeatedly asked me to work with them to publish the book.
Second, at the beginning, I didn't want to publish this book. As some of you may know, this book was first serialised in my magazine Frontier. As a high-end magazine, it had a difficult time when it was first launched, and I hoped that this book would attract the attention of people and companies.
After the magazine got on the right track, and many readers were interested in blue ocean strategy, the publisher was very enthusiastic, and the combination of these factors led to the publication of this book.'
The next shipment of goods asked a more pointed question: 'What do you think of the electoral systems in our two countries?'
I'm just a student and entrepreneur, okay!
He looked behind him and saw that the news reporters were not allowed in, so he said cautiously, "Practice has proved that the people of our two countries have chosen the path that is most suitable for their own countries.'
Fortunately, the free question time was only thirty minutes. At the end, Feng Yiping secretly let out a sigh of relief. Middle school students are the most difficult to deal with.
'I want to take a walk on campus," he said to Jacob.
'Okay,' Feng Yiping's request, Jacob did not object, he did not go to the car and waited, from a distance, hanging behind Feng Yiping.
Looking at the small campus, with so many buildings with a Catholic character, Feng Yiping really felt something. The school was founded in 1789, during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, when the scholars in China were still immersed in the study of the Eight-legged Essay, in the hope of getting into high school. The gap was really not ordinary.
There was a row of benches by the roadside, and he was about to rest his feet when he suddenly saw a girl with long brown hair and a graceful figure rummaging through something by the rubbish bin in front of her. He walked over and asked, 'Do you need any help?'
The girl turned around at the sound of his voice. Feng Yiping blinked, stunned. How could it be her?
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