When I quit my financial job on Wall Street in New York and bought a one-way ticket to an unknown city in the middle of China, I didn't expect that I would end up living here. I actually knew very little about China before I came: mostly that it had a long and unique history, that it was going through a steady process of development and transition, and that food was eaten with chopsticks. I didn't even know how to say "ni hao."
But it wasn't long before I fell in love with this place and its people. I spent 2006 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, because it was a typical city in the middle of China, which would help me best to understand what it was like to live in this diverse country. I was delighted to find that Chengduren were extremely open and curious, considerate and patient, and cooked deliciously mouth-numbing food. Then after a year of drinking tea in tea houses, watching pandas cubs grow over four seasons, and learning Chinese, economics and tai chi at Chengdu's Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, I decided to start making my way home to New York City.
I never made it. From my first day in Beijing this January, I fell in love with this city. Beijing is a city of dreamers. Not only does it have the same energy and confidence that I love in New York City, where I grew up, but it also has that sense of curiosity -- and belief that anything is possible -- that I found when I went to college at Stanford University in California.
Not only is Beijing a city of dreamers, but it's a city where dreams come true. I am proud to work now for the oldest US consulting firm in China, Kamsky Associates. Everyday, I get to help to bridge foreign companies with China, and to find mutually beneficial ways to cooperate. I plan on staying in China indefinitely to continue to help China develop sustainably by sharing the experience that the Western world can bring, and by bringing back my love of and respect for China to the US. It's a dream job, and I feel honored and privledged to have this opportunity.
People come to Beijing from all over China and around the world because they have something to gain -- and something to offer. It's that passion that will earn the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games a place in history, and that will drive this city -- and this amazing country -- into a bright future.
Thank you for supporting my dream to carry the torch.
Sincerely Yours,
Liz Aab °²¿ÉÐÀ
