20 days, 4 countries and 10,000 miles or 20天，4个国家和10000英里

20 days, 4 countries and 10,000 miles or
20天，4个国家和10000英里

Europe!

The last 20 days have been crazy. I have been to Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway and China and back again. When I entered the PhD program I assumed that there will be some travelling, but this has proven to be very intense and there is still quite a lot of travelling ahead!

Brussels and Maastricht proved to be a 10 day intense research visit to dig into European Competition and Public Procurement Law. The visit to the EU Commission’s Library proved to be very helpful in finding interesting literature that would have been difficult to get somewhere else – their catalogue is pretty impressive and has plenty of material in different languages.  But even better, I was able to meet some good friends and have very good food and beer in Brussels (wow, that Belgium beer is good stuff).

Maastricht was an interesting experience. Were 2 very intensive days of pure public procurement surrounded by a beautiful city, interesting talks and very experienced professionals. The seminar organized by EIPA on the recent developments of PP and its case law was not only interesting, but also very helpful to get a crash course of the latest news and to get a good idea of how the upcoming PP Directives will look like. Rumors point out that they will be enacted by the end of October 2013. Let’s see if that happens and what they will look like in the end.

China!

Then, after just 5 days in Norway it was time to grab a plane and visit Shanghai and Beijing. Wow, what a change. From cold and rainy Bergen to very hot, very humid and sometimes extremely rainy Shanghai and later to a very dry, but not that hot Beijing. What a trip!

In Shanghai we had a very interesting workshop/seminar with professors from the University of Fudan mainly dealing with Chinese legal culture and some comparative reflections to our PhD research projects. On our free time we had the chance to visit a multicultural city that truly demonstrates the change of China in less than 25 years. From rural China to a cosmopolitan top of the art modern city. Shanghai is a city of contrasts and neon lights.

On the other hand if Shanghai is the most westernized version of China, Beijing represents the most traditional and politically linked city in the country. Seat to the Forbidden City and the Tomb of Chairman Mao, Beijing is the center of decision making of this world leader. In Beijing we had the chance to visit the University of Renmin and participate at a round table with other PhD and Post-doc students. I had the privilege to do a 20 mins presentation on my project: Buyer Power, Competition Law and Public Procurement that met an interested audience (much to my surprise!).

To wrap up a very long post: I am exhausted of travelling, but this experience has been enriching and interesting to say the least and the contrast between the East and the West is sometimes even bigger than we can imagine, but also can be much smaller than expected. It is all about perception.

直到不久！