Swimming with Asian Sharks - Business Secrets from the Pacific Rim

China: Rapid Development

That was the start of my China trip; China was such a different place when I arrived in 2009 and in just three years it changed so much, it blew my mind. In 2009, when we went from Hong Kong into China—we had multiple entry passes, which was awesome—we witnessed two muggings in the short distance between the train station and the hotel. Two separate muggings and we weren’t sure who to help because no one called out, but they were clearly struggling over their goods. In one case, there were two men struggling. One had glasses on, while the other was rougher looking. I wasn't sure what was going on because it looked as though the man without glasses had reached his right hand into the other man’s pocket. The man with glasses had his left hand locked on the hand in his pocket, yet at the same time, his right hand was in the other man’s pocket, while the man with no glasses had his left hand holding the other man's hand down in his pocket. The effect was that I had no idea who the thief was, or what was going on. They were circling each other, and did not call out for help. I wanted to help, but Rollin's father stopped me. He told me that it could get very ugly and that they could injure or rob me.  I still feel disgusted by what happened, and the fact that I didn't do anything to help.