The Cool Factor: Hotel G in Beijing

I'm always on the lookout for cool things related to global business and while I was scanning the Chicago Tribune over the weekend I caught:

Icelandic composer raves about Poland

Why am I sharing this article with you?  Because deep within the body of it Olafur Arnalds mentions his favorite hotel:  Hotel G.

Q: What are your favorite hotels?

A: I've probably stayed at more than 100 hotels in the last couple of years, but my favorite must be Hotel G (hotel-g.com) in Beijing. Very cool interior design, and you can choose the color of your window with the switch of a button in the room. I have tried very hard to persuade the management staff to use the master control to write my name on the outside of the building with the window colors, without much luck! And the floors are so soft that you don't really need the comfy bed. I stay there every time I go to Beijing, if not only for the friendly staff and nice food, then the iPod docks … in every room.

So the next time you travel to Beijing to drum up business, check out the very cool looking place.

Photo credit:  Hotel G

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Welcome to the Great International Education Race

There is a well-thought out scramble for students, professors, prestige and prosperity that is changing the face of university education around the world.

For decades the United States attracted more than a quarter of all foreign students in college or graduate education. Recently that has begun to change. While the continuing boom in study overseas — an explosion largely unaffected by the economic downturn — means that the number of foreign students going to the United States has continued to grow, the U.S. share of the foreign student market has fallen to just 18.7 percent, according to the most recent report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Meanwhile countries like Australia, Russia and New Zealand have all seen their share of the market rise sharply.

Read all about the rapidly changing international education landscape here.

Photo credit here.