Reply #29: Despite friction in China, Google digs in

[xchrom]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2014924330_btgooglechina02.html

BEIJING — Google may appear to be under siege in China, but a sense of normalcy — Google style — pervades the company's headquarters here.

Googlers, when they are aren't writing codes or working on new advertising strategies, line up for five-star meals, attend in-house yoga classes and pedal mini bicycles down hallways at the 10-floor outpost.

The Mountain View, Calif., search giant recently opened the doors of its Beijing facility to give a rare glimpse of its operations since its continuing skirmishes with the Chinese government got under way more than a year ago.

"There have been some changes," said Xi Cheng, an Oxford-educated Googler working on the translate team and one of scores of brainiacs that still populate the company's ranks in Beijing and Shanghai. "But we are still here. And it's still business as usual."