Last week in Shanghai :(
It’s been another amazing week in Shanghai, and we are all sad that it will be our last! Although we are looking forward to a new and exciting experience in Beijing and India, we are finding it difficult to leave behind a place where we have had such an incredible time…
Anyway, the previous week included numerous lectures from visiting professors and local businessman alike. On tuesday we heard from Jon Anderson and wednesday was Yang Minggiu. We then presented our team’s customer and market analysis to the class on thursday. After our group presentations, we then heard from another visiting lecturer about corruption in China.
On friday the next day we woke up early for a 6AM departure from the hotel to Yiwu. Because we were concerned about the possibility of substantial traffic left over from the national holiday week, we chose to leave the hotel earlier than planned. After arriving in Yiwu around 11:30AM, we checked into the hotel and had a group lunch at 12:30PM. After lunch we all left for a three hour walk-through of the International Trade City, an enormous complex of all sorts of different vendors and distributors. We left the Trade City around 4:30PM, and had a group dinner at the hotel around 5:30PM. After dinner, we attended a lecture about the Yiwu economy presented by Professor Yang Xueping from 7-9:00PM. Friday was a fairly busy day to say the least.
Saturday was somewhat of a more relaxed. After checking out of the hotel at 8AM, we assembled on the bus for a company tour of Mengna Hoisery. We arrived at Mengna around 9AM where were allowed to view their showroom, a portion of their manufacturing facility, as well as their shop. Mengna is most well known for the manufacture of socks. After the company tour, we got back on the bus and drove to a restaurant to have another group lunch (which was incredible by the way!). After lunch, it was back to the bus again for the ride back to Shanghai. We got back to Shanghai around 7PM and checked back into our hotel. The next day (Sunday), was a much needed free day of rest and relaxation.
Monday’s class started at 9AM (as usual) with Londa’s 1 hour class facilitation, followed by a two hour lecture from David Wu, a visiting professor. After Professor Wu’s presentation, we had a break for lunch and then we walked to EMC2, about 20 minutes away from the hotel. At EMC we were given a presentation about the company and were allowed to have a tour of the facility. We were then on our own from from 3:30 on…
Tuesday was yet another relaxed day for the group, with two company visits. This time we were able to visit Horizon Fuel Cell and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. We were at Horizon from 10-11:30AM, and Deloitte from 2:-4:45PM. After the Deloitte visit, we were allowed to have the afternoon to work on our group presentations that are coming up this Friday. We have individual group meetings with Professor Kelly on Wednesday and Thursday in order to prep for the final.
I can’t believe that this week is coming to a close so quickly! Shanghai has been so amazing, I wish we could just stay here forever…
Posted by this week’s group leaders:
Chris and Damian