Friday we had a lecture from a "Rita" her american called name on the economics of China since 1978 to present. She was very good and we all took copious notes. David got her powerpoint lecture so that we can go back and reference. From the lecture we went to lunch and invited the professor. It was a good lunch and covered all kinds of topics. One thing here is that they are feeding us all the time. That works for the 20 year old guys who eat an amazing amount of food and are bean pole thin. Ah - youth as you say. From there we went to the industrial park which is a cooperative with the university and the government. Basically here it is a relationship with venture capitalists. Anyway, it looks like any complex in silicon valley. About 1000 acres are dedicated to the complex. One of the interesting observations is that the lobbies are all posh, but the inside furniture at times is very functional and basic. Not Herman Miller cube land some more basic desk furnishings. We also went into a chip fabrication area where the firm is producing a specialized chip for Cisco systems. Another firm was numeric control panels. Of which they supplied 3-gorges dam. Primarily they service steel manufacturers, weapons controls, hydro electric and electric systems. I asked them what they felt there competitive advantage was on their product. They said price and service. From that I gathered it was very important to them to have in their country that technology. I do not believe they have added any value to it, but have again cheaper labor (highly educated labor). So the China story goes. We also visited a firm that does lasers. Laser cutting, welding, laser whatever I guess. I have notes but can not right now remember all the applications. So in all we visited the numeric control systems company, a laser machine fabricator, and optical chip manufacturer.
One of the more memorable bus trips back to campus from the park. The driver drove on the wrong side of the street and split traffic. He really needed 4 wheel drive and I think we would have run over the buses and cars if he could have. He did not stop once, although there were numerous stop lights - he just kept driving. Even Tony our primary host and Tour Guide said he was a scary driver. Driving here is a bit of chaos. Lights are somewhat followed and lanes of 4 quickly become lanes of 6. You can not image how close traffic packs into each other 6 lanes headed one direction out of 4 already narrow lanes.
Friday night we went out for dinner back downtown and went to a shopping complex called Chicony. The shops and prices are very upscale and high end. Almost beverly hills boutique kind of prices and high end fashion. Over 10 floors of shopping. On the 7th and 8th floors are dining. Half of the 7th floor was a food court like i've never seen. You would think you were on a fancy cruise line only the food is primarily chinese. We went inside to a resturant instead though and had a very enjoyable meal. It however, took 4 people to translate what we wanted. An indian guy who spoke english very well and chinese dining in the resturant came over to help. That was a godsend. Anyway, 9 of us ended up with a great meal. The best dish was american style green beans in butter and garlic. We got two orders of that and that was a random pick as we just said we wanted some kind of vegetable. We had no idea what we would get.
Saturday AM we were able to sleep in a little. The lecture was not until 10AM. As usual there were the mix ups of which building, did anyone bring a PC for the teacher could present his powerpoint. This instructor was very difficult to understand and I had the feeling he really did not want to be teaching on a Saturday. The pre-planning by the university for this trip was very poor. Somewhere someone dropped the ball big time. I felt that we were not expected or wanted or there was a big time communication objective of what we were on campus to learn and do. So the formalized educational component has been sorely lacking. Not at all what the previous trips to Japan and Europe involved as far as the business aspect. I believe Mark assumed that they knew what our objective was and in developing countries assuming objectives are known and understood is a bad idea.
At least our tour leader Tony took care of all the rest of the planning and that has been excellent. However, he is not affliated with the unversity. I will be making recommendation as to how to improve the trip in my paper later on. But basically we did not get "inside" anything or really get information on how to do business in China. I believe an american or european doing business here for a multinational would have been a much better speaker and then have him or her take us to their business would have been much more meaningful. Also people from different industry sectors would have been good. No initiative like that was taken.
Saturday afternoon then became free time. After the lecture we went to another dining resturant at the international dorm (not where we stayed as it was very very nice) and had lunch. The food was good and is was quite humid out so appetites were down. From there groups broke up to go and do their thing. I ended up with the walking group to go around east lake. We walked into their "park" and went down the monkey trail. Kind of campy in presentation but there were wild monkeys there swinging around it trees. From the monkey park we circled back, and the group split up again to those who wanted to keep walking and those who wanted to get back to the room. I really needed to get out and walk so there were only 3 of us who continued. Once we reached the main body of east lake, Shelby, myself and our unversity host went out on a chinese style gondola for about 1/2 hours. The rest of sitting down and coolness of the water felt so good. Across from east lake was the largest lotus pond I have ever seen. I have a few pictures but not many was my camera was acting up due to low batteries (a common problem I am facing as the batteries I am purchasing do not last very long here maybe 3-4 hours).
On the walk back we had dinner at a very nice resturant and had clay pot. Beef, vegetables and rice dish. Very good clean food, no sauces like most dishes. I also purchased a melon by a lakeside vendor. Many vendors have there melons there to sell in little carts. Very popular place I guess for selling their melons. We will probably eat the melon today as it is fairly large 1.5 kilos - so it will take a group effort to finish it off.
I did not sleep that well as it is too cold with the A/C on and too hot and stale air without. So Sunday I woke up not well rested and had mosquito bites all over from them being in the room.
Sunday was our formal tour of Wuhan, we went to the bonzi garden, bonzi originated from china and not japan. Also they had lots of rocks there, and it was a great example of the chinese using rocks as sculptures. The rocks have lots of symbolism. Rocks are men and water is women. Rock are perceived as hard and strong but are softened and smoothed by women who are believed to be watery and fluid and live giving. They also believe that rocks have souls. The garden was very peaceful and probably the best garden I have seen.
Lunch was at the nicest resturant we have visited yet. They have these banquet rooms, which are private, have lounge chairs and couches along with the dining table. This one also had a private restroom inside as well. I've got some great pictures. The food was excellent. And as usual if you can't really identify the food you probably may not want to eat it. I did however end up tasting pig tongue without knowing it. I thought is was eel perhaps. Later I found out otherwise.
From the resturant we went to the Hubei provencial museum. Here the treasures of an unearthened fully intact tomb are displayed. The key thing about this tomb is that it was not discovered until 1978 and great care was taken to excavation. Also inside was the largest display of musical instruments and bells. No where prior to there had they found a full set of bells. The tomb dated back to 500BC.
From the museum we stopped and got batteries, beer and wine for the river cruise on the Yangtzee. The scenary and cruise were wonderful. The food was the worst we've had. Very very bad - but really what you go for is the scenary and ambiance. I was so tired though all I wanted to do is get home and get some rest. We did finally get back to the hotel at 11PM.
I got up at 5:30AM and am packed and headed down to hopefully get online at the internet cafe. Lucky me as they let me in. I will write when I can. From now until Bejing it may be touch and go as to whether we will have internet though. But knowing David he will find out where we can log on.
Love you all and still this is an amazing and fascinating trip. China I know will so 10 fold different in just 10 more years. Unbelievable fast track pace they are on. Unbelievable infrastructure hurdles. It is just at what environmental cost - and how that will affect the world. As its really one ocean and atmosphere.
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