Today was the last full day of the trip complete with our last company visit, Disney! The presentation was very cool and it was interesting to learn about the the Chinese entertainment market and how Disney is looking to grow the Marvel and Star Wars brands within China. After the visit we went back to … Continue reading Day 10 (5/23) →

Today we had our second to last corporate visit of the trip at AB-Inbev. The office space we toured struck me as very western and relaxed. The presentation on the technology innovation group within the company was one of my favorite presentations of the trip. After the presentations we made our way to the French … Continue reading Day 9 (5/22) →

Today we started off with another fun visit, this time to Tiger Hill and the leaning tower. The grounds were quite beautiful and the hike up to the tower was peaceful. I was amazed at how much the tower was actually leaning. After a quick lunch and check-out in Suzhou, we had one of our … Continue reading Day 8 (5/21) →

Today we had some really fun cultural immersion visits to start the day. The Lion Grove Garden was absolutely beautiful and it was so much fun exploring all of the different paths through the rocks. There were so many good picture spots and it is amazing how well preserved the garden was as a whole. … Continue reading Day 7 (5/20) →

After a shaky takeoff from Zhang Jiakou, we eventually made our way to the market at the water town. To me this has been one of the coolest places we've seen on the trip. There were a lot of cool little shops and less people aggressively trying to sell to you/yelling at you than Pearl … Continue reading Day 6 (5/19) →

Today was so much fun despite the fact that we had to change up the plan at the last minute. The dairy factory was very interesting, and a few of the MechEs (including myself) were geeking out over the packing and stacking automation. The visits to the nursing home and the middle school were very … Continue reading Day 5 (5/18) →

Today we had a company visit at the Microsoft Garage. I thought it was very interesting to see how Microsoft was using the Garages and the hackathons to encourage their employees to explore projects of personal interest outside of their regular work. I think it is beneficial for both the company and the employees as … Continue reading Day 4 (5/17) →

The two visits today (John Deere and Boeing) were very interesting, being able to see the different manufacturing facilities. I really enjoyed the John Deere presentation on the Chinese agriculture landscape as I didn't know much beforehand. The Boeing visit was really nice as I felt that the presenters were willing and able to fully … Continue reading Day 3 (5/16) →

I thought the two company visits today (BP and DiDi) were very interesting to compare to each other with respect to how their business rely on/interact with the government. As a foreign company BP seems to rely heavily on partnerships with SOEs to get most of their work done. On the other hand DiDi, a … Continue reading Day 2 (5/15) →

I really enjoyed the food today. After a tumultuous experience ordering dinner last night, it was really nice to have the food ordered for us by people who knew what food to order. I'm not a particularly adventurous eater, but I'm glad I branched out and tried some new food, especially the Peking Duck. I … Continue reading Day 1: Happy Tummies and Full Minds →