Final Blog Entry

Ethical Issues in My Profession:
One thing I noticed was the lack of safety in the construction workers we passed while walking through Beijing.  Workers did not have the saftey equipment that is required in the United States. Workers were using blow torches and shaping metal without wearing goggles or flame resistant clothing. There was also no safety barricade to protect the civilians walking close to the construction site. This would not be allowed in the United States. Another time I saw men lifting a statue from the back of a truck and there were more men on one side, leaving the statue unbalanced. The statue could have easily been dropped and crushed someone’s foot. In the United States the proper measures would be taken to make sure that the load was balanced and every worker was in a safe environment. As for environmental issues I think companies in China and in the Unites States take this into consideration when making plans. In Beijing we saw solar panels, solar water heaters, and windows that refracted/reflected the light to help maintain the temperature inside. There is no set minimum wage in China and many workers need to work overtime just to support their families. The companies will pay workers as little as possible so that they can have a greater income. This shows in the company’s profits but the happiness of the workers is much less in China.  One company we heard about had workers jump off of their building and commit suicide because they were making so little money and could not support their families.

Educational Breadth as Professional Development:
Business and everyday living is a whole new experience in China. The “business casual“ dress code of the Chinese is similar to that of the United States. There are some Chinese customs that must be followed so one does not offend a potential business partner. For example, when someone is taking a business card from a Chinese businessman he or she must take it with two hands. It is also offensive to put the card in your wallet and then put it in your back pocket. If engineers and business students hope to work with people in a global market then they must be willing to put in the time and effort to learn a little bit about the country they will be working with. Learning and following the customs of that country shows that you respect them and in return they will show you the same respect. The Plus 3 program is a fantastic way to get students thinking about working with people internationally. With the technology we have today, working with other engineers and businessmen is pretty easy and will allow for us to take the best of the best to work together. I hope to study abroad in another country and broaden my understanding of the world.

Lifelong Learning, Continuing Education as Professional Development:
Some of the professionals we talked to on our company visits had different degrees from what they were doing in the work world today. Our Capital Bio tour guide went to school for biology. He is now working from the business perspective and is not worried so much about the research and development. He told the business students they were smart and started out on “the right path” and he wish he did the same. He graduated from Tsinghua University as many of the other people we talked to did. We talked to the professionals from Tsinghua Solar and they had degrees in environmental studies. They gave us the presentation about the company. In bigger companies someone with a communications degree would most likely have given the presentation. No matter what position you start with in a company you will need to work with people and acquire a new skill set for the task at hand. You will need to adjust and continue to learn if you want to be successful in the company. With new technologies arising fairly quickly, workers need to be able to comprehend these and be able to work efficiently with this. Companies will want to hire people who can adjust to new technologies, who are willing to learn new skills, and who can work as part of a team.

The Social Environment of Professional Life:

One night at dinner Vanessa asked Dr. Gao what he did in his free time at Tsinghua. Dr. Gao answered “I studied.” Vanessa laughed and asked him again what he did in his free time when he wasn’t studying. Dr. Gao laughed and said he only studied in college and that there wasn’t time for fun. I think this can apply to many Chinese who aspire to obtain a high degree. On the other hand Vivien and Ruby were always ready to come on an adventure with the 16 of us and said they could study later. I think the connection between the professional and social life can’t be summed up for a country. It depends on the individual and varies between people and generations. The Chinese do not like to talk about politics publicly and it is very rare to hear a discussion about politics. We learned in our one lesson that politics is typically discussed between family members at home. It is important to know about politics and economics in other countries because different countries can affect the global market to a greater degree than others. It is particularly important to pay attention to countries the US deals with on a daily basis, such as China.  

Functioning on a Multi-Disciplinary Team

It is very important to be able to work as a team member so that you can have the benefits of different ways of thinking and other people’s knowledge. It is rare for a person to know everything about everything. Our business team consisted of two engineering students and two business students. One problem we ran into was understanding each other’s terminology. As an engineering student I didn’t know what the SWOT test was or other parts of the assignment meant. The business students had already taken classes on the basics of business and knew what our prompt was asking. This proves the benefit of a diverse team.  As an engineer my responsibility was to work out how our product would work and the business students were to figure out our market, price range, and other business related information. All of us worked together and even helped with the other aspect of the project. Working as a team we came up with a really good business plan and a marketable idea. I think this proves that engineers and businessmen will continue to work together and come up with great ideas and projects.   

Saturday, May 19

So it was finally time to leave Beijing. Vivien came to say goodbye and had gotten us a farewell gift. She wasn’t able to come with us to the airport because she had class. Ruby had gone with us and dropped us off and we said our goodbyes. Ruby says we must come back to visit her. I hope I can someday. We went to turn in our luggage and mine weighed 22.6 kg and the max was 22.7. To go through security was less intense than American security and we could leave out shoes on. My favorite part of going through the airport was wearing the rice hat and all of the stares from people. We had to make sure those rice hats made it back to America without being smashed. We boarded our plane around 5:20 for our 6:40 pm departure. We would arrive at 6:45 pm in Toronto. We are time travelers. I slept for about 6 or 7 hours on the 13 hour long flight. I was exhausted from our 2 week adventure.  Once we made it back to Pittsburgh we appreciated the clean air. We went to pick up our luggage and to say our goodbyes to one another. We will all find each other and be friends on Facebook.  Beijing was an unforgettable experience, with some amazing new friends that I will never forget. 

Friday, May 18

Day 13 – Starting our last full day in China we had a lesson with the older lady who spoke yesterday. She taught us about marriage and family in China. It was a very good lecture and she kept my attention. She even told us about her own family and how 4 people in her family have PHDs. After that we had to share our business plans. My group’s idea was a water bottle that could boil water and you could make tea. You could also drink that tap water because it would boil it and filter the water. Dr.Gao told us that this wouldn’t work because of the energy required (we couldn’t use a rechargeable battery) to actually boil water, so it could be a tea/ water warmer.

Once everyone was done with their presentations we went back to the Japanese restaurant and I had cheese stuffed chicken again. It was still as good the second time. A small group of us decided to go to the old summer palace before our farewell dinner. We took a taxi there and the traffic was pretty bad. Once inside the palace it was gorgeous. All of the flowers and trees made it look very nice. We wanted to see ruins and so far all we had seen was 1 crumbled bridge and a lot of people sleeping. We took a tram to the back of the palace to see the ruins, but you had to pay to get it. Any other day I would have paid easily, but since it was out last day we didn’t want to take any more money out. Getting a taxi to be able to go back to the hotel was a challenge because no one wanted to pick us up. Eventually we did get a taxi and made it back safely.

Our last dinner was a traditional Chinese dinner, served on a lazy susan. I was so thirsty that I drank my can of sprite in about 2 gulps. I needed to order another one.  We had a great time talking about the trip and the transformation our group had made over the past 2 weeks. We had all become good friends from being somewhat strangers 2 weeks ago. Our group had gotten so close that we were “fighting” about turning the lazy susan and telling other to hurry up so we could get food. We were talking about how it would be interesting to watch video from our first meal and our last meal. We were sad to leave China and we were more upset about saying goodbye to Ruby and Vivien the next day. We will probably never see them again but will keep in contact through email.

Thursday, May 17

Day 12 – This morning we went to Lenovo. Once inside Michelle and I were playing mahjong on one of the big touch screen computers.  A Lenovo worker came out and asked Matt to throw a paper plane into a hole. The whole Lenovo tour was completely interactive and a huge marketing deal. Lenovo is a huge company in China and wants to beat out apple for computer sales. Lenovo had a lot of new touch screen computers, tablets, and a 3D TV. Lenovo played a big part in the Beijing Olympics, they helped design the torch. They also have a military computer that can be run over by a tank and still function and a computer that works underwater. I will probably never have a Lenovo computer but it was still cool to learn about how the company works.

For lunch we went to a really nice restaurant for Peking duck. This was the meal we had been looking forward to all trip. We were still in our business casual clothes so we fit in the restaurant. All of the Chinese restaurants have the large lazy Susan in the middle of the table and this meal was no different. Over to the side you could see the cooks preparing the ducks for us. The restaurant gave a certificate with each duck served proving its authenticity. First, the waiter brought out the duck skin. It was very crispy and tasted good. Next, little thin pancakes were brought out for the duck and the actual duck meat was brought out. You could put the duck in the pancakes with plum sauce, veggies, and sugar if you wanted it. It made a little burrito and tasted very good. Some other food at this meal that I really enjoyed was the shrimp fired rice, asparagus, and chicken. The duck’s head was also brought out and one kid at our table ate the brain. I didn’t really want to try that, so I stuck with the meat.

We had our next to last lesson of the trip with an older Chinese woman today.  She had very good English and has traveled all over the world. She gave us charts to help us understand the Chinese politics. The charts had the name an years of all of the Dynasties and the order of importance of the people in china. While she was speaking I was listening and practicing drawing Chinese characters. I have Beijing, north, south, east, and west down.

After our lesson our good friend Ruby took us to the silk market. Only a small number of us went and the rest of the group went to hang out at the hotel and work on our business plan presentations.  WE had to take the subway to get there and we went at a really bad time. It was very crowded and the subway workers literally pushed people into the trains. I am very thankful that I do not have to be in that type of crowd every day.  At the silk market I had my fun bargaining. The workers there do not like when we bargain because they aren’t making as much money on us as opposed to the people who don’t know you can bargain and pay the original price. I was bargaining with one man for key chains and wanted to pay 5 rmb and he wanted 50 or so. At first he thought I was British and wanted to pay 5 pounds. When I told him I was American he told me “Ahh Americans. I hate Americans. I want to kill them.” So I told him I didn’t want his key chains anymore and walked away. My favorite purchase of the night was my pearl necklace. It is my birthstone and my name means pearl in Greek so I thought it would be appropriate to get some for a good price in China.

Once we went back to the hotel we still needed to work on our business plan, but we hadn’t had dinner yet. We decided to be lazy and order McDonalds again. We tried ordering a big Mac combo and 3 cheeseburger combos. We ended up getting 3 cheeseburgers and 3 big macs. It wasn’t what we wanted exactly but we were tired and hungry so it was close enough. 

 

Wednesday, May 16

Day 11 – Today we took an hour long bus ride to an alcohol factory, Nulanshan. As soon as you stepped off of the bus you could smell liquor. We walked around and saw the history of the factory and bottles of very expensive alcohol. Then we went to see their assembly line with a few hundred workers putting stickers on by hand and they looked miserable. According to Vanessa they only made about 3000 rmb a month. We were offered 30 proof and 85 proof shots of their alcohol. The first shot wasn’t bad except for it got caught in my throat and burned. People said it tasted like grass but I didn’t taste anything. In Chinese culture it is rude to not accept the alcohol even if you didn’t want it/ were feeling tipsy in events such as a banquet or reception. I didn’t take a shot of the 80/85 proof but I had a sip of the shot from someone else. It was not very tasty but it felt warm going the whole way down.

Next, we went to Jangho, a window/glass making company. The person who was speaking didn’t speak English so he had a translator. She was very quiet and we couldn’t really hear/understand her. But looking at the pictures we were being shown that company had built the windows for some of the tallest buildings in Beijing. Afterwards we took a tour of the assembly line/warehouse and inside it looked like a home depot or lowes.  We walked around and saw more assembly lines with workers doing repetitive steps of the manufacturing process. This was a very short tour.

Next we went to lunch at a government owned restaurant and had some good food. We also got carrot/orange/mango juice which was delicious and so much better than drinking coke. There was a lot of tofu, fish, some cornbread type things stuffed with cornbread, and shrimp. I was so excited to eat the shrimp until I saw that their heads and legs were still attached. I tried one and it wasn’t worth the effort to eat it with taking it apart. I went to use the bathroom before I left and there was a little washer and dryer in the bathroom. Complete with clothes line.

After this we went to the Fragrant Hills which were not hills. It was a hike to get up to the top. There were cable cars that took people up and I was the only girl who didn’t take one. I was walking up and kind of got behind the group. There were smaller paths that I went down and once we got so far up you could see Beijing in all directions. The city is huge. Even further up the hill, once I made it to the top there was a temple. Everyone was taking pictures on some huge rocks up top and everyone was amazed by the view. There was also another little path that led to a pagoda that overlooked the mountain. There were 2 amazing views at the top of the hill. The city and the mountain/hillside’s views were phenomenal. I was disappointed in the fact that there was no fragrance on the fragrant hill. However, I did get a mango popsicle at the end and it kind of made it better.

When we got back we rested for a little bit then went to eat dinner at Papa johns. This was different because In America you just got pick up your pizza but in China it is a sit down restaurant. There were other things on the menu such as shrimp, pasta, spaghetti, and other traditional Chinese foods. My group ordered breadsticks, cheesesticks, a cheese pizza, and a pepperoni pizza. We went all out and it was delicious. We also ordered a pitcher of orange Fanta and went through 2 of those because we were so thirsty. Afterwards we went to KFC and got some ice cream. I really miss drinking milk so ice cream kind of helps with that. Plus, I really like ice cream.

Tuesday, May 15

Day 10 – This morning we visited the Birds Nest and Water Cube. On our way, the bus got stuck under a tree. The tree branch scraped the top and it took a while for us to get moving again. Once we made it to the Birds Nest we took pictures of it, and pictures outside. It was a beautiful day. It was pretty empty inside, our group being the majority of the people in the section we were in. We saw that you could ride a Segway around the track so obviously a lot of us wanted to do that. Vivian got us a discount. I was the only one who had ridden a Segway before and there were normal sized ones and kid ones. I got a kid one…. It was pretty slow, but it was blue. I also wanted to take pictures while riding around but I kept getting yelled at for taking pictures because it was “not safe.” I got some good pictures though. After the Segway tour, we got a group picture on them and we visited the gift shop. I bought two postcards. Postcards are very hard to find in China I’ve noticed.  After we decided not to go to the water cube because we had been there on Sunday and instead we had lunch paid for at KFC. KFC seems to be the go-to fast food in China. All of us are getting pretty sick of it.

We went to Capital Bio which is a microarray software developing company. The building was open and clean and had lights in the shape of cells. We had a tour of the products they make and of the labs for them doing research. Their products are detectors and devices to aid researchers. They hope to make personal devices in the future. They want the personal devices to be as easy to operate as a cell phone.  Down in the basement they had coolers with millions of bone marrow samples. The Chinese version of the Red Cross hopes to use these samples to aid those in need. We also had a tour of their outside garden. It was nice and peaceful.

After we had no time for dinner and rode the subway to a kungfu show. It was the same subway route we took to get to the pearl market. The show was pretty cool and was a cliché story about becoming a kungfu master. My favorite part was when younger kids were doing backflips and landing on their heads. I have no idea how that they do that without hurting themselves.

After we needed dinner and the only thing open was KFC. So I ate KFC for the second time that day. Then it was time to get some sleep. 

 

Monday, May 14

Day 9 – Today, we were allowed to sleep in from our very packed “free” day yesterday. We had a lesson on Chinese economics. The man who was speaking kept coughing and was describing the economics in ways that were way over our heads for understanding. Most of the group stopped listening after a while. I was enjoying my tea.

After our lesson, Dr. Gao told us about the restaurants in the hotel and we decided to try one. We went to the Japanese restaurant and ordered (guess what?) coke to drink.  I ordered cheese stuffed chicken. It was so good. We also got rice and a variety of other cold food. There were potatoes on the tray and I was expecting them to be hot. They were still pretty god even though they were cold.  

We had to go change into our business casual clothes to go to Tsinghua Solar. The building we went to had a finger scanner to get into the room. Dr.Gao thought this was cool and put his finger on and then the screen denied him.  We went into a very dark conference room and got bottles of water. At first we had booklets about Tsinghua Solar in Russian, but this was quickly exchanged. The presentation was very fast and I couldn’t really follow because the guy giving the presentation kept jumping from a powerpoint and another file. Basically, Tsinghua Solar has created personal water heaters for homes using a tank, and a series of glass tubes. After the presentation we went to talk with the people who worked there Their English was very good and we talked about traveling, their college experience, and what they did for fun.

After Tsinghua Solar we had a free evening. We decided to eat at a place called grandma’s kitchen with American food. This restaurant was expensive compared to other restaurants with Chinese food, but we were willing to pay for familiar food. I had a club sammich and it was delicious. It came with onion rings. Then we got some more familiar dessert after, Dairy Queen. At Dairy Queens in China they are very adamant about showing that the blizzards will not fall out of the cups. If they don’t turn your cup upside down, it’s free. For the rest of the night I just relaxed in the hotel. 

 

Sunday, May 13

Day 8 – So today was our free day. We met one of the students, Ruby who helped us to get to the Pearl Market. We took the subway and had to transfer 3 times. It is only 2 rmb to get on the subway and you can transfer as many times as you want. It was about 40 minutes. Once we got there it was 4 or 5 stories. It was huge. We got some headphones for 65 rmb which is a really good deal. They might be a fake but they work really well at blocking out all other sound other than the music. After headphones we went to look at watches. I was debating getting a really obnoxious looking watch just to have but I decided against it. Another student was determined to get a watch and he finally did. It was a really nice Chinese brand watch. Other students in our group got a guitar, silk scarves, jewelry, purses for gifts, shoes and other various trinkets.

After we went to the Pearl Market we went to the Temple of Heaven. We went there because it was only like a block away and it is a big tourist attraction. I believe it was just for prayer. We saw a tree that was 550 years old and the bark represented 9 dragons. Dragons are really important in Chinese culture. After the temple of heaven we needed to get back to the hotel so we could meet another student Vivian to take us to the water park. Originally, the tickets were 200 dollars but Vivian got us a discounted price of 65. Vivian had us hooked up and had preordered taxis which took us straight there. I want her to be my travel agent. Once we were there we went inside and got our lockers and got ready to go swimming. We each had to pay 40 to put on the wristband for food if we wanted it but if not we would just get the money back.

At the waterpark the women’s swimsuits had more clothing than the Americans and the men’s had way less than the typical American swimsuit. Also, the people in China are very open with changing and showering in the locker room. There were no curtains on the showers and people were walking around without any clothing on. It was a bit of a shock. Anyways, back to the water park. Some of the slides were closed so that was disappointing but there was a 4 person raft slide, single rider speed slide, 2 person funnel slide that ended up in the lazy river, some small slides, a wave pool and a slide that you go into a chamber and the floor drops from beneath you. Some people got stuck in this and they had to get them out with the trap doors they have on the sides. I rode every slide I am pretty sure. My favorite was the one with the funnel that dropped into the lazy river. One thing I noticed was that most of the people were scared or reluctant to go down the slides. Seeing as the Water Cube was China’s largest water park (which was very small compared to American water parks), I guess the people just haven’t been exposed to entertainment like this.

When we walked out of the water cube there was a whole line of illegal taxis waiting to take people home. Vivian took care of us and flagged down real taxis and we all got back safely. As we were waiting for taxis we were standing by a 7 star hotel. We really wanted to go look and see what it was like, but we had no business being in there.

So, when we got back we had McDonalds delivered. We tried ordering online but that wasn’t going well seeing as we couldn’t read Chinese. We found an English page but the option to select our district was in Chinese and we didn’t have a phone number to put in. We had Vanessa order it for us, apparently there was an English option to order but she used her Chinese. I got a double cheeseburger, cold fries, and a coke. Then I went to sleep.

Saturday, May 12

Day 7 – We met at 7:50 to go to the Great Wall. It was about a 2 hour bus ride to get there. As we drive there we went through tiny villages and saw some of rural China. It started out very cold in the morning and it was raining. When we arrived there I had a pullover and a raincoat. Quickly, I removed them as we started climbing. The rain also went away and it turned out to be a beautiful and sunny day. Before we started climbing up the hill we went through these water caves, we stepped on stones cutting through water paths. There were lights in it that made it look like a club and there were different signs in Chinese saying the different parts of the rock (I think).  Then we were outside and saw some baby ducks on the side of the hill as we started scaling the hill. There were rooms on our way up showing different rocks and stuff. Then the stairs came. We climbed up stone stairs and some of them were slippery due to the rain. Once we made it to the Great Wall we thought it was an accomplishment. Then we started walking along the wall and going up different stations. The stairs were all different heights and some you had to literally use your hands to climb up. There scenery was gorgeous and my words cannot do it justice. There were so many little bugs surrounding the great wall. They just got in your way and you hated them every second they were around you. The sun was shining directly on us and I was getting hot. It’s a good thing my hair was curled already or it would have been curl city. We made it to once point where the stairs were basically vertical, some people stayed back because they were tired but I figured I was only going to be in China once and was going to do it. I’ll rest later. The view was even more gorgeous and made it so worth it. There was a Chihuahua up there with the people who had snacks stands. These stands were along the entire wall and it must be a hassle for the workers to have to carry stuff up there, but I am sure they make money.

You would think walking back down the wall would be great, except it’s hard because the stairs are all different sizes, and it’s straight downhill and your feet slide forward in your shoes. So it’s basically as much work as going up. But we made it to the toboggans to go down the hill and they were SO MUCH FUN! I took a video of myself going down the slide. I would easily pay 60 rmb to do that again.

Then we were to the little market at the bottom and I finally got bargaining down. The one lady wanted 440 rumb for 2 tshirts and I laughed at her. After going back and forth and me walking away she gave them to me for 40 rmb. They are I ❤ Beijing shirts but the Beijing is in Chinese characters. I got one for my brother and one for myself. I also got a rice had (originally 160 for 40), a mini great wall for 10, and a mini snow globe for 5. I am excited to bargain more in the upcoming days.

Then we went to an American style buffet with the Chinese version of American’s Chinese food. I was excited to hear that there was a pizza bar. The pizza had all sorts of vegetables and meats on it. I picked the pizza with the pineapple on it and it was pretty good. I thought I had finally found egg rolls in China, but inside was a purple potato and it wasn’t so good. I really liked the mango juice to drink and they had a green apple carbonated drink that was really tasty. Overall, the food there wasn’t so great and I probably wouldn’t go back. But there was ice cream and ice cream is one of my favorite things to eat.

After lunch we went back to the hotel. I finally had someone show me how to turn the TV on and was watching Olympic qualifiers for gymnastics. I had no idea what anyone on TV was saying but I’ve always enjoyed watching the gymnasts.  For dinner we decided to try out KFC seeing as it is more popular than McDonalds. Luckily, they had a menu we could point to and I wanted a chicken sandwich. The guy was trying to ask me if I wanted a spicy one or not and I must have looked like a deer in the head lights. One of his coworkers spoke a little English and asked me “spicy?”   The meal was pretty good for fast food.  I liked the mashed potatoes and was excited to drink lemonade. Drinking coke for every meal was getting pretty old.

Friday, May 11

Day 6 – Today we went to the summer palace, it was so far my favorite day. The palace was magnificent and glorious. We walked through the long corridor of the summer palace and there were beautiful hand painted pictures (all different) on along the ceiling. The summer palace was remade due to the cultural relic destroying from Chairman Mao. It would have been really neat to see the original. We walked and climbed up a lot of stairs to get to the top where there was a Buddha. There was a sign telling people not to take pictures. Vivien told us that the Chinese believe if you take a picture the spirit will come with you and bad things can happen. Once we made it to the top we had a beautiful view of the lake. This lake was man made and so was the mountain that we had just climbed. It took thousands of slaves to construct this for one man, the emperor. The lake is in the shape of a peach (signifying a long life). There was one point when there was an empress of China. She had a double-decker marble boat built.

We went to another section of the summer palace and we went shopping in a southern Chinese style area. There were very narrow sidewalks and I thought I was going to fall into the water. There were so many souvenirs to buy and look. There was a scroll with a painting of the great wall that I was willing to pay 48 rmb but another student got it down to 30 rmb for me. I hope I will get better at bargaining in the near future.

After the summer palace we went to lunch/dinner in mall area. At this place we cooked our own food in boiling water. We had greens, mushrooms, crab, beef, potatoes, dumplings, carrots, tofu. There was a dark tofu with ducks blood (tasted like blood. Not one of my favorite new foods on this trip) and other food. It was delicious. I really like the idea of cooking my own food. It makes it a fun experience. Afterwards, I bought birthday cake oreos from the grocery store and mountain dew. The Oreos chocolate tasted different from the oreos I had at home.  On our way back to the hotel, I realized that I had forgotten my rain jacket on my chair. I went back and tried to communicate to ask for my jacked, I think they understood, but didn’t have my jacket. Fortunately for me, another student had picked it up and I got my jacket back.