Today we visited two companies. Cheetah Mobile was the first company we visited after breakfast. I was not very excited to visit this company just because I had never heard of it, but I went in with an open mind. After an hour drive, our bus arrived to Cheetah Mobile’s headquarters. There were giant cartoon cheetahs on the lawn as well as pretty fountains and landscaping.

I was amazed by how beautiful and modern the building looked. In order to get into the workplace, the tour guide explained to us the face recognition camera. Once our group was in, we were lead into a large conference room with a table covered in treats for us!! The company gave us a mini toy cheetah, cookies, and iced coffee!!! We had an info session and Q&A session. I learned that Cheetah Mobile is a young company (6 yrs old) and develops utility and gaming apps. I enjoyed learning about the lifecycle of an app and the vision of the company. After learning about the company we got a tour of the incredible building, which included a daycare, a rock wall,massage center, restaurant, mini grocery store, karaoke bar, a slide, an outdoor track and more! Getting to tour a company like Cheetah mobile made me want to look for a similar company to work for one day.

After leaving Cheetah Mobile we had lunch at a huge shopping mall and then headed to Microsoft. Instead of being given a tour at the Microsoft China 1 office, we were shown various products that the company had introduced. For example, the translating app and the HoloLens. I thought that it was interesting how they believe the HoloLens (a mixed reality device) can one day replace the smart phone. Although I enjoyed learning about Microsoft’s new products, I wish that we could have tour the offices and learned more about what it is like working for the company.

Next, we took the subway and followed William to the silk market. This where you can get souvenirs and fake designer products. I had fun watching the girls bargain to get their fake Louis Vuitton bags! After shopping, we were all starving and some of us were craving American food.

Jordan, Nilaani, Maddie, and I decided to go to McDonald’s for dinner…we needed a little break from Chinese food.