Today we visited two companies: TE connectivity and DuPont. Neither company started in China so it’s pretty cool to hear about how international companies came to China and how successfully they are. The TE connectivity visit was pretty unique to all our other company visits. Instead of an office, it was a plant. I’ve never visited a plant before so it was an interesting experience. We visited 3 aspects of the plant: molding, stamping, and assembly. We saw how there weren’t many workera because of the use of robots and machines. We saw how they make the electronic parts (for example SIM cards) for different technologies such as phone and laptop. Compared to our other company visits, this one was much more technical. They have a separate design center and I think it’d also be really cool to visit there. Next we had lunch and I noticed all our meals in Shanghai has been in restaurants inside of malls. I wonder why. After lunch we visited the DuPont R&D. It’s a science company and the one based on China focuses on 4 main things: (Healthy) food, (light weight) cars, energy and consumer electronic, communication and computer. After an employee from the company gave us an overview, we explored a room that displayed what they do and they went to a lab. I say they went and not we went because I was distracted by ice cream. The company offered ice cream that they make and this replaced the tour around their lab for me. After the company visits we went back to the hotel.

At the hotel I worked on my final presentation for this study abroad class and then headed with friends to Nanjing Street. According to our program itinerary, “Nanjimg Road is the main shopping street of Shanghai, China, and is one of the world’s busiest shopping streets.” We took the subway there and as soon as we arrived we took pictures and then looked for a place to eat. We found another fancy pizza hut. I ordered Pasta and it was really good. We walked around after and it’s a cool street to walk around but not really ideal for a tourist to shop. This is because half of the street was filled with name brands such as Chanel, Prada and so on. The other side of the street was affordable I guess but didn’t have tourist stuff which is what I was specifically looking for. At the end of the day, I was kind of upset because at this point I had not bought souvenirs for my family and I only have four days left. I was also kinda quiet and cranky because I didn’t get to nap. As I’m getting ready to go to bed, I Google places to buy souvenirs and one of the places in Yu Garden. I’m excited because that’s where I’m going tomorrow. Yay! I ended the day in a good mood.

Thanks again for reading:)