Two company visits were in today’s itinerary.  We again left the hotel around 8:20 for a long drive to Sunshine Insurance Group.  Upon walking into one of their buildings, I was already quite impressed with the room we were brought to, as it was essentially a way nicer lecture hall than I have ever seen.  In this room, we were shown a long video on the history of Sunshine, and learned that it’s only been around since 2005, but has quickly made large strides to become one of China’s top companies.

After the presentation, we were led to their own history room about their company.  It was astounding to tour this room because it was pretty much filled up with history year by year over the past thirteen years, including a small, super-detailed model of their entire campus!  I was wondering if they were going to have to use another room for their next thirteen years because the one room was already so filled up.

Upon seeing the model of the campus, I was in disbelief.  I figured it was something the company was trying to build for the future, but sure enough, we walked outside and the landscape was as nice as advertised.  It didn’t feel real to me; it felt like I was in an advertisement for a college campus overhyping their grounds.

We walked around for a little while, and then eventually got lunch provided by the company.  It seemed slightly Westernized and adjusted to our palettes, but it was still really good food.  This was one of the best meals I have had abroad, and it consisted of a light salad, apples, fried fish, beef noodles, and rice.  We also had the option to use forks and knives with our meal, so I grabbed them but ended up using chopsticks for the whole thing.  I’m genuinely surprised at how used to them I’ve gotten.

At around 2 pm, we made our way to Xiaomi, a smartphone manufacturing company.  This visit was much different than Sunshine; we were brought to a conference room in a giant office building.  The presentation focused mostly on their supply chain, but we also discussed their design process and how those raw materials become a finished product.  I found it very interesting that they modeled their smartphones off of the top two manufacturers in the world, Apple and Samsung.  Their design is very similar to that of an iPhone, but it has Android features like Samsung Galaxy phones.  We later went to a mall that had a Xiaomi store, and it was wildly similar to Apple stores, but they sold all sorts of things from smartphones to rice cookers.

In the early evening, a few friends and I went to the Silk Road Market to finally get some experience with bartering once and for all.  There were six floors of cheaply produced merchandise all lined up in small stores.  I quickly realized that the merchants spoke English pretty well, so I wouldn’t have to use the Chinese phrases I learned.  However, this didn’t stop me from making things a little bit interesting.  I walked into a sunglasses store and began bartering in Spanish.  The lady I was bartering with was so confused and only understood a few things I was saying, but I thought it was hilarious.  I was able to bring down the price on a pair of decent-looking “Ray-Bans” Clubmasters from 290 yuan to 90 yuan, which is about $15 USD.  I was honestly surprised that I remembered enough Spanish to be able to barter, but that really says something about the great Spanish teachers I had in high school.

Today was a jam-packed day, but well worth it.

-Colin