Our itinerary for today included just a visit to Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) and afterward, we decided as a group to go to the Olympic Park from the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and a local marketplace. We arrived at CUFE around 10:00 AM and received a lecture from Dr. Yao on 5 key topics while a small group of CUFE students sat behind us. The topics were big data, personalized marketing, differences in traditional marketing (between China and the US), e-commerce in China, and smartphone marketing. He then held a Q&A session for us regarding anything he had just covered. An interesting fact that I learned was that in China they have a holiday called Singles’ Day which occurs annually on November 11th. This happens to be the biggest e-commerce day in China. Dr. Yao shared with us that Alibaba generated $25.3 billion in sales revenue on 11/11 this past year which is 3 times more than the revenue all of the US generated during the weekend of Black Friday to Cyber Monday. Another interesting thing I learned is that the WeChat app is used for basically everything in China. The people here use it to text, post photos, pay for goods/services, and even video chat. It is everything the general apps on a Samsung phone or an iPhone can do except it is all in one app that everyone downloads.
Following the lecture from Dr. Yao, the students guided us to their cafeteria and accompanied us for lunch. Two female students sat at the table with 8 of us. They didn’t speak great English, but it was enough to get by so that we could have a conversation while eating. We introduced ourselves, mentioning our major and our favorite music artist. They were very fond of American music and Katie Perry happened to be one of their favorites. For lunch, we were served a variety of dishes, but the one that caught my eye was a breaded, fried fish. It was served with the head attached and everything else intact. After detaching the head and tail I removed the spine and ate it. It tasted kind of like a fish stick.
After lunch, we headed over to their library (see below) to take a tour. Let me first say that it was absolutely nothing like Hillman Library. We learned that it cost $30 million to build and contained approximately 2.4 million books. It was massive and honestly was a piece of artwork itself. We were shown the basement which included extremely impressive artwork created by the students and then got a tour of the first floor. I also learned that any time a Chinese student has free time they spend it in the library either doing schoolwork, studying, or reading. At CUFE, each student can have 30 books checked out at one time and they have 1 month to return them. We exited the library and walked back to their huge outdoor athletic facility. One of the female students told me that each student had to go to the outdoor facility 30 times a semester to earn 5 points for their grade. Without doing so some of them would get an ‘F’ for the PE grade. We did some team bonding activities with each other and the CUFE students which included a group jump-roping game. Unfortunately, it became time to leave, but my experience at the CUFE was a great one. It was exciting to see the differences between university life here and at home and differences between the students.
Upon arrival, back at the hotel we quickly got some rest and ate and then decided as a group to spend our free time going to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games Park in Beijing. We had to take the subway to get there. This was my first time taking the subway in China. A significant difference is the security. Everyone must have their bags checked and walk through a metal detector like at airport security. We arrived at the Olympic Park and got to split up and explore the area. Some of the sights included the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube (see below). Both buildings were beautifully designed and well lit. Following our time at the Olympic Park, some of us headed to a local Beijing market afterward. It was a wonderful place to visit at nighttime and I stopped at an egg ice cream store and got this unbelievable waffle with ice cream, fruit, and other toppings (see below). After an hour or so we walked back to the hotel which took about an hour but seeing the city made it more than worthwhile. I’m looking forward to seeing what our company visits to the Sunshine Insurance Group and Xiaomi will hold tomorrow!
