For my returning readers of the my last post, the top flavor was Blind Mango and the bottom flavor was White Peach, which created a phenomenal combination. Now onto today’s content.
Today we went to Delphi Technologies, an engineering firm specializing in parts and engines for vehicles, in the morning and the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai in the afternoon.
I was happy for my engineering peers as Delphi Technologies was right up there alley. From my perspective it was also quite interesting, but on the contrary, I could barely understand the technical aspects explained on our tour. Before the tour, however, we had a presentation by David Fan, Managing Director of the AP ICE branch. Guess where he went to school for his PhD, the University of Pittsburgh! His academic advisor from his studies is actually still at Pitt and within the engineering department. He also advises people from my group. What a small world it is to be in Shanghai and have the same academic advisor as someone who graduated 20 years prior from a school halfway across the world. Back to David Fan, he actually had an interesting background because, like I mentioned, he was studying engineering but now his current role, while engineering knowledge is 100% necessary, included a fair amount of managing as he oversees 3,000 people. This made for great insight from all questions fielded as he had excellent experience in both fields. His story as inspired me to start thinking about seriously learning another language. He was originally only included in upper management meetings because of his excellent, bilingual, English-Chinese speaking. Since he spoke so well, he was able to produce more sales rather than just translating someone else’s sales techniques. From there, he continued to rise through the ranks to get to his position today. After his presentation, we took a tour of their facilities where we saw a plethora of rooms used for all sorts of tests, types of developing, and manufacturing. Like I stated above, I could hardly understand all of the engineering lingo used but still got a greater understanding and appreciation for the field and all that goes into it.
While this trip is not directly related to my current field of study and future employment, finance and banking. It has been a great experience and also expanded my horizons beyond the scope that I would explore. If nothing else, academically, this trip opened my eyes to other types of business functions and studying that may be interesting to explore. Now back to business.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai visit went extremely well. Located in a high end shopping district, AmCham Shanghai is largest and fastest growing Chamber of Commerce in the Asia-Pacific region. Having our two hour visit hosted by two individuals who came from the same region I grew up in was quite interesting. The presentation started by detailing the history and strength of China’s economy then shifted into China’s economic and governmental plans. We discussed current and future plans, all of which were to be completed in five years with framework to be established to keep the main principles in tact after the plans were complete. The most interesting plan we had discussed was the “Beautiful China” initiative that dealt with China’s pollution problem as well as beautifying the country’s infrastructure as well. This helped me understand why China’s cities were full of beautiful greenery. The most impactful plan we discussed was the “One Belt One Road” initiative. This development strategy could be previously non existent infrastructure in place that would connect China all to Africa, including all the Eurasian countries in between with routes to other countries as well. This would allow China to rely less on the US for trade and have a greater pull on global trade, all while using Chinese implemented ideas. This idea is being funded heavily by the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), one fastest growing investment banks in the world.
As I mentioned earlier, I became interested in learning Chinese after hearing about all the possibilities it had opened up for David Fan. My visit at AmCham Shanghai only increased that interest. With the growth of AIIB and potential disruptions to the global economy that “One Belt One Road” could bring, being able to communicate and translate both languages would increase my strength as a candidate for any multi-national corporation (MNC).
After returning back to the hotel, I met up with my group and we finished developing and fine tuning our project for our group presentations in the evening tomorrow.
Tomorrow brings the Yu Garden and our presentations!
