Today we had our first company visits. Our first visit was to Huawei. It was absolutely incredible. The technology there is mind blowing. When we walked in, there was a screen displaying a live feed of a water fall in 16K. I didn’t even know 16K was a thing. The picture was so good it looked real! The company is also the most advanced in its 5G network, which is 10x faster than 4G. Huawei is also pushing to expand into more and more countries and have technology solutions for 3rd world countries in Africa. They also had incredible simulators of how they think their 5G network and other technology such as AI can create solutions to enhance things like automobile manufacturing and even help improve hospitals and treat patients. Not to mention that Huawei had the nicest bathrooms I have ever seen. And that includes America. Even their toilets were high tech! We went to into a conference room and we each had a station with a pen, notepad, microphone and water and then servers came around and gave us coffee and fancy desserts. Then when we left, they gave us little goody bags with a framed picture from when we arrived at the company and a book. The company altogether was remarkable and shows so many amazing possibilities for the future. Honestly after that company visit, I would be ready to work for Huawei. I even want to buy one of their phones but unfortunately, they are not yet available in the US because of concerns of cyber security. Hopefully they can sort it out soon because after that I am absolutely obsessed with the company.

After that we went to have lunch at a restaurant in a large upscale shopping mall. It’s surprising because here that have a lot of restaurants in malls rather than fast food outlets in a food courts. Also, the restaurants in the malls are generally very good. We of course had more incredible Chinese food and then we made our way to the second company visit at VIPkid. VIPkid is an online service that helps Chinese kids learn English by connecting them to teachers in the us and Canada through their online platform. They also have services to help English speaking kids learn Chinese. It’s interesting because they work on a global scale and have to manage schedules in different time zones. They are also changing the way online classes work. When we finished the second visit we returned to the hotel and had amazing dumplings at the hotel restaurant.

After dinner, we took the Subway to the Olympic Village. The buildings were so intricate and modern, and it is crazy that we were standing where so many incredible athletes had stood and will stand again when Beijing hosts the winter Olympics. It was a packed day and I was ready to collapse and just sleep when I got back, but it was well worth it as it was full of incredible experiences.