Today we visited Yangshan port, which was about a two hour drive from our hotel. The port is connected to the mainland by the Donghai bridge, which is the second-longest bridge in the world. I was shocked when Dr. Li informed us that Yangshan port was built in just under 6 months! There were thousands of trucks, cargo, and cranes. I wish we had time to discuss the logistics behind the largest cargo port in the world. We took a group picture at the overlook where we could see the port and the other side of the peninsula that was very beautiful.
We then traveled to Lingang Modern Logistics, which is funded and run by the Chinese government. Their biggest advantage is the location of the company, which is by the free trade zone and the industrial zone in Shanghai. This company is also one of the few places in the world that include 4 kinds of traffic: sea, road, air, and rail. This allows Lingang to ship many different products all over the world. They plan all of the integrated logistics for every production including loading, machining, storage, transport, and distribution. China’s booming e-commerce supports customers to provide them with commodity price and fast speed of distribution. Finally, a unique feature about Lingang is that they provide warehouse logistics. They have a warehouse in their port area and help build custom warehouses for customers to meet project requirements.
We got to explore their own port, much smaller than the Yangshan. They had two boats, one full of cars, and the other full of kiwis. Workers were driving the cars off of the boat onto the dock, and eventually into a large storage parking lot. Apparently, it takes two full days to unload a boat transporting nearly 4,000 cars.
After the company visit, we returned to the hotel around 3 pm and worked on our group presentation for tomorrow. Each group had to create a product that would benefit consumers in China. My group members and I explained our business plan, possible challenges, and why it would be successful in China. I will explain our product in tomorrow’s blog :).
Tonight, we explored the area around our hotel. There are many parks and a big shopping mall. In the parks, people were dancing and doing fitness workouts in groups, which is a common cultural difference that I have witnessed in China. There were also workers replacing plants on large walls around the mall. Shanghai’s street appearance is really well kept up, and I enjoy the flower walls throughout the city. The shopping mall contained many common American stores. It was very clean and busy with people, even late at night. Shanghai seems to be a city focused on consumption and name brand apparel.
After exploring, I was exhausted. These two weeks have been packed with company visits, university visits and sight-seeing. Although I learned a lot and had fun, tonight I decided to rest, catch up on my blogs, and pack my bags since we leave tomorrow night. I need to make sure my checked bag is under 50 lbs!
Goodnight from Shanghai!
Ttylxox,
Ali <3
