This was our first full day in Shanghai and it completely blew me away. The day before we went on a river cruise to see the city and it was lit up like a Christmas tree. We also learned how Shanghai is laid out with West Shanghai being old and East Shanghai being new with…
Category: Plus3 2019
Entry #6 An incredible sight to see
The second day in Xi’an started like any other day by getting some of the fabulous breakfast that the hotel had provided for us. On the bus ride to the Terracotta warriors our tour guide Kevin talked to us about elements in China. In the United States we only have four elements, earth, wind, and…
Entry #5 First day in Xi’an
On the first full day in Xi’an we went to the children’s village on the top of a mountain outside of Xi’an. The children’s village was started in nine-teen ninety-six to help children whose parents have gone to prison with an education, a good life, and preparing them for the future. The kids at the…
Day 11: A Pilgrimage for Coffee
Today was our visit to the Shanghai Deep Sea Port, one of the biggest ports in China and a hub for trade in the country. The drive was about two hours, so a Pitt alum who lived in China was invited to come and speak with us on the ride there. Her name was Sarah,…
The Long Road Home
This adventure ended, as all great adventures do, with the long road home. Hence, our last day in Korea was spent traveling, which began with an approximately five-hour bus ride from Busan back to the airport in Seoul. As the hills whizzed by outside the window, it still felt surreal to me that we were…
Entry #4 Tiananmen Square and the Temple of Heaven
Today was the last day in Beijing. I was feeling very American so the only thing I ate for breakfast were Rice Krispies. After breakfast we went to see Tiananmen square and the forbidden city at the center of Beijing. Tiananmen square is the third largest square in the world, and one of the most…
Entry #3 Huawei visit
On the third day of the trip we went to our first company Huawei. We visited the research and development center in Beijing. This company visit blew me out of the water from the moment we stepped into the building. It was a marble building with an enormous chandelier hanging above. After we entered the…
Entry #2 Balling in Beijing
On the second day in Beijing we went to the Central university of Finance and Economics and attended a lecture about big data and data analytics. This lecture emphasized how rapidly the smartphone market was growing in China. In the year two-thousand there were only two million smartphone users in China. By the year two-thousand…
Entry #1: First Day Abroad
On the first day of the trip we left for the Great Wall at 8 am. Before we left for the wall, we got the all-inclusive breakfast and it was incredible. There was a wide arrangement of food from fried rice to pork and chicken dumplings. Along with the food there were a ton of…
Day 9: ECUST
Today was our first full day in Shanghai, Nancy’s home city, and man I want to move here !! We spent our morning at ECUST the East China University of Science and Technology. When we arrived we got a tour of their gorgeous campus in the middle of the city. It occurred to me that…
Day 7: Terra-Cotta and Tough Roads
Today we had to wake up early again so we could get to our first destination early, the Terra-Cotta Warriors. We had to go early so we could try to beat the crowds a little bit, otherwise it would have been hard to get a good view of the warriors in the pit. There were…
Day 6: Cherries and Kisses
After a day of pretty chill travel and a quick tour around the Muslim district the day before, it was our first full day in Xi’an. We had to leave a bit early to head outside the city to the Sun Village, a place where kids live who have parents in prison. Driving out into…
South Korea: Final Summary
It was an amazing two weeks in South Korea that was full of experiences that I will remember for the rest of my life. As this was my first time traveling to internationally, it changed my perspective on many things and taught me about a different culture that will impact me as I grow and…
Thank You, South Korea!
The two weeks I spent in South Korea were some of the busiest, most overwhelming and exciting weeks of my life. In addition to touring companies in a wide range of areas, I learned a lot about South Korean history and culture and how these directly impact the workplace environment. I gained a greater understanding…
Starbucks Reserve Roastery SLAPS!
Before I get into the first full day in Shanghai, let me just briefly talk about the river cruise the night before. Shanghai is so cool! It’s basically like New York on steroids. The skyline at night is is like nowhere else I’ve seen with all of the lights. There are even two buildings next…
Day 4: Lost at the Temple
Today was the day we got to visit the infamous Tiananmen Square as well as the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. Inside Tiananmen Square we saw a hella long line forming to see the body of Chairman Mao, but it was about 4 hours at like 9 in the morning, so we weren’t…
Day 3: Blown Away at Huawei
This was the day we had all been waiting for since before we left for China. Our visit to Huawei, one of largest telecommunications companies in the world, the phone brand second in world sales after Samsung and beating out Apple, and also a central player in the trade war and U.S.-China relations. Because our…
Day 2: CUFE
Today we spent the whole day at CUFE, the Central University of Finance and Economics. When we first arrived, we were greeted by Aurora, our hostess for the day. She escorted us to our lecture room where Kai Long, a professor at CUFE, gave us a lecture on big data, e-commerce, marketing, and smart phone…
33 Hours of Traveling Later
I could not sleep Friday night into Saturday; not because I was excited for the full day of traveling that awaited us, but because I had started to become sick. All day Friday I was coughing but never thought anything of it until I woke up miserable on Saturday. I really felt miserable and could…
Final Reflection
My two weeks in South Korea was a once in a life time amazing experience. I learned so much and had so many great experiences. When I first applied for the Plus3 program I did not know what to expect; and even the day that we left Pittsburgh, I still had no clue what would…