Our last company visits were today, to TE Connectivity and DuPont. TE connectivity is a manufacturer of plastic connectors used in electronics. At the TE connectivity plant we visited, they manufacture all parts of these connectors separately and then assemble them on site to yield their final products, a selection of approximately twenty different types…

Today we had the unique experience of visiting the Yangshan Deep Water Port. The port was a two-hour drive away from our hotel but it was worth the wait to see. Not only is Yangshan the biggest shipping port in the world, but it is accessed by the second longest bridge in the world, making…

Today we had the pleasure of visiting Donghua University in Shanghai. They are well known for their fashion design, materials science, and international studies. We listened to a lecture on smart phone and e-commerce popularity in China which luckily tied in well to my group’s product idea for our final presentation at the culmination of…

We left Xi’an this morning on our way to Shanghai, traveling by high speed train again. Driving in on our tour bus, I could tell that Shanghai is the most western city we’ve visited yet by far. Coming from Xi’an, a smaller city of only eight million residents, to Shanghai, city of approximately twenty-four million…

The past three days in Xi’an have flown past, but in this short time I’ve found that I prefer Xi’an considerably over Beijing. People here have been more relaxed and the greater evidence of old China in the architecture and various historical structures we’ve seen has fulfilled my previous expectations of what China would be…

After a good first impression of Xi’an I was excited for our first full day in our new city. Today consisted of two parts: a visit to a Children’s Village and a visit to the Greater Wide Goose Pagoda. Our first stop was the children’s village, about an hour’s drive away from our hotel. I…

We had an early start today to make our train to the next city on our trip: Xi’an. Unlike many of the trains I’ve taken in the United States, the train we took to Xi’an was a high-speed train and reached top speeds of 300 kilometers an hour, or roughly 180 miles per hour. Despite…

Today consisted of a variety of cultural activities to conclude our visit to Beijing. We started the morning with a visit to Tiananmen Square, followed by the Forbidden City, Hutongs, and the Temple of Heaven where we got to try Tai Chi. Tiananmen Square is the political hub of China, used to host many diplomats…

Today we visited our first two companies of our trip to China: Cheetah Mobile and Microsoft. Both visits exceeded my expectations and taught me a lot about some of the software and hardware produced by these companies. Cheetah mobile is a company that specializes in the development of apps. While they started out in the…

Today we got to try a traditional Chinese meal out and visit the Great Wall. I was surprised by how many dishes the restaurant brought out for us, but some of the highlights of the meal included a stuffed flatbread and glazed chicken that they brought us. Unfortunately the restaurant didn’t tell us the names…