The past two weeks in China have been an amazing experience for me. I learned even more than I thought I could. We had the chance to study Chinese culture and successful businesses in China, and I even learned a little bit about engineering. I think everything we did from visiting universities to companies allowed…
Tag: Plus 3 China
Day 9: ECUST
Today was our first full day in Shanghai! Last night after we got off the bullet train and checked into our hotel we went and got pizza, French fries, and chicken wings for dinner. The food here has been great so far but, it was nice to have some familiar foods after a week of…
Day 10 – AmCham and Horiba Company Visits
Today was our second full day of company visits, first for Shanghai! I was really excited to get a first-hand look at some companies that are successful in such a prosperous and expansive city. First we visited AmCham, the American Chamber of Commerce. This company is known to be the “voice of American business” in…
Terracotta Warriors and Biking the Xi’an City Wall
When we got on the bus this morning, Dr. Li gave us all communist hats that he bought at the street market the night before. This is possibly the most interesting gift I’ve ever received, but none the less, we all appreciated it :). Kevin also gave us Chinese knots. In Chinese, knots represent vigor, harmony, and…
Huawei, VIPKid, and the Beijing Olympic Park
Our first company visit set the bar extremely high. Huawei was amazing! My pictures do not give the showroom justice (photo creds to @katieking!!). Huawei seems to be ahead of their other tech company competitors in almost every way. They pioneered 5G, which is ten times faster than 4G. Huawei claims they are 12-18 months…
Cheapest Trip to China!
Ni Hao, I’m John Christiano, a freshman chemical engineering student in the Swanson school. I am originally from Rockville Maryland, just outside of DC. I am super excited to visit China! In Rockville, I graduated from Wheaton High School’s Engineering Academy. While I did a variety of activities in high school the two most influential…
Xièxiè China
Traveling to China has been one of the best experiences of my life. I’ve not only learned a lot about Chinese culture, but I’ve learned a lot about America just by living in China for 2 weeks. Being in China has really made me realize America’s place as a world leader is really being threatened….
Day 13: I Buy a Suitcase from a Cell Phone Company
I couldn’t believe it was finally here, our last day in China. The last day of the trip would be spent sightseeing, relaxing, and pitching the business ideas we had been developing in small groups. Breakfast, of course, came first. I only had 1 more day of dumplings ahead of me, so I had to…
Day 12: Delphi Technologies and American Chamber of Commerce
Today was another day full of company visits. First was Delphi Technologies, a company that develops combustion engine and electric drive train technologies. This was an exciting company for me to visit because the person talking to us was the first engineer we had met on the trip. Hearing someone talk about engineering concepts and…
May 19th- On my way home… to safe tap water!
Last day in Shanghai, another great night sleep without an early morning – great breakfast at the Regal. My friends and I had a few hours at the hotel (or area close by) until we had to assemble around 11am for the trip to the airport. It was a weird time because we all had…
May 18th- I eat something other than Chinese food!
After one of the first nights where I had gone to bed at a reasonable time, I woke up feeling well-rested and ready for the Yu Garden, the last cultural site of our trip. In addition, I knew today that I would have a few hours to hang out before I needed to be back…
May 17th- I learn Chinese finance without a class!
Today was the last of our company visits for the trip. Personally, it was my favorite day for site visits overall as well. The first visit of the day was to Delphi Technologies. It began with a presentation done by a past Pitt graduate, which was a cool way to start the presentation. In fact,…
May 16th- Logistics? Who knew it was interesting?
Today was another day in the beautiful Regal Hotel. After a late night the night before, I was really hoping to sleep in. Unfortunately, this is one of our earliest days that we had over the trip. I woke up at 6:00 for the 7:20 meeting time, and was up and down at breakfast by…
Day 11: Warehouse of the Future
I woke up and suited up, ready for the first day of company visits in Shanghai. When we got on the bus we met Mac, an American living in Shanghai. His job is to arrange logistics and shipping for companies shipping medium amounts of cargo. Small amounts of cargo aren’t important enough to be managed…
May 15th- Who wants to start a trade war?
Today was the second of my trips to different universities in China. After another solid breakfast, we went to the East China University of Science and Technology. It was some ways away, and I took a nice long nap on the way up. Upon getting there, it was not a barred and gated university,…
May 14th- I finally see what I missed in Xi’an
May 14th was our last day where the seven sick students were alone. We met up with the big group today, and resumed the rest of our trip the next day. We were given another late morning to recover from the train ride the day before. It was the first day where we ate breakfast…
May 13th- I ride the fastest train in the world
Waking up, I was still scared to eat the breakfast I normally eat, so today I had a lot of rolls and some potatoes. It was good, but it was quite bland. I was one of 7 members of our group who were sick enough to go the hospital. It was a late morning because…
May 11th and 12th- I get a “full body” experience from China
Sorry for the recent lack of blog posts! I was sick for a few days. After my trip to the Forbidden City, I worked on my project before falling asleep in my room. I woke up during the night of May 10th with stomach pains, but didn’t think much of them and tried back to…
May 10th- I get to see history older than the United States
May 10th was an early morning and unfortunately I had not had not much sleep during the prior evening. I woke up an hour before our leave time so that I could make sure that I ate breakfast and shower before we left. Once again, I had a great breakfast (which had now been normalized…
May 9th- Ceramic Smartphones? No way!
May 9th was our latest morning of the week. It also happened to be the first night I was able to sleep though without waking up, and was followed by another strong breakfast where I branched out in terms of how much fruit and washed goods (I had been very careful eating fresh foods as…