This morning, I had to get ready for the second day of site visits. Today we had TE Connectivity and DuPont on the list. I had done research on TE Connectivity as a part of the preliminary presentation, but I was still not sure what to expect with this company. Researching them gave very little…

This was the last full day in China. I’ve enjoyed my stay here greatly, I was able to see world famous landmarks, explore the world’s largest cities, and see so many things I may never witness again. While I had a good time in China, the busy schedule of these two weeks has been exhausting,…

Today we visited the Yangshan Port, the largest deep water port in the world. During the 2 hour bus ride there, an American who now works as a freighter in Shanghai spoke with us. He talked about his field of work, which deals heavily with the major of Supply Chain Management, and gave us time…

This morning, I woke up with just enough time to get ready to visit Donghua University. With no coffee or breakfast, I headed onto the bus. The drive was very short, and we started walking to the classroom. One of the first things I noticed upon entering the campus was the number of foreigners walking…

Today we had another early day, leaving Xi’An by high speed train to Shanghai. I really liked my stay in Xi’An, since it offered very uniquely Chinese sites, but was looking forward to Shanghai as well, since it is the largest city in the world.  After a long train ride, we arrived at the hotel….

The first thing we did on our seventh day in China was visit the TerraCotta Warriors. I learned much about this attraction in school, so I was looking forward to this visit. On the way there, our guide Cindy gave us the history of this place, and the emperor behind it: Qin Shi Huang. This…

Today the group was exposed to a very important cause, the Children’s Village. The Children’s Village is a daycare/orphanage for the children whose parents are in jail. This is a state sponsored operation, which is something we would not find in America.  They are trying to expose these children to positive, productive experiences, and proper…

Today, we left our hotel in Beijing, and traveled by high speed train to Xi’An.  I had heard much about bullet trains back at home, and was very much looking forward to riding one for the first time. Going through the security process to get into the train station, I was surprised by how relaxed they…

Our fourth day was definitely the most active during our stay in Beijing. After a long night out, waking up at 7 am was not easy at all. Somehow I managed to get ready in time, and we headed out for our first stop: Tiananmen Square. I was disappointed that the Mausoleum was closed, because…

On the third day of our stay in Beijing, we visited the Chinese headquarters of Cheetah Mobile and Microsoft. Before the we actually reached our first destination, Cheetah Mobile, I was not expecting this day to be very exciting. I expected the offices to be very dull, and the information given to be uninteresting. However,…

This morning, we went to the Central University of Finance of Economics. The campus is only 9 years old, and architecturally, it looked very advanced, at least compared to Pitt. As soon as we arrived, we were led to a lecture hall to listen to the presentation on the Chinese smartphone industry, and e-commerce. This…

Coming in to Beijing, I had no idea what to expect. One of the first things I noticed was how big the city actually was. Unlike the clearly defined borders of downtown Pittsburgh, the city seemed to go endlessly in all directions. Fighting the powerful desire to immediately sleep, we went out to eat dinner,…