1st week in South East China
Hi Everyone, I start this blog to share my experience in China. My China trip includes 6 cities in 4 weeks. My project for Ross China Fellowship is a market study for a None Emergency Medical Transportation for China older generation. In addition to the Ross China fellowship, I also will visit some suppliers for my work.
On Aug. 5th Monday, I started my trip in Shanghai. For the first two days, I stayed in Jiading district, which is an industrial district in Shanghai. Twenty years ago, it was considered a suburban area (rural area), most of the residents were farmers. They represent the population who has low income. In the past decade, the auto industry moved in and brought many international companies along with it. Many of them have established HQs, R&D centers and factories here. Many office workers, engineers and high skilled laborers moved in. Since then the local economy has been booming very fast. Today, Jiading is one of the satellite centers in Shanghai, roughly 3 million people live here.
During the time I stayed in Jiading, I visited one of my suppliers Brose. They are a German company, manufacturing seat structures. I spent 2 days at their site, visited their stamping and welding plant. At night time, Brose employees took me to one of the business centers in Jiading, I experienced the local residents’ night life.
On the 3rd day of my trip, I moved to Pudong Lujiazhui district. Similar to Jiading, it was a suburban area, then it developed into a financial center during the past 30 years. Most Fortune 500 companies established their HQs in this area. It has 3 buildings on the list of “The Tallest Buildings In the World”. Most Chinese local people consider it to be the Manhattan of China.
Ford is one of the partners for my Ross China fellowship project. Their HQ is located in the center of Pudong Lujiazhui District. I visited the site on Aug. 8th, Thursday. My meeting started with and introduction of the University of Michigan Ross. Followed with a presentation about the Ross project, the entire discussion lasted about 3 hours. They were very pleased with my presentation. They also shared with me their previous research; I found it would benefit my research.
In the afternoon, I went to Shanghai Hongqiao high speed railway station. Because the station is connected to Hongqiao airport, it is considered to be one of the busiest stations in the world. In the past decades, China has really been trying to build their high-speed railway system. My trip from Shanghai to Nanjing only took about 1 hour, the distance is equivalent from NYC to Boston.
Nanjing was the capital for 6 dynasties in Chinese history, included for the Republic of China. My main purpose for Nanjing is to visit Ford Nanjing R&D center. I spent one day over there, had conversations with Chief Engineer for Vehicle Interior design. I also participated in the employee party for their newly formed group, vehicle Instrument Panel group.
The 2nd day it was rainy; I went to the President Palace in the center of Nanjing. It was a very educational visit, I learned a lot about the history of the Republic of China. In the evening, I went to a very culturally inferenced restaurant. All the dishes are traditional Nanjing local food.
It concludes the first week of my trip in SouthEast China. For the 2nd week, I will visit 2 cities in South West China, Chongqing and Chengdu.