1/29/08  Wake up call today was at 7. After breakfast, we headed to the Lo Wu immigration building to cross the border to Hong Kong. On our way, we passed by the Shenzhen train station where thousands of immigrant workers were waiting to go home and celebrate the Chinese New Year. It usually is very busy during this time but today was unusually busy due to the severe weather conditions that hit the south-east of China.
After immigration, it took us about an hour to get to our hotel which is located in Causeway Bay. Then we went to the Hong Kong stock Exchange. It was a short but very interesting trip. The lobby of the trading floor was open to the public in 2006. The trading floor was quite different from what we expected. It was quiet and very slow, and the average age of traders was well over 40 years old. As the guide told us, most of the transactions are now computerized and many traders prefer to work from their offices. However, the older ones choose to still work there as they meet their friends from other companies. Many mainland Chinese and Taiwanese companies are listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since Hong Kong offers great global investment opportunities and easy access to the international market.
Then, we went to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). Martin Matsui, our host, gave a brief welcome and introduction of the HKMA. The HKMA is like a central bank but not quite. It is not responsible for the printing of the money. It is a government authority responsible for maintaining monetary and banking stability. The visitor’s center consisted of two sections; on one side the exhibition wall and on the other, the techniques used in the process of making money. The exhibition wall traces the development of money and banking in Hong Kong throughout the years and some coins and notes used in the past were shown. For the other section, after our guide walked us through the techniques of making the money, she explained to several ways (very sophisticated ones) to identify a fake bank note. In 2003, the HKMA issued standardized colors for bank notes of the same values and also lunched out the trial of plastic bank notes with the $10 bills. Our tour ended with a visit to the HKMA library.
We spent our afternoon walking through Central with Steve as our tour guide. We got on the escalator that travels through the Midlevels. It is a very long escalator; it goes down in the morning and up in the evening. It is an easy way to commute for people in the business area. We got off at SOHO, walked along Hollywood Road, visited some antique shops and ended in Lan Kwai Fong where Peter Sheren (’97) had organized a reception for us to meet with Colby alumni. The reception was fun and relaxed as alumni told us about their experiences after Colby and their work in Hong Kong.
We ended our evening with a trip to a karaoke hall. Thanks to Steve’s enthusiasm and determination, we found one. It was definitely one of the best memories of the group as everybody was there, including Chih and Professor Brown.
Tomorrow is the last day of our trip, and it’s a free day. There is a lot to do in Hong Kong. Some of us are planning to go to the peak, or go see the populous streets of Kowloon. And some others will be heading to Mongkok, central or just visit some old friends. Just one more thing: our paper is due the next morning just before we board our plane home!!!!
--Aichatou Fall ‘10 |
1/28/08  Our last full day in mainland China in Shenzhen was yet another extraordinary one, focused particularly on labor rights of migratory workers. We began by visiting Liu Kaiming, founder of the Institute for Contemporary Observation (ICO). If you can’t figure out what his institute does from its title, that’s because it is intentional; ICO is a labor rights watchdog and provides labor rights educational services and support for migrant workers. The building was equally nondescript, tucked way back in an old factory space, off the beaten path.
Liu presented a power point on the current migrant labor situation throughout China. Development has been extremely unbalanced throughout China, with only 3% of the land area producing approximately 50% of the economic output. Instead of remaining low productive farmers in the countryside, many rural young women and men want to be part of the progress and participate in the economic growth. However, China has a household registration system called hukou that is intended to prevent mass migration. It is rarely enforced anymore, but in the past, the potential for unceremoniously being sent home coupled with uncertain job security due to excess labor limits a worker’s ability to enforce his own rights. More recently, rapid growth in areas such as Shenzhen has outpaced the growth in the labor supply market and foreign owned companies have become increasingly aware of the bad PR they get from having sweat shops. Some of these companies contract with ICO to train local factory managers in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and to periodically perform “social audits” to ensure the workers are properly treated.
In the afternoon, we visited Fuji Xerox of Shenzhen Ltd. (FXSL), a Japanese owned factory located across the street from Foxconn, the electronics giant. The visit was painstakingly organized thanks to Liu Kaiming: we were ushered into the boardroom, given a brief introduction by the Chairman and President of FXSL, Mr. Inagaki, and shown a schedule for our visit. The CSR Promotion Officer of FXSL, Mr. Sonoguchi, led us on a tour of the assembly factory, where every component was put into place from start to finish by migrant laborers. It was all located in a large warehouse where the workers were all hard at work. Compared to other factories that we had visited, it seemed efficient, clean, quiet, and well lit. There were virtually no machines other than power tools used for assembly and few, if any, workers were standing around. There was also a training room where new workers could practice using the power tools until they were fast enough at putting in screws to join the assembly line (18 screws per minute!).
The best part of the day came when we split into two groups and met with some FXSL migrant laborers. The doors were closed and we were free to ask any questions. The workers ages ranged from 19-28 years old and they were all migrants from inland provinces, Hunan and Sichuan. They were pretty happy with the CSR programs at FXSL, but they still felt that the wages were low. Conditions had improved since they first began working there and they felt that on the whole they were better off than many of their fellow migrant workers. They also had the opportunity to ask us a few questions. The two standout questions related to the depreciating dollar to the yuan and to pollution in the U.S.! They may just put in screw after screw each day, but even with just 9 years of low-quality education, they are surprisingly worldly.
We finished off the evening with a feast at a local restaurant with Liu Kaiming and his family. It was a great end to out time on mainland China. It may have been the fiery beef dish, but we were all pretty close to tears.
-- Zachary Schuman ‘08 |
1/27/08  Today was an easy day. We left around 8:30 in the morning for the Shenzhen Museum. There we had a tour of the history of Shenzhen, from a small poor fishing village of around 50,000 people (in China this is tiny tiny tiny!) to one of the biggest and richest cities in China, with the population of more than 12 million people, most of whom are migrant workers. Behind this wonderful miracle is Deng Xiao Ping, the father of Shenzhen -- the first window of China to the outside world 28 years ago.
After this short tour of the museum, we went to a traditional wet market. Yesterday, I mentioned that Walmart is a place where people put everything from the traditional market together, with price and name tags. This was confirmed after this visit to the Dongmen market. The only difference is that this wet market was dirtier, messier, and smellier. The reason is because all the livestock were kept here in tiny cages: from chickens, ducks, and geese to snakes, turtles, fish of all sorts, and even cats! Instead of thousands of pieces of raw meat like in Walmart, here was thousands of live animals being crammed together, waiting for someone to take them out and… They always say “ignorance is bliss,” and now I really understand it. The market was a great experience, and we enjoyed staring at all those things in the market just as much as being stared at by every person in the market. I wonder if there has ever been any group of foreigners like us wandering in this wet market before. The day ended after this visit. We had lunch and were free for the whole afternoon and evening. People all went out looking for cheap stuff to buy in Shenzhen’s many shopping malls. I did not really enjoy walking around as people constantly called us to buy illegal DVDs. I therefore returned to the hotel early, although others stocked up on souvenirs.
Dinner was on our own. Charlie, Chad, Tom and Andrew got MacDonald’s; Holly and Sarah opted for Pizza Hut; and Koleski, Aicha, Zach, Steve, Todi, and I all went to a nice restaurant and had a very delicious and expensive dinner.
-- Jay Nguyen ‘10 |
1/26/08  Today’s wake-up call was 8 o’clock, and we did not have to leave until 9:30 am. That was more than enough time to sleep for those who went out last night to Karaoke. Zack, Steve, Koleski, Andrew, Huff, and our guest student Jasmine all had a really good time. And Andrew is talking about having all 12 of us going for another round of KTV tomorrow. People seem to like that idea too.
After leaving the hotel, we spent the first one hour and a half driving to the largest container terminal in Guangzhou. We were taken to the 12th floor of the tower, and from there we could see the whole Container Terminal, which currently has around 35,000 containers. The room from which every activity in this terminal was carefully observed was hardly any different from all the other observation rooms we have seen so far. There were 6 or 7 computers with diagrams and tables full of numbers. The difference was that all the people there were actually working at the time, keeping their eyes to the monitors, supervising every movement with four or five cameras all around the Terminal. They knew exactly where each container in the more than 35,000 containers was, and where to put the new ones that were constantly coming. It is amazing how only a dozen of people were enough to carry this seemingly impossible task.
After the visit, we went to have lunch. Even though we were then in Shenzhen—one of the biggest, youngest and richest cities in China, we still drew quite a lot of gazes from people passing by. Maybe a group of young Westerners walking around is still an unusual sight in China.
We checked into our hotel right after that and said goodbye to our tour guide. After only half an hour rest, we all set out to the Super Walmart. It was around 4 pm, and the traffic was terrible. The cab-driver was even more impatient than us, blowing the horn excessively, attracting dozens of other useless horns from equally angry cab-drivers all around. Finally we got there after what seemed like half an hour. It was 4:45 pm, and we had to meet back at 5:25 pm, so only 40 minutes to check out the whole three-floor Super Walmart. Actually, that was more than enough for me.
Walmart in China has nothing that you can relate to with those in the US. It was like bringing all the different stuff people used to sell out door in the traditional Chinese markets to one big place, putting them into sections and giving them name and price tags. Other than that, it was the same old market with people crowded everywhere in no order, buying food that ranged from alligator (chopped into head, legs, and body, which was then cut into halves), to turtles, dry squids (we have a picture of Andrew holding one). There was also other stuff like clothes, shoes, electronic devices… Interestingly, we could also buy illegal DVDs in Walmart for 2 bucks. Good movies. At least I saw Shawshank Redemption.
It was just too crowded and noisy and messy, and I think that was enough. It took us another half an hour to get back to our hotel with the traffic jam still going on. Then we went straight to dinner for local Cantonese specialties.
-- Hoa (Jay) Nguyen ‘10 |
1/25/08 
After an early morning yesterday, we got to “sleep in” today and had time to enjoy our western style breakfast. After about an hour and half drive from Guangzhou, we arrived in Shunde where MiTAC is located. MiTAC is a Taiwanese-owned business that manufactures electronic goods: computers, cellphones, GPS, etc. Tony, our guide, was very enthusiastic to show us around the plant and answer our questions. This production plant specializes in desktops. It was originally an OEM (original equipment manufactures) but now it is also an ODM (original designs manufacture). As Tony explained to us, it is very hard for the company to survive as an OEM since they make only $5 on every desktop they produce. So, now they also help their customers design new products. Though MiTAC markets its own brands in Asia, it is best known for supplying big brands such as Dell, Hp, NEC, etc. It was amazing to learn that all these different brands of computers were produced in the same place. After that, Tony walked us through the making of a motherboard. It is a very capital intensive process that requires a lot of precision and a lot of testing. One of the machines we saw could add 140 chip components per second. Also, MiTAC is one of only three companies in the world that have a gigantic automated system that loads and unloads containers without manual assistance. It was very impressive. We also saw the stamping machine that applies thousands of tons of pressure to aluminum sheets to make computer cases. We ended our visit with a lunch in company’s cafeteria.
In the afternoon, we visited Foshan Ancestral temple. It is over 300 years old with very interesting wood sculptures that survived the Cultural Revolution. Then, we went to Shiwan Pottery City. We visited a workshop and spent about an hour shopping for porcelain in the pouring rain.
-- Aichatou Fall ‘10 |
1/24/08 Today, the day began at 5:30 when we got our wake up calls before flying to Guangzhou. We landed in Guangzhou around 10:30am and embraced temperatures in the high 50's. From the airport, we headed straight to the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, where we reunited with Chih, who was with us in Beijing but had to return to Taiwan to vote in the national election (he also missed the coldest temperatures we encountered up north). We had lunch at a factory restaurant and then began our tour. The first ship that we saw was in dry docks for repairs that can take months to complete. The average costs of operating these large ships is about $8,000 per day in operating costs excluding repairs and costing up to $50 million dollars for a company to buy. The China Shipbuilding Corporation repairs about 130 ships per year, bringing in 1 billion RMB in revenue. They also build approximately 14 ships, earning another 2 billion RMB. This was considered a small ship yard, however, it seemed very large to me and employed 5,000-6,000 workers. After the ship yard, we checked into our hotel which is very unique. It is decorated in the style of a European castle, with an immense amount of fake gold. It also has the unique feature of having a full length mirror in the shower which struck us all as being pretty weird. Chih remarked that the ostentatious look of this hotel fits in well with the city of Guanzhou, which is known for its new money decadence. After a brief rest at the hotel, we headed out to an early dinner before taking the Pearl River Cruise. The Pearl River Cruise was relaxing and pretty as there were many fluorescent lights on land lighting up the river. Tomorrow, we are spending another day in Guangzhou before heading out to Shenzhen.
--Sarah Hirsch '10 |
1/23/08  We got off to a bit of a late start this a.m. as the hotel forgot to make our morning wakeup calls. Luckily, some of us have functioning internal clocks, so after a quick breakfast we were only about 30 minutes late to our 1st destination, the Bonas hosiery and socks factory. 300,000 pairs of women's stockings are produced here every day. Each costs about 3 RMB to produce in China and, when sold domestically, usually go for around 10 RMB. Bonas does export, however, and its product sells at a much higher price in other countries. In Italy, for example, the stockings sell for the equivalent of 40 RMB.
After the factory it was back again to Hangzhou. For lunch we stopped off at Zhejiang University, one of China's top schools. The cafeteria was crowded but the food was quite good, especially considering that the University dining services are responsible for feeding most of the 40,000 students.
After lunch we were off on a boat tour of Hangzhou's famed West Lake. Guide books, as well as the native Chinese, rave about its beauty so we were anxious to see the water for ourselves. Unfortunately, the clouds (and perhaps a bit of pollution) hung low above the city, so the views perhaps weren't as nice as they could have been. Still, the skyline of Hangzhou looked very nice from our little boat.
Our last tourist stop of the day was the 13 story Six Harmony pagoda. Like the lake, the top of this nearly 1100 year old structure offered some extraordinary views of the city.
Although Hangzhou is considered a relatively small city by Chinese standards (at around 6 million), it was quite an interesting visit. Tomorrow morning (bright and early), we fly south to Guangzhou and to warmer climes.
-- Charlie Coit '08 |
1/22/08  Today's destination is Yiwu and its sprawling small commodities market. Our 2-3 hour bus ride included stops at two more rural farming villages. The first, Qiancheng, made for quite a change from our initial village visit in Anhui. Zhejiang province is much wealthier and it showed. We met a grape farmer named Mr. He, who lives in a three story house that was quite a bit more modern than the other farmers' homes we had seen. The furnishing still seemed a bit spartan to us, but there was a clear difference between this farmer and the ones we met in Anhui. Mr. He was able to rent land from family and other members of the community to increase his crop output. In Qiancheng, farmers are all allocated 1.6 mu of arable land by the government (1mu = 1/6 acre), Mr. He told us that he had well over 10 mu.
Later in the day we reached the small commodities marketplace the place to come if you need 50 sets of stainless steel cookware or thousands of little rubber bouncy balls. The market covers over three square street blocks and is literally overflowing with everything from plastic toys to heavy duty power tools. Think the next level up from Sam's Club. Unlike Sam's, though, you don't cruise down the isles behind comically oversized shopping carts. At the commodities market, each stall has a minimum quantity of its good that you must buy (usually an obscenely high number). So, since nobody want to lug around 30 electric generators, each stall will ship its product directly to your home. Pretty hassle free actually, if you don't mind being jostled at times by the markets many patrons.
All in all a very interesting day. Tomorrow we will return, for one final time, to Hangzhou
-- Charlie Coit '08 |
1/21/08  Breakfast today was at 7:15am and consisted of cereal and yogurt, which put everyone in a good mood. We began the day with a visit to the children’s garment cluster factories in Huzhou City. The trip to Huzhou City was expected to take an hour and half, but ended up being more like 2 and half to 3 hours. Once we finally made it to Huzhou, we were greeted by Ms. Wang who is the director of international investment. Having said goodbye to Jason in the morning, translation was a little difficult during the introduction Ms. Wang provided. After her presentation, Ms. Wang allowed us to tour some of the factory rooms which were filled from wall-to-wall with small tables with individual sewing machines on them. We were able to see some of the final products produced by these factories, which included a jacket that said “special player” write across the chest. Our next stop was to the Walsin Power Cable and Wire Company. The president of the power cable and wire business group Denis Song gave us a very detailed overview of the company, and then we toured their production facility. The final product is a gigantic spool with thick tightly wound copper wire that can carry currents of up to 500 kV. The trip back to the hotel also turned out to be a little longer than expected, but the factory tours more than made up for a long day in the bus.
- Chad Stecher ‘08 |
1/20/08  Today we were summoned to breakfast at 6:30am, and were served a “western” style breakfast which consisted of scrabbled eggs, toast, and cereal. We checked out of the hotel at 7:30 still a little damp from the previous day, and visited several additional peaks and landmarks on Huangshan. The weather had improved slightly, but the views were still limited by heavy fog and clouds. From the peaks we were often staring into a solid wall of white clouds. Despite the bad weather and low visibility, we were all in awe of the natural beauty that surrounded us. The Huangshan Mountains were even more majestic and breathe-taking than was described to us. We returned to the bottom of the mountain by cable car, and then spent the rest of the day traveling to Hangzhou. After a 3 hour bus ride from Tunxi we finally arrived in Hangzhou where we were given an evening free of schedule activities. All 12 of us elected to eat dinner at Pizza Hut, which in China is a full sit-down restaurant. The meal served as a welcome break from our daily Chinese cuisine, and gave our stomachs a much needed rest from the frog, pig’s heart, and other foreign delicacies we had been eating up until this point.
-Chad Stecher ‘08 |
01/19/08  Today we visited the famous Chinese mountain called Huangshan (“Yellow Mountain”). As we learned from our tour guide Jason, Huangshan is considered the most beautiful mountain in China, if not the most beautiful mountain in the world, by the Chinese people. We were thus all very excited as we traveled by bus to the mountain. After arriving, we purchased some basic crampons to provide extra support on the icy peaks, and a few people bought some “stylish” rain pants to provide protection from the rain. And it was in fact raining as we all prepared to travel to the summit. The bus brought us about ¼ of the way up Huangshan, and then a cable car took most of us up toward the top of the mountain. Three of us (Charlie, Zack, and me) decided to climb the mountain rather than take the cable car, and despite having to climb about 4 miles of steps up the mountain, it was still a fun hike which provided for some interesting views (although the heavy mist obscured anything too far in the distance). On our way up Huangshan we saw many of the “porters,” which are people that are paid by hotels and others on the mountain to physically transport goods (e.g. food, clothing, suitcases) by walking up and down the steps of the mountain (and they can even be paid to transport people on seats that are supported by wooden beams). When we made it to the top of the mountain, we had lunch at our hotel; the rest of the group had already eaten, and we were quite hungry despite the dried kiwis and the Big 100 protein bar that we had on our way up. We met up with the group after lunch and the rest of the day was spent hiking to the Grand Canyon and other scenic spots around the top of Huangshan and climbing to the summit was particularly rewarding. Although many of the scenic views were dulled by the intense fog, we were lucky to see heavy snow, fairly unusual to Huangshan, on the iconic trees that grow out from the rocks on the mountain. By the end of the day, we were all sufficiently wet and cold, but hiking around Huangshan was quite an experience. The iced-over steps and sparse railings kept the adrenaline rushing (at least for me) as some of the steps in the more precarious spots were built jutting out from sheer rock faces that dropped hundreds of feet. We had dinner that night at the hotel and spent the night playing cards, as we were all happy to stay warm and dry (while attempting to dry all our wet gear) after a cold and wet hike that was nonetheless a great day on Yellow Mountain.
- Stephen Frechette ’08 (“Zhong Guo Tong”) |
1/18/08  As you have all likely read in the blog thus far, we have been having quite the trip in China. Yet in my view today really set the bar. We had a relatively late wake-up at 7:45 AM before taking a 45 minute bus ride from our hotel in Tunxi to a small village in Xhe County. Although we have been to some unique places so far in China, the village was likely the first place we have traveled to that has never been visited by tourists. Our bus traveled down a single-lane road that snaked through the small village. A single row of houses, one against the next, crowded each side of the street and mountains lined in tea-bushes and local cabbage stretched skyward. Old and young walked out from their houses and gaped at our bus as we wove around old vehicles, wooden carts, and scooters. The villagers all greeted us with "ni hao!" and smiles as we stepped of the bus and were ushered into a grandmother's house where we spent the morning speaking with five elderly villagers (three teachers and two "party members" who were also farmers). It was amazing to hear comments about the Great Leap Forward, communes, "the hunger time", and Chairman Mao's policies, all from people who lived through this period. After our conversation we all made dumplings (some of us were more skilled than others) as well as some macaroni and cheese (Zack spearheaded this American portion of the lunch which some of the villagers enjoyed even though there is no word for "cheese" in Mandarin). After eating we had the opportunity to visit the local primary school. All 28 students, along with the village leader, the principle, three teachers and a handful of parents, lined up in front of the school as we approached. Professor Brown revealed his hidden talent (making balloon animals!) as he made balloon animals for the children. The rest of us tried to inflate the balloons, but after a few of us nearly passed out, we only managed a few half-filled balloons which the children nonetheless jumped for (literally) yelling, "Wo yao! Wo yao! Wo yao!" ("I want!" "I want!" "I want!"). To me, this was probably the greatest moment yet on the trip. These children were so genuine and curious and we all had a ton of fun joking with them and running around, and the language barrier didn't even matter. After leaving the school we hiked a few meters up one of the mountains to learn about tea plants (we learned about the process of preparing tea leaves when we were in the grandmother's house) and then we departed the village.
From the village we stopped back at the hotel where Professor Brown continued his balloon-making skill with an interesting hat. We drew even more stares than we already received as various people in the group donned the three-foot, balloon jester's hat. From the hotel we visited Mao Xiaolin, a wise-looking Chinese artist, with a long white beard, who specializes in a certain form of painting which utilizes rice paper or silk and various brush strokes. His apartment was essentially a large studio as the walls were covered in dozens of paintings, most of which were scenes from the famous Chinese mountain, Huangshan (which we will be climbing tomorrow). Mr. Mao was kind enough to begin painting a scene from Huangshan for us as we all watched. He really seemed to be a skilled painter (he showed us one painting in a book of his artwork that priced for 60,000 RMB). Fortunately, not all of his work was that expensive and most of us were able to purchase pieces ranging between 200 RMB and 1,500 RMB). Professor Brown even traded a couple of his balloon flowers for a painting!
After leaving the studio (we all had to shield our new acquisitions from the rain) we took the bus to "Old Street", an old section of Tunxi with various shops and restaurants. We had dinner at an interesting restaurant recommended by Jason (our guide) where we ordered a couple new and exotic dishes as well as some classics. After dinner we spent some time in the shops of "Old Street". We then went back to the hotel after what some in the group have called "the best day yet in China".
-- Stephen Frechette '08 ("Zhong Guo Tong") |
1/17/08  January 17th was mostly a lesson in Chinese culture, as opposed to our more frequent economic tours. After eating breakfast at the hotel we traveled to two different rural villages, both of which were excellent examples of traditional Chinese architecture. They were both established in the Ming dynasty, so some of the houses we saw were built in the 16th century. The first village we visited, Chengkan, was very rural and not often visited by foreigners, so we attracted many stares from the locals. We were able to wander around the village with Jason, our guide, as he explained the significance of the carvings, architecture, and artwork in many of the houses. After lunch, we visited another village, called Hongcun. Honcun enjoys relative fame, as several scenes from the famous movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" were filmed there, and it has become somewhat of a tourist destination. Jason showed us around this village as well, and after his tour several of the students contributed to the local economy by buying carvings and other souvenirs. This day was extremely relaxing; the rural villages are a nice break from the bustle of the cities in China.
-- Andrew Kollmeyer '08 |
1/16/08  On January 16th we flew from Harbin to Hangzhou, a city in Zhejiang province. We had to wake up at 6:00 am in order to pack, eat and travel to the airport for our 9:20 departure. We said goodbye to Kimmy, our guide in Harbin, and boarded the plane. The flight was very uneventful and lasted about three hours. Much more impressive than many U.S. airlines, the Chinese airline served a full meal on just a short domestic flight. We landed in Hangzhou around lunch time, got our luggage, and decided to eat a quick meal before our long bus ride to Tunxi. Hangzhou is a balmy 35 degrees Fahrenheit, a welcome change from the frigid weather in Harbin. We met our guide Jason, who used to be a professor of Chinese literature, and on the four hour ride to Tunxi he gave a lecture on Chinese culture. The view from the bus was spectacular, as Anhui has excellent mountain scenery and many small remote villages. We arrived in Tunxi around dinner time and ended the travel day with dinner at the hotel.
-- Andrew Kollmeyer '08 |
1/15/08  We started today off by going to the Hongguang Boiler factory, which opened in 1955 and is still a state owned enterprise. The factory specializes in industrial boilers, however it also manufactures wind turbines. This was a really interesting factory visit as we were able to walk right into the factory and see people welding and working with massive pipes right up close. We also had a tour of the quality control lab, training rooms and the sales/R&D office. We also had the opportunity to ask the director, Mr. Liu, many questions and overall had a really great visit. Logistical problems stopped us from following through on our plans to visit the Harbin Institute of Technology, so with the help of the reference man, Charlie, we made alternative plans to visit Harbin's Siberian Tiger Park. This was truly a unique experience. Upon arriving at the Tiger Park, we boarded a smaller bus and were driven into the actual park. Immediately, tigers were spotted and within 2 minutes one came right up to the bus. However, the true highlight of the park occurred when an SUV drove into the park and released a chicken which was instantly consumed by a tiger, on top of the SUV! We were even given the opportunity to buy chickens 40 RMB/chicken - to feed to the tigers, which Zack took full advantage of. Snow tigers, lions, and even ligers were also seen at the park. Today we also said goodbye to our tour guide/ translator Kenney, but not before his dog fur hat/helmet from Daqing was traded for by Sarah.
-- Holly Battelle '08 |
1/14/08  We left Daqing in the morning and took a train to Harbin, 150 km south east of Daqing. Harbin has had a long history with Russia, and today the Russian influence is still very prevalent. After checking into our Russian style hotel we layered up for a cold tour of Harbin (daily high was -19 degrees Celsius). Our first major stop was Stalin Park where people go to enjoy many different icy activities on the frozen river. Almost everyone decided to ride an ice toboggan down a manmade ice luge which proved to be quite fun. After Stalin Park we headed to Zhongyang Avenue which is the main shopping street in Harbin, but also is known for its unique baroque architecture. After a cool stroll down the boulevard, we headed for a special dinner of flying dragon (pigeon), monkey heads (mushrooms) and other exotic foods. We then headed to the world's largest ice festival, which of course must be seen at night when the structures are lit up and at their coldest. The ice festival was truly amazing and included structures of Tiananmen gate, the Great Wall, West Minster Abbey, igloos, porches, mazes, castles and towers. All of the structures were lit up with colorful lights and were all very impressive.
-- Holly Battelle '08 |
1/13/08  We got up early in the morning to head to the Xinhua hydropower and coal power facility just outside Daqing. May, our local guide, had told us that the local press would be covering our trip to the factory, but I never anticipated the number of people who would be documenting all our moves. When we arrived to the power plant we were taken the company’s hotel and given an introduction to the local area and the power plant facility. We were then taken to the Xinhua lake and the press had some photo opportunities and they also managed to sneak an interview with Professor Brown. The company had gone to great lengths to promote their plant to us and had us watch local fisherman fishing in the lake and catching the fish that our group ate for lunch and had swimmers who dove in the freezing cold water without proper swimming gear. We then got our visit to the coal power plant which produces 660 MW of electricity. It was no surprise that we were taken to their brand new facility which was very well designed and maintained. We were all stunned to find out that it took only 360 grams of coal to produce 1 MW of energy and the technician said this was quite inefficient compared to other new power plants in China. The press got another photo opportunity in the end as Professor Brown handed the Colby banner to the manager of the plant as a memento. The memento, we hope will hang proudly in the power plant till the day that Bates decides to show up and see that they are following our footstep.
In the afternoon we went to the Iron Man Memorial Museum which is dedicated to Mr. Wang Jinxi. The memorial was huge and very modern. The museum depicted the life of Mr. Wang Jinixi who is a local hero in Daqing, as he oversaw many oil facilities and dedicated his life to the production of oil in this region. Mr. Wang was the face of countless propaganda posters during the Cultural Revolution and was regularly visited by Premier Zhou. The Iron Man Memorial Museum was a great way to end our trip in Daqing as the museum signified the nationalism that we found in all the workers in the Daqing oil fields.
Daqing still has a lot of national pride as most of the city is run by the state. Sinopec and PetroChina are the major employers in the city and the people who are employed by them sincerely feel proud working for their country’s development. Our trip to Daqing will be unforgettable because we were welcomed so graciously by all our hosts and we got to experience a side of China that has been forgotten by the foreign visitors since China’s modern development.
-- Lokesh Todi '09 |
1/12/08  Our overnight train pulled up to Daqing at 6:30 am and we were greeted with extremely cold weather (-20 degree Celsius). Daqing is currently China’s largest light sweet crude oil producer and hence it is an extremely important area for the Chinese economy. Oil rigs and drills are found in every street corner and oil supports every facet of the city’s life. Our first stop in Daqing was at PetroChina’s petrochemical factory. We were allowed to see the yarn making plant, which I found particularly interesting as my dad owned a yarn making facility in Nepal. The yarn that PetroChina produces cannot be used for the making of everyday clothing and instead is used for fillings of blankets and jackets. The yarn facility that we visited is one of the many factories that PetroChina runs in Daqing.
After our visit to PetroChina’s petrochemical plant we went to the Daqing Oil Field History Museum. The tour of the museum was a whirlwind as our guide quickly rushed through the history of the museum and had us running behind her for the majority of our visit there. As our tour ended we were asked to sign our names in the guest book and it created much fanfare as we were probably the first foreign visitors in the museum for a long time.
We ended our day visiting the 1205 drilling crew. The drilling crew was founded by Wang Jinxi, who is a national hero in China due to his dedication for his work in the oil fields. The 1205 drilling crew member answered our questions candidly and it was interesting to note that in 1998 the Chinese government started to introduce incentive based compensation for the oil drillers. In the end our conversation with the member of the 1205 drilling crew, our guide Kenney was able to unfairly (atleast we think) barter his hat with the warm hat of the drilling crew. At least we know one of us will not be freezing for the next couple days.
-- Lokesh Todi '09
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1/11/08  Today, we visited the Shougang Iron and Steel Factory and the Olympic Park to see a handball exhibition game. The Shougang Iron and Steel Factory is a state-owned company that produces steel. While visiting the factory, we were able to get an up-close look at the process of taking iron to make steel. One of our favorite parts was the thinning of the blocks of steel by pounding the molten steel with a huge press. Beyond the process, we were amazed by the sheer size of the factory. This factory employs over 120,000 people and produces approximately 5% of China’s total steel output. In addition, we were intrigued by the unique mixture of manufacturing and traditional architecture; most accurately shown by a traditional Chinese structure with smoke stacks in the background. In the afternoon, we switched directions and visited the Olympic Park to see a handball exhibition between Beijing and Guangdong. For some of us, this was our first experience seeing handball. It was a constantly moving game with few breaks, but everyone’s favorite moments were the enormous leaps before they shot, which Kollmeyer was able to beautifully capture on his camera. Throughout the game, Tom and Steve were analyzing the teams’ plays and have come up with lists of potential improvements to make the Beijing team more competitive; economics is certainly starting to penetrate their personal lives. After the game, we quickly caught our train to Daqing, the oil rich city to the north. With the ingenuity of Todi and Jay, we have a spacious place to play card games by putting up the beds. Tomorrow morning we will see if our layered plans for the frigid north will work.
-- Katherine Koleski ‘08 |
1/10/08  Today, we morphed into full-fledged tourists visiting the Temple of Heaven, Liu Lichang, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden Palace. By far, our favorite spot was the Temple of Heaven. We woke up early in the morning to see all of the retirees dancing, sword fighting, playing cards, singing, etc. The activity and flexibility of these retirees compared with American retirees was mind boggling. At the park there was even a man that could stretch his leg to his head. Then we made our way to the interior of the park. The buildings were beautiful restored. One of my favorite structures was the echo wall, where we yelled “Colby” to recruit anyone within hearing distance to become Colby students. Then we made for the art street, Liu Lichang, which sold a variety of artisan crafts like porcelain, paper cutting, paintings, etc. On the way we were chased by people selling watches, Olympic hats, etc. However, we were able to lose them, and Steve was able to buy a chop with his last name. Steve is now anxiously awaiting the opportunity to use them. Later that night, we went to the Chaoyang Acrobatics show. It was amazing show that used a story of entertaining the Emperor to show the variety of talents. Lokesh’s favorite was the boys balancing on plywood while putting bowls into the bowl on his head. Jay’s favorite talent was the men jumping through the four different hoops while flipping. Tomorrow we are looking forward to visiting the Olympic Park, one of the most anticipated moments in Beijing.
-- Katherine Koleski ‘08 |
1/9/08  It was another early morning as we started off with a 6:30 am wake up call, with breakfast in the hotel from 7-8:10 am. Luckily the first stop on our trip was to Arabica Coffee Roasters. Arabica Coffee Roasters is a premium coffee roaster that was established by a couple of Colby alums that markets their coffee to high-end hotels and restaurants in China and around the world. At Arabica, we met with Stuart, one of the founders of the company, and we were able to sample some of their coffee as well as tour their production facility. It was a very interesting and informative tour and a good way to wake up and start the day. Next we were on to another beverage factory called Niu Lan Shan. The type of beverage they produced at this factory is a type of Chinese liquor that is essential to doing business in China called bai jiu. We also had the opportunity to sample some bai jiu, but it gave more of a burning feeling rather than the warming sensation of the coffee. Next we headed out to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. It was a gorgeous day, clear skies and just perfect for climbing the wall. We managed to walk all the way to the end of the section of the wall that was still in tact. The final section was incredibly long and steep and had many of us huffing and puffing on all fours by the time we reached the top. All the hard work and effort definitely paid off as the view from the top was breathtaking to say the least. We ended the day with dinner with more Colby alums and a lecture from Sun Youli about China during the Mao era. It was an incredibly long day and most of us were eager to get in bed once the day was through.
-- Tom Huff '08
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1/8/08  After a semester of anticipation, the day we departed for China had finally arrived. Although 5:15 am was quite the early start, we all had plenty of time to catch up on some sleep during our 13 hour flight from Chicago to Beijing. When we finally landed in Beijing, almost a day had passed since we first began our travels. We were greeted at the airport by our tour guide Kenny and navigated the Beijing traffic to the Lu Song Yuan Hotel. Our hotel is located down a small alleyway and looks like the old traditional courtyard houses of Beijing. After checking in to our rooms, we dropped our stuff and headed off to a Sichuan style restaurant where we met up with a former Colby graduate named Chih-Chien Hsu. Our first taste of authentic Chinese food, while spicy, was quite tasty and delicious. Although we did not know it beforehand, there was also a traditional Sichuan mask-changing performance at the restaurant. It was quite an amazing spectacle that occurred literally right before our eyes and although it was much discussed, we never came to a conclusion as to how the trick was performed. After dinner we all returned to the hotel for some much needed sleep.
-- Tom Huff '08
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