Final Journal Entry

1.       Ethical Issues in My Profession:

The goal in business is ultimately to make a profit; not only that, but to make as big of a profit as possible. In the United States, we have laws defining who can work in certain industries for how many hours a day and how many days a week. In the last 20 to 30 years, we have seen many businesses, in a wide range of industries, have been shipping their manufacturing jobs overseas where they don’t have these laws to try to increase their company’s bottom line. In China, I witnessed a lot of workers who I thought looked to be very young, or at least too young to work in the United States. China itself is not very ethnically diverse. By this I mean diversity as we know it in the US, because China has many different ethnic backgrounds within the Chinese culture. This process has had astounding results in the United States. We’ve seen a millions of people lose jobs because of a company shipping jobs overseas, specifically in manufacturing and IT Help Desk jobs.

2.       Educational Breadth as Professional Development:

In this day and age of technology and its advancement, it is easier than ever to contact and converse with people halfway across the globe. Because of this it is more important to learn about the business and engineering ethics of countries around the globe and to maintain good business relations with them. This can be achieved by taking classes in school that focus on global business ethics as well as basic introductions to histories of different areas and focusing on cultural relations between the U.S. and other countries. These courses will help prepare future businesspeople in the effort to bridge the cultural gap and strengthen business relations. Even without dealing with another country, the classes can help build a more rounded foundation of cultural and ethical diversity that business sometimes look for when they are hiring new employees. In the coming days of the global economy, taking classes and going on cultural immersion experiences like Plus3 will help any future businessperson in their future career.

3.       Lifelong Learning, Continuing Education as Professional Development:

On most of these company visits the employees were very knowledgeable in their respective fields. This was one of my first impressions of the employees as they presented the basics of their respective businesses to our group. Not all of this knowledge however was learned at school. They learned a lot while at school, although it seems like only enough to start at an entry level position at their current job. The rest they learned on-the-job, gathering knowledge of the product and the company while working there. The employees seemed to know a lot about the product when the first started and then as they moved up the ladder, learned more about the business side of the company and how the company is maintaining their success with an eye on moving forward. Based on these visits, I’ve learned that it is very important to keep learning even once I am out of school because technology doesn’t stop advancing and ethics don’t stop changing. In order to compete in the future I will have to maintain knowledge from school and continue to attain knowledge while on the job and at future jobs.

4.       The Social Environment of Professional Life:

In China, I noticed that many people were focused on the task at hand and didn’t worry about leisure time. I thought this was especially prominent during the commute to and from work. Chinese businessmen are direct and to the point, not worried about things on the side of the road or what other people were doing until it directly impacted them. Similar to the Chinese businessmen, I don’t think many people, Chinese or American, know much about the other country’s politics until it directly affect them and requires their attention. In America, we don’t worry about the sweatshops in China until they stop making our favorite shoes or technology. However, I think it’s important to know the basics of global politics and how it affects me or my interests directly or indirectly. Some issues that are involved in the business world such as the economic and social issue like maximizing profits at the cost of living and working conditions of people in other countries, also there are political issues like working with other countries that may not be allies with my country but still being able to work out a deal to allow my company to work in the other country.

5.       Functioning on Multi-Disciplinary Teams:

I think that it is very important to be able to work on a multi-disciplinary team in my profession, both with members from different fields of study and members of different cultural backgrounds. It is very important, when working as a part of a team like this, to voice all opinions and allow everyone their fair say. This is important because no one person knows everything there is to know about that subject. Also, members of other disciplines may be able to provide insight into how efficient or possible the idea can be. There are many challenges that arise while working in a multi-disciplinary team. One such challenge is that members from each discipline may not trust one another. A second issue is that communication may be lacking between the group as a whole. This can be fixed by establishing an effective way to communicate before the group starts working on any projects assigned to it. As problems continue to arise during the time that the group is working together, the members from different disciplines must try to solve the problems before they become too big and stop the group from working effectively.

Day 14: Travel Back Home

Wow. That’s the first word that comes to mind when I think about these last two weeks. I can honestly say it’s been the experience of a lifetime. The friendships I’ve made on this trip are indescribable and the things I can say I’ve seen or been a part of were some things I never thought I would be able to do. This was an amazing program on Pitt’s part, mixing the right combination of sightseeing and study. The best part about the program was that it is only offered to freshman, and any freshman who doesn’t take advantage of this trip is doing something wrong. It was a great way to end my first year in college and set me up for another 3 (or 4) more great years at PITT.

This will be my last daily post, with a culminating one coming up shortly after this one. On this, our last day, I felt a mix of emotions. On one hand I was sad that I had to leave such a great group of faculty advisors and the Chinese friends I made, not to mention the fact that we were legal to drink, which always helps. On the other, however, I am happy to be going back to the best country in the world, The United States of America, to see all my friends from home and to get the rest of my summer started. It’s really great that I have three more months of summer before school starts back up again, but nothing I do the rest of this summer will top the last two weeks I spent in Beijing.

Over the last two weeks I’ve seen more historical sites and monuments and cultural things than I have my entire life. From the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square to the Pearl Market and La Bamba, these are memories and experiences that will stick with me throughout my lifetime. Even the company visits went better than I had expected them to. We saw some of the most innovative companies in Beijing, on the cutting edge of their respective fields’ technology, working hard to solve problems affecting not only China, but the entire world.

The most interesting part of the trip, and the part hardest to comprehend, was the culture shock. I knew going in to the trip that things were different in China, but just how different was absolutely incredible to witness and live through.

Day 13: Lecture 5 and Group Presentations

This is the last day of our trip to Beijing. It’s a weird feeling after getting close with everyone these past two weeks. In the morning we had our last lecture, again on Chinese politics and family life. The lecture lasted a little over two hours, and then we presented our culminating projects which were necessary as part of the three credits we earned for this trip.

There were four groups each with unique ideas for their project. Our project was to create a product that had a market in China. Let me tell you, there are very few products that don’t have a market in China, so the groups focused more on products that were solutions to problems we encountered while in China. One group offered an updated version of GoogleMaps or MapQuest that included user input such as mode of transportation, kind of vehicle (if driving), and would log time to create a database to get places faster. Our group created a sort of bigger air filter to help clean the smoggy air of Beijing, we didn’t really think it out that much but it still went ok. The third group created a system that would help report corruption to the central government and to help free people who were living under the corrupt local government. The last one had to do with the water in Beijing. The tap water is too dirty to drink so they created a product that would purify the water and create tea through multiple filters.

All were good ideas and had good presentations, and like that the scheduled part of the trip was over, except the farewell dinner. During the day I took a nap for once during the trip. At night we went out for the last time and did a sort of bar crawl, drinking the drink named after the bar at each one. It was a great night.

Day 12: Lenovo and Lecture 4

Today we took our last company visit, this time to Lenovo. Lenovo is one of the world leaders in PC production, just behind Dell, HP, and Apple in the US market. The tour was really cool, and they have a ton of new, innovative products. However, it had more of a sales pitch feel than an informative tour for business and engineering students. The guide was very good but he highlighted more of the features of their products rather than how they design or sell the products. Granted we are the target market for their new products, so it was a prime opportunity. Their campus was very nice too; it even had a waterfall-esque thing.

After the visit, we were taken out to experience another Chinese delicacy, Peking Duck. We were taken to the best restaurant in the city for duck, and they even had a duck station, where we could watch the ducks being prepared to be served. The whole meal was delicious, and the duck was much better than ones I’ve had in the states. They serve it to you on the rotating plate I talked about earlier, and they give you small tortillas and toppings. That way you can make a sort-of burrito to eat the duck. The meat was pretty good, but I liked the skin the best. Also, I ate duck brains out of the head of the duck, which was very cool and surprisingly good.

In the afternoon we had our fourth lecture, this one about the Chinese Political system over the 3000 years of their history. I wasn’t particularly interested in this lecture, so it felt like the two hours dragged on for four. After the lecture, my group worked on our final presentation which we are presenting tomorrow. The presentation we need to do is a culminating project. Our goal is to create a business plan for a product that has a market in China because it solves a problem. Our group wants to create a large air filter that people can put on their roofs in Beijing and other cities with bad pollution and it can help clean up the air.

Day 11: Distillery, Chemical Coating, and Fragrant Hill

Today we were supposed to visit Hyundai’s plant in Beijing, but they are retooling the factory so we weren’t able to go. So our faculty chaperones set up two shorter visits at two very different companies. First, we went to a distillery in the outer regions of Beijing. I can’t remember the name of the company but they make a drink called Bai-Jaiu. It is clear liquor that ranges in proof from 70 to 130. We went there are 9:45 in the morning, and were offered samples of the liquor to taste. I didn’t refuse of course, and it was just as strong as they advertised and we were warned. Later that day, the distillery, which is partly state-owned, took us out to lunch with some of the local government officials.

The second visit was to a coating company. This company works with protective coatings on the outside of buildings to conserve energy. They worked on some of the biggest buildings in Asia and also have started to develop a world-wide presence with a few projects on the other continents. At most of the companies here we were the most dressed up people there. In China, they want to keep the younger talent at their company so they allow them to wear pretty casual clothes to work. I saw a lot of jeans and t-shirt-wearing employees at all of the places except the distillery.

In the afternoon, we took our last sightseeing tour of the trip. We travelled to the Fragrant Hill, which is about 45 minutes away from our hotel and just outside the 5^th ring road. We climbed up the hill, which is about one and a half miles in total distance, but only about 1000 meters high. We were told the climbing was just as hard as the Great Wall was but I was skeptical. It turned out to be exactly that, and I thought even harder, because we didn’t stop as many times as we did on the Wall. The girls all took the cable car up, but it was very satisfying once we finally made it to the top of the hill. It offered a great view of the city, and it was a beautiful day outside with little smog, so we could actually see pretty far into the distance.

Tomorrow is our last company visit in the morning, to Lenovo, and then the trip is pretty much over. It’s a sad feeling because I’ve had such a great time here, two weeks just isn’t enough.

Day 10: Bird’s Nest, Water Cube, and Capital Bio

On Tuesday we visited the Bird’s Nest, Water Cube, and had our second company visit, CapitalBio. This was a pretty chill day, and it went by pretty quickly. The Bird’s Nest is the National Stadium that was built by the Chinese Government to house the Olympics in 2008. It is called the Bird’s Nest because of the structure of the building. The outside was engineered in a way that it looked like a bird’s nest with seemingly randomly placed steel beams to simulate the branches of a nest. The stadium seats about 70,000 people and housed the track and field events. Even today it still hosts events about once or twice a week. In fact, two British Premier League teams will be playing an exhibition match there in the next few weeks.

Since we were already in the Water Cube on Sunday, we didn’t go in again, but we stopped by and were able to take pictures. This is the National Aquatics Stadium built for the 2008 Olympics. This is the location where Michael Phelps set the Olympic record for gold medals in a single Olympic Games with eight.

We took our second company visit today to CapitalBio. CapitalBio is a company that focuses on microarray machines and scanners that analyze DNA from blood or bone marrow samples that can help to identify genetic diseases and warn of any health issues. We have five bioengineers in our group, so they were very interested in the company, but I was rather bored.

Day 9: Lecture 3 and Tsinghua Solar

Our last week in Beijing began rather slowly, with another lecture and a company tour. This lecture today was about the Fundamentals of the Economics of China. It started at 9:30 and took a little over two hours. We had free time to go get lunch until about 1 pm, when we departed for our first company visit, Tsinghua Solar. Tsinghua Solar is an alternative energy company focusing on; you guessed it, solar energy. It has a huge market in China for water heaters, which they place on the roof on houses in China. Their largest tank is about 200-250 liters, which can satisfy a family of four. It uses evacuated tubes to heat the water using solar energy and the natural properties of water, such as hot water rises to the top and cold water sinks.

This day was pretty easy, and we have a lot of free time. Naturally, we went back to our favorite bar, La Bamba, for an “after work” drink. We each had a Manhattan, which is one part bourbon and one part vermouth. While we were drinking that, the waiters asked us where we were from, and when we were from the USA studying through Tsinghua University, they told us we were each getting a free drink. I had a daiquiri, which I feel no shame in saying, and other people got whichever drink they wanted. La Bamba really takes care of us, as this is the 3^rd free drink we’ve received from them since we first visited there.

Day 8: Free Day Sunday

Sunday was our day on the trip where nothing was planned, and we could do whatever we wanted to. We decided to go to the “Pearl Market,” which is a 5 story building in Beijing with a lot of stores. They specialize in the pearls and jewelry, but are also known for their cheap, fake clothing, shoes, electronics, etc.

We had two hours to shop at the Pearl Market, and while there I found souvenirs for all of my family and friends. Total, I spent about 200 USD for all of my gifts, which is pretty good for how much I ended up buying. After the silk market we went to KFC, which was not very good, and pretty spicy. Across the street from the Pearl Market is the Temple of the Heavens. I didn’t go to tour that because I was so tired. Four of my friends and I travelled back to the hotel via the subway, which was an interesting experience. It took about an hour by subway to get back to our hotel, after 15 stops and two line transfers.

At night we took taxis and travelled to the National Aquatics Center, also known as the “Water Cube.” This is the huge facility that China built for the 2008 Olympics for the swimming and diving events. After the Olympics were through, Beijing turned half of the facility into a water park, keeping the other half as-is to hold other events. The park is unbelievable. It has a wave pool, three slides on one side, about 6 smaller slides on the other side, two hot tubs, and a kid area. Its slides put sandcastle’s slides to shame. One of the slides was very short but by far the best slide in the park. You get into a chamber looking thing, and the attendant closes the door. Soon you hear a woman’s voice “3…2…1” and then the bottom drops out from under you. You fall along the slide and then soon are headed back up the track and around to the end of the slide. As quickly as the ride started, the ride is over. On Tuesday we will head back to the Water Cube, this time for a tour of it as well as the National Stadium, known as the “Bird’s Nest.”

Day 7: Great Wall

I can now cross off one of the 7 wonders of the world off of my sights to see! Today we visited the Great Wall, a 10,000 km (6,000 mi) long defensive wall, going east to west in Northern China, about an hour outside of Beijing. The Great Wall was built under the supervision of General Xu Da of Emperor Zhu Yhuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty. The part of the Wall we climbed was built on a 1,000 m (~3,000 ft) tall mountain ridge. While up there, we climbed the area known as “arrow nock,” which was laid on a precipitous cliff. The view from the wall was literally breathtaking. As we climbed higher and higher, we could see further and further into the distance. It is easily one of the most satisfying experiences in my life so far.

We stayed on the wall for about 3 hours. The most fun part of the wall was the mountain slide going down the mountain. It was about 10 dollars to ride it, but after walking and climbing for 3 hours, it was easily worth it. We rode down on a toboggan sled with a brake, and it took about 90 seconds to reach the bottom. For some of the turns we were forced to slow down because they didn’t want anyone to fall off midway down the mountain. After we got to the bottom, we shopped for about a ½ hour. The shops were negotiable on price, and I got some stuff at 1/10 the original price.

After another hour long bus ride, we ate lunch/dinner at an American style buffet. It wasn’t very good, and I actually wanted to eat at a normal restaurant. Tomorrow we have a free day, so we are planning on going to either the silk market or pearl market, both, the water cube, a kung-fu show, or a combination of those. It will be a big shopping day all around.

Day 6: Summer Palace

Today we traveled to the Summer Palace, which is in Beijing. It is not far from the Forbidden City, which is the Imperial Palace. It is a place where the emperor would take vacations or weekend getaways. It was almost as big as the Forbidden City and surrounds a man-made lake. Built in 1888 by the Dowager Empress Cixi, it used the entire budget for the Navy for that year. Cixi said, “Navies come and go, but this palace will last forever.” At least she was right about that. It shows a lot about how the royal family used money and power however they wanted. The palace also has space for all of the Emperor’s concubines.

The Palace is home to “The Long Corridor,” which is a 728 meter corridor linking parts of the compound. Since the lake was man-made, they used the dug up ground to form a large hill at one end of the lake. The emperor’s quarters were up there, along with a Buddhist shrine. The throne room was very regal, with a lot of symbolically significant statues such as cranes and turtles. The view from the top of the hill, or at least as high as we could go, was very beautiful, even though it was raining and dreary. When it is clear, you can see for miles.

We spent about 6 hours at the Palace, and got back from eating lunch/dinner at about 5:30. At that point everyone was tired, and we have a big day tomorrow. Tomorrow we are climbing the Great Wall, so everyone just went to sleep early. I can’t wait for the Wall, it is the day I was most looking forward to the entire trip.