Suzhou

Four friends and I took a day trip to Suzhou, a city to the west of Shanghai, about three weeks ago. There's a Chinese saying "Born in Suzhou, live in Hangzhou, eat in Guangzhou, and die in Liuzhou" (in case you're wondering, "zhou" means province or administrative region, somewhat equivalent to "City" in the US). I'm not sure if the saying means anything beyond the fact that a childhood in Suzhou would be memorable for the gardens and beauty of the city.

During the day, we went to two incredibly pretty gardens and explored the city's main walking street. The city is also known for its Industrial Park, which is a bit removed from the rest of the city, but we didn't have a chance to go there. According to Wikipedia, the Industrial Park makes Suzhou the second most industrial city in China after Shanghai.

A lake in the first garden we visited. Garden doesn't translate well, but essentially it's a park where you often pay to enter, are able to walk around and to enjoy nature, and can see many idyllic settings that you'd imagine a wealthy official would own in ancient China.

Of course, no garden would be complete without a pagoda. I'm not sure what their function is since they seem primarily aesthetic rather than religious, at least when placed in a garden.

A random section in the first garden devoted to flowers. I thought this view was jarringly artificial compared to the rest of the garden (of course, the rest of the garden is artificial in the sense that it's meticulously maintained but it otherwise attempts to convey a peaceful, natural state). During my time in China, it seems like I haven't seen many flowers. Off the top of my head, flowers seem like a very Western or American form of beauty. I'll have to ask one of my Chinese friends how they view flowers, even as a symbol of romance.

I'm not sure what this man was doing, probably feeding the fish that are often put in the lakes of gardens, but he fit perfectly into the background. If I were a wealthy official in ancient China, I would definitely pay a worker just to sit there all day while I enjoyed this idyllic setting.

A stone bridge, another idyllic setting typical of a garden. Apparently the construction and maintenance of a garden is closely tied to feng shui, although that's the extent of my knowledge. I imagine stone bridges and pagodas help the garden achieve (or maintain or be or whatever verb is appropriate in this context) feng shui

A bonsai tree. If you want to be technical, bonsai refers to the Japanese art while penjing is the Chinese art (the Japanese pronounce the same Chinese characters differently). Anyway, there was an array of well-cultivated trees, which I hadn't seen before in China.

A view of the rock formations in the second garden (the rest of the second garden was similar to the first one). I haven't been able to get an informed answer on this one, but I want to know what the formations mean and why they're present in nearly all the gardens I've visited. Many pieces of art feature slabs of rock with holes in it, but I am clueless about their significance. If you find out, please let me know, I'm actually quite curious at this point.

All in all, Suzhou was a relaxing break, a day well-spent. We were harassed by a fruit vendor who put fruit in our hands, motioned for us to eat it, and yelled at us in Chinese when we refused to pay since we thought it had been a free sample. I'm not sure how we expected to get a free sample in China, but the beauty of the gardens must have overcome us by then. Otherwise, the city was gorgeous with many quaint shops and sights, I'd recommend it for a day trip

Huangpu River Cruise

About a month ago, NYU took us on a night-time cruise on the Huangpu River, a tributary of the Yangtze River. The western Puxi side of the river features many banks and trading houses that date back to the time of the French Concession and the International Settlement in Shanghai. The eastern Pudong side of the river features ultra-modern corporate buildings encouraged by the current Shanghai city government. Thus, the river combines past and future, Puxi and Pudong, a perfect juxtaposition that captures the promise of China in a single view.

The Bund, which is the western Puxi side of the Huangpu River. Bund is an Urdu word meaning

"embankment", which the British brought with them from India. It is one of most glamorous views in the world, comparable to Fifth Ave or Champs-Elysees.

The building with the green roof is the Peace Hotel, the building to the right is the Bank of China. Many banks and trading houses set up shop in this area since the Bund was the hub of commerce from 1842 to 1949, from the Treaty of Nanking which designated Shanghai as a treaty port to the 1949 Communist victory which closed China from much of the world.

The Bund, adjacent to the previous picture (find the Peace Hotel to get your bearings). Shanghai's history is fascinating and different from the rest of China due to its previous status as a treaty port. One of our speakers in class told us that in the late 1800s Shanghai had three city governments - the Chinese government with its own police force in the South, the French Concession government with their Vietnamese police force further to the north, and the British-led International Settlement with their Sikh police force in the north. Shanghai was intimately tied to foreign powers and imperialism.

Due to this division into three governments, nearly anyone could enter Shanghai without a passport or visa. For this reason, tens of thousands of Jews were able to enter Shanghai during the Holocaust when most other countries refused to accept them. It's incredible to imagine the wild heyday of physical trading, of manual labor, and of mixed cultures that must have occurred in this area.

The Oriental Pearl Tower on the eastern Pudong side of the Huangpu River. The Pearl Tower is a TV tower, but it draws many tourists for its views of the city. I have yet to go to the top, but I'll be sure to write a post with pictures once I do.

The ultra-modern corporate buildings on the Pudong side. Along with the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Jin Mao Tower are two other highlights on the Pudong skyline. The Financial Center, the tallest building in China since its construction in 2007, is to the left of the Aurora building. If you look closely, it resembles a bottle opener. The Jin Mao Tower is on the Financial Center's left side. Both buildings include a combination of hotels, offices, malls, observation decks, etc., although I think the surrounding buildings are more devoted to office space.

The cruise was incredible, offering unprecedented views of the Bund and the Pudong side. Since the night was cold, our fingers were shaking and few good pictures came out. However, I'd definitely put a night-time cruise on the Huangpu River on your to-do list if you come to Shanghai.

Baosteel

A few weeks ago, we visited the headquarters of Baosteel, the world's 3rd largest steel producer and a state-owned enterprise (SOE) critical to China's industrial strength. It dominates its local area in Shanghai, even supplying the name for the Baoshan District.

A Baosteel official answered our questions before we visited one of their production facilities. He talked about the interaction of the government and the company as if it was normal as blueberry pie for the government to select top management, to set production targets, etc. My surprise probably says more about my complete acceptance of American capitalism than about him or Baosteel. Anyway, he used familial and paternalistic language to describe the government's involvement. For him, it was natural to set up a school system, a university, a hospital, etc. to support Baosteel's workers and their families; for me, it seemed like the company and the government were isolating its workers from much other interaction or perspectives.

However, I may be over-emphasizing the different ideologies. At one point in the conversation, the official said all top management should join the Communist Party and shrugged it off as a cost of doing business, the way an American manager may join the local Chamber of Commerce or industry association. He emphasized the continuous feedback between the top management and the government so it's most appropriate to think of the government as a board of directors, which is its actual role. I, along with what I imagine is popular American thought, imagine the government controlling every single aspect of the workers' lives. However, that image is extremely far from the truth; on most matters where the government has little interest, top management and workers are allowed to run free, while only on a few matters, the decisions by the government may trickle down to the daily lives of workers, similar to the Western conception of a board of directors.

One of the production facilities. Located in what looked like a warehouse, the facility was incredibly large. We didn't have a tour guide so I don't know what's going on in the picture. However, we watched the glowing piece of steel roll across the production line, get stretched out through its movement, and get cooled by water. The process was entirely mechanized; I could count the workers on the production line on one hand.

Fancy machinery. We walked across a balcony that ran about half the length of the production line, but we weren't allowed to watch the steel from any closer. It's surprising that in 20 years I've never before visited a large-scale factory or assembly line. If you have family friends in the auto, steel, or manufacturing businesses, I'd highly recommend checking out the production facilities. It's an aspect of our lives that you completely take for granted until you realize someone has to make all these decisions about quality, pricing, operations, etc.

The water cooling off the glowing steel. I was fascinated by the intricacy of the production line; even though we consider developing countries and their people to be less advanced than us, there's no way I understood what all the machinery was doing. It's interesting that in advancing beyond those jobs and roles, many of us, myself included, have forgotten or never learned them.

The rolled-up coils of steel. I'm not sure who Baosteel's major consumers are or where these coils of steels of headed. However, they extended for rows upon rows upon rows.

The pollution from one of the production facilities, which may be one of the reasons most of these facilities and jobs have moved outside of the US. The Baosteel complex was expansive, requiring a bus to take us from one side to the other.

The port from where Baosteel receives its raw materials including iron ore and from where it ships finished steel to locations around the world. The official mentioned that the company had to increase the depth and width of the lake so that large-scale ships could enter the port with their immense amount of wares. To put this into perspective, Shanghai built a 20-mile bridge to an island where the waters are suitable for a deep-sea port that allows the world's largest container ships to unload their wares. So making sure the water is deep enough to allow proper unloading is incredibly important to Chinese industrial strength and egos.

Visiting Baosteel was an unprecedented experience, not only to hear an official describe an SOE's interaction with the government in his own words but also to witness an immensely large industrial production facility. In my opinion, we often ignore the mechanics behind many of our advanced gadgets and lifestyles at our own peril. Of course, it's up to you how much time you want to spend understanding these mechanics, but regardless of how confusing or disorienting, it's time well-spent since few people, at least in my interactions, seem to understand them well.

Hangzhou and Yiwu

A couple weeks ago, 50 students took a class trip to Hangzhou and Yiwu in nearby Zhejiang province. A coastal province that borders Shanghai to the south, Zhejiang is one of China's top three richest provinces, with Jiangsu (borders Shanghai to the north) and Guangdong (borders Hong Kong as one of China's most southern provinces). If you look at a map of China, you'll see that these provinces are all on the eastern seaboard, along with much of the nation's wealth.

First, we visited Wahaha, a beverage company prominent in rural China with its soda, green tea, coffee, and other beverages. It can't compete with Coke and Pepsi in urban China, but it uses its rural distribution network and childish appeal (Wahaha, really?) to maintain sales.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera in my bag the first day so I don't have pictures of Wahaha. They took us to the corporate PR center, and it was interesting to note how many pictures featured Communist Party officials who had visited the factory. Though China has been privatizing many SOEs (state-owned enterprises, think GM or AIG in the US), the government's influence and prestige remains large. Many factories in China provide everything workers need, including cafeteria and housing facilities. Wahaha's cafeteria provided us a feast of a meal, but we weren't able to see its housing facilities.

Next, we visited Alibaba, a privately-owned, innovative e-commerce company. If you've never heard of it, take 5 minutes to read the Wikipedia entry, this company is amazing. Its Taobao.com is like eBay, its Alipay is like Paypal, and its Alibaba.com is a B2B (business-to-business) version of eBay, especially for Western companies who want to source from Chinese companies. Founded in 1999, Alibaba sold a 40% stake of itself in 2005 to Yahoo, which saw the company's growth potential early on. As China's middle class starts coming online for e-commerce services (think about when Americans started trusting eBay, Paypal, online banking, etc. and add maybe 5 years), Alibaba is poised to capture this growing market.

A Google picture of the Alibaba campus since I forgot my camera. What's your normal conception of Chinese companies? Manufacturing factories with inhumane conditions? It may be true for many companies, but exceptions exist and Alibaba is a huge one. I've never visited the Google campus, but in my mind, I could've been in Mountain View, CA, not Hangzhou, Zhejiang. As you can tell, I'm highly biased towards Alibaba, I'd buy stocks on the NYSE if I could.

The next day, we visited Zhejiang University, probably the fifth best Chinese university, the best one outside Beijing and Shanghai. I talked to one of the students for over an hour, and his biochemical engineering studies seemed more advanced than many US undergraduates. If he was living in the US, his commitment would probably land him a six-figure research job with a pharmaceutical company. However, as more companies shift even their R&D centers (not just their manufacturing plants!) to China, elite students certainly exist to staff them. He may not speak English well or have strapping American-like confidence, but he can certainly do the job.

We went hiking that afternoon among some crop fields just outside Hangzhou. When we had to ford a river, even Professor Foudy rolled up his pants without hesitation. For such a commercial and innovative center, Hangzhou has incredibly pretty scenery nearby. We saw several couples in wedding attire taking pictures against the natural and wildlife background.

West Lake in Hangzhou. We took a tranquil, late-day boat ride across this lake, which is featured on the back of the 1 yuan note. Several legends, whose details I no longer remember, surround this lake. Anyway, if you come to Hangzhou, don't miss the West Lake in the flurry of Pizza Huts, Western hotels, and Lamborghini dealers (I wasn't kidding about the province's wealth, especially in Hangzhou)

The back of the 1 yuan note. By the time I reached the posts that you see on the note, night had fallen and I didn't get any good pictures so I had to settle for the earlier picture above.

We traveled to Yiwu the next day, a more manufacuring-based town in Zhejiang and a world away from Hangzhou. We visited a Christmas tree manufacturing company. They sell their trees to larger distributors who place them in stores like Walmart, Target, etc. in the US and Europe. Christian Christmas trees made in Communist, non-religious China? Everything's possible. I wanted to ask the workers if they knew the significance of Christmas in Western countries, but my Chinese isn't advanced enough to hold that conversation.

This machine produces the branches of the tree. It contorts and binds the paper of the three rolls on the ground into branches. You can see the extended strips of paper before they enter the machine. Each machine cost USD $10,000, the company had three such machines. Adding workforce, supplies, and production space, you could probably start a small-scale company in China for only USD $100,000, especially if you located it away from the eastern seaboard.

Remember the normal conception of Chinese companies? These workers were adding special decorations to the branches of the tree and binding them together to form larger chunks of the trees. We didn't see any dangerous or inhumane conditions (obviously companies wouldn't let 50 NYU students come if they had such conditions), but the operation was fairly primitive. After seeing the production methods on the factory floor, it's surprising the trees in the first picture look as good as they do. I don't want to overload this post with pictures, but if you're interested in factory conditions, I can send you more.

The Yiwu wholesale market, commemorated as the world's "largest small commodity wholesale market" in 2005 by the UN, the World Bank, and Morgan Stanley (according to Wikipedia). It was enormous, with rows upon rows of storefronts selling all kinds of consumer electronic, retail, and sports goods. Many foreign buyers from the Middle East, Africa, and the West were browsing the storefronts, placing orders in the tens of thousands of units that would be sent to the affiliated factory in China and eventually filled with goods that would be shipped to the foreign company. You can tell the market's diversity by the Chinese, Korean, and Arabic scripts in the picture above. Many store owners spoke English for Western buyers, but they only sold in bulk so we couldn't buy anything.

One example of the market's diversity. Each store had a specialized niche, ranging from bar signs to knock-off iPads to phones to inflatable swimming pools. Judging by the number of stores, it's incredible to imagine the number of factories producing these goods and able to fill orders in the tens of thousands of units.

A relatively small percentage of goods at the wholesale market were knock-off, but this packaging is a good example. I understand knock-off clothing brands that can be mistaken for the actual designer, but I'm not sure who you're trying to fool here. Is the company trying to fool the consumer? Is the consumer trying to fool his peers and to look prosperous? Maybe no one's being fooled, the consumer just wants the ridiculously low price and feels slightly better/amused with knock-off branding.

I highly enjoyed Hangzhou and Yiwu, the experiences were very different from my normal travels. If you're in China for over a month, please take the time to visit (although you'll need some corporate contacts for the factory visits). It gave me a much clearer and nuanced view of Chinese factories, from the stereotypical "workshop of the world" Christmas tree factory to the in-between Wahaha beverage factory expanding in rural China to the truly innovative Alibaba facilities. China's factories and students are on the move, and we have just as much work to do to stay ahead of them in the West.

Shanghai Rolex Masters

A massive dubuqui (the Chinese word for sorry), I apologize for the delay in posts. Bear with me as I try to post everything that's happened in the last month over the next couple days.

A couple weeks ago, I went to the first round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters, one of the smaller ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments. Quite a few stars were competing, but most of them weren't playing on that day since it was still early in the tournament. Andy Murray ended up winning his sixth Masters 1000 title, beating Roger Federer 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

The grounds outside Court 1. The steel roof is meant to look like a magnolia, Shanghai's city flower. Its eight pieces are designed to fit snugly into a circle and can create a ceiling in eight minutes. I was tempted to read the plaque explaining the roof's design, but I decided that was too nerdy and I should be watching tennis instead (so I went to Wikipedia afterwards).

The finals and other important matches are played in this stadium while several outdoor courts and warm-up courts are located nearby within the sports complex.

The interior of Court 1, Qi Zhong Stadium. I'm no judge when it comes to stadiums, but I really liked this one. Along with much of the complex, this stadium was built in 2005 for the Tennis Masters Cup. It seats 15,000 people and seemed to have tighter security than Arthur Ashe. In appearance, it seemed comparable to Arthur Ashe, a bit inferior to Centre Court at Wimbledon

Some Chinese students holding a French flag for one of the players in Court 1. I was especially interested in how the Chinese interacted with tennis, a highly structured and elite sport for an otherwise chaotic and developing country. As you can guess, the atmosphere in the sports complex was quite a departure from the rest of Shanghai (that's not saying much, Wimbledon is quite a departure from the rest of London).

However, the crowds were fairly sloppy. In one of the smaller outdoors courts, spectators kept bursting into applause during a rally and freely walked into the stands during games. The European chair umpire had a hard time getting the crowd to settle down and the Chinese guards to keep spectators out during match play. One of the more obnoxious players stared at spectators who were walking in during games and refused to play until they sat down. Of course, the etiquette of tennis isn't natural and consistent with other sports so I'm not criticizing the lack of knowledge among some of the Chinese spectators, but it was interesting to observe.

It's also interesting to think about the Chinese government's decision in 2005 to create this stadium and to host global tournaments. Obviously there are upper-class Chinese who watch, play, and enjoy tennis, but that segment is most likely much smaller than in Europe or the US. Of the players present, I don't remember a single one being Chinese. I can understand China's desire to join in on the trappings of developed countries as it grows economically and politically; however, at least in the present, without the crowd's sophistication or the players, it's safe to say that China doesn't fit in when it comes to some cultural aspects like tennis

Roger Federer in traditional Chinese, or at least what looks like traditional Chinese, garb. For some reason, few Chinese were taking pictures with the statues. Granted foreigners were over-represented in the sports complex, but they seemed to be the ones taking pictures

Fernando Verdasco. Unfortunately, I'm not a pretty girl so I couldn't ask him or any other tennis player to take a picture with me. I'll have to go to the womens' tournament next time, my rugged good looks may be more well-received there.

Andy Murray in one of the warm-up courts. He wasn't playing that day, which was fortunate for him since he was playing poorly and cursing up a storm. Hopefully he felt better after winning the tournament, but I'm not so sure, after all, he's Andy Murray

A performing center in the middle of the sports complex where a band was playing towards the end of the day. The singer sang in both Chinese and English. One of my Chinese friends said the singer's tones were off, but the Chinese in the crowd seemed to love her.

Overall, the experience was highly positive. I didn't see any star matches, but it was refreshing to spend a day watching tennis and lounging around. Like I said, the incongruence between Chinese actions and tennis norms was interesting and could definitely be a jumping-off point for a deeper cultural study. However, that job is for someone else, I'm just focused on getting a picture with Verdasco or Murray next time around