WOW. Today was the most eventful day out of the whole trip – but in the morning, we had no idea how long and eventful it was going to be. Sam’s dad and two friends picked us up at 7:30am this morning and we went on a two-hour drive to the countryside, to do a tour of the islands on the Mekong River.
We started at an island that served us local honey from their bees. The bees were flyin’ all over the place but they were so focused on getting honey that they didn’t even care we were there. We walked around the island and watched women and children make & pack coconut candies, and had some afternoon tea with fresh fruits. We then got transported to the other side of the river via rowboat! It felt like the Lazy River at Wet n’ Wild, except instead of an inflatable tube it was a rowboat, and instead of a manmade, chlorine-filled moat, it was an actual (dirty) river. Patrick’s uncle met us there and joined us for lunch, where we ate a huge variety of Vietnamese food, before heading to our next stop. We packed into the car once more and drove over to a farm, where we got to pick and eat a choke ton of rambutan! When we got to the farm, the workers packed us onto their mopeds to take us to their harvesting spot. It was a scary but super fun experience, with the adrenaline, the wind in your face, and the small fear of getting hit by the other motorists that are driving 4cm close to you. We made a quick stop at Patrick’s uncle’s house before heading back to the hotel, where they fed us another few pounds of rambutan, longan, mangosteen, and coconut water, all from their backyard.
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For our free day in Guangzhou, Patrick’s cousin and wife took us to eat dim sum right outside our restaurant, and I had so many things that I’ve never tried before! I thought I was a pretty authentic Chinese (as authentic as a non-authentic Chinese can be) but it really opened my eyes to see that I really haven’t been immersed in my culture as much as I wanted to believe. We went back to the Canton Tower and rode the Bubble Tram, where was saw an unbeatable view of China.
We had our cultural tour afterwards, where we saw a master worker making bamboo noodle, and I got to try it! and it was really hard! lol I admire people that make their living doing those types of labor-intensive and repetitive work because I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be able to stand doing such a job. I FINALLY GOT TO EAT THE WONTON MEIN THAT I HAD BEEN CRAVING FOR A WEEK. The noodles weren’t as good as yesterday’s, but the wontons were next level. I was blown away with how perfect they were – the inside was perfectly salted and soft, and the outside wonton wrapping was so smooth. Our tour guide also bought us wife cakes as a dessert, which tasted like a thin sweet mochi wrapped and baked in a sweet bread. I went to the gym a second time after our wontons (once in the morning because I was feelin’ fat) and my professor and I were the only two there LOL I did HIIT because I didn’t wanna seem like a weenie, and I think he was lowkey trying to compete with me when I was doing squats. Fun times. We went shopping for a lil while after, and although I didn’t get anything, I did get a black cone ice cream and mango nata de coco pie from McDonald’s, so that was pretty cool. We also had a “hotel party” (?) in Patrick and Josh’s room, where everyone drank (except for me) and just talked and laughed and shared stories and laughed some more. But this made it hard to wake up the next morning for our flight, but Sam and I did it anyway, and we got some shnacks before heading to the airport, for our last actual country, Vietnam, where we met Sam’s dad after we got to the hotel, and we got LOTS of amazing Vietnamese food. First day in Guangzhou and it was packed with company tours. Out of the four we had;
Times Property Group American Chamber of Commerce in South China Cisco Systems Guangdong Medical Valley the only one that intrigued me enough to keep my attention during the entire presentation was the Cisco Systems. We learned about their newest Smart City project that they’re hoping to finish in the next 8 years, that will be located in Guangzhou and will be run by smart technology. I found it a little scary because it’s one step closer to a potential dystopian future that I always read in books, with everything automated and maximizing the use of robots and AI. However, it was nonetheless so interesting to see how far we’ve come in technology and to see that an American company is attempting such a large-scale project in China. After our company tours, a few of us went out for dinner. Hao found a lil hole-in-the-wall noodle shop where we had no idea what we were ordering LOL but the food was AMAZING. We saw the worker make the noodles by hand, and they were hands-down the best noodles I’ve ever had in my whole life – no exaggeration. It was a perfect al dente noodle and the broth was so simple but delicious, and there were so many veggies that I finally felt a little healthy again lol We met with Patrick’s cousin afterwards, and he took us to the Canton Tower which was beautifully lit up. We went to the Party Pier after because they wanted drinks, where we just drank, talked, snacked, and listened to live music. Our first and only day in Shenzhen was a little strange. And by that, I mean our schedule wasn’t set until the very last minute, and none of us (I think even our professor) had any idea what our timetable for the day was.
We started off with a company tour and lecture at Tencent, one of the biggest companies in China, that created the popular platforms QQ and WeChat. It was fascinating to learn about how they became such a big company that so many millions of Chinese people now rely on for messages, games, payments, and more. It was also amazing to see how they care about their employees well-being, with their full-sized basketball court, track, gym, rock climbing wall, and yoga studio. We then made our way to Mission Hills, the biggest golf course/resort in China (which we’re guessing is the only reason our professor wanted to make a stop in Shenzhen). It was an amazing tour that let us view the resort, golf course, cultural activities area, mall, and the first ever Hard Rock Hotel. This place was huge. HUGE. As in the size of an actual community, pretty much. But as amazing as it was, no one told us that it was going to be A FOUR HOUR TOUR. There were so many components of the tour that we felt we could have skipped if we had known it was going to be so long. Because it ran on for so long, we couldn’t get a proper dinner, and ended up stopping at a nearby gas station to get food on the way to Guangzhou. By the time we got to our next city, I was too tired and a little bit irritated, so I stayed home, unwinded, and rested up for the long day ahead. Last day in Hong Kong!! Our day started off at a marketing startup that focuses on VR called Shadow Factory, which is now one of my favorite company visits so far. We learned about the startup culture in Hong Kong and we got to test out some of their virtual and augmented reality activities!
We then made our way to Cushman Wakefield, a commercial real estate company, and NBA Asia (yes, the NBA). The NBA Asia office was by far the coolest we’ve been in, with loads of signed balls, action figures, and jerseys decorating the office. This lecture was the first time we were asked to give recommendations and suggestions to a company, which was really fun because we got to put our case study skills to the test. It was interesting to learn the initiatives the NBA is taking to increase exercise and basketball participation in young children, and how they’re implementing social media and technology to do this. After our last tour, we were off to Shenzhen! We boarded a charter bus that took us to the border, in which we went through the usual customs and immigrations procedures. After we got to our beautiful hotel at the Hilton, some of our friends wanted to grab KFC, which was supposed to be superb compared to the US. So, we headed to a KFC right behind our hotel and ended up talking in our hotel room until like 1am, where we bonded a lot with each other and learn about our other classmates. Our third day in Hong Kong was packed from morning to evening with company tours of:
Hong Kong Monetary Authority CK Infrastructure Group Esquel Group Link REIT Our lecture at CK Infrastructure was the most memorable because our speaker, Wendy, just so happened to be a Shidler graduate, and a Hall of Honor recipient for the upcoming year. She is an absolutely amazing and empowering woman who is working at one of the biggest companies in Hong Kong, and seeing someone like her in such a high position gave so many of the women in our group confidence that we can all achieve great things like her. After our last company visit of one of Link REIT’s shopping malls, the company had set up a dinner for us at one of their restaurants. This created lots of tension and drama because the restaurant had messed up one of two set menus, and the mess up was on our table. Our set menu came with one that was half the price of the other table, and people started complaining. The restaurant apologized and gave us a free dessert (steamed lotus root buns!) but it wasn’t enough to satisfy some people, and the ride back home was pretty awkward for some people. |