China and the United States Study Tours: Differences Between the Two Countries - Essay Example

 I was glad to attend both the China Study Tour and United Stated Study Tour (USA). These trips gave me the opportunity to learn about different cultures and history and also to understand the current economic situation in those countries. These are two very different countries to me, but I would like to learn about many different things. Therefore, for both study tours I set some very different goals and objectives. For the China Study Tour, I desired to: Build complex relationships, such as person to person, business to business, government to business Learn how the society has been shaped from knowledge passed down by the ancestors Understand China’s future development and business opportunities Experience the social culture and learning styles in Chinese universities Obtain a taste of Chinese culture For USA Study Tour, I wanted to: Appreciate American culture and taste authentic American cuisine Understand the essential similarities and differences in how to operate a business in the country Experience the learning styles and social activities in American education institutions Establish a contact network for job opportunities Enjoy some free time for shopping The China Study Tour began on my birthday, November 23th. I did not celebrate too much on this day because I needed to get rest in preparation for the following day, during which I would begin a two week learning experience. I struggled to sleep that night because I was really looking forward to working with my classmates in studying together, living together and playing together. I was very grateful to RMIT University for choosing Shanghai as our study base. I am a native of Shanghai, so it made me feel honored to live and learn in my birth city. The master said, “Is it not joy to have like-minded friends come from afar?” I was in this mood to welcome my fellow classmates and teachers to come to Shanghai. The day began uneventfully. We boarded a bus to start a wonderful one-day tour of Shanghai. There were many students who came from Australia to participate in the China Study Tour; some of them were Asian and some of them were foreigners, but the vast majority of people I did not know. I hoped after the two week period that everyone could become friends and build contact networks. We visited Shanghai Yu Garden, Jade Buddha, the Bund and the materials market. Actually, I had already visited many of these places as a child, so I knew what to expect. However, this time I experienced a different feeling. There is a Chinese saying that goes “Change every year and great change after three years.” Because I had been away from Shanghai for so long, this was a very good description of it. The roads were much wider, the traffic much more intense, and the number of tourists was also much greater, as can be seen by rapid economic development in Shanghai. When I stood on the Bund, overlooking the Huangpu River in Pudong, there were many modern buildings to have mushroomed up. Twenty years ago there was only the Oriental Pearl Tower, but now there was Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC). This landscape was really spectacular. The architecture around the Bund were very distinctive when taking into account the history of those places, which were used to concessions. Furthermore, the buildings in Pudong were higher than the older ones. For example, Jin Mao Tower was 420.5 meters tall, Oriental Pearl Towel 468 meters and SWFC a whopping 492 meters. Over time many things have changed, but there are some things that remain the same. One of these constants was the taste of Xiaolongbao (dumping) in YU Garden. I can remember every time I wanted to buy it I had to wait in a long queue, but the place was still attractive to locals and tourists alike. Thus, Xiaolongbao became known as a Shanghai specialty snack. When I came to the United States, I was in a completely different mood. I remember when I was a child and people mentioned foreign countries. I knew that they were talking about the United States, not Australia or Britain, because at that time United States was the world’s biggest power, in terms of the economy and development of science and technology. Therefore, long ago I had a dream to travel around the United States in order to meet my curiosities about this country. When I arrived at Quality Inn in College Park, I felt like I was in a very remote place and isolated from the city; I always thought of the United States as completely different to this. There were no busy streets, no busy shops and it was not crowded. It was more like life in Zone Three in Melbourne: very quiet at night, shops closed early and very few pedestrians on the street. The next day we met at 8:00am in the reception of Quality Inn for a tour of Washington DC. It was very cold in the morning; the teacher warned us that it might snow. All of us were hoping to see some snow because it never snows in Melbourne. We visited the National Mall, Arlington Cemetery, Lincoln Memorial, George Washington at Mount Vernon and many more famous places. I always thought that Washington DC was a very safe place because the White House is located there. I did not realize there are many museums and monuments that are located in Washington DC, nor did I realize that it was a wealthy state. The buildings impressed me. Many were constructed with marble and they were all well-maintained and had some police guarding them. In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant. This gave all of us a good opportunity to get to know each other. Overall, the first day can go down as a success. During the class periods each day, we wanted to arrive early, so we gathered as a group and walked to Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade (SIFT) University. The teacher told us that Chinese people do not like to be late, and everyone should be punctual in their attendance. This was a very exciting day because it was the first day we had a lecture at SIFT. Now I could experience the different teaching strategies in Chinese universities. The topic for first lecture was “China in Economic Globalizations.” I was looking forward to the lecturer coming to class because I was a little bit worried that the Chinese teacher would use English in the lessons, particularly when talking to the students with good English skills. However, I was very surprised with the professor because he spoke very good and idiomatic English during the lecture. The highlight of the lecture occurred when Professor He shared her experiences of the Cultural Revolution with us. We were all mesmerized by what she had to say. For me, when I was a child I often listened to my grandfather because he also went through the same experiences. This was a very harrowing part of Chinese history and I admired Professor He for sharing her feelings with us. The lectures provided by the China and United States Study Tour were quite different. Firstly, I would like to talk about the lectures I had in China. We had lectures at both SIFT and Fudan University. As we all know, Fudan is a very famous university in China and every student wants to study there. The lectures we had at SIFT were more focused on understanding Chinese ancient culture and history and also the impact of business etiquette and relationships. For example, personal relationships are important in business deals. It can sometimes be the case that it is not important to do business successfully. The only important thing is that relationships need to be kept for the next venture. Through the influence of imperial history, the Chinese hierarchy is easy to understand. We have been trained to show respect to teachers and seniority has been a long cherished Chinese value. For instance, subordinates must obey orders from superiors and show them respect, unlike in Australia and United State, where there are equal relationships between people. However, there are also some positive aspects to the Chinese way of doing business. For example “misfortune may be an actual blessing” taught us to have a positive attitude when facing failures and setbacks. Just like a coin has two sides, a loss may turn out to be a gain. Secondly, I would like talk about the lectures we had at Maryland University. Most of lectures were very interesting to the students, especially some of the group activities provided us with great interest. For example, the last lecture by Professor Taylor was very insightful. She asked us split into groups of five or six and use blocks to build a machine to fly into space. The exercise was successful: all members of the group participated and achieved the learning objectives. I found that all lecturers used different strategies and activities to engage their students during the lesson. This was quite different compared with studying in Shanghai. One day, we saw the University of Maryland bus park in the Quality Inn car park. It took me by surprise and everyone was excited to get on this luxurious coach. I did not expect the University to own a school bus. I could never imagine RMIT University or any Chinese universities owning a bus; generally they like using car rentals. On second thought, maybe college sport in Australia and China is not that big compared with the USA. Such investment could be done in order to travel across the state to participate in competitions. The first day at the University of Maryland campus was exciting. However, after a presentation by the campus police officer, I did not have any fun and lost the feeling of excitement. She noted some of more dangerous places on campus and the areas surrounding College Park. She put special emphasis on not walking the street alone during early morning because this is the peak time for assaults to occur. Suddenly I realized I was in an unsafe environment, but also felt how lucky we were in Australia because there is no need for a police officer on campus. Then we had an external tour of campus. The school cafeteria took me by surprise. Before my trip I never imagined a university cafeteria providing various food such as Chinese food, Japanese food and Indian food. In particular, I noticed that there were many branded companies also operating in the university cafeteria, such as McDonald's, KFC and Starbucks. We visited three different universities for the China Study Tour. The SIFT University in Songjiang campus was impressive. The school was very large with many facilities, such as an indoor and outdoor stadium, canteen and student accommodation. The instructors told us that every student needs a bike at school in order to avoid being late for class, so you can imagine how big the campus is. This campus and University of Maryland are very similar in that they are both very big. This is completely different from RMIT University because RMIT University is located in the Melbourne city center. We had a special day at the Songjing campus where everyone was actively involved in a basketball game and making dumplings. Later on we had a wonderful evening with students from the Songjing campus. This kind of part is something that perhaps Australian students have never seen before this trip. We sat together and ate the snacks and drinks prepared. We watched various performances, such as singing, dancing and magic shows. At the same time we also invited students to join the games. Throughout the party, one thing that impressed me the most was our classmate Matt G buying a birthday cake for Lily, George and me to celebrate our birthday. This made me feel there was a special friendship between us. Both study tours were very meaningful to me, especially the times we visited organizations. These companies are in the World’s top 500 enterprises. It helped me to understand the different types of companies, develop a general idea about the size of the companies, the marketing strategies used and the enterprise cultures. In Shanghai we visited a few companies, such as Volkswagen, Baosteel, Lenovo and Tony’s Farm. I was most impressed with Baosteel. I still remember when I was a child, I often heard people saying that if you are work for Baosteel then you could be proud of yourself. Baosteel has been part of the world’s top 500 enterprises for the last nine years straight. I recognize and appreciate Baosteel’s corporate culture and social responsibility focus. For example, Baosteel helps local communities to widen the surrounding roads and build schools and nursing homes. The roads are named Baosteel 1 Road, Baosteel 2 Road and so on. Also, in 2011 Baosteel’s annual donations were about 6077.7ten thousand Yuan. In addition, the Baosteel Education Fund invested 9.43 million Yuan to reward 107 colleges and universities, as well as 18 Chinese Academy of Science Institutes and 1212 outstanding teachers and students. This behavior made me understand that if I have my own business in the future then it would be appropriate give back to the community. We visited Capital One bank Corporate Headquarters, GE medical healthcare, Black and Decker Corporate, the World Bank and Wal-Mart during the USA Study Tour. The biggest difference compared with companies in China was the strict security check when entering the building. I did not expect this before we arrived, so I was a little surprised. The security checks were not only for us but for anyone wanting to enter the building. It is easy to see why the United States pays more attention on security issues. The presentation from Black and Decker Corporation made me understand that enterprises need to develop, adapt and change to meet the various customer demands. This is done in order to keep the enterprise's competitive ability and ensure sustainable profitability. More emphasize was placed on the importance of globalization to remain competitive and profitable and of brand recognition. The World Bank was an amazing place; the cafeteria many different cuisines from around world and with reasonable prices too. The speaker gave us a positive answer when we asked about job opportunities because she pointed out that they welcome foreigners to work for them. Moreover, I found an interesting thing with Wal-Mart. It was established in suburbs of the United States, and it put food, daily necessities and even building materials and car repairs all in one super supermarket. Also, I cannot believe that as long as you hold a driver’s license then you can buy guns from Wal-Mart. There is no doubt that this is completely different compared to Wal-Mart in China. Shanghai is known as a gourmet’s paradise because you can taste food from all over the world. Thus, the taste of food became part of this study tour. Eating is an important part of Chinese culture. Eating also helped the students to understand Chinese food culture and interpersonal relationships. I remember I made a lot of friends through the first day of the welcome dinner. In China we often say that a meal’s taste is more delicious when there are many people sharing the meal. Therefore it is common to see 10 to 12 people sitting at a round table together for dinner. Everyone can be happy with the food and can also introduce themselves to others at the table. I think the most important is to build relationships with the people at your table because maybe in the future they will be your colleagues, boss, or business partner. It will greatly increase trust if you can get to know them first. However, in the United States we sat at rectangular tables for dinner. I found it difficult to have a conversation with others and also to build relationships. One time the teacher took us to have Hotpot; I was deeply moved by this restaurant providing all kinds of caring service to the customers. For example, if someone needed to wait for a seat, then the customers can have free nail art done at the same time. Also, the customers could fold 10 paper cranes to exchange for a shrimp when waiting for a seat. After sitting down at a table, the waiter will serve hot towels to customers so they can wipe their hands. This restaurant not only provided aprons to customers so they can avoid dirty clothes but also gave out head ropes for females with long hair. This restaurant made me understand that sometimes we should put ourselves in other’s shoes and provide satisfactory services to our customers all the time. This market strategy used by the restaurant not only increases its profit but captures the customers' loyalties too. It is undeniable that the customer is treated like a god; this can help the business to do better and better. Everyone was very happy during dinner. In the United States we had to leave tips at every restaurant. Sometimes I felt very strange and could not accept this because we do not have the traditional habit of tipping. I remember one time we went to taste the famous pizza in Chicago and we could not believe how big the meals were; there was 750ml of soft drink and it was possible to refill. Receiving the bill was surprising because it listed all the standard tips on the bill. On the one hand it can be said that this saves the customer time, but on the other hand it can make the customer feel like they are being ripped off. Every restaurant that we visited we gave an 18 percent tip and experienced the tipping culture in United States. Shanghai is the same as many places in the United States as it is a city that doesn’t sleep. I thought that it’s very different for students who grew up in Australia because there are so many activities on in the evening. For example, we can choose to have a massage, eat supper, go shopping, watch a movie, go to bowling and billiards, sing karaoke, go out to a pub or go clubbing. Of these activities, I have to mention that the supper is a very new thing for Australian students. A group of friends can sit by the street and are free to order barbecues, hotpot and drinks. The food is really delicious and cheap. Also I found something very interesting: the Australian students were surprised at what food was available, such as duck’s gizzard and snails. There is an old Chinese saying that goes, “reading ten thousand books is not as useful as traveling ten thousand miles.” Both the China and United States Study Tours made me realize and understand this point. I can very confidently say I learnt a lot of differences between the two countries, such as from cultural, business, customs and social perspectives. Moreover, I experienced the different food cultures. Finally, I think that I achieve most of the goal and objectives that I set before the trip; I met a lot of friends and built a contact network, understood the economic development of country and also a company’s social responsibility. I learned a lot of things from these tours and they were amazing experiences that I will never forget. Read More