First impressions of South Africa / First day of work / Cape Town trip

We just got finished with our first week in South Africa, and I must say, it is a lot different from what I expected. I had heard a lot of hype about the World Cup and stereotypes about Africa, but I was very impressed with all of the infrastructure and hustle-bustle of a big city, just like in the United States. The flight in and moving in process went very smoothly, and we didn’t experience a lot of jet lag. David’s manager Liam picked us up from the airport, and he also took us out with some people from Financial Services in a nearby neighborhood of Johannesburg. Sunday was our driving lesson, and I am feeling a lot better about driving on the left side of the road.

This was also our first week of work on the client site. I am assigned to the Industrial, Automotive, and Pharmaceuticals (IAP) division on a large glass manufacturing client. The team in total is really big, but we are all spread out over about five divisional locations plus the head office (where I am working). My mentor and manager have been really good about making sure I understand how the South African firm performs its testwork and completes workpapers (most of it is actually the same as the U.S.), and I feel like I am learning a lot. I will be on this client for four weeks, so I am looking forward to a sense of continuity regarding the both audit work and relationships with teams.

The highlight of this week was definitely our first excursion – a weekend trip to Cape Town. David spent a semester abroad at the University of Cape Town, so he got to serve as our quasi-tour guide for the trip. We visited the campus and met up with some of his South African friends for lunch, and in the afternoon we went up Table Mountain for great views of Green Point Stadium, Robben Island, and the ocean. I was surprised at how much wind there was – South Africans call it the “Cape Doctor” because it blows all of the pollution out of the city, and it was really refreshing after a week in Johannesburg. On Sunday I went shark diving (just in time for Shark Week on Discovery Channel!) in Hermanus, which was an amazing experience. I can only hope our other weekend trips are as good as this one.

Shanghai – KPMG, TSMC, Farewell Dinner

We started off today with a trip down the street to KPMG China, which I was really excited about because I will be working for KPMG in two countries this summer (the United States and South Africa). It was really excited to hear Mark Lavalle talk about his experience as an expat in China with my future employer; he and his team of other senior managers talked about their unique reasons for being in China, most of which had something to do with developing both themselves and the local office. I know from personal experience that KPMG always strives to make its international network of member firms more cohesive, and seeing the Chinese firm operate with such similar values and culture to other offices I have visited in the world was really exciting for me. After the presentation we had the opportunity to eat lunch with Mark, and he was also extremely easy to talk to. He provided a very honest perspective on both challenges and perquisites of being a westerner in a country like China, many of which regarded his family and their opportunities/compromises as a result of living outside of the United States. As someone interested in possibly being an expatriate myself, I took this insight to heart and will hopefully be able to use Mr. Lavalle as a resource should an opportunity like this arise during my career.

After lunch we headed to our final corporate visit of the trip, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). As a result of a unique network connection with Calvin’s father, our group had the opportunity to tour a very high tech facility that quite honestly looked like something out of a movie. Everyone had to wear special suits, shoes, gloves, and hairnets, as well as enter through an air shower to ensure that no dust particles got on the silicon wafers. We saw how the company employed a strategic combination of automation and manual labor to create the lowest possibility for errors in the manufacturing process. Following this was a presentation more on the business aspects of the company including an analysis of its strategic position compared to competitors like Intel and Texas Instruments.

Our final event of the trip was a farewell dinner at Banana Leaf where we had one last great meal and a lot of fun dancing around. We took the opportunity to present our chaperones with gifts from the World Expo and say some final goodbyes. Looking back on my goals before the trip, I can confidently say that believe I accomplished them all throughout our stay in China. After this trip, I hope to use my new knowledge and professional skills to be a better performer this summer as an intern as well as next year as I finish out my senior year in college.

Shanghai – Bosch, GE, Abbott Dinner

After a well-needed good night’s rest, we headed out for our second business professional day of corporate visits. After a great breakfast in the hotel, our first stop was Bosch United Automotive Electronic Systems (UAES), a subsidiary of Bosch with operations in China. We sat in a really neat meeting room – it was an interesting cross between western interior amenities and eastern architecture. The presenters shared their experiences as expats from Germany as well as some fundamental information about Bosch worldwide. Afterwards we got a tour of the factory and saw a lot of the automobile testing the facility conducts for other parts of Bosch worldwide, followed by a quick lunch near our next stop.

After lunch our next visit was to General Electric’s China Technology Center (CTC). My group was responsible for briefing/debriefing and presenting gifts to our hosts. As a result of our research we learned that GE China has ties to University of Illinois via Dr. Xiangli Chen, the president of the facility (and an alumnus of Illinois). Dr. Chen and his PR specialist Nancy again emphasized the importance of localization when conducting business in China and how GE is moving towards actually producing products it plans to sell to the Chinese market in China, a part of its “In China, For China” effort. Following the presentation we participated in a brief tour of the lobby while hearing more about GE China’s contributions to the conglomerate’s advances in energy around the world.

For dinner we watched a brief presentation from representatives of Abbott Laboratories in China, after which we each had the opportunity to sit in a group with a professional from the company. My table ate with the controller, a native of Hong Kong who had experience with financial operations all over eastern Asia. We discussed on a more informal level what it is like to have a management role in such a dynamic environment (he mentioned that he had been to the United States and Europe multiple times on business). Despite his professional success, he was one of the most approachable people I’ve met while on the trip which was both impressive and motivating for all of the students present.

Shanghai – World Exposition

After we arrived in Shanghai early in the morning, we had to blitz-change into business casual for our visit to the World Expo. I didn’t really know too much about the expo before we went, just that it was divided into a company part and a country part (one on each side of the Huangpu River). We spent the morning on the corporate side – our small group saw a group of Shaolin warriors, which were very impressive. We also visited the space exhibition and the Coca Cola stand before it was time to take the ferry to the other side to see the countries. We also wanted to check out GM’s “Take a Drive to 2030” exhibit, but it was too far away.

The other side of the river was a really neat experience – almost every country from around the world had a big exhibit (they called them “pavilions”). Some favorites included Spain, Turkey, the Netherlands, China, and Saudi Arabia. We didn’t get a chance to see too many pavilions from the inside, but we walked a ton to see almost every one from the exterior. On a whole, I was really impressed with how much infrastructure Shanghai had implemented to accommodate the extra visitors (there were an estimated 300,000 people while we were there, and in July the city expects over 400,000!). Some implements we noticed included a lot of additional pedestrian walkways as well as some permanent new pavilions like the China one, which was extremely impressive. After about seven hours of straight walking on the country side, we headed back to the hotel.

Our final stop of the night was a nice (slower paced!) walk from the hotel eastward toward the Bund. The Bund is an area on the Huangpu River with a great view of both sides. The west side of the river (the Puxi side) has some of the older and more developed buildings, and the eastern side (Pudong) is home to some newer, more modern buildings built in the last 10-15 years. Both sides were very impressive, and the weather was absolutely beautiful – perfect for a relaxing touristy night out. After lots of group photos we headed back to the hotel for some tea and well-needed rest for corporate visits in the morning.

Travel from Zhangjiakou / Wangfujing Street in Beijing / Train to Shanghai

Today was mostly a travel day with a small stop in Beijing on the way to Shanghai. Unfortunately, it was the last day we traveled with Mr. Wong, our trusty bus driver over the last week of the trip. Luckily, my room had hot water in Zhangjiakou so I didn’t need to shower once we got to Beijing. A group of us went to a mall on Wangfujing Street and tried green tea shakes at Dairy Queen (per Darcy’s recommendation) and they were really good. After that we enjoyed the free time and walked around the pedestrian area looking at exotic foods like seahorses and scorpions (we weren’t brave enough to try any, but Fei did). We rounded out our time with a visit to a small market to barter for more souvenirs – not quite as good of prices as the Pearl Market, but still pretty cheap nonetheless. After a few hours we all met up and headed to the train station for an overnight trip to Shanghai.

Zhangjiakou – Potato & dairy factories, rural Mongolia, night festival

Today was one of those days with so much stuff packed into it that you can hardly believe it actually happened/fit into less than twenty-four hours. We started off by going to a rural dairy farm in inner Mongolia, but on the way, our bus ran over a rock and got a flat tire. This was quite a spectacle, seeing as we were kind of in the middle of nowhere. However, an auto shop was nearby and we were back on the road within an hour. We headed to a factory that produces potato powder, an integral ingredient in things like potato chips. The CEO indicated pretty explicitly that he would like to work with us in the future especially concerning his efforts to enter the blueberry market. We also visited a factory that processes milk and adds flavors and packages it for end consumers.

We ate lunch at our hotel in rural Mongolia, and it was neat since there was a Chinese wedding happening at our restaurant (as a quick note, we learned that brides usually wear red in China since white is normally reserved for funerals).

Then began our true experience in rural inner Mongolia. Our first stop was a wind farm which looked pretty normal. The grasslands of Mongolia are perfect for harvesting wind energy, so it makes sense why the Chinese government installed a wind farm in this location. After that we visited an animal market, the largest of its kind in China. This was the first time we really felt like spectacles in China. When we went to observe how people negotiate (secretly, using their system of interlocking fingers under their jackets), all of the locals swarmed us and started taking pictures with people who were really tall. It was weird to think that this might be the only time they would see people from America/not from China. On top of that, we were surrounded by cattle, sheep, and everything in between.

Our excursion continued to a small village off the beaten path where a family of about seven people lived. Mr. Bing, the deputy mayor of the whole region, arranged for them to take us into their home and we had Mongolian milk tea (unfortunately not as good as Hong Kong style, but close). We also watched her prepare a special noodle dish with what looked like a lot elbow grease (very labor intensive). It was really neat to be welcomed into a household, especially one that was rather modest and not really suitable for fifty guests. After taking pictures with the family and saying our goodbyes, it was off to the big festival area for our final stop of the night.

The last part of our excursion was a visit to this big festival/carnival-esque area in the grasslands. When we got there we were welcomed with music and dancers who put scarves around our necks and greeted us with horse milk liquor (not as nasty as it sounds). We then exchanged songs and dances from our respective cultures while drinking milk tea and having some Mongolian finger foods. It was very cool to experience local traditions in such a pure setting. Afterwards we had some free time to go horseback riding and shoot archery, after which point the real party started. Jack, Tabi, and Erum all got to light the giant bonfire and start the giant dance line that went in a circle around the fire. We conga-lined and danced to music that was a cool combination of techno and traditional Mongolian music. They also brought out lamb for us to eat which was delicious. Unfortunately around 10:00 PM we had to leave and go eat dinner, and most people were so tired they went straight to bed. I’ll be the first to admit I was a little skeptical about visiting a rural village, but I’m pretty sure this will be one of the best highlights of the trip.

Beijing – Silk Market, Olympic Village, Great Wall of China / Trip to Zhangjiakou

Today was our first real sightseeing day, which was really nice. We started the day off at the Silk Market, a smaller version of the Pearl Market we visited on Wednesday. I bought some nice knockoff sunglasses and then it was off to the Great Wall. As for the experience of climbing the wall, all I can say is WOW – pictures really can’t do justice to how impressive the whole thing is. Elise did an awesome job of making sure we took lots of pictures, which was good since I’m usually bad at remembering to take out my camera. After running down the wall, we got some Magnums (kind of like Dove bars, but you can’t get them in the U.S.) and headed up to the town of Zhangjiakou.

In Zhangjiakou we ate dinner at our hotel, which included a ton of great Chinese food, Zhongou beer, and rice wine liquor. After dinner we got Chinese foot massages, which included a boiling bowl of water to submerge our feet in, lots of oil, and fire. After all of the masseuse’s tricks, our feet felt much better from all the walking we had done. The massage made us all so tired and relaxed that we just went upstairs and fell asleep once our heads hit the pillow.