At this point, about six hours before we leave for the airport, I should write some stuff about the companies and people we've visited in the last few days. I realized I haven't actually done that.
So where I last left off was Capsugel in Suzhou, China on Friday. That was about a week and two cities ago. Clearly, more time needs to be dedicated to blogging about this trip.
Saturday we boarded the bus to go to Shanghai, but we were temporarily waylaid. Our tour guide set up some sort of tour of a silk factory in Suzhou without telling anyone; even Dr. Watson & Richard seemed to be confused by what was happening. Part of the group toured the factory, part of the group remained on the bus. I'm skeptical about the factory-ness of the factory (as in, how legit was it) because they were letting tour groups get almost on top of the equipment and touching the raw silk threads as it was being spun into hanks.
However, once in Shanghai, we visited Fudan University to meet with some of their IMBA students. One guy was a Chinese-American student, studying in China. He came over without knowing a word of the language and said he's gotten a mixed reception. Another student was from Chile and she didn't know a word of Chinese when moving here, either. I really liked those two students because they were very open -- the Chilean student even answered our questions about the squatty potty and her experiences with them! The Chinese students had been in Boston this spring and were taken to a lot of parties; they wanted to know if we partied like that too.
...
Of course we don't.
On Sunday we went to the International Expo, which I've already covered.
Monday morning was the only day this trip we got to sleep in! Our company visit in the morning (Covance) had been rescheduled to the afternoon, so we got to sleep an extra hour. Right after lunch we visited one of 3M's R&D centers in Shanghai. One of the best experiences on this trip! We got to see some of the cool things 3M's had a hand in creating.
After 3M, we went straight to Covance. At Covance, the mayor was visiting, so we were put off for about forty minutes (we were also thirty minutes early). Not a problem for us MBA students -- we just found the closest Starbucks and parked! Downside: the Starbucks didn't have the coffee blends for frappacinos. Therefore, most of us wound up with caffeine-free beverages contrary to our initial goal of dosing ourselves with caffeine and sugar. Once we were able to get into Covance, we met with one of the Vice Presidents.
I've said it before, but there's a definite difference between people in China that have been Western-educated and those that haven't. The ones that have are more gregarious than those that haven't. This man was funny and informative. I didn't realize that companies can contract out their drug research or clinical testings. I also found out that stomach and liver cancer are very prevalent in China!
No company visits on Tuesday since we flew to Beijing!
Since this is already pretty long, I'll do Mr. Fu's company and our politician visit and the dinner with ex-pats tomorrow. :)
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