Countdown to China

I’m excited; by this time next week I will have been on the Great Wall of China.

There’s only two more days until 30 of us University of Alberta MBA students get on a plane and head for China, a trip I’ve been looking forward to since I first enrolled in the MBA program. I am graduating from the program this spring, and think that this is a great way to wrap it up. The trip is the highlight of a class in international business focusing on China. Over the past semester we undertook research projects on topics related to the Chinese business climate, and now we will get to experience it first hand as we visit companies in Beijing and Shanghai. Some of the companies we will be visiting include Lenovo, Giordano Group, RBC Beijing, General Motor Shanghai, and GE Healthcare.

Although the focus of the trip is business, we’ll also be doing sightseeing and experiencing Chinese culture. High on my list of things to see in my life time is the Great Wall, where we’ll be next Sunday. We’ll also be visiting Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Shanghai’s Perl Tower, and bustling night markets among a long list of activities. I’m really looking forward to the food too... one of the best parts of travelling in my opinion! We have a Peking duck dinner planned, and my stomach is growling thinking about it. I won’t be entertaining you with stories of eating bugs on a stick though since I’m putting myself on a no street-meat diet for this trip... it got me in trouble during my travels in the past!

Last year’s China study tour was oversubscribed and I was one of the unlucky ones who didn’t get to go, so my excitement about this trip has only grown over the past year. From where we are now, I can see that this year might provide us with a particularly interesting look at China. Last year’s class experienced China in the height of its arrival on the world stage building up to the Beijing Olympics. This year, we will see China with its post-Olympic glow in the context of the current global economic storm and the accompanying rain on consumers’ parades. While China continues to be a major engine driving world economics, it will be interesting to see how companies such as General Motors Shanghai are managing and get an impression of how people are continuing to prosper.

Well, this is where I’ll sign off for now. Check back now and then; I’ll be blogging as often as I can throughout the trip to keep you updated with stories of our travels!