Shenzhen Newly Ever Rise Electronics Co., Ltd
Though the company’s website is in Mandarin (presumably) I was able to gather a little information by using Google’s translate feature (a bit ironic given my recent post about Google and China, but I digress). The translation was a bit choppy, but it seems that the company manufactures small to medium-sized consumer electronics, appliances and electronic components. It will be interesting to see if my assumptions are close or way off when we arrive.

BBK Cell Phone Factory
BBK’s website is also in Mandarin but I was able to again gather a bit of information using Google. In addition to the obvious manufacturing of cell phones, the company also produces other consumer electronic devices such as MP3 players and compact flash readers. The translation was quite choppy (I hope), so it is possible that the company is in an entirely different industry. My favorite translation is from the description of an MP3 player: “Nano lords glass lenses simultaneous broadcast with music sing quanbing simultaneous visual learning multi-level recite thesaurus download.” I suppose that is why Google’s translation service is still in beta…

Yantian Seaport & Logistics Center
The Yantian Seaport is the second largest deep-water container port in China (the Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port is the largest) and presumably handles all of the container shipping originating in Shenzhen. Due to Shenzhen’s rapid growth over the past decade, it will be interesting to see this massive port in person. Moreover, the growth and success of the port is directly related to Shenzhen’s position as one of China’s hottest regions — should the economy shift, or wages increase rapidly, the port may be dramatically impacted.

PricewaterhouseCoopers
One of the Big Four accounting firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers offers a range of services including the following: Audit and assurance, crisis management, human resources, performance improvement, tax, and transactions consulting. The company has 13 offices in China from Beijing to Shanghai to Shenzhen. As a side note, check out PWC’s Corporate Responsibility publication.

CB Richard Ellis
You may have seen CBRE’s distinctive signs posted on buildings, from warehouses to skyscrapers, throughout the U.S.. Due mainly to a number of strategic acquisitions over the past decade the company has grown into a dominant global real estate services company with over 300 offices in 50 countries. The company seems extremely customer-focused and a great company to work with or have as a partner in real estate. We had the pleasure in late April of receiving a presentation from the President of the Western Division, Bill Chillingworth.

Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition
Tapping Google again for a bit of translation help, I was disappointed to see that the search engine was unable to help out. It appears that the main page (the second one, not the cryptic black one with a few Chinese characters on it) is comprised all of images which Google is unfortunately unable to convert to English. From the name, the images on the site, as well as a quick search, I imagine the organization to be an exhibit on urban planning within the city including residential dwellings and high-rises.

HSBC
Based in London, HSBC offers banking and financial services world-wide. The company has been in China for quite some time, however, having been established in Shanghai in 1865 as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. Perhaps most readily recognized in the U.S. for its credit card services, HSBC offers a slew of financial services including mortgage lending, consumer and corporate banking, and investment services, and currently boasts 12 branch offices in China.

RR Donnelley
From the company’s website: “RR Donnelley is the world’s premier full-service provider of print and related services, including document-based business process outsourcing.” I imagine most global companies would refer to themselves as “the” premier company, but in RR Donnelley’s case their global dominance is definitely evident. Based in Chicago, the 140-year old company racked up $8.4 billion in sales in 2005 and has more than 600 locations worldwide. The company provides services in, “commercial printing, direct mail, financial printing, print fulfillment, forms and labels, logistics, call centers, transactional print-and-mail, print management, online services, digital photography, color services, and content and database management to customers in the publishing, healthcare, advertising, retail, technology, financial services and many other industries.”

Microsoft Global Technical Service Center
One of five Microsoft Global Technical Support Centers in the world, this branch opened in Shanghai in 1998. With over 500 employees, the center “[provides] comprehensive technical support services for customers from regions in Asia-Pacific, America and Europe.”

Groupe Carrefour
Often referred to as the ‘Wal-Mart of Europe,’ Carrefour is a massive retail chain with locations world-wide. Though 84% of its revenue comes from Europe (47% of that is from France alone), the company is making strides internationally. It has 436,000 employees and is the second largest retailer in the world. The company sells goods via four main formats: hypermarket, supermarket, hard discount, and convenience store. It was also the first large retailer to establish a presence in Asia (1989).

Shanghai Museum
The Shanghai Museum looks quite interesting and should be a nice break from our more business-oriented visits. It has a wide range of Chinese art on display including ancient bronze, paintings, calligraphy, jade, coins, and furniture. I’m drawn to calligraphy in general but especially appreciate Asian calligraphy and anticipate enjoying the visit considerably.

Suzhou Industrial Park
Turning to Google again, I noted the following introduction on the website: “May the golden rooster lakes spend too podium, weeping willow Tulu, the weather each arrest. Lawn of the young woman, shaking his wits Tong envy watching the kites in the wide square run juvenile.” Interesting. I almost stopped reading, but then the translation actually started to make sense, following with, “China and Singapore as the largest cooperation project between the two governments, the Suzhou Industrial Park interpretation of the “Industrial” and “garden” wonderful combination.” It started to fall apart then at the end of the sentence, but at least I was able to glean a little information. I tried to dig a bit more but didn’t have any luck. Again, another site that should be interesting to see in relation to what I am expecting.

US Embassy/Commercial Attache
This organization, the U.S. Commercial Service, is very upfront about its purpose, noting clearly on the home page of its website that it helps U.S. businesses grow their sales in China. The site is a little overwhelming at first, in the sense that it offers such a wealth of information and resources to businesses aiming to enter the Chinese marketplace. There are programs, reports, research, information, and other services available, all aligned with the goal of helping U.S. companies do business in China. The U.S. Commercial Service looks to be an invaluable resource for any company doing business or planning on doing business in China.

Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall
The Exhibition Hall, our second planned museum visit, hosts a number of ancient Chinese artifacts. Noted in the linked article is a huge arial photograph of Beijing that is printed on approximately 1,000 lighted glass floor panels. In addition to the photograph is a “giant model” of the Beijing urban master plan, which will be implemented in relation to the city’s hosting of the 2008 Olympics. The model sounds pretty intricate. Note the following fact from the article: “The deputy curator said it was produced with such finesse that even the wood between panes of glass in the windows has been added.”

Sun Microsystems Engineering Center
Sun is a fascinating company that epitomizes Silicon Valley to me. I tend to think of their giant mainframes or Java, but after checking out their corporate website, I see that they have quite a bit more going on. They segment the company’s offerings into Solutions and Services, with the former having the following enticing description: “We engineer radical technology solutions that solve impossible problems for businesses, government, and institutions.” Incredibly vague sounding, but also quite cool. The description for the latter is a bit more bland and uninteresting: “Sun Services is where network computing and business converge.” I’m interested to see if the company feels like it is in the Valley, or if it takes on a more local feel.

Beijing (Peking) University
The university, called “Peking University” on its website, is located near the Summer Palace in Beijing. It appears quite large, with “30 colleges and 12 departments, with 93 specialties for undergraduates, 2 specialties for the second Bachelor’s degree, 199 specialties for Master candidates and 173 specialties for Doctoral candidates.” I poked around and visited a few of the photo galleries. The campus looks very interesting and should prove to be an enjoyable portion of the trip.

Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University also has a rich history and looks to be a very interesting site to visit. While it doesn’t seem to have the depth of academic offerings that Peking University provides it seems to emphasize its educational philosophy more prominently, to “train students with integrity.” I look forward to contrasting our visit at this university with what we experience at Peking University.

Panjianyuan Antique Collection Market
From the market’s website: “The Panjiayuan folk culture market is a market in Beijing dealing in secondhand goods of private citizens and art and craft articles.” It sounds like a very large art market akin to a flea market in the States, but perhaps with a much more “cultural” feel.

TAGS: China | MBA | Cal Poly | Asia