Student Journal 5
Visiting Southern China, the Factory of the World.
Early in the morning on the 18th of May, we put ourselves on the bus leaving Hong Kong for Guangzhou. We were scheduled to visit Mainland China two times on this trip. The first visit was to Guangzhou, in Southern China, which attracts a number of companies from all over the world with its affluent and cheap labor forces. When I told some Chinese classmates that we would visit these two places, Guangzhou and Shanghai in China, they all said “you will see two faces of the emerging market, China, then.” Today is the day that I might see “China, the Factory of the World”, which is hidden behind the spotlighted, “New superpower, China” in the world trade and world economy, or which made “The China” possible. To step into Guangzhou from Hong Kong is not a simple process. It required a few hours of driving and completion of some administrative processes, like passport and baggage checks before we actually got there.
The two companies we are supposed to visit today, are all located in Shenzhen, Guangzhou. After another long-hour drive after the passport control on the border (precisely speaking, it is not the official border between countries, though.), we had finally reached the town where the second company is located. Now the bus is driving on an unpaved road, bare without asphalt, and the city-view has changed from multi-story offices and apartments into two-to-three story low and old buildings. Young people who look like workers in this town are standing and talking at the bus stops, waiting for a bus. Construction workers are passionately putting something under the ground at a dust-blowing construction site. A father giving his son a piggyback ride and a young lady dressed up with a pinky, frilly blouse are walking through the dust fog of the construction site. The hearts of fathers toward their children and the fashion of girls seem to be the same everywhere in the world. Workers are staring at the bus full of foreigners with eyes full of questions. Clothes are hanging around the balcony of apartments that look like the accommodations for workers of this town, like colorful flags. All the scenery here makes me realize that we have just stepped into a snapshot of everyday life for some people, a life where the past, the present and the future are fast intercrossing.
Our time for learning about the past and current change of Chinese business environment through an industry of “watch manufacturing” was just like a case study in class, full of real, vivid and interesting stories. In particular, the management of the company emphasized that Southern China, the place famous for affluent and cheap human capital, is suffering from the decrease of labor and an increase of income level. Behind the change, there is a double increase of income for Chinese workers and a strengthening of corporate welfare policies, recently executed by the Chinese government.
Early in the morning on the 18th of May, we put ourselves on the bus leaving Hong Kong for Guangzhou. We were scheduled to visit Mainland China two times on this trip. The first visit was to Guangzhou, in Southern China, which attracts a number of companies from all over the world with its affluent and cheap labor forces. When I told some Chinese classmates that we would visit these two places, Guangzhou and Shanghai in China, they all said “you will see two faces of the emerging market, China, then.” Today is the day that I might see “China, the Factory of the World”, which is hidden behind the spotlighted, “New superpower, China” in the world trade and world economy, or which made “The China” possible. To step into Guangzhou from Hong Kong is not a simple process. It required a few hours of driving and completion of some administrative processes, like passport and baggage checks before we actually got there.
The two companies we are supposed to visit today, are all located in Shenzhen, Guangzhou. After another long-hour drive after the passport control on the border (precisely speaking, it is not the official border between countries, though.), we had finally reached the town where the second company is located. Now the bus is driving on an unpaved road, bare without asphalt, and the city-view has changed from multi-story offices and apartments into two-to-three story low and old buildings. Young people who look like workers in this town are standing and talking at the bus stops, waiting for a bus. Construction workers are passionately putting something under the ground at a dust-blowing construction site. A father giving his son a piggyback ride and a young lady dressed up with a pinky, frilly blouse are walking through the dust fog of the construction site. The hearts of fathers toward their children and the fashion of girls seem to be the same everywhere in the world. Workers are staring at the bus full of foreigners with eyes full of questions. Clothes are hanging around the balcony of apartments that look like the accommodations for workers of this town, like colorful flags. All the scenery here makes me realize that we have just stepped into a snapshot of everyday life for some people, a life where the past, the present and the future are fast intercrossing.
Our time for learning about the past and current change of Chinese business environment through an industry of “watch manufacturing” was just like a case study in class, full of real, vivid and interesting stories. In particular, the management of the company emphasized that Southern China, the place famous for affluent and cheap human capital, is suffering from the decrease of labor and an increase of income level. Behind the change, there is a double increase of income for Chinese workers and a strengthening of corporate welfare policies, recently executed by the Chinese government.