Suzhou Winter Trip

"Let China Sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world," - Napoleon Bonaparte

During my winter break in year 2, I went on a 1 month immersion trip to Suzhou, China where we learnt about the history of that area, the business environment in China and how their different businesses work. There I had lessons in the NUSRI Suzhou campus with different guest professors from the local universities there. We were tasked with case-study assignments which required us to study various types of businesses and present it to the class as groups. After the trip, we also had to do a comprehensive 9 to 10 page final report on the topic of 'The rise of China' where we focused on any of the 3 areas of 'China's soft power', 'A New World Order' or 'community with a shared future for mankind', a concept delivered by former Chinese Communist Party general secretary Hu Jintao and advocated by current general secretary Xi Jinping.

We were given opportunities to go on industrial visits to places like the Huawei R&D centre, Bank of China HQ in Suzhou, Dream Village in Hangzhou and other tech companies. There we were exposed to how China is developing technology to become the next tech leader of the world and how they believe it can help them acheive sustainable economic growth. It was indeed an eye-opening experience for me. I also experienced how technologically advanced Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou were through daily life. There were many autonomous robots in their shopping malls serving customers before they entered the restaurants, e-payments through Alipay were so common that even the metro tickets could be paid using that. Although many applications like Google Maps etc were blocked there, I managed to use the applications that the locals used and was also pleasantly surprised that the user experience was great and I would say comparable or even better than the applications I usually used.

We were also exposed to the Chinese culture there. We did Chinese painting on fans, visited museums and went to view and learn about the unique Chinese Garderns there. I believe Suzhou and Hangzhou is like the 'Kyoto' of China. The city of Suzhou were I spent most of my days in was beautifully planned such that there were many old but well-maintained Chinese architecture which gave the cities a very calming and refreshing vibe. The cities were also very clean and green. The people we met there were also very friendly and hospitable. I believe a visit to Shanghai, Suzhou or Hangzhou will greatly broaden people's minds about the place and its people. Do contact me if you are interested to learn more about the trip and this module CH2393 which is the module that offers this winter program.