ICABE (International Consortium of Asian Business Education) is a consortium run by Kyushu Univ. Business School to promote networking, share substance and know-how for Asian business education, which many educational institutions have separately developed. And one of the activities of ICABE is student exchange with universities in China. For the first and the last time, I participated in this program held at Nanjing University, China, sponsored by Toshiba International Foundation in Feb, 2008, just before graduation.
Nanjing is located about in the middle between Beijing and Shanghai. This was my 2nd trip to China, the first one was to Shanghai, about 10 years ago. I definitely expected a huge difference as China now is fast growing country after joining WTO.
There were 10 students with 2 proffesors and 1 asst. prof in the trip. We disembarked at Pudong International Airport, Shanghai before taking a chartered bus ride to Nanjing. Actually we were divided into groups and were expected to give presentation on a given topic at Nanjing Univ. Unfortunately, our group was still unprepared so my friends and I took the opportunity to make discussion on the bus.
At last we reached Nanjing and that took us 5 hours from Shanghai! The first activity was a factory tour to Phoenix Ltd, a German company making connectors. Many people at the crust of this company pursued MBA at Nanjing Univ.
Then we moved to a hotel for dinner. Today was the 60th birthday of my supervisor, Prof Shutto. In Japan, 60th birthday is special (called "kanreki") where people celebrate it as the sexagenary cycle completed and restarts at the 60ths year. Simply said, it is like "Life starts at 60".heheh.. Prof Zhan treated him with a birthday cake and I also gave him a small present. Prof. Shutto made sure my food is halal, and I was very thankful for that. One thing I learnt from the dinner is that how drinking is very important in building relationship (ie business) with the chinese. It is not only the drinking thing but also how they do it, the protocol and rules is what matters. Of course I don't drink because I am a Muslim but I feel that this experience is valuable to understand the Chinese.
After dinner, we went to the hotel we were staying. I shared the room with Cho-san (the Chinese girl)from the 5th batch. As we haven't finished doing the presentation material, we went to the boys room for discussion. And that was not really a discussion, the boys were so funny! Lalalalai!!
But we managed to complete the task, at last, late that night. Before returning to our room, the boys promised to accompany me for breakfast the next morning, because of my Muslim diet.
The next morning, we walked the streets around the hotel to find something I could eat. It was the moment when I saw something written in Arabic opposite the side we were walking. We all approached the shop and walla! it was a halal noodles shop! I knew it was halal because the shop had "清真" written on its signboard. A chinese classmate once told me that 清真 means "halal" in Chinese, and I could understand it from the word. To make sure, I asked the cook if he is a Muslim, and he said yes. So..I was so excited to be able to taste the Chinese noodles, in China for the first time ever. I ordered a beef noodles and an extra fried noodles for all to taste. It was so yummy! We took a picture with the shy, young cook before returning to the hotel.
At about 8 we departed for Nanjing University. I was excited to meet friends from Nanjing Univ. who were on exchange program to QBS the previous year. We always meet in QBS study room because I usually stayed up late writing my thesis so most of them know me, at least. After listening to the lectures of prof. from both universities, it was the students' turn to present. We presented on "Where would China go after the Olympics" (that was not the exact title but what we presented) and we made the Tokyo Olympics as the scenario to compare. Well, at the end we brought the discussion to "ECO" issues...ok. to much about that.
After the lecture hall activities, we were brought on a tour to Nanjing Univ Business School. Guess what, the school operates hotel rooms on one of its floors! The rooms are managed by Mandarin Oriental..and it was damn like a hotel. So next time when we come to Nanjing we can stay for a reasonable price, if the rooms are available.
The night we were treated with dinner in the university. Again I was surprised that the Univ has a high class restaurant, and I mean it! Round tables, chinese ala carte menu...we nearly forgotten that we were in campus area.
After dinner, the asst prof asked if we wanted to join her for a massage. I have never been to one except at my cousin's who runs a salon at her house, so I joined the group. To "protect" us, Prof Shutto joined our all-girls group, and there we were, all of us enjoying the foot massage.
The next day, we checked out the hotel and went for a trip to a world heritage site in Nanjing. It was a an ancient castle ruin of Tang Dynasty. From there, we went to Nanjing Station and took a bullet train to Shanghai. All along the way I could see the large gap between the rich and poor in China, and I was a little bit sad about that.
In Shanghai, Hanada-san, Suthep-san and I said goodbye to the others because we were heading home first. The others stay for another night in Shanghai. My classmate, An-san brought us around the busiest streets of Shanghai and somewhere near Shanghai Tower. There were so many people they walk on the bus lane! However, the air was smoky I already felt a sore throat. Anyway, the view of the surrounding (minus the sky) was great.
Later we took a ride on the fastest train on earth (I think) , the linear motorcar. It took only 8 minutes to Pudong International Airport from the city center. See how fast its maximum speed is.. 431km/h!
We finally reached Fukuoka at around 7pm. Thanks to ECO group for all the fun and Prof. Shutto for making sure of my diet.
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