Suzhou Industrial Park

First stop today was Suzhou Industrial Park, which was created by the government and a partnership with Singapore 12 years ago to create a special economic zone. Now, they have quite a few Fortune 500 companies here. I asked how they first marketed the Industrial Park to attract business and they didn't really answer my question. The Chinese are really big on models of development plans, of which we saw several. The showroom walkthrough was a bit like Epcot Center at Disney World...it even included a movie in a 3D tilt ride. The government pushed out all the farmers from this fertile ground and either moved them to other cities or trained them to be gardeners since Suzhou wants to be known as the Garden City. You can see a lot of earthmoving activities and fancy office buildings but you rarely see any people. It's a bit unsettling and weird...like a freshly built and painted ghost town from some Stephen King movie.

Next, we visited HeJian, which produces microchip wafers. Very interesting (the showroom moreso than the speaker). Seems there might be some collusion with one of their competitors/business partners in Taiwan. The HQ in Taiwan didn't want to expand to China, but nonetheless, some businessman opened up a branch here, is using their technology, they set prices between the two companies and have a loose partnership. We got the sugar coated story, I'm sure.

Lunch was pretty good and was a welcome relief from last night's dinner. We had pineapple sticky rice served in a pineapple which I thought was interesting. Again, not many people milling about this area, nor were there many other open restaurants. Where are the people? One thing to note is that the Chinese are very quiet, so maybe we just don't hear them. I dunno. Bathroom situation is a bit amusing for the women. (I probably shouldn't say that, but the women in our group have had some laughs about it as well.) The toilets here are mostly squat toilets instead of having an actual seat there's only a hole in the ground. Most restrooms though have at least one Western style toilet for the handicapped. At this restaurant, the Western toilet was smack dab in the middle of the women's bathrooms with no doors, so they were guarding the door for each other.

Then, we visited the SIP Logistics Center. Basically, they do all the shipping and freighting for SIP businesses. Another Epcot-like presentation and we went to the 21st floor to view a HUGE campus of storage buildings that would whisk things away by air, barge, and ground. Each member has its own warehouse--Adidas, L'Oreal, etc. Lots of guards at this place...a little disturbing. The smog is thick over all these buildings and quite depressing. This visit was not all that exciting. It would have been much more fascinating to watch the actual shipping process, like what I imagine the Memphis, TN FedEx facility to be.

Next, we went to a Chinese MBA school to learn about their program and do a joint case study. Pogo gave a presentation about the ND program. There were ~20 Chinese MBA students that joined us and we had 8 teams of eight students. The case was about salary negotiation for an American working in the fashion industry in Suzhou. They had read the case but we hadn't so we really only had 15 minutes out of 40 mins. for group discussion. Would have been more fun if we could have just talked rather than have a case. Some of our Chinese friends did not want to ask for the raise, since they wouldn't want to lose their job, as it's not easy to land a job in China, while most ND MBA's wanted to push for a livable wage, since there were valid reasons for doing so. Interesting perspectives. Then, we reconvened and each group gave a quick summary of their recommendations. It was OK, but time that could have been better spent having discussions with our new Chinese friends about business practices.

Walked to a shopping/dining area and Rosey (our host) explained the traditions of a Chinese wedding. Keith and I sat with two Chinese students and we talked about Chinese movies, school, work, life balance and worker compensation, families, living situations, favorite foods (American and Chinese). Had peppered steak on a stick, steak, onions & pepper dish, onion rings, French fries, garlic toast and rice, and beef bologna (kielbasa). Quite the mix!

After returning to the hotel, Adam, Megan, Jeff Gabe and I wandered the neighborhood. Found a karaoke bar that was not a karaoke bar and didn't go in. We also found a genuine karaoke bar, which we may try tomorrow night. Stores are open until 10pm and there is lots of hustle and bustle. There's a KFC-mobile that shuttles people back and forth down the street. (as if people eating KFC couldn't use the exercise!) Headed back to the hotel at 10pm and I spent awhile doing laundry. Our hotel room now looks like a Chinese laundromat. :)