Wrapping Up
The final days of our China trip left me with little time to get to the computer and update the blog, so here are a few days at once...
My only full day in Shanghai started with a factory tour at a place that makes garments for Marmot, Adidas, Nike, Fila, Pearl Izumi, etc. Conditions in the factory were just fine and as expected, it is not the sweatshop that was rumored to exist years ago in China. It's still not a job I would desire as workers do not shift between different skilled positions and are stuck sitting on the line 40 hours a week (the maximum number of hours they can work in a week). Minimum wage in the area comes out to about $0.54/hour, the workers in this factory get paid about $0.72/hour. A typical garment has a 4 hour throughput time so the labor cost behind a garment comes out to just under $3.
After the factory, we visited Fudan University for a series of speakers from Nike, Wieden & Kennedy, IMG, Zou Marketing, and others. I had some interesting tidbits to share from those talks but of course my notes are buried in some bags that I'm not with at the moment. That wrapped up the educational portion of the trip. One of the more interesting facts about the University is the $100M building that was built to celebrate their 100th (I think) anniversary. However, the university has no use for the building and it currently sits empty.
My final night in China was another opportunity for us to roam Shanghai. Again it was an amazing modern, cosmopolitan city. There is still tons of poverty, but there are lots of others in the city who are wealthy. Beijing allowed us the chance to check out the historical side of China, but Shanghai is the destination you want to visit over and over, like New York.
Thursday morning meant it was time for me to leave a day early to stand up in a wedding in Madison. The trip home was a LONG day of travel. Started out by taking the Maglev train to the airport in Shanghai. Rumors were that it tops out at 430 km/hr however, it only hit 301 km/hr while I was on it. Maybe the rainy conditions slowed it down but we still arrived at the airport in the 7 minutes that are advertised alongside the 430 km/hr so I'm not quite buying the 430 number. Flights from Shanghai to Tokyo to Minneapolis to Madison left me arriving during the beginning of a football weekend in the best city in the country for college football. Being back in town on a football weekend is brining back lots of good memories.
All in all, the China trip was one of the best experiences of my life. I don't know that I've ever learned so much in a week and the trip was just plain fun. The company I was traveling with of course only helped. Spending 24 hours a day with my classmates for the week reinforced what a great group we have in Eugene.
And as the China blog wraps up, a special thanks to Lori and Paul for putting together such a phenomenal trip and to everyone else in CAPS and the LCB for all their help.
I may look for other subjects to keep this blog going from time to time, so feel free to check back.
My only full day in Shanghai started with a factory tour at a place that makes garments for Marmot, Adidas, Nike, Fila, Pearl Izumi, etc. Conditions in the factory were just fine and as expected, it is not the sweatshop that was rumored to exist years ago in China. It's still not a job I would desire as workers do not shift between different skilled positions and are stuck sitting on the line 40 hours a week (the maximum number of hours they can work in a week). Minimum wage in the area comes out to about $0.54/hour, the workers in this factory get paid about $0.72/hour. A typical garment has a 4 hour throughput time so the labor cost behind a garment comes out to just under $3.
After the factory, we visited Fudan University for a series of speakers from Nike, Wieden & Kennedy, IMG, Zou Marketing, and others. I had some interesting tidbits to share from those talks but of course my notes are buried in some bags that I'm not with at the moment. That wrapped up the educational portion of the trip. One of the more interesting facts about the University is the $100M building that was built to celebrate their 100th (I think) anniversary. However, the university has no use for the building and it currently sits empty.
My final night in China was another opportunity for us to roam Shanghai. Again it was an amazing modern, cosmopolitan city. There is still tons of poverty, but there are lots of others in the city who are wealthy. Beijing allowed us the chance to check out the historical side of China, but Shanghai is the destination you want to visit over and over, like New York.
Thursday morning meant it was time for me to leave a day early to stand up in a wedding in Madison. The trip home was a LONG day of travel. Started out by taking the Maglev train to the airport in Shanghai. Rumors were that it tops out at 430 km/hr however, it only hit 301 km/hr while I was on it. Maybe the rainy conditions slowed it down but we still arrived at the airport in the 7 minutes that are advertised alongside the 430 km/hr so I'm not quite buying the 430 number. Flights from Shanghai to Tokyo to Minneapolis to Madison left me arriving during the beginning of a football weekend in the best city in the country for college football. Being back in town on a football weekend is brining back lots of good memories.
All in all, the China trip was one of the best experiences of my life. I don't know that I've ever learned so much in a week and the trip was just plain fun. The company I was traveling with of course only helped. Spending 24 hours a day with my classmates for the week reinforced what a great group we have in Eugene.
And as the China blog wraps up, a special thanks to Lori and Paul for putting together such a phenomenal trip and to everyone else in CAPS and the LCB for all their help.
I may look for other subjects to keep this blog going from time to time, so feel free to check back.
posted by Brian Cole at
10:44 AM
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