It was a nice early start today with the group departing our hotel at 7:30am. We started our day with a visit to the McDonalds Shanghai Hamburger University. Jacquelyn Howard, the VP of Supply Chain Management for McDonalds China/Hong Kong, spoke with us about McDonald’s supply chain and the safety measures that they implement for their products from “Farm to Fork”. It was really interesting to hear about the differences between the Chinese market and the US market and how McDonald’s has adapted to this new environment. We learned about why there are so few drive-thrus in China and why McDonald’s has chosen the last 7-10 years to become aggressive in their growth strategy verses 25 years ago when they first began opening restaurants in China. Arron Hoyle, a member of Jacquelyn’s team and the Senior Director of Strategic Sourcing for Supply Chain Management in China also joined us and provided great insight into the challenges of securing safe, consistent products within China. He helped us to gain a better understanding of the agricultural environment in China and how it affects all stages of the supply chain, including how a company like McDonald’s does business. He said that China’s growth in the past 5 years equates to the United States growth over the past 30 years.

Once the presentation was over we went on a quick tour of the building and then it was time to head out to lunch. After spending the morning at Hamburger University it only seemed appropriate to have lunch at McDonalds. We all enjoyed the food and comparing it to McDonalds’ we have had in the US.

Once lunch was over we drove to a Jade Expo Store where we learned about all the different types of Jade and how to tell the quality of the Jade. The more transparent, the darker the color, and the shinier = the better quality the Jade.

After we completed our tour at the Jade Expo store we headed over to the YuYuan Garden. This garden was built 400 years ago during Emperor Jiajing’s rein and continues to be a popular place for tourists and locals to visit. It is located relatively close to the downtown area, and Shanghai’s tallest buildings could be seen poking over the pagoda’s walls. It is a beautiful traditional Chinese garden with small ponds, rare rock formations, traditional Chinese architecture, and a great diversity of plants and trees. The area around the garden has become very developed and is now full of stores, shops and restaurants. We had a little time after walking through the garden to explore the area and do some shopping. It was then time to get back on the bus and head “home” to the hotel. We then had the evening to ourselves to get dinner and explore the city.

It is hard to believe that our trip is beginning to wrap up. Tomorrow we will explore the streets of Shanghai and Suzhou one last time before we make our departure for the States. 

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