May 14th - The day we've all been waiting for, through the semester, and definitely through finals, finally arrived. Some of us met at the ACES library, said goodbye to friends who kindly sent us off on the trip, and set off for Chicago O'hare International Airport. There we met with the rest of the class. After the boarding process and two hours of airport delay, we finally took off and began our eight-hour flight to Brussels, Belgium.
Instead of our typical wake up of 6:30am, we were allowed to sleep in until 6:45!The agenda today includes visiting China's largest produce market and largest wall...The Great Wall!
At the end of what seemed to be the end of a terrific journey and nearly 3650 km (2250 miles) traveled in China, it was time to pack up our bags and head back to America. We departed from Hong Kong International Airport, ranked one of the best airports in the world.
Today we woke up in Hong Kong and got ready for our last day of academic business. Our first stop was Cafe Coral, a well known food company. Mr. Sunny Lo, the Managing Director of the group, Mrs. Helen Li, Director of Corporate Logistics, and Mrs. Jennifer Lo, Senior Manager of Purchasing, gave us an in depth presentation, explaining the ins and outs of their well known Cafe Coral fast food business as well as the other business branches that the group operated.
Our last leg of the journey began today as we said goodbye to Shanghai and hello to Hong Kong. On the way to our new city, we had a smooth two hour flight, and most of us got some much-needed napping on the plane :-) We were also surprised and excited to get lunch on the plane, which we normally wouldn't get on American flights anymore. And our lunch was huge - so big we couldn't eat all of it! We were served ramen noodles with shrimp, a dinner roll with butter, peanuts, fresh fruit, fish with rice, and a pineapple cookie for dessert - really impressive for airplane
We started the day at 7:00 am, in our suits, on our way to Taiwanese owned Uni-President Enterprises Corporation. Uni-President is a very large competitor and is the #2 enterprise in the food manufacturing industry. The company's successes can be attributed to their juice and noodle businesses in China. Once we arrived, we followed a brief presentation on the company's background.
Today we began our day a little bit different; we were able to sleep in until 8 a.m. After enjoying a delicious breakfast at the hotel we left around 9 a.m. to go walk around the French Concession district of Shanghai. This district was previously occupied by the French and its buildings display the French and Chinese architecture and design. Students were able to walk around and enjoy the local shops and parks.
In the morning, we woke up to a beautiful view of Shanghai just as the vibrant sun was rising. After several days of heavy travel, we were finally able to relax and enjoy a hearty breakfast at the esteemed four-star Jiulong Hotel. We arrived at Husi Food Company Ltd. at 9:30 a.m. sharp. Husi Foods is the Chinese division of Otto and Sons International Foods (OSI), a firm that previously visited us at U of I.
We left Hangzhou at about 8 o'clock in the morning and rode our bus to WuZhen, a famous Chinese water town. It has been said this town compares with Venice since all the houses line the canals running through the city.
We had an early morning because we had to catch a morning flight to HangZhou. The hotel had kindly provided us with pre-packed breakfast because we left the hotel at 6:10am before they even started their breakfast. It was one of the few times we experienced clear traffic on the road which made it easy for us to arrive at the airport on time.The plane ride lasted for less than an hour; the trip was so short that the seat belt sign did not even turn off the whole time. We also had the luxury of being served a succulent and delicious chicken burger during our flight.