Friday in Shanghai

Friday in Shanghai presented us with our last business visit of the trip, along with an excursion to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. The business visit was held at the Shanghai Foreign Investment Service Center, and consisted of a brief tour of an informative floor, followed by a presentation and discussion. The presentation highlighted the economic circumstances of Shanghai, including how the city was broken down into sectors similar to how Beijing was planned. Northern Shanghai is where the majority of steel is produced in the, the majority of chemical industries are located in the southern part, the east has many micro electronic manufacturers, and the west is home to the automobile manufacturing plants. The northeast island of Shanghai is also where the shipbuilding industries of the city are located. The presentation also discussed the importance of a new deep water port in the southeast area of Shanghai, which was also discussed in our Kuehne and Nagel presentation. The information we received at this presentation also highlighted the tremendous growth that Shanghai has experienced in the past years. Currently, Shanghai is the largest trade port in the world with an import export volume of over 165 billion, and is home to 191 R&D centers, 154 holding companies, and 149 regional headquarters for multinational corporations. It's no wonder that Shanghai has experienced 10 billion dollars in investment growth in the last three years. The presentation also addressed how Shanghai, and China as a whole, seeks to find a balance between foreign investment and local development.

It seems the current major source of development in Shanghai is the World Expo, which is coming to the city in 2010. This event seems to be as important to Shanghai as the coming Olympics are to Beijing. It's amazing how two such major events are coming to China in the coming 5 years that will attract a huge global spotlight. The conclusion of this business visit marked our last business site attendance, and I just want to comment on the high quality of these experiences. Not only were the presentations highly informative, but our group also always had questions that continued the discussion in a very productive and beneficial manner. In the majority of presentations our questions extended such business presentations by an average of half an hour, and it always remained interesting.

After our last business visit, our group then had lunch at a ethnic Muslim restaurant, and I found the food to be quite delicious--a good change from the food of Shanghai which I still have not become accustomed to. Luckily, the westernization of Shanghai has made it very easy to find fast food restaurants to satisfy a hungry stomach. With our stomachs full, the group then went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum, which has a complete 3D model of the inner ring of the city of Shanghai. A ring is simply a circle of highway that encircles the city. Shanghai has three rings, while Beijing has six (just to give you a comparison). Aside from the model of the city, the museum also has many exhibits of each element of the development plan, such as the highway, subway, railway, seaport, and airport development projects that are underway. A surprise came when a large group of soldiers from the military rushed into the room, and viewed a presentation on the 3D model of Shanghai. I have some pictures of this experience, but as you can probably notice, I haven't been able to post them. I'm no longer writing from the miserable internet cafe, but something doesn't seem to working at the moment. Don't worry though, the pictures are saved, and eventually you will see them.

To wrap up, after the museum the group did some more shopping at a well known fake market in the area. This was likely our last experience with the intense bargaining that takes place in these markets, and I definitely made the largest negotiations I had for the trip at this time. What a way to end my shopping experience. Tomorrow will be our last full day in Shanghai, and then the next day we'll be leaving for the US. I can't believe the end has nearl come, but I'll be glad to get home after such a consuming experience, no matter how much I've enjoyed it. I'll see if I can get those pictures up.