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TRANSCRIPT
2008-2009
June 8-12 2009
MBA6080A Business Field Study – Mainland, China
Personal Reflections Report
Professor: Ms. Ping Ping Fu
MBA6080A Personal Reflections
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Content
Chan Pek Ieng, Pauline .................................................................................................................................... 3
Chan Tak Hung, Terry ...................................................................................................................................... 9
Chan Tsan Jim, Jimmy .................................................................................................................................... 12
Chang, William............................................................................................................................................... 17
Chen Yi Yin, Sophia ........................................................................................................................................ 20
Chow Bo Loi, Paul .......................................................................................................................................... 25
Chow Wing Yee, Vivian .................................................................................................................................. 28
Chu, Chung Ngai Inness ................................................................................................................................. 31
Fraissinet Lise ................................................................................................................................................ 38
Fung Ching Oi (Olivia) .................................................................................................................................... 43
Fung Sin Cheung, Edmund ............................................................................................................................. 47
Ho Ka Man, Kaberlina .................................................................................................................................... 50
Lam Tze Kin, Eagan ........................................................................................................................................ 54
Lee Tsz Yeung, Michael.................................................................................................................................. 58
Li Sum Yi, Yvonne ........................................................................................................................................... 65
Li Wai Chung, Owen ...................................................................................................................................... 68
Lui Ching Man, Esther .................................................................................................................................... 72
Mak Ho Pong ................................................................................................................................................. 77
Ng Man Fai, Catherine ................................................................................................................................... 80
Or Shuk Kuen, Irene ....................................................................................................................................... 83
Tse Chun Ho ................................................................................................................................................... 86
Wong Kok Meng, Joe ..................................................................................................................................... 89
Wong Lai Yee, Jodie ....................................................................................................................................... 93
Wong Wai To, Oscar ...................................................................................................................................... 96
Wu Shuk Ling, Iris ........................................................................................................................................ 103
Yang Huajun, Frank...................................................................................................................................... 107
Yong Wai Ling, Winnie ................................................................................................................................. 111
Yuen Koon Chi, Christine ............................................................................................................................. 115
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Beijing City (photo by Pauline)
Tsinghua Science Park (photo from web)
Beijing road (photo from classmate)
On the MTR platform (photo from
Inness)
Wangfujing (photo from classmate)
Chan Pek Ieng, Pauline
中國情.中國結
- 北京遊學之隨想
My Chinese Heart 我的中國心
It had been 12 years since my last visit to Beijing. The city had
changed so significantly since my last visit. Places such as
Wangfujing and Qianmen had transformed into modern shopping
areas; MTR system had expanded from two lines to eight lines.
There are many more tall buildings and highways. I was so
impressed to be in this urban and international capital city.
Before this trip, I was expecting to see a new look of Beijing after
the Olympics and visit outstanding enterprises to know their key
to success in doing business in China. But much more than that, I
got the chance to come across with fabulous people who shared
their stories which were beyond what we normally saw as an
outsider. Thanks to this journey, I learned more about China – my
home country.
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Beijing national theatre (photo from Inness)
Waiting for flag rising ceremony at 2:30am (photo from Inness)
In Tiananmen (photo from Inness)
Today, China had become a 'bright spot' in world economy.
Witnessing the rapid growth of China’s economy in the past
decades, I am so proud to be a member of this big nation. As our
country is becoming stronger and taking more important role in
most international decisions, I am so passionate to know more
stories and the reason behind the big change.
This trip provides a very good chance for me to know more about
China through interacting with excellent Professors, outstanding
CEOs and fabulous locals and students. This is also the first time
that I can listen to point of views of so many excellent Chinese
people and share their valuable experiences.
After this trip, I knew more about my country. The more I learnt
about this country, the more I love it and the more I can feel my
sense of belonging to it. Never did I feel so proud of China and
Chinese culture than before. Never did I feel so strong a sense of
being Chinese than before.
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Beijing Olympics opening ceremony (photo from web)
The opening ceremony of Games for the disabled (photo from web)
Discussion with Ms Dong Mei during class break (photo from Inness)
Beijing Olympics opening ceremony (photo from web)
The Beauty of Chinese Nation 美麗的中國人
Chinese is one of the most amazing civilizations the world has ever
known with history of more than 5000 years. Confucianism and
Daoism greatly contributed to the beliefs and philosophical nature
of Chinese nation. Through these philosophies, Chinese people
gained many morals and ideas such as honesty, hard work, and
concern for others that helped them progress as a people. It also
brings about the uniqueness of Chinese people in term of the
value, behavior and belief.
With the marvelous opening ceremony and complete success of
the Beijing Olympic Games, the world was amazed by China’s
capability to host grand activities. It successfully deepen the
world’s understanding of China's social customs and culture as
well as showcase China's ever growing international status and
prestige. Nevertheless, the effort behind this indisputable success
which Ms. Dong Mei shared with us was the most touching part. I
was so amazed by their on-time completion of renovating
dormitories for Games for the disabled/handicapped within 24
hours; it was also shocking to know that they reprinted 200,000
brochures within a few hours time. The extreme cooperativeness,
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CEO forum (photo from Inness)
Dinner with GM Ms. Li (photo from Inness)
The CEO Forum (photo from Inness)
Friendship between Prof. Fu and GM Ms. Li (photo from Inness)
fortitude and unreserved contribution of all Olympic participants
had made what sounded impossible became possible. I strongly
agree the saying that, maybe, only China and Chinese can make all
these happened.
Meeting with Ms. Li, General Manager of Nirvana Resort Beijing,
and other two outstanding CEOs also reward me with many
valuable lessons. Ms. Li is a live example of successful Chinese
leader. She spent her career in tourism for more than 40 years.
Experiencing high tides and low tides in life and career, Ms. Li
reminded us that successful leaders must have a strong character
and firm belief in one-self. This character can be in-born or
developed through learning. She also emphasized the importance
of good personality and mora lity for one’s well being. All these,
re-assured me of the importance of ethics and trustworthiness on
the way to success.
Ms. Li also shared with us her philosophy of running success
business and organization – self-alignment. She runs her business
in the way that matches her personality. She shared her values
and beliefs among her co-workers and developed that into her
company culture. In this way, Ms. Li can also love what she do and
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Young Chinese girls celebrating for Beijing Olympic Games 2009
(photo from Internet)
Smiling face of a little girl who experienced earthquake
“小女孩,你的微笑不獨天真可愛,而且代表了中國人向世界宣示:我們是何等頑強的民族!”
(photo and quote from http://stephenau.info/category/life/)
Chinese is a nation of collectivism. People in China have very strong National Consciousness.
be consistent in her business strategy because she does not need
to violate her personal values while making business decisions. I
was especially impressed by Ms. Li’s idea of consistency. It
reminded me of times when I found conflicts between personal
values and company interest. Ms. Li’s point will be a good
guideline for me when making choice in work and in life.
The CEOs also demonstrated the Chinese management style of
mutualism which is very different from the western individualism
style of management. They emphasized self-discipline of the sub-
ordinates which is also a philosophy of Confucianism. People
centric, the CEOs built trust with their sub-ordinates and show
care about them. This humanistic way of management motivates
people in the company to work for a common goal and for the
well-being of the company. It is believed that the best
management method is to set the company system and rules in
the western way and to manage people in the Chinese way. The
success of such management style can be shown by Ms. Li having
almost half of her sub-ordinates working in her company for more
than 20 years.
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The morning sun (photo from Inness)
Tiananmen before sunrise (photo from Inness)
The flag rising ceremony (photo from Inness)
A Bright Future 明天會更好
All the good characters that I found in the outstanding people
that I met are common but unique among Chinese people. The
hardworking and fortitude character of Chinese people
contributed to the fast growth in economy of the country. Self -
disciplined and people oriented way of thinking give the motion
for the country to grow stronger. Consistency and honesty are
essential conditions for ethic development.
I believe that these characters are some of the most important
key factors that lead to great success of the China. These
precious values shall be passed on and more widely spread
within the nation through education and country policy. I hope
that beauty of Chinese nation can give a positive impact to
China’s development as well as the world development.
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Blue sky without cloud at Capital
Steel
Yellow sky, why?
Chan Tak Hung, Terry
Beijing 2009 – We are Ready!
The story started on 14 June 2008, the first time in my life and the
first day to come to Beijing, I took this picture inside a taxi in the
evening. I still remember that it rained suddenly and heavily, forcing
me to change my plan from visiting the Olympic Stadium as close as
possible to become seeing this place just inside a taxi. When I firstly
saw this giant building, I was amazed that China was developing so
fast within a short period of time that we could use our own
technology and manpower to organize the first Olympic ever in
China. However at that moment, I still had doubts whether China could organize it successfully and
smoothly, and what positive influences that Olympic would bring China and its citizens. Although I hated
raining, but this time I liked it so much. This was because the sky was yellow with bad air quality and I
could see nothing, really nothing when I looked through the window from the office in
the afternoon. I wondered why the air quality was that bad and could not figure it out.
Meanwhile, I talked to the taxi driver, happily asking about what Olympic would bring
to the citizens when the car was jammed on the road. The driver told me that the
Government had implemented a new policy prohibiting vehicles to be used daily but
alternatively. However, I still wondered why there were still so many cars on the roads.
With so many unsolved questions in my mind from the first visit, I brought them back to Beijing again on 8
June 2009, nearly a year after my first visit. The first thing surprised me was that I finally could see the
blue sky most of the time! Additionally, I visited the same place - Olympic Stadium and the Water Cube
but I felt completely different and was so proud of China. Not
only because China had organized the most successful
Olympic Games ever in history, but also because the Games
demonstrated our passion, ability and determination to
achieve a difficult mission together with all Chinese people in
the world. This Olympic Game really brings Chinese people
together, becoming them more united than ever before (e.g.
volunteers from different cities helping the Olympic Game
operated smoothly, and everyone in different cities of China
welcomed the torch to come during the relay) towards an
objective of organizing the Olympic Game – One World One
Dream “同一个世界 同一个梦想”, and to develop the whole
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country moving towards the theme of Beijing Olympic – Green, High-technology and People Olympic “绿
色奥运、科技奥运、人文奥运”. I believe that these core values coming from the Beijing Olympic
explained why and what made Beijing change so much within recent years.
As a result, I have categorized my observations and feelings under 2 dimensions extracted from the
Beijing Olympic themes namely Green & High-technology, and People with “One World One Dream”.
Green & Technology – Reducing pollution by technology
After visiting Hanergy and Taiyanggong, I discovered that the technology
level of China in generating electricity through environmental friendly
ways are mature and up to international level. The most impressive thing
was that Taiyanggong’s power generator is located inside Beijing City
without polluting the environment nearby! This zero pollution will also be
achieved by the new plant of Capital Steel. This is because the Government
was trying every possible way to reduce the pollution by relocating the
plant of Capital Steel to somewhere 400Km far away from Beijing city.
Furthermore, even after the Olympic Game, the Government tried to
reduce pollution in city by prohibiting vehicles to be used one day per
week. All citizens welcomed this measurement as they also observed the benefits bringing to them – Blue
Sky. In their mind, they are willing to scarify a bit to gain back the unpolluted environment. This sense is
very difficult for Government to educate their citizens but Beijing did it well!
People with “One World One Dream” – Passion to contribute to China
Throughout the whole study trip, I saw lots of Chinese talents coming back from western countries for
work and education to China. For instance, David from CICC, the Business Director from Google and
Professor Liu. These returnees have excellent background but choosing to work in China and even
scarified better salary in overseas. They all are Chinese coming back from different parts of the world and
share the same dream - using their expertise with strong passion to contribute to the development of
China market. This “One World One Dream” concept really touched me and I seldom to see this
happening in Hong Kong. In addition, this concept of contributing to society was also observed through
meeting with CEOs in Daoxianghu. I had dinner with Ms. Li Hong, the General Manager of Daoxianghu and
learnt how to think positively during the bad times (e.g. if the sky doesn’t fall after 3 days of the bad
things happened, that bad thing is over!), and how we
should focus on our job (e.g. when we try to work hard and
devote to our job, other things like rewards will come
automatically). Besides, I totally agree with her philosophy
of improving ourselves, forming a family and contributing to
society “修身齐家治国平天下”. Sometimes we should not
be too focused on the short term benefits but need to do
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Queuing up at 0300 for flag
raising
something good for our friends, family and society. To conclude, I trust that China has very good talents
already and what they need is a platform to perform – We are Ready!
What’s more? Let’s love our country – we are all Chinese
I still remember that Professor Hua told us that Hong Kong has
responsibility to train up talents for the country. This facilitated my
thinking of what we should position ourselves to our country. I think
that having a heart loving our country is important but seemingly it is
still week in our generation owing to our growth in British Colony for
many years. However, after queuing up in the very early morning for
watching the flag raising at Tiananmen, I got a stronger sense of
awareness to develop a heart to love our country. This sense of
awareness further reinforced my passion to work as an HR person in China. Although the HR system is not
very mature in China now but I have stronger desire to apply what I have learnt contributing back to the
China market!
The last but not the least, I would like to thank Professor Fu’s arrangement during the trip and all of us
enjoyed the whole process very much! Although the course is over, I am so sure that every time when we
look at the photos of the trip again, we should remember a strong relationship built among us, which will
be lasting forever!
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Photo 1: Arrival at Beijing Airport
Chan Tsan Jim, Jimmy
Introduction
It was my third visit to Beijing. Last time it was exactly ten years ago, and I was also on a study tour at that
time as well. Nevertheless, I was greatly impressed by the tremendous changes that had taken place in
Beijing since then. Upon arrival to the new airport, the outlook of the marvelous Terminal 3 gave me a
very warm feeling, as it looked almost the same as the one in Hong Kong. In fact, I think that it was even
more spectacular as it had successfully blended some Chinese elements into the modern design, which is
the perfect example of the new “East meets West” style of architecture. In addition, the street looked
much cleaner than before, and my friends in Beijing also told me that the weather was getting better with
less “sandstorms” as it had been several years before.
Highlights of the Business Field Trip
1. The Lectures
One of the lectures that impressed me most was the
first one we took in the Tsinghua campus, with
Professor Hua Ruxing as our guest speaker. Professor
Hua’s speech was very inspiring and he shared with us
lots of first hand information as he has personally
visited so many places in different parts of China. He
thoroughly understood what is now happening in the
changing landscape of current Chinese Economy, in
particular, the difficult situation after the recent
financial tsunami. He completely changed our views to
this global financial crisis, as well as giving us a new
perspective to why it happened. He also talked about
the different effects it has on the Chinese economy and
the counter-measures that the Chinese government is
now doing to sustain growth despite the difficult
climate in the world economy. He explained to us that the US citizens lived a lifestyle that relied too much
on credit cards and loans from banks that makes them so
easily forget the basic values of income and expenditure.
He was also very confident in the Chinese Economy that
it will continue to expand no matter what the external environment is. After listening to his lecture, I think
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I have to be especially careful whenever we make the investment decisions, that we have to really look
back and think whether it is the real economy that is growing at such a quick rate, or is it just another
bubble?
Another lecture that I found particularly interesting was the one by Ms Dong Mei, who shared her
personal experience on Beijing Olympics. She had worked for it from the application, the planning and the
execution stages. She gave us a holistic view on how the entire event was planned first, and then she
shared the difficulties she encountered during the execution stage and the many unforgettable memories
that she had during the event, for example how she was able to resolved all the different requirements
from different countries the multi-cultural atmosphere that they have created within the Olympic village,
and also the “miracle transformation” of all the guest rooms that has taken place between the Olympic
Games and the Paralympic Games that was just two weeks afterwards. We were so impressed by the
great enthusiasm of all the volunteers to help making the event so successful, and also we could all feel
the great pride in Ms Dong to be able to participate in the organization of such a great event. Although I
have never organized a huge sporting event before, I could felt the great joy in her words as well.
Moreover, as a sports lover, I really hoped that although this time I was not being selected as a volunteer,
I hope that I would be able to participate in such a great event one day. This is my dream.
2. The Company Visits
In our first company visit, we visited the Hanergy Group which was formerly known as Huarui Group.
Focusing on the new development of green energy in China, this privately owned business has been
investing a lot of money in building hydro power plants and wind farms, which they described as the
“base” of the company. Besides the “base”, the company also has two “wings”, which was the
development of new energy and the other was the energy service team. As I am currently working in the
energy sector as well, I was greatly impressed by the vision of the company, to become the most
Photo 2: Photo Taken after the lecture on Marketing Communication
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influential clean energy provider in the world, and also the great enthusiasm in building a greener
environment. Personally, I thought that this company had a very promising future as it was going in line
with the current government policy, as well as the world’s trend on greater concern on climate change,
carbon emission and cleaner energy generation methods.
We were also able to visit some of the forerunners in the technology field like the Taiyanggong power
plant and the GreenTec Corp. For Taiyanggong, they showed us some of the most recent engineering
works that incorporates the state-of-the-art green technology such as combined cycle natural gas
generation plants, noise reduction to less than 55dB(A), and emission control measures that were even
more stringent than the standards adopted in North American and Europe. It was a truly impressive
blending on how human could make use of the available natural resources to improve the quality of life
while minimizing the impact to the environment as a result. I was by all means amazed by the fact that
they could build such a huge power plant right in the middle of the city. In Hong Kong, I think this would
never happen as we would be up against a lot more opposing force from the local communities, the NGOs
concerning environmental protection and also the political parties. In Mainland China though, we not only
have the technology, we also have a government who is willing to adopt the technology and to prove that
it can really works. I found that this is one of the reasons why this country is truly remarkable.
3. The Tour
On the first day, we were given a tour around the hottest tourist spots since last summer: the Olympic
Stadiums. Although the rain was pouring pretty hard, our passion in visiting the “Bird Nest” and “Water
Cube” didn’t fade at all. Overwhelmed by the beautiful outlook and the amazing construction of the two
most beautiful stadiums in the world, we were in particular attracted by the great atmosphere that still
exist inside the stadium, that gave each of us some extra energy to run around and took pictures like we
were the athletes competing in a the summer games. This was a great experience for all of us, in
particular when we would soon have a lecture on the Olympic Games by Ms Dong Mei in the next couple
of days.
Then we went to have a quick tour in the Tsinghua university campus, in which several students from the
Tsinghua MBA program accompanied us and took us for lunch as well. It was a really great experience as
we enjoyed talking to them and sharing our study experiences. It seemed to me that they had a much
better connection with the industry, as they often hold seminars and sharing sessions with the industry
leaders and they have plenty of social activities with the alumni as well. For the benefit of our studies, I
think it is also crucial for us to have similar types of activities to enhance our bonding with the industry
leaders, both local and overseas. We can make use of our alumni network better and improve our
personal connections as well.
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Photo 3: Gathering with CUMBA Alumni
4. The Gatherings with Tsinghua MBA students, CEOs and CUMBA
Alumni
We were also very pleased to have several dinner gatherings with the Tsinghua MBA students, CEOs and
CUMBA alumni, respectively. For example, we were able to learn about the culture of Tsinghua MBA
programme through the interactions with the current students, we also exchanged our views on some of
the current issues such as the impact of Olympic Games to the Beijing citizen’s life, and also how they felt
during such a poor overall economic situation. I remembered one of the students told me that “Because
we were graduating from Tsinghua, we have no worries at all even at the worst of times”. This
summarized how much self-confidence and pride they had as Tsinghua University students. As a CUMBA
student, I think we ought to have the same kind of pride in ourselves as well as we are also studying in
one of the top business schools in the Asia Pacific Region.
In the dinner meeting with the CEOs at Daoxianghu, we have a very wonderful sharing by the two
professors in our table. They gave us a lot of insights to how those successful Chinese business leaders are
managing their companies. In addition, the sharing by the three CEOs, Mr. Fu of East Asia-Pacific
Investment Co. Ltd., Ms Li of Daoxianghu and Ms Jiang of Beijing Nightingale Corporation, really showed
us how real CEOs should be like. I was deeply moved by Mr. Fu’s saying that one’s road to achieve
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greatness should be “修身, 齊家, 治國”. Being the perfect example of his own words, he has shown us all
the qualities required to become a great leader, e.g. the personal charisma, the knowledge that he has
gained throughout the years and most importantly the persistence to strive for higher quality. We should
try to learn more from these great CEOs and apply what we have learnt in our daily lives, it would
definitely benefit us a lot. The final night was a dinner gathering with CUMBA alumni working in Beijing. I
was very delighted to be able to get to know so many alumni and they were very open and shared with us
their own experiences in working in China. In particular, I had a long discussion with Mr. Michael Ma. He
was a very successful businessman and he told us his story of success, from the formation of the business
model, the R&D process and how he successfully secured his first customer and started the marketing
campaign. He also shared his key to success: to do what is most interesting to you and to work hard on it
until you become really successful. These words would be very important to our future career as well.
Conclusion
It was absolutely a fabulous week for all of us. I simply ran out of space to write our happy moments in
watching the orchestra in the National Theatre for Performing Arts, the flag rise in Tiananmen, and also
our tour in the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City and also the Great Wall. However, we would never
forget the lessons that we have learnt during the course, the visits, the laughter and also the joyful tears
that we had. It was particularly fruitful to have Professor Fu as our leader, who did tremendous work to
make this trip so rewarding and her continuous effort in improving our learning experiences also showed
us that she shared the traits of the great leaders as well. We have had the most memorable experience in
our MBA life so far, which I hope we can make use of it in our courses that we will take, and in our future
career and life as well.
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Chang, William
This China trip which happened during the second week of June-2009 marked special days for my 2-year
CUMBA study. Since it was the last course for some of my classmates, apart from fabulous learning
opportunity, we also treasured it as our memorable graduation trip! Although incidentally I have spent my
first visit to Beijing on my company’s incentive trip a month before, where I didn’t expect too many
satisfactions from repeated sightseeing things, it turned out to be inspirational comprised of unique
experiences gained from lectures, company visits, meeting people as well as my own experience.
Lectures were the most enjoyable part for me, despite I am a keen “sleeper” in HK classes. Thanks to
those top lecturers from Tsing Hua, their extensive and specific knowledge on China issues was merely
essence and first-hand information related to Chinese government core strategies. I appreciated Prof. Hua
systematically diagnosed the cause and effect of the Subprime, introducing Green GDP, and shared his
insight that Zhejiang province as the economy thermometer etc.. All these are innovative and fruitful
suggestions for me. Besides, Ms. Dong Mei not only brought up her unique backstage stories, most
impressed me was her personal value to be tough and persistent towards her commitment. On soft skills,
she demonstrated her articulate and fluent expression during presentation, as well as delivered precise
and answer-to-the-point feedback during Q&A section. This inspired me very much on how to gain credit
and respect from people within a speech.
Apart from the lecturers, it gave me lot of memory recalls on Tsing Hua campus and also the students
there. There are many historical buildings which symbolized the development of this world’s top ranking
school. Although the facilities there are a bit old fashioned, it was interesting that eagerness on
knowledge exploration feeling can be sensed all around. Even a person like me can be attentive and enjoy
the lecture. It’s very true that characters of the school brewed the students’ characters. Sharing with
Tsing Hua students gave me a very different feeling versus Hong Kong’s, nevertheless they have different
ambitions, most were concerning about the national development direction in mid to long term. Their
scope of thinking reminded me about how my career development should be, should I just focus on local
market preference or should I consider industries focus of China? Definitely the latter will be more
prospective and sustainable, with the fact many visionary commentators have started worrying about
sustainability of Hong Kong’s industries competitive edges.
It was the first time I visited mainland company, and not only one, but several in a row. I have to admit
initially I had little bias towards mainland companies, that they are less formal in terms of organizational
structure as well as working environment. Obviously my perception was quite wrong, while actually from
Hanergy and CICC offices, I found they were merely similar to many MNCs with formal people dealing
manner, meeting agenda and decent working environment, which made all of us disciplined in order to
preserve Hong Kong students’ image! In several company visits, I noticed they have common core value of
putting people and contribution to the society on top priority. This is highly related to their passionate
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leaders and visionary missions, which drive the company succeeding inline with the national’s direction,
thereof benefiting the social needs. I believe this characteristic is as precious as defining successful long-
term development of a nation, especially in nowadays capitalized world. It is not difficult for companies to
make profit by investing in short term promising industries, by squeezing all possible from their
employees and makes no contribution to the society. This situation is somehow happening in many Hong
Kong family businesses with high staff turnover rate, low ethics standard and low sense of social
responsibility. On one hand I’m appreciative to see China managed to grow with many of those wonderful
companies, on the other hand, it further alerted me that local Hong Kong companies really need
aggressive evolution on their values and social commitment to sustain competitiveness in a long run.
Another essential element in this trip was meeting with the CEOs, this again was precious experience for
me to learn about mainland leaders style and philosophy. The short dinner chat with Mr. Fu was very
fruitful. It seems most successful people have unusual encounters and being versatile with life. What
came to me then was the question whether an ordinary person like me can stand for such success? How
about 50% of it? Further got in touch with Mr. Fu, I realized it’s not the matter of how differently you
experienced and how multi-talented you are, but all originated from the personal values you hold, how
much you want to achieve and share with others. If you learned earlier your specific values, try to develop
further, how much you shared will be rewarded. Therefore he never asked for salary information even
though he was given a very good offer eventually. Mr. Fu also cited a critical strength of himself, which is
to observe different incidents, discover and connect the relations underneath the seemingly different
phenomena. For me, who likes to learn about the truth behind a phenomenon, his suggestion was
inspiring, and I believe this concept is essential for anyone, be scientists, sociologists, economists or
businessmen. Mastering this concept can always put you in pioneer position anticipating threats and
opportunities.
To conclude this trip, I would say it’s more worthwhile than what I’d paid. It offered me valuable chance
to look clearly today’s China in terms of the business sectors, their leaders, core values and development
direction. I’m impressed many of the suggestions portrayed from these talented people are so visionary
and long-term oriented, in certain sense even more advanced than western philosophy. This is probably
due to the embedded beauty of the tradition Chinese wisdom and values - to make changes for sustaining
the equilibrium and 「以人為本」. During this financial Tsunami, what I’ve observed is not only how bad
the western concept failed, but more importantly how essential Chinese philosophy may have achieved to
prevent such crisis. Although I don’t possess specific political stance, I am confident to see current China’s
capitalized socialism can thrive in the upcoming decades!
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Be proud of China – My first visit to flag raising ceremony at Tian An Men Square.
- End -
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Chen Yi Yin, Sophia
Before the trip
The main reason why I chose to apply for the CUHK MBA to upgrade myself was its cutting-edge courses
design and good networking in China Business. With our shared language and ties, and also the
knowledge I’ve gained from these MBA courses, I hope to leverage these advantages and previous
working experiences to accumulate my competence for future development in Greater China. “China
Business Trip” was the first course I took for my China Business concentration. Through the course
description and itinerary distributed by Professor Fu, the seven-day trip would be packed with lectures,
company visits, networking activities, social gatherings as well as sightseeing. I thought it would be a good
opportunity to expose myself to a wide spectrum of issues related to China business and also to get more
connections with China practice. Especially after Beijing held the Olympic Games, I believed that during
this trip, I could broaden my views and get much information about the development, and also the
tangible and intangible changes in Beijing in the past few years. I was so looking forward to knowing how
Beijing looked like after the Olympic Games!
The stunning new Beijing airport and the environmental changes
Landing at the world's largest airport, the Beijing Capital International Airport, I was stunned by its
gorgeous, world-class design as well as its amazing infrastructure. The terminal has walls of glass to let
natural light into the building during the daytime, and it makes the airport looks so big and bright. Under
a certain amount of light I even couldn't see one end of the building from the other because it's really big!
It also surprised me that the airport building has integrated environmental control systems to minimize
energy consumption and carbon emissions. Although I just got rid of the final exam and presentation one
day before we left for this Beijing trip, this tremendous scene made me forget all the fatigues and also
blew off my minds. I was so excited and couldn't wait to start my explorative journey in Beijing even it
was my second time to visit this city.
Before the Olympic Games, I’d heard about the immense environmental challenge facing China’s capital.
Although I didn’t have the opportunity to witness the drastic pace of change that had gripped Beijing in
the city’s efforts to ‘Green’ the Games, I was so glad that I could revisit Beijing to experience its changes
after the Olympic Games. In its bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing made a commitment to host a
‘Green’ Olympics. Bold environmental promises were made by Beijing’s bidding committee, including
efforts to improve air quality so that it meets Chinese and World Health Organization standards, to use
more renewable energy and natural gas throughout the city, and to implement stricter vehicle emission
standards.
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Since our group project was about the environmental improvement in Beijing, during this trip, I paid much
more attention not only to the changes of the environment made by the government and the corporate,
but also tried to observe the citizens’ behavior and awareness toward the environment protection.
Compared to my previous travel experience in Beijing three years ago, seeing the overall environmental
improvement in Beijing did impress me, especially its nice air quality, high green area coverage, and also
the clean and convenient transportation system. Much more of Beijing’s efforts and successes are evident
throughout the city. For example, Beijing has added four new rail lines and strengthened vehicle exhaust
emission standards, in an attempt to clean up its air. Beijing has also launched a fleet of around 3,500
buses running on Compressed Natural Gas. I heard that this is one of the largest fleets of this kind
operating anywhere in the world.
These Beijing’s achievements represent the world’s best environmental practice — a huge leap from the
existing polluting or destructive technologies and systems currently in use throughout the developing
world. The Beijing government has put lots of resources and efforts on each dimension of the
environmental improvement. In this way, Beijing has been able to show that making the transition to
more sustainable approaches is possible when a concerted effort is made. Also from the speech given by
Ms. Dong Mei during this trip, when she shared her valuable experience and observations of organizing
the Olympic Games, I felt so touched by Beijing’s passion and determination to improve Beijing’s
environment to host this mega event.
How to continue the effort
Everyone would agree that the Olympic Games have left a positive environmental legacy for Beijing.
However, environmental protection is a nationwide effort. Successful environmental achievements of the
Olympic Games should continue to be extended not only in Beijing but throughout China after the Games.
Civil society in China needs to recognize the important role it can play in taking direct environmental
action. Environmental protection is a major issue concerning everyone’s health and the nation’s future.
Hopefully, people won’t be conceit about the temporary achievement. The improvement of the
environment needs the combination of governmental determination and civil support. Only
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then can the ‘Green’ Olympics have a real impact on helping China to truly ‘Green’ its cities – today and
tomorrow.
Other memorable experiences of the trip
1. Olympic Sites
Although it rained heavily and it was a bit chilly on our first day in Beijing, visiting the Olympic Sites was
one of my most memorable activities in this trip. Before visiting the Bird Nest and Water Cube, I’ve learnt
that Beijing had spent billions of dollars and also much human resources on the construction work. ”To
see is to believe”, when seeing this spectacular, it reminded me the memorable scenes of the Game I saw
from TV. I felt very touched when imagining that I was there seeing the games when staying in the Bird
Nest and Water Cube.
2. Tsinghua University
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We had a campus tour on Tsinghua after visiting the Olympic Site. Before meeting those Tsinghua MBA
students, we heard that they were quite busy on preparing their final exams and oral presentation for
their individual thesis. So it might be a burden to them to spare time to tour us and stay with us for lunch
and dinner. However, they gave us the warmest welcome and showed us around their campus on such a
rainy day. They were quite open and kindly shared their learning experiences in Tsinghua as well as their
observations after the Olympic Games. I was impressed by their humbleness and enthusiasm and really
appreciated their nice treats. I’m glad that I can keep in touch with some of them after coming back to
Hong Kong. In addition, I was delighted that we got the chance to have lunch at Tsinghua’s student
canteen to experience what the students eat. The foods there were so diversified and cheap, and the
taste was much better than my original expectation.
3. Management Values and Concept
In the past, I knew few about the Chinese Communist Party and also the communist members. I only
knew that “Serving the people” was a standard slogan within the Chinese Communist Party. During the
company visits in this trip, I learnt more about how their members executed this slogan from the
managers of some Chinese enterprises or SOEs. I was so impressed by the commitment of those firms to
serve the community and also their mission for China. For example, the CEO of Greentech showed us his
desire and mission to make China a cleaner place for people to live with the big slogan on the wall at the
entrance of the office building; and Dr. Wu, the head of the company’s research department shared with
us his experiences in environmental protection. Throughout his speech, I did feel his passion and love for
this country.
In addition, when visiting Hujing Hotel, I was so impressed by Ms. Lee’s story and her core values in doing
business. I can feel that she treats people from her heart and is always willing to help people to overcome
difficulties. And she always shows her empathy and concerns not only for the customers and her staff, but
also for the society. Both of the customer loyalty and staff satisfaction of her business are quite high, and
most of her senior management staff have followed her from since she started up the business even
when during the difficult SARS period. I think the key success factor of her life is the consistency between
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her words and actions. “Walks the talk” philosophy has built up a trustful relationship among her staff and
customers.
As Professor Gao of Tsinghua MBA told us in the lecture, to understand and respect the core values and
culture of the Chinese Communist Party is the first step for a global enterprise to go into the China Market.
No matter how big its brand or how strong its market competency is, if a multi-enterprise ignores the
importance of the Chinese Communist Party, its business won’t make a success in the China Market.
Conclusion
The things I’ve learnt from this trip, not only from the knowledge in the lectures, company visits, and the
CEO meeting, but also from all the classmates in this course. I’m so glad to meet many new friends from
other classes and I really miss the days I spent there when learning, playing, drinking, singing, sightseeing,
and…with all of them. I will definitely treasure this valuable relationship in the future. Moreover, this trip
also broadened my views on China and I made up my mind to keep sharpening my capabilities to seek a
career in China. Last but not least, I would like to thank Professor Fu’s great efforts in organizing this trip
and the warmest caring during the trip. I’m sure all of us have learnt a lot and viewed this trip as a
precious experience of 2009.
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Chow Bo Loi, Paul
Being China’s capital city, the name “Beijing” should not be uncommon to most people across the
world. With the help of 2008 Olympic Games, the international spotlight not only focused on
China’s historical athletic achievements but also its economic, social and political changes.
When international multimedia was amalgamated with numerous appreciation and criticism on
China’s development, how much did we understand about China? As part of the Chinese
community, how should we prepare ourselves to deal with the drastic changes of global
economic, social and political environments? These questions had driven me to select the China
Business Study.
Touring around the Beijing city we could easily identify a lot of
ancient structures which recorded the climax and the decline stage
of China. To recap our memory about modern China’s history we
have selected Beijing city development from past to the future as
our group project. On the social and economic development
perspectives, we had the
opportunity to communicate with
professors and students from Tsinghua University, as well as
companies’ management from different industries to share their
experiences and successful stories. The experiences we learnt
are affluent and diversified. In the following paragraphs I
summarized the most remarkable experience we learnt from the
trip:
What did 2008 Beijing Olympic bring to China?
In Jun 2009 National Audit Office announced the 2008
Beijing Olympic Game had made a profit of more than 1
billion Yuan (USD146 million), However, the benefit from
Olympic Games seemed far behind its
monetary value. From environmental
protection to civic education, the
impact of Beijing Olympic could still be
found nine months after the Olympic
Game. Blue sky and queuing in the
ticket counters, which used to be “impossible” to China city in the past, had
become “possible” with the help of Beijing Olympic. Perhaps the next
question to Chinese people would be how could we substantiate our habit
and to influence remaining part of China and also our next generation.
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When the 2008 Beijing Olympic was well recognized
internationally, the numerous difficulties encountered
were always overlooked by general public. In the
Olympic experience sharing session, Ms Dong Mei
shared with us the sweet and sour she tasted throughout
the Beijing Olympic preparation process. On top of her
valuable experience, we could feel her strong aspiration,
tolerance and persistence personality which led her to
overcome those challenges and contribute to the success
of the Beijing Olympic games.
Since the 2008 Beijing Olympic was closed I have heard a lot of appreciation from our overseas
colleagues about their unforgettable experiences in Beijing Olympic, and I believed these honors
should devoted to millions of volunteers / participants like Dong Mei who made the China Olympic
dream come true.
From university students to corporate CEOs, how did Chinese people live
their life to influence the society?
Established in 1911, Tsinghua University has been one of the most renowned universities in
China. However, the history of the university seldom attracted our attention until we visited the
eldest academic building 清華學堂, which was established as the compensation refund from US
Government under 庚子賠款. Although most Tsinghua University MBA students had already
worked for 3-5 years, their initiatives to learn never diminished over time. Through our
conversations, we noticed that their passion and aspiration to learn were the common characters
of the university which led them to their academic achievements, even though their university
facilities may not be comparable to those government universities in Hong
Kong.
On the night of 11 Jun, 2009, we had the opportunity to share the unique
successful stories of three Chinese CEO. Different from traditional
corporate finance theory, they never placed company value maximization
on the first priority. In contrast, their way to success was built upon
effective human relationship management. Their care for the employees,
customers and the society’s needs successfully influenced each interested
parties working toward the organization goal. In particular, experience
from Ms Li Hong, General Manager of Nirvana resort Beijing would be a
typical example. After taking over the management of a poorly managed hotel with zero cash
balance from the local government, she alerted the only way for hotel to survive was to reform.
With limited monetary resources she had to rely on her employees to rebuild hotel image and
occupancy rate. After several years of struggle and contribution of each employee, the hotel was
turned around and successfully rebranded as a holiday resort. Her road to success had never
been smooth but her persistence and aspiration never offered any chance for her to give up.
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From Multinational Company to State-Own Enterprise, how did business
enterprise survive in the rapid changing China Market?
During our field trip we visited various types of business
entities with different background; they all shared their
success experience. One typical example is Google, a US
based multinational company providing internet web search
services and related products. To breakthrough the cultural
difference and capture the booming internet market in China,
Google put together both mainland China and Hong Kong
engineers to customize the web page and search engine
which suit the Chinese internet users need. Its flexible and
creative corporate culture enabled her to build up its customer base and to compete with local
service provider such as Sohu and Baidu.
Different from Google, Beijing Capital Steel Corporation is
a formerly state owned enterprise which focuses on
manufacturing various steel products. Migrating from a
traditional planned economy to a competitive international
market environment, Beijing Capital Steel Corporation had
to deal with the increasing market competition environment.
In a factory of over 80,000 employees, balance between
efficiencies,
effectiveness
and employees’ interest was not an easy job. In our
discussion with Plant General Manager and our tour
guide, we sensed their pride to be part of the Capital
steel Corporation. Their commitment and
enthusiasm toward their jobs were good learning
points to most Hong Kong people, even though their
working environment may not be very attractive to
Hong Kong people.
In the five days Beijing tour, we heard different individual’s and organizations’ successful stories.
Through our observations and discussions, we found that their key elements to success were
relatively simple. From corporate management perspective, company strategies tend to focus on
satisfying country, customers and employees’ need and they seldom put the company’s interest
on first priority. From individual perspective, they were equipped with Chinese traditional
character namely patience, persistence and enthusiasm to learn. When we look back into our
Hong Kong situation, do we and our company equipped with similar characters? When we were
working hard to meet our company target, how could we drive our company and social culture to
align with our country’s growth? That would probably another challenging questions we need to
deal with from now on.
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Chow Wing Yee, Vivian
Beijing Self Reflection
After seven memorable days in Beijing with 30 CUMBA students and Professor Fu and her assistant Kathy,
this trip became one of my most memorable experiences. From Summer Palace to Great Wall, I got to see
it all and do it all.
It is difficult to use words to describe my experience there. I learnt so much during these short 7 days. I
learned about culture, friendship and myself. It was an exciting adventure that will be very memorable
and hard to match for many years to come.
Upon arrival at Beijing airport on my first day I was so moved by the grand lustrous architecture. The
strong architecture combined with Chinese elements of decoration makes it a unique and welcoming
arrival. Though it was my first visit to Beijing, it was already starting to feel like home.
Thanks to my wonderful classmates, not long after my arrival we traveled together to visit the Summer
Palace. Wow, that place is spectacular. It was so hard to imagine that in ancient China Chinese people
were able to build such wonderful man made lakes with the technology and equipment they had. The
scenery was so touching; we watched and admired the view as the sun slowly set across the horizon. At
that moment, I wondered what else I would be seeing and learning in the next 7 days.
On the second day we started with a visit to the Olympic site. I had seen the photos and watched the
images on TV, but nothing compares to actually standing right in front of the Bird’s Nest. I was baffled in
admiration! It sparked a hint of regret that I had not purchased Olympic ticket to witness its glory during
the 2008 Beijing Games.
Other than the Summer Palace and the Olympic village, my most favorite event of the whole trip was
spending time at Tsinghua with the Tsinghua MBAs. Though it was raining and gloomy, it all warmed up
once we met up with Tsinghua MBAs. They are so friendly and welcoming. They took great care of us, so
willing to help in every way they could. They took time and attention to answer all our questions and in
such detail as well, I could see they are so proud of their university. I really appreciated the time and
effort they took to lead us on a tour of their school.
I was truly moved by the warmth and enthusiasm they shared, they even lent us their bicycles so that we
could enjoy a bike ride through the campus. This was absolutely the best moment during the trip, as I
have always wanted to take a bicycle tour of Tsinghua, Frank and his friends helped make it come true.
They truly are a great bunch of students and I will treasure these memories and remain friends with them
for a long time to come.
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Our bicycle tour of TsingHua.
The lecture with Professor Liu also taught me a lot about Chinese culture. She encouraged us to think and
understand Chinese behavior in a whole new light. I begun to see the miscommunication between China
and foreign countries are due to a lack of understanding of the culture and beliefs. I learned that the first
step to being successful in a foreign country is acceptance of its culture and learned that to survive in
China I had to be more versatile and goal oriented. This was a valuable lesson for me and will be useful for
future career aspirations.
I was especially interested in Google, with its impressive environment and the east meets west culture. I’d
expected Google office to be different in China, but I was quite surprise that it adopted American culture,
such as the cafeteria, massage facility and the decorated work environment. The blended culture makes
me want to work there as well, the staff showed a warm welcome and I was very touched by the effort
they put into showing us their company.
Capital steel site is like a private village with many factory buildings combined with greenery, shrubs and
lakes. However, the big powerful place will be torn down and moved to another location. It is a shame
that after all this construction and years of development the blood and sweat that have gone into this
place will be abandoned. It’s a very impressive site. I was very surprised and amazed at the organization
especially with its lakes, greenery and Chinese culture built into their environment.
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We were also given the opportunity to walk through their steel factory. It was dark, hot and steamy, but
very memorable. I was so surprised at the steel works, the conveyor belt carrying the large sheets of steel,
heating it up and cooling it down and shaping it into large sheets ready for transport and shipping. The
staff and employees at Capital Steel put much thought and enthusiasm into showing and communicating
the company structure and process. I am sure the future site for capital steel will be one of the best in its
field, and I hope I will have an opportunity to visit it someday.
I’ve mentioned my most memorable and enjoyable moments on this trip. But nothing compares to the
lessons I’ve learned about myself on this trip. I learned that willingness to learn, and remaining open-
minded to new experiences will allow me to be exposed to different environment. I also learned about
teamwork, our group worked wonderfully well together, we were all striving for the same goals trying to
learn and research as much as possible.
Lastly, the friendships that developed on this trip, the bonds that were formed during these 7 days are
ones that will last and I’ll treasure forever. I deeply appreciate all the effort Professor Fu put into the
organization and planning of this whole trip. Without her, I would not have been able to learn and gain
such rich experiences.
On a final note, Professor Fu paid attention to details during every point of our journey. From organizing
company visits, to ordering the dinner dishes, she went above and beyond her job as a professor and took
care of us with motherly attention.
I especially felt Professor Fu’s warmth and motherly affection when she poured us tea during lectures. All
her effort and hard work are noticed and appreciated by all of us on this trip. “Everything she did, she did
for us”. Kathy’s hard work was also much appreciated. She was constantly running back and forth to buy
us fruit and snacks and helping us to take photos, without her help we would not have such a comfortable
and enjoyable trip.
The success of the trip is due to the combination of a great group of students and enthusiastic Professor
Fu. I’m very grateful for this trip; my first time in Beijing was spectacular and delightful!
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Chu, Chung Ngai Inness
June 2009 China Field Trip
Self Reflection Report
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Why I took China Field Trip?
Although mainland China is so close to Hong Kong, I
admit that I always had hesitation to visit her due to bad
impression like the dialog boxes shown. It can’t deny
that I’m not a Patriotism supporter due to the
colonization of Hong Kong. However, I found the trend
of having leisure travel and seeking jobs in mainland
China is getting much more popular especially after
Beijing Olympic games. Also, I have observed the
international role of China is becoming one of the major
economy systems in the world. Glad that CUMBA
provides the opportunities for me to visit and explorer
the mainland China. With exploring attitude and curious
on patriotism, I was carrying a mind of “West meet East” to take the China Field Trip.
What have I found in the trip?
I found there are 4 crucial elements in the trip: Academic
theory, networking, Olympic touch and commercial visits.
1. Academic Theory
Three interesting lecture has been attend. They were:
Economy of China
Marketing in China
Managing Competition
Different inspirations have been well received. For the
class of economics, actually we are quite familiar with
what and how the sub-prime crisis happened, but I
found there was inspiring when professor Hua gave us
same piece of information but in different angle. For
instant, the consumer habit in western is pretty
depending on credit basis. This really showed to me
the culture different did trigger different consequence.
From micro-economic point of views, Western people
prefer to spend money whatever they can. Instead of
It’s not
safe at all
Hygiene is
poor People are
rude
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using cash, they prefer to pay by credit card. Similar concept applied on housing issue. Western people
loaned money without evaluating their own capability. On the other hand, Chinese inclines to save money
regardless how will spend the money in the future. The saving money concept is not only maintaining in
workers or middle-class, but also to farmers. I was shocked that farmers even saved money in their own
refrigerator. Although it might be hilarious, they seem to do the right things especially banking systems
are now collapsing. From macro-economic point of views, I found the sub-prime crisis actually did minimal
impact to China. Instead, it became a great opportunity for China to further strengthen her own economy
in order to catch up and become one of the major economic systems of the world. There were 2
interesting points raised from Professor Hua, one was Asian countries have potential to establish a united
currency. The other one was Hong Kong Chinese actually can contribute to the growth of China. And I can
see the attitude, mainland China looks welcome to Hong Kong Chinese to contribute together with a
brighter future for China.
Another interesting class was about Marketing in China by
Professor Liu. First of all, I realized what the totems of
China are: Dragon, Lion, China Leaders, etc. Secondly, I did
enjoy the lesson as Professor Liu showing a live case on SKII
issue. It allowed me realize we do have to localize our
marketing strategy to avoid unnecessary conflicts by deeply
understanding and respecting long historical country like
China in a humble manner. But I found the most impressive
stuff was not on the content that delivered by Professor Liu,
it was her attitude and the way of delivering. I always have
an impression that Chinese teacher/ professor is always
being absolute. No question and challenge can be accepted
from students. But Professor Liu allowed asking us question
and was patient to answer all of them. I did impress by the
interaction teaching method and hence I amazed to feel
the change of China not only on economy, but
also on the education system.
It was a fruitful session of Managing
competition in China by Professor Gao.
Although I had quite amount of questions
against his concepts, I still admired how
knowledgeable of Professor Gao that allowed
to understand the ways to cope with the
fierce competitions in China market.
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2. Networking
Frankly speaking, Professor Fu did a great job on managing the network sessions in order to allow us
meeting different tiers of people in China. That really made our trip becomes perfect! As a quick recap,
we have met:
Tsing Hua MBA students
CU alumni
3 CEOs
Having lunch and chit chatting with Tsing Hua MBA students, I found they are very dynamic and
competitive. “In order to study Tsing Hua, we had to pass through several stages and competed with 6
million of undergraduates to get limited MBA seats” said by David, Tsing Hua MBA student. It told me how
good qualities the students have. Also, I found they were pretty good in English and open minded. Besides,
each of them has good vision and talkative even when one of us asked about their views on the sensitive
issue on 04Jun1989 should be redressed or not, they might not speak up their views. I do feel somehow
freedom of speech has happened in China. And Hong Kong Chinese shouldn’t be overconfident any more
as the competitive advantages are getting less and less. I have even understood the living standard of
Beijing from Tsinghua MBA. For
normal undergraduates, their month
salary is around RMB5,000. For MBA
graduates, they might have around
RMB10,000 per month. They told me
RMB10,000 per month in salary is
already classified as middle class in
Beijing. This can be another fact that
the living standard of Beijing is getting
closer and closer to that of Hong Kong.
I was so glad to be able to meet with quite a
number of successful businessmen of CU alumni. To be a
successful businessmen, Michael Ma (馬立平) from Beijing
Cytech System Ltd, has demonstrated how passionate for a
business owner should be. And Stephen Li (李德偉) who
was our EMBA alumni had given valuable advice to prepare
several core competencies to run business in China. For
instant, we have to be dynamic and helpful. If suggested
solution or idea is not working, we should keep trying on
finding work around. Instead of thinking to beat down
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others, we should care about others and help each other. This is the business culture in China. Addison
Chan (陳振雄) from digiMarket told us his story on how difficult it was to get into China market in the old
times. However, he didn’t regret and even advise us to start our own business due to China is now in fast
growing stage and tons of opportunities are waiting us to explore. That’s really fantastic!
The most impressive session should be the three-CEO dinner gather and forum. They had demonstrated
different characteristics to us especially Li Hong (李翃). She was a kind and humble leader I have ever met.
She made me realize that earning money is not the only factor to be a successful leader. I always had
difficulty to understand why there are people willing to serve a company more than 10 years. From Li
Hong, I could understand it would be an honor to follow a staff-oriented leader like Li Hong. She does care
about each staff preference. Ever more, she cares about staff’s family. I believe the loyal of staff has
developed not only to the leader, but also to the company. In Hong Kong, we always hear a lot of
discussion and argument on the matters of Patriotism. Everyone has own definition and has yet
impressed to me. I felt so shock that none of the 3 CEOs mentioned the word “愛國” in their speech.
Instead, all works and thoughts they were showing actually all about how they love and care about the
country. One is trying to build a chain of animal pharmacy, including a research center, a large-scale
factory and 100 animal hospitals to help farmers who making a living by raising animals. The other one
runs a corporation specializing in hospital uniforms but does a lot of things for the community, like school
for kids whose parents are AIDS victims. These can show the contrast between Hong Kong’s Patriotism
and mainland China’s one. How powerful it will be if Hong Kong Chinese can humbly learn from mainland
China about Patriotism? I believe Hong Kong might become more harmonious and constructive rather
than verbally argumentative once they have heard 3 CEOs speech. For myself, I was inspired that
contributing to society is something more meaningful than neither getting famous nor wealth.
3. Olympic Touch
With the Olympic effect,
Beijing has really changed a
lot. They now have reliable
subway and taxi system
which is vital for the growth
of tourism. Air quality is far
better than what I heard; at
least I can see the blue sky
during my stay. Quite a lot
of international brands on
fashion, vehicles,
restaurants get into Beijing
citizen’s daily life which
show their higher level of
living standards. Beijing
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citizens are polite and they are willing to queue. Both new massive construction facilities like Bird Nest
and Water Cube can integrated with Chinese traditional 風水 so well and lining up together with Beijing’s
heritages. Dong Mei showed us the back scene stories of Olympic which made me even more proud of
what Beijing did. The story on changing the facilities for disable sport players in Olympic village within 24
hours was so magnificent. It taught me a very good philosophy as well. Whatever we decide to work out,
we should stick to the plan regardless how difficult it is. To sum up, the Olympic Games changed my
impression of Beijing, of China totally.
4. Site Visits
We did quite a lot of site visits which allowed us to understand what current commercial practice is in
Beijing. Quick sum up on our visits:
Hanergy
Taiyanggong
GreenTec
Capital Steel
CICC
Hanergy’s corporation vision and professionalism did impress me a lot particularly the corporate motto:
因祖國強大而強大 and most of the staff have MPhil or Master degree or even Doctor degrees. Google
has an impressive working environment such as having snacks you can eat all over the place and have
excellent leisure facilities and open areas. But the crucial factor is the people who were working. I can see
the harmony and cooperation between western co-workers and Chinese c-workers. Both Taiyanggong
and GreenTec gave me new insights on the way of protecting environments like utilizing new technology
in energy generation and consumption. CICC has demonstrated to me their ambitious vision and their
management philosophy, always fight for the best. Capital Steel is the most impressive, to me,
corporation in the field trip. First of all, it is unforgettable about the production line of thin steel. The
production line is so massive and it is automated with efficient labor force deployment. I do treasure to
have chance to visit such a production. Secondly, it is unbelievable that whole family members are proud
of working in Capital Steel especially the story about the father and son both worked together. The
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culture of “首鋼人” is something HK commercial world lacking of. Thirdly, Capital Steel has established a
lot of facilities to her staff like school, college. This can show how corporate treasure staff as an asset.
Conclusion
After the trip, I found there are three key factors for me to be a successful leader in the future. Firstly, I
should carry a humanized (人情味) managerial philosophy. The happiness and satisfaction in the
workplace can magnify the staff loyalty carrying high morale and productive atmosphere and culture. This
definitely can learn from the way Li Hong managing her hotel and from Capital Steel. Secondly, I should
equip myself not to be short-sighted focusing profits and reputation only. Although I still can yet say I feel
I understand the norm of Patriotism, I do realize a successful corporation should be able to contribute to
the growth of the community and improve the people’s living standards. With these in mind, I believe I
would further explore what are the reasons for corporate management to join Communist party. Thirdly, I
shouldn’t belittle the role of China. I have changed my mind a lot during the trip, and realized that
mainland China is so close to us and we should grab this opportunity.
To Sum up, although China field trip has ended, it is just a starting point for me to further my exploration
and gear up myself to face future challenges and try my best to figure out the ways to reward the
community.
Thank you Professor Fu!
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Fraissinet Lise
Before I moved to China, my favorite author and photographer, Robert-Emile Canat wrote in his latest
book China, vagabond emotions: “China is more accessible now than ever before, nevertheless, the
Chinese Universe, still quite far away from ours, does not become obvious in a few weeks, a few months
or even a few years!...It requires a lot of modesty, deep thinking and patience. It takes time, a long
time…and above all, a certain sensibility, a sixth sense, just like a connivance spirit, to get to know
China.”
Initially, I did not pay too much attention to this statement as I could not really get the sense of it, but
somehow it remained in my head, and slowly, very slowly, the more I get to know China and Chinese
people, the more I understand what Robert-Emile Canat meant.
Being a Westerner, this trip to Beijing was much more than a class field trip to me. It was a step further in
discovering and understanding China, my classmates and myself. On the first day of the MBA, back in
September, a year 2 German student told me: “The MBA is not only what you learn in class, it really
changes you as a person.” Again, I could not clearly understand what he meant, but the more I get to
know my classmates and the more I learn about China, the more I perceive my own behavior: cultural
differences have changed from stereotypes to meaningful identity. Paradoxically, getting deeper into
China forces me to analyze deeper my own country and myself and I realize how misleading perceptions
can be.
Dear Pr Fu, for you to fully understand what this trip meant to me, I need to give an initial input on how
China is still perceived by many Westerners who don’t know China, some points may sound rude or totally
misplaced, but I just want to be fully open so that you really appreciate the differences in me brought as a
result of the trip.
I will not expend on this part, but I will give you a list of images that exist about China and Chinese people:
- The first image of Chinese people that comes to a westerner is: a bus, full of Chinese people, who always
stay in group, are loud and take thousands of pictures anywhere and prefer to be in the picture than
capturing the beauty and spirit of the monument by itself.
- Chinese people are said to never make decisions and always follow and obey their leader.
- Chinese people are said to be very traditional and to attach a lot of importance to their history.
- Chinese people are said to be bright, very hard workers and very competitive.
- Chinese people are said to be humble and resilient.
- Chinese people are said to be careless of others and to show no feelings.
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- Chinese wisdom (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and all spiritual martial arts) are highly recognized
and valued in the West.
- Chinese art, symbolism, food is highly appreciated. Antique Art is highly valued in the West..
- The five thousand years of Chinese history, the Empire and Republic fascinate people.
…
As presented by Dong Mei, the key words of the 2008 Olympic Games were Friendship, Excellence and
Respect. Those 3 simple words perfectly describe what Beijing evokes to me and I will divide my report
around those 3 topics.
Friendship
For the first time in my life, I was the only Westerner in a group of Chinese people (coming from Hong
Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China). For the first time I could see what was happening from inside. I
cannot thank some of my classmates enough for the effort they made to include me, to welcome me, to
care about me in any occasions. The MBA classes and sharing this week in Beijing with some of them,
made me realize that there is a strength of care and attention that people have for each other in a group
of Chinese people that we do not have at all in the West, even in a group of close friends.
We do not give as much attention to the others as I saw people do with each other during this trip, and
they are only classmates! Western people only see it from outside. If they could see how nice,
respectuous and caring people are within those groups, the perception of Chinese behavior would totally
change. This is how I also understood the mystery of the thousands pictures! Something that nobody gets
in the West. I love photography and I only take pictures of things that I think are worth it and I usually
prefer to take pictures for what they mean: if I take a monument, I take it on its own. I do not want to
have people standing by, just to show they were here; if I take a person, I would make a portrait or a
person in action. Once again, for the first time I was part of those mysterious Chinese pictures and I
realized I had missed the point: these are not pictures but experiences, they are integral part of the trip,
the joy, the feeling of the group, showing the friendship, the excitement, and carrying it after the trip to
be shared, to be commented upon. They would probably say my pictures are boring and they would be
right!!!
Professor Gao said that the advantage of China is its talented people and I could not agree more. People,
then systems, make the difference, as he said. I was not supposed to be part of this trip, but adaptability
is a strength of China and thanks to you, Haina and Pong, this was made accessible for me.
Excellence
I found excellence everywhere in Beijing. I was over impressed by this safe, modern, spacious, clean city
with lots of parks, trees and lakes and by the professionalism and entrepreneurial attitude of all the
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companies we visited. From the airport to Tian An Men, all you see is modernism and dynamism, who
could imagine that this city is part of a developing country?!?
As Professor Liu mentioned, the market in China is changing rapidly, so are the infrastructures and the
people. I did not know Beijing before the Olympics, but their performance during the games, the image
they gave to the world, and what is left after the games (language learning, behavior change) show that
China is learning very fast. Through its architecture, old and new, Beijing imposes excellence: from the
Forbidden City to the Olympic city, throughout history, those buildings are just breathtaking.
Excellence also comes to my mind when it comes to the financial crisis. Of course, as reminded by
Professor Hua, China has already faced various crises that were quickly under control and solved by the
central control and actions from the government. Even though China is opening up after WTO, it has
managed to maintain a safe attitude, to balance short and long term goals. China has a long way to go on
environmental issues but the government is committed, a strong emphasis is put on Green Energy and
this is also used to re-boost the economy post crisis. Beijing gives me the feeling that China is on the fast
and right track forward due to an active government that people trust and follow. This recent crisis has
illustrated that this approach is the proper way to solve it and it makes me wish that Europe would show
more faith in the government and that a community approach was taken rather than an individualistic
one. Europe has a lot to learn from China on this point.
All the CEOs we met incarnated excellence, showing us that success in life can only be measured by how
positively you impact others, how you look forward and turn tough situations around and how consistent
and faithful you remain to your own deep values.
Since I was a little girl, I have always been passionate about great civilizations that made our world; hence
I had two dreams that seemed so unrealistic at that time: see the Pyramids in Egypt and see the Great
Wall. China seemed like another universe to me, like a legend, where people lived upside down to me, on
the other side of the globe and where, we were told, people had built such a long wall, yiwanli
changcheng, that if you wanted to measure it, you had to tie a thread to a star. The day before coming to
Beijing, I was in Shanghai at the CEIBS conference, where John Perkins (author of the Confessions of an
Economic Hit Man) said “You, Chinese people, just make miracles,” and I could not agree more. And for
me, the first miracle I could relate to in China was the Great Wall that had fascinated me so much for such
a long time. It was, hence, so unbelievable for me to be able to go there and stand on this wall so many
years after hearing about this infinite man-built miracle, this proof of Excellence-driven achievement!
Respect
I experienced very mixed feelings on this point. Once again I had my own approach to what in my mind
should be respected and in Beijing I started understanding that people could show respect by different
means that we don’t always perceive correctly. In Europe, we treasure, value and protect our heritage
from history, our towns are more famous for what they used to be and traces of the past than for what
they are now. As a European person, I am very sentimental when it comes to “old stones” and heritage
from our ancestors. Knowing only Shanghai and Hong Kong, I feel very sad when I think of all those traces
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from the past that were simply destroyed to build new infrastructures and to develop the economy. Again
in Beijing, MBA students from Tsinghua told us that there were plans to rebuild this University to give it a
more Western look…why? Why would people want to replace this strong, powerful identity and beautiful
buildings by soul-deprived Western buildings? Over the week end, I looked for the minor part of the town
where you can find old houses and get a feeling of the old Beijing and felt so sad again when I saw that
part of it was in the process of being destroyed to put a modern building instead. In my mind, Chinese
people are attached to their tradition, so I did not understand this trend, apart from economic reasons. It
is a discussion with one of my classmate that made me realize the different way of thinking: we were in
Capital Steel, on the bridge built for Deng Xiao Ping’s visit, I was saying how lovely this bridge was and
how sad it was that it started deteriorating and that probably in 10 years it would not be there any more!
My classmate smiled and answered: “it is OK, we have to move on and change, they will build something
new and different”! The idea of not keeping this bridge here made me feel very sad and at start I was
shocked that she felt so easy about this. Then I realized: that is why China is moving on so fast, so
efficiently and is adapting so easily, taking over most of the developed countries!
Chinese people keep thinking forward, they look towards the future, they say: life is not behind us, it is
ahead of us and we have to be part of it, no need to look back. Then many other things became clearer in
my mind. A few events that I did not pay attention to in the past or that I did not understand became
clearer, just because of this very short discussion. I realized that Chinese people don’t leave their tradition
behind to move forward, they move forward and include their traditional heritage in a modern way,
making it an entire part of their future and of future generations: when building the Olympic City, as Dong
Mei explained, they designed the entire plan with the 2 dragons facing each other upside down, one in
water, one in stone (hotel); the new Opera Dome is again built in a way that uses the reflection in the
water: symbolized Yin and Yang appear. I do not know of any other country able to include and re-
dynamize their traditional beliefs into their economic development! In the West, our cultural heritage is in
the past and will stay in the past. The new culture is developed in a new form but does not carry symbols
from the past.
Another event had really impressed me: on the 20th celebration of Tian An Men, a few young students
being interviewed about their feelings towards this event replied “It is in the past, it does not mean much
to us and we do not really know what happened. It belongs to History” I was quite shocked as in Europe
we learn China’s story at High school and we are left with a strong negative view on the communist
actions and Tian an men event. I thought: “How is it possible that this person has moved on when I still
have strong feelings about this, even though it is not my country, not my story, not my people who died!”
Thankfully, through this trip, through the lectures and the discussions with Professor Fu and explanations
from my classmates, I understood that there were also many positive things done by the Communist
Party that are not taught in the west, that the Communist Party has now evolved into a totally new
balanced party that people want to be part of, and most importantly, Chinese people have this ability to
look forward and leave things that belong to the past in the past. We do not know how to do that in
Europe and I think that says a lot, even today looking at the economic growth and the way the economic
crisis is being managed. Things are currently tough everywhere but what I see in China is that people are
showing solidarity and willingness to move forward, they trust their government and will soon get out of
this crisis even stronger than before. Europe is too eager to protect what they have had so far, they want
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to move forward but without compromising anything they already have; Europe is looking backward
instead of jumping into its future.
I said I have mixed feelings because on one hand I am very impressed by this attitude and I know this is
the way to move forward, but my heart is also so attached to the history that made our world, that I am
always nostalgic and sad when I see that something is about to disappear. Over the week-end I went by
the busy lake surrounded by cafes and restaurants in central Beijing and I was observing an old man who
seemed to be meditating, an old book on his knees. His attitude and traits were so noble and he looked so
sad, I thought he could have been from the first republic and witnessed all this history that remains a
mystery to me, something I can only read in books. While I was watching him, two young guys on roller
skates arrived, laughing and speaking very loud, Ipods in their ears, dressed like trendy westerners and in
tow seconds, I saw the new Chinese generation taking over what I always had in mind when thinking of
China since I was a little girl: the ancestral and eternal China with its five thousands years of history, the
Empire and the Republic, who had such a strong and proud identity. What will be left in 20 years when
this old generation has gone, apart from the forbidden city and Tiantan to remind people of their past?
But I guess the entire world is gradually going global, in many years we may just be the same outside, and
culture will become global, only our history will be different.
It is probably our common future and we should not view it as a loss, but as a natural evolution. Being in
China will certainly help me to learn and to improve both my skills and myself as a person. I am proud to
be part of this MBA, to have met those fantastic people who are somehow always teaching me something
every time I see them. Most of my western friends here have no Chinese friends and I feel so lucky to
have some, without them, without the MBA, without this trip, it would not be possible to progressively
get to know China and to start being part of it. This trip was for me a fantastic full deep bath in what China
is on the path to become and I thank you again for this opportunity.
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Fung Ching Oi (Olivia)
Introduction
From 7th June to 14th June 2009, it was a memorial journey in my life, my first time to Beijing. I am glad
that I can visit the capital city of my country. Before the trip, we chose a topic that we would like to
investigate during the trip. My group’s topic is about environment protection and we hoped that we could
gather as much as information we needed from both corporations and local people. Also, I personally
expected to understand more the economic environment in China as I did not know China very much
even I was born in China and moved to HK when I was very small. I also hoped to understand doing
business in China. Because of CUMBA, I visited different companies in Beijing and attended many
excellent lectures. It really widened my view and inspired my thinking. Especially the relationships (ren, 仁)
which means humaneness and the righteousness (义) in Confucianism. Needless to say, we all had a great
trip and we all learnt a lot!
Tsing Hua University
There are many things that impressed me. The first is Tsing Hua University. Study in such a large and
beautiful University is a good experience. I also ride the bicycle inside the University which made me feel I
was studying in Tsing Hua. Furthermore, having dinner with Tsing Hua MBA representatives was good.
They shared their experiences and their study life in Tsing Hua. The have plenty of extra-circular activities
even they are busy with their homework and projects. I think we can hold more activities such as
entrepreneurship, exchange programs and visit more MBA schools in different universities.
The lecture held in Tsing Hua University about the economy was attractive. Professor Hua has a lot of
experience in many provinces in China. His views
and prediction about Chinese economy are
valuable, China benefits from this economy crisis
and how China can do. It shows that China is
getting stronger and stronger and attracts many
foreign investors. One thing that I concerned was
that the impact to the Chinese traditional culture
from the west. I understand that there are
advantages in western culture and if we learn and
bring in those advantages like legal system and
some management systems, it benefits our
competitively. However, too many western
cultures may not be good to us. Just like Hong
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Kong, many people forget about the traditional Chinese central thinking. Most people forget about the
humaneness and righteousness in Confucianism. They can do everything to achieve their goals without
considering others both in business and personal life. I think China will get both advantages from western
and Chinese cultures.
CEOs meeting
I remember the night having dinner with CEOs. Our table was having dinner with two professors. They
shared their views of management and the current situation in Chinese company. One story that I
remember the most was about a bamboo furniture manufactory. They hire the young people who are low
educated as craftsman. The manufactory supports their employees to pursuit the degree of making
bamboo furniture. After their graduation, the company holds a party for the graduate students and their
family. Also a gift is prepared for each of their parents. We all asked if the employee has to sign contract
with that company to commit the period of working or not. The answer was “NO”. That company allows
their employees to go to other companies and welcome their employees to go back. Most of the graduate
students are not willing to leave and very happy to work in the company. It was so touching and it
showed the humaneness of the company and the righteousness of the employees. It is one of the
management styles in China, a warm and family style company. However, some companies only pursue
benefit and exploit the employees especially the low educated workers. I hope the companies understand
that they are not only doing business but also they have the social responsibility.
Moreover, the sharing from three CEOs was so impressing. Their experiences and hard-working in their
business are valuable and we cannot hear from other place. We learnt about the characteristics of being a
CEO and a successful businessman. They are passionate to contribute to the society, having a deep
relationship with the employees and insist their dream. I remember one of the senior employees had
cancer with telophase but he insisted to work until the last moment. The loyalty of this employee is
respectful and I am sure without a humanity employer, his attitude towards the company and his
employer would not be like that.
Company Visit
Another good company with Chinese Traditional culture is GreenTec. Their mission is
人类社会的一切努力都是为了改善自身的生存环境。 只有自觉生态文明才能引领循环经济,延续人
类的生存发展。 倡导 “ 人适天和 ” ,追求生命的超越 ; 创造绿色明天,实现 “ 天人合一” !
Their mission is related to Taoism, talking about “ 天人合一”. Their mission concerns about people. It is
not only Chinese, but also about the people in the world. They would like to improve the life and the living
environment and they believe that it benefits the economy as well. With their high mission and
commitment, their staffs are very energetic in working. I really esteemed their director Mr. Jiang (姜), he
worked from a very small working place twelve years ago and now is having a large factory with complete
and advanced equipments. I think every staff pays effort at every single stage to achieve the good result
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as today. In the other side, the traditional Chinese culture of filial piety can be seen. His son is influenced
by his father and has the same mission to work for the company and the world. It is very rare in this
generation.
Olympic Game
Another amazing person is Dong Mei. From zero to an excellent Beijing Olympic game, everybody paid a
lot of afford on it to show the brightness side and the new development of China. Dong Mei has such a
passion to work for our country. Working from a volunteer to an important role in Beijing Olympic game,
Dong Mei experienced plenty of difficulties and went through a long long journey. She is a witness of this
historical moment and her humanness to the
country and people is respectful. Furthermore,
the story about the Beijing Paralympic Game is
awesome. All facilitates and equipments of the
Olympic game were changed to suit those
disabled and fit the requirements of the Beijing
Paralympic game within 24 hours. This was an
incredible and large work. It improved facilitates
for disabled in Beijing city and others Olympic
cities in China and spread the message of taking
care the disabled all over the country. It shows
the humanness to the disabled.
Alumni Gathering
In the whole trip, I like the dinner with alumni the most. The restaurant was very nice, very comfortable.
Those alumni shared their working experience and life in Beijing. Most of them felt that Beijing was better
than Shanghai, because of more traditional culture in Beijing. I like the environment in Beijing too except
the transportation. It is because there is always traffic jam. The sharing from those alumni inspired my
thinking. One sharing from an alumnus, Hilson, was very touching. He said I was like his daughter and he
showed his daughter picture to us. Because of his working, he did not have much time for his daughters.
He felt regret and finally he said “I love you” to his daughters in front of many relatives. He encouraged us
if you loved someone, you had to say it. I agreed with him as I do not have chance to say these words to
my father anymore.
Appreciation
Last but not least, I would like to say thank you to Professor Fu. She organized a very good trip for us so
that we can visit so many companies and meet a lot of amazing people. Her arrangements on every meals
and the hotel. More importantly, I learnt a lot from Professor Fu. Her passion in education and her kind
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attitudes towards everything. She shared the story of “海底撈” and the cradle of the Communist Party of
China. Her humanness to everyone and to the country is regardful.
After the trip
Lastly, the presentation after the trip was touching. I learnt a lot from those presentations by our
classmates. Talking the old date to the current situation of China, although plenty of changes over few
thousands of years, the core Chinese culture still exists. I hope we can keep those good cultures and pass
to next generation.
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Fung Sin Cheung, Edmund
One World One Dream, The Beijing Olympic Games 2008
The summer of 2008 was found as the most extremely hot season in Beijing since any Chinese History
records, it was hot not because of weather temperature, but it was so hot inside every people’s heart at
Beijing during the Olympic Games Weeks. Not only the Olympic Officers got excited about the event, but
also foreigners, national visitors and local Beijing people were also putting high expectations to visualize
such memorial event which just organized at the prime age of China. China has been getting prestigious
status on many international aspects, like economic, political, aero-technological, etc. Since early 2008, I
have been longing for any chance to visit Beijing to experience any bit of the Olympic spirit and joys from
our nation since it was such an amasing event around the globe. Our nation hoped to organize an
Olympic a hundred years ago, and our dreams finally came true in 2008.
Joining this trip in 2009 let me visit the Olympic Venues: Bird’s Nest and Water Cube, and also allowed me
to gain fuller picture and more insights from the sharing of our guest, Ms Dong Mei, who had been
working at the relationship unit of the Olympic organizing committee. This brought us to the backstage of
the Olympic and helped us to understand more about the real challenges behind the scene. We have
learnt a lot to the fact that it was not easy to accomplish such gigantic task but mainly due to our national
passion among people to striving for success. The coordination, mutual respects and human sympathy
among all the parties were so vital. The management skill was an Art and was really a great lessen to
everyone.
We had interviewed with several university students of Beijing who had been appointed as volunteers to
serve athletes arrivals at airports and also provided assistance to visitors at Olympic venues. We have
observed a lot of changes and improvement in Beijing City and also the citizen’s behaviors.
CU Alumni & Local Beijing Lives
The dinner dialogues with our friends of HK expatriates who had been working at Google China, and an
international CPA company revealed much of closest personal comments on Beijing living environments.
We were also impressed to have contacts with many CU alumni in Beijing, who have been moved or
stationed there for living and working for sustainable years. They really shared us with the latest job
market and economic environment of Beijing and some other major cities. I was so impressed for their
courage and passion to contribute themselves to developing our nation since so many years ago. They
served as good learning models to us who have mobilized plan to expand their careers and horizon to
China.
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H1N1 Human Swine Influenza Control Measure
H1N1 was a contemporary disease found to be evolved from pig to human in 2008, I would like to take
this opportunity to show my sincere thanks to the well-planned controls and measures from our
university and also responsive actions of our MBA office.
Since the first H1N1 case was found in Hong Kong on 1st May 2009, we had noticed the virus was
originated from American continent. Hong Kong and Beijing were also found to have “imported”
infections from the foreign visitors at their international airports and began to implement body
temperature checking on arrival flights with quarantine procedures to any suspected visitors. I had
worried if there would be any delay to our planned trip or any possibility to be affected by any suspected
case on our flight when we arrived in Beijing. I appreciate much for the prompt actions from our
university Committee on Health Promotion and Protection, and also the communication efficiency via our
MBA office which let us understand that we are being taken care of and precautionary and contingency
measures had been already established well for any of our trip. Luckily, our trip got so successful and
fruitful without any impact from the H1N1.
Hear-to-Heart Dinner Talks with CEOs
We are so delighted to have dinner and close discussions with 3 prominent CEOs from PRC organizations,
namely Nightingale and Daoxianghu Hotel (稻香湖景酒店). This event was found to be the most unique
occasion we must treasure to our trip and I believe we could hardly find another opportunity to get this
connection from other study trip. My heart and mind were deeply moved by the passion of those CEOs
and they have been striving towards their goals on contributing to the people and to the country, but not
to only the organization itself. All CEOs had demonstrated themselves to us their success are all managed
by “Heart” and “People Relationship”, not merely evaluate performance by financial figures and not
thinking and doing things with costs and benefits as priority. This really served as a big contrast between
many common western management philosophies which always setting “Specific”goals and Key
Performance Indictors “KPI”all along the company missions. This led me to re-visit my learning from
western scholars and become very interested to know more about the Chinese culture and philosophies.
Adaptation of Western Style Enterprise in China – Google
Just after we left from Beijing for some times, Google’s service was suspended by the PRC government,
and imposing Green Dam to provide information screening to every computer in the territories. During
our Google visit, everything of Google’s development in China seemed very smooth and this US giant was
so proud and confident to conquer the internet advertisement market with ease. However, this Green
Dam issue proves the common misunderstanding of foreigners to our Chinese culture and perceptions.
Many successful foreign enterprises are still learning and require better interface between foreign and
Chinese environment. I trust this has been creating golden opportunities to all of us in Hong Kong and
also to those geniuses in major cities in China. Facing the global financial tsunami, China is getting
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stronger and stronger in relative position to other developed countries, and this portrays enormous
career development to the coming MBA graduates.
Finally, I would like to share my feeling of proud and excitement when attending the National Flag-raising
Ceremony at Tian-En Men Square early in the morning on 11th July 2009. Most of our friends and
classmates had got up very early at 3:00am and waiting to witness the ceremony until 6:00am. I am now
very proud of myself to show the ceremony video to my families and got much satisfaction out of this trip.
Thanks to Professor Fu and all the working parties to make this event so successful and fruitful!!
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Ho Ka Man, Kaberlina
A Perfect Ending for My MBA!
This business field study was my very last MBA course. The study trip was impressive, inspiring and full of
laughter, earmarking a perfect ending to my experiential MBA course!!! Through the lectures, company
visits and site seeing around the Beijing city, I sensed the strength of our homeland and the experience
enriched my knowledge in the way of doing business and lifestyle in China. Most importantly, I was
inspired by the three CEOs on how a person can make a difference on his/her own life as well as others’
life. I am also happy to have developed friendship among the classmates, alumni and all other people we
have met.
Sensing the Powerful China
1. Fruitful Lectures
It’s so precious to have the chance to attend lectures by
professors from the Tsinghua University. Professor Hua’s
insight on China’s influence to the world economy was
impressive; Professor Liu’s sharing on Chinese media and
marketing was fruitful whereas Professor Gao’s lecture
on Chinese firm strategies was intense. Without a doubt,
with such high quality of education force, the youngsters
in China are in bright future and I believe they would all
be well equipped to show their talents to the world.
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2. Valuable Company Visits
The golden opportunities to visit the most representative companies in China including stated-owned
enterprise, Shou Gang and other innovative companies like Hanergy, Google, Taiyanggong, Greentec and
CICC in Beijing were treasured. I was so grateful to realize lots of talents educated overseas, like Mr.
Sunny Oh of Google and Mr. David Li of CICC, are coming back to China to develop their careers because
they can see the potentials of China. Besides, the advanced technologies developed by Hanergy,
Taiyanggong and Greentec were also proving the intelligence of Chinese. Energy resources and
environmental protection are two of the hottest topics around the world, with what I observed from the
company visits, I had strong belief that China would become one of the most powerful global leaders.
3. Impressed Infrastructures
As a civil engineer, I’m really impressed by the infrastructures works in Beijing city. The highways are well
constructed and the transportation network is well planned and under promising development. Some
structures like the Water Cube, the Bird Nest, the CCTV building and the National Opera House, are simply
gorgeous!!! Hardware development is the foundation to support the development of a city. In the sense
of this, China has shown her ability and strength to the world through the construction of all those
fantastic hardware.
The Most Impressive CEO Forum
Among all the insightful events, I was most inspired by the three CEOs. Their passion and enthusiasms to
implement their life values as a life-long mission in the company have not only brought them the
successful career but also influenced people around unintentionally. I believed being a successful
entrepreneur, besides managing the profits, it is even more vital to manage people, the ever most
important resource in a company.
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From the sharing of the three CEOs, I could feel their passion to life, enthusiasm to work, persistence in
implementing their life values and mission regardless of their ups and downs and their dedication to the
company, life and family. I was so overwhelmed by their ability to WALK THE TALK. Their success didn’t
come with ease. It is always easy for us to dream, to set high aims and goals, but when encountering
obstacles, not everyone has the persistence and devotion to live out the dream and strive for it.
Besides all those credentials of a successful entrepreneur, I also realized that the CEOs cared about the
employees and people around by treating everyone as the closed and valued ones. I loved the quote “疑
人不用, 用人不疑” - if you have doubt in someone, you should not employ him/her, otherwise, you
should trust the employer. I always think that people are the most precious asset to a company. No
matter how advanced the technologies/delicate process a company processed, without good people, the
company could never outstand itself from the industry.
Establishing Friendship
Extending my social network is one of my goals for taking the MBA course. During the trip, I had
developed friendship with other MBA students. I firstly met some Year 1 classmates through working on
the group project. By the time I landed in Beijing, 28 of us from different years and study mode, enjoyed
the 5-day lectures and visits together, chit chats and laughs were always around us. We also went for
orchestra show, body massage, the morning ceremony at Tiananmen and the Great Wall at our leisure
time. Although we only spent a few days together, a bonded and warm friendship was nurtured. It was
also very nice to meet graduates from Tsinghui University who are energetic and full of visions; the alumni
from CUMBA who have the courage to take adventures in an unfamiliar place; and particularly those
inspiring and brilliant executives & entrepreneurs met in the CEO forum and during company visit.
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The End Leads to the Start of My Next Adventure
Although this business field study was my last MBA course, the end of course has broadened my horizon
to my homeland – Mainland China. Both the chances of attending lectures and visiting companies in
Beijing are so rare and valuable that we all learnt the fruitful knowledge that is unable to learn in Hong
Kong which further made this field trip irreplaceable
and indispensable.
During the visit at Shou Gang, I spotted a slogan
written by Mr. Deng XiaoPing which stated, “學習是前
進的基礎” – Learning is the foundation to move
forward. I like this motto very much as it has
highlighted the importance of continuous learning and
keep moving forward. I have a strong feeling that the
end of my MBA course would lead me to the brand
new start for my next adventure.
Last but not the least, I would like to show my gratitude to Professor Fu for her full dedication, caring,
passion in education and valuable sharing to all of us. Of course, the unlimited support and happy sharing
with all the classmates have made my trip an extraordinary one. THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO ALL OF
YOU!!!!!!!
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Lam Tze Kin, Eagan
Beijing – The City of All Times
Tiananmen, The Great Wall, The Summer Palace, The Forbidden City, Tiantan, Tsinghua University, The
Bird’s Nest, The Water Cube… The list of “must-go”
destinations is endless. Beijing is a unique city of
history and modern, traditions and innovations,
relaxation and excitement. It has been nurturing the
Chinese culture for thousands of years. Its position is
irreplaceable in the history of mankind. Today, it still
continues to surprise the world every day, and takes
up the leading position in this world of crisis, anger,
and competition. There is no other place in the world
that is so important in the history of all times.
Longing for the Trip – Beijing, I’m coming!
Shameful to mention, as a Chinese, I had never had a “real” visit to Mainland China before this trip. I had
been to Xiamen and Shanghai a few years ago, but only stayed there for a few hours respectively for
business. I did not have chance to have a deeper look at my motherland. Therefore, this trip was the first
time I had a true experience of China.
In the past two years, I heard a lot about Beijing because of the Olympic Games 2008. I began to have
more understanding about our capital city. On the other hand, because of the hotel development projects
of my company, I had many contacts with my counterparts in Beijing. However, all these only gave me a
very general idea about Beijing – a big city, advance in technology, people are nice and helpful…I expected
to learn more through my own personal experience.
The Day Finally Came!
1. Beijing Capital International Airport
“Wow!” This was my first reaction when I stepped into Beijing Capital International Airport. The design
was really impressive. It was modern and very spacious. It made use of the natural light to minimize the
energy consumption. The auto-operating train connected different parts of the airport efficiently. The
professional services provided at the airport enabled passengers to leave the plane and collect their
luggage very quickly. Health checking officials, immigration officers, and airport services staff all
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expressed their warm welcome to every passenger. It has been said that Hong Kong International Airport
is the best airport in the world. However, I think Beijing Capital International Airport is not in any way
behind it.
2. Olympic Village & Olympic Memories
The Bird’s Nest and The Water Cube have become the must-see destinations in Beijing after the Olympic
Games 2008. The state-of-art design and facilities symbolize the new milestone for the world’s
architecture. They are also the remembrance of our successful Olympic Games.
As shared by Ms Dong Mei, every Chinese should be proud of the country for the success of the Olympic
Games. I can say it sets the new standards for this international event. Not only because of the smooth
process throughout the event under the fear of attacks, and not only because of the best results ever
achieved by our Chinese athletes, but also because of the personal qualities we have demonstrated to the
world. The tremendous efforts being put in the past eight years, and the cooperation of the whole nation
have created this truly memorable experience to every people – an outcome that astonished the world.
The determination, the “If you think you can do it, you can do it” spirit, the efficiency, the creativity, the
detail orientation, the warm hospitality, the dedication… we can never forget. See the Volks Wagen and
Audi taxis in the street (incredible!). Smell the clean and fresh air. Enjoy the improved services in hotels
and tourist destinations. The efforts we have made has brought us long term benefits.
Situated inside The Bird’s Nest, I recalled what I saw
from the television about the incredible opening and
closing ceremonies, the joyful and disappointing
moments of the athletes, and the encouragement and
friendship among nations. I cannot miss the most
memorable moment – when Chinese athletes Hou Bin
lighted the Paralympics flame. He sat on his wheelchair,
and climbed himself up to the top of the stadium with
his bared hands. This is the determination and
perseverance that creates the magic, and everyone can
do the same.
3. Tsinghua University
As an MBA student, visiting Tsinghua University and meeting their MBA students are of course the
highlight of the trip. Tsinghua is a renowned university not only in China but also in the world. The campus
is very large and peaceful. It nurtures the new generation of our nation. We were warmly welcomed by
their MBA students. They were so friendly, and answered every question we raised with patience. The
future of our nation will be in their hands.
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The most interesting part of the campus visit was the canteen! It was so large and provided a large variety
of food. Can we have one like that at our CUHK campus?
4. The Great Wall
The Great Wall is one of the most important historical
architecture. It demonstrated the intelligence of our
ancestors. Imagine with the technology of few thousand years
ago, they built this masterpiece which up to now is still the
only structure that can be seen on Earth from the Space. So
amazing!
Of course, it was sad that we paid for it – I mean human lives.
It is the evident of a dark period in the Chinese history under
the Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Many people sacrificed
themselves to satisfy his sense of achievement. However, it also demonstrated the perseverance of our
nation.
5. McDonalds
You may want to ask – why I have to mention my experience at this fast food shop in Beijing? Well, it is
because the experience was so different from what I have in Hong Kong.
Since I woke up a bit early on one day, I decided to go out and experience the city myself. Eventually, I
went to McDonalds for breakfast. Unlike what we can see in Hong
Kong during rush hour, where people running and yelling, people there,
both the staff and the customers, were very relaxing (yet, the staff
were still efficient). I felt that I could enjoy my breakfast very
comfortably.
When I was having breakfast, I saw a group of students having a
discussion. The group consists of Chinese as well as western students.
They expressed their opinions freely during the discussion. I heard
western people speaking mandarin, while Chinese people speaking
English, and they understand each other very well. In this environment,
I felt that oriental and western culture could be shared in a very
comfortable way, and more importantly learn from each other. A
country or a nation can never be strong unless people continue to
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improve themselves by exchanging with other countries, recognizing the diversifications, and accepting
different opinions.
6. Others
There were so many memorable moments during the week in Beijing that I can hardly mention them all.
The jokes created by my poor mandarin (I will learn more!), my first taste of 二鍋頭 (nearly made me get
drunken the first time in my life!), food hunting at 簋街 (who say Hong Kong is a food paradise, please go
and see!), music appreciation at The National Centre for the Performing Arts (Hong Kong businessman can
hardly find time for that), hot pot at 海底撈 (the best hot pot experience I ever have! And a good business
model for restaurateurs!), midnight karaoke at 錢櫃 (where I discovered my talent in singing!)… I can
never forget all these special moments with my fellow classmates.
China – The Future
Needless to say, Chinese people have continuously demonstrated our ability and personal qualities. We
are proud of the achievements we have made. However, there are still many things to learn. There are
also many places in China yet to be developed. As a developing country, we still have a long way to go to
enhance our international status.
I am sure with the increasing freedom and accessibility of information enjoyed by the general public,
China will only be even stronger in the future, and continue to shine on the international arena.
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Lee Tsz Yeung, Michael
Background
The story starts like this. During my preparation of the China Trip, I came across an article from the
internet that surprised me. It was a photo from NASA taken from the Space Shuttle over the East China
Sea and on the lower atmosphere, a corridor of anthropogenic haze was discovered (see the arrows in the
photo below). The corridor is around 200Km wide and probably much more than 600Km long (the visible
length over the sea). It is believed to be a mixture of industrial air pollution, dust and smoke. NASA
reports the pollutant was found weeks later in the cost of California, polluting the atmosphere and may
be accountable for global warming. Miles of chemical wastes were flowing in the sky from China. That
really raises my interest in looking at how China nowadays is working on environment protection and
more interestingly is, why China is being blamed for producing so many pollution worldwide. Should we
be fair enough to say by squeezing down the cost to be competitive as one of the lowest cost
manufacturing country in the world, China has no focus on environment concern? Should saving the
planet be a global issue where every human being on this planet earth should be responsible for?
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It is interesting, our group finally change our project topic to historic and heritage preservation because
we find more than one group is working on environment issue. We believe this is a very interesting topic
because heritage preservation is another form of environment protection.
This is not the first time I visited Beijing as I have a regional marketing job and travel in Asia extensively.
My impression of Beijing is not emerged heavily as a financial or manufacturing city like Shanghai or
DongGuan in Southern Guangdong. Therefore, my expectation for Beijing is different. Beijing should has
her own and different story to tell. Moreover, this is the first time I travel to Beijing as a student to see
things differently. Prior to the trip, I heard pollution in the air, the rush of building up the infrastructure
and catching up of the Beijing public to learn English for the Olympics. I agree everyone is well aware of
the negative sides of Beijing. This should make this trip interesting as I can be more focused on the
positive sides of this capital city.
I arrived at Beijing on a relaxing Sunday afternoon. The Beijing Capital Airport was awesome and very big,
much bigger than the Hong Kong International Airport. It was so huge that our intra-terminal train passed
through one of the terminal that was not yet opened. I see there is a plan for future expansion which is
very true when I look at how the Hong Kong Airport is now building a new boarding terminal to meet the
increasing demand. Beijing Capital Airport definitely has a Master plan that looks into the future.
Moreover, on the departure day I also discovered the Beijing Capital Airport had individual immigration
facility in each different terminal to avoid and diverted the big crowds from the main terminal. To my
surprise, passengers could even rate the service of the immigration officer by pressing a button in front of
the immigration desk indicating the level of service delivered after the officer returned your travel
document. I was very impressed on the level of customer satisfactory is measured in such detail which I’d
never seen such system in the rest of the world. I even heard one traveler giving a thumb up on such
arrangement and realized later that he came from a service centric country, Japan.
My Taxi driver brought us on the city highway and without any travel congestion, we entered the city
seamlessly. From the outlook, I discovered the city was crowded with very modern and beautifully
designed new buildings. Groups after groups of world class architectures could be seen on the way as we
moved along the city superhighway. A few days later, when I had a chance to walk around the city, I had
to say I felt no difference walking downtown Tokyo compared to places like Xidan or in Paris when we
compared the Avant-garde China Telecom building to the new Arc De Triomph. Later in our trip, I even
found out that the people, the culture and the history were all just fascinating.
The Trip
Our trip did not start off nicely in a raining morning. I said it was a heavily rained Monday morning. Our
guide, Jimmy, had been very kind escorting everyone to the Olympics Village under heavy rain where I
saw the Cubic Water and the Bird Nest first time. These were impressive constructions with a
combination of modern technology and beauty. I was excited to witness how modern technology and
design helped to save the environment and create the new Olympics world records. Take for example the
Cubic Water, new technology was used to increase the water depth and leave the first and last lane
unused to reduce wave re-bounces. The Bird Nest was impressively huge. I was impressed later I found
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out the steel structure was in fact, provided by the company Capital Steel, when we visited the company.
Imagine the Olympics opening and closure ceremonies were held right here in this giant stadium. The Bird
Nest itself was a witness of time. A witness of China today capability to communicate with the rest of the
world, demonstrating her intelligence and the beauty of ancient Confucius philosophy of Lǐ (禮) and yì
(義). The greatness and openness of the Chinese culture to accept and integrate others culture were all
well demonstrated. I even heard that the success of the Beijing Olympics ceremony had left London, the
next Olympics city, a big headache!
Jimmy was such a wonderful guide and through his enthusiastic and passion, he was so committed to
showing every visitor his story of the new Beijing. Jimmy’s inside story on how the city helped to preserve
a temple inside the Olympics village area, the whole Cubic Water had to move 100M away from its
original location with no choice.
This helped to avoid demolition of the temple as well as reconstruction of the Central Axis emerged from
the Forbidden City. (A picture below shows the Central Axis) At this point, I was impressed an ancient
temple had a higher priority over a multi-million dollars Olympics modern construction. This was a true
example of high level of respect to our historical asset.
One observation on our way back to our bus was the technology used in laying down the foundation
material of the road system outside the Bird Nest and the Cubic Water. According to Jimmy, a special
recycle material was used to build the road where it could absorb the pouring rain and provide a dry
surface for the pedestrian to walk safely without slipping. The water was then collected underneath and
returned to a recycle system for other use. (A picture below shows one side of the road at the back used a
special material to build for people to walk is so dry compared to the front which built for vehicles) No
wonder I cannot see any sign of flooding or pools of water under such terrible downpour and I was
amazed the design of the Olympics venue had went down into such great details, thanks to the modern
technology. Later on the same day afternoon, I appreciated so much if the same technology could apply
to the Tsinghua campus while I had to walk under the pouring rain which made my body soaked. The walk
in the campus was neither short nor easy – it reminds me of a long and difficult road in front of a greener
China tomorrow.
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After a whole day rainy day, I saw a very blue beautiful sky on Tuesday. Who said Beijing had no blue sky
and air quality was not good? I lived with a clean and blue sky in Beijing during the rest of my trip!
Visit to Tai Yang Gong was also impressive. It was an electricity power
plant built in a residential neighborhood. I was impressed how Tai
Yang Gong lived with her neighbors in harmony. I saw residential just
across the street! I am not an expert on environmental technology
and how Tai Yang Gong utilized modern technology to generate
power was a difficult topic to me. However, I understood it was a
new technology with a higher cost and its efficiency suppressed its
cost. My observation concluded Tai Tang Gong had taken
environmental protection to a high level. Not to mention the noise level was greatly reduced to a sub-
human-auditable level but the whole power plant was surrounded in such a nice way resembled an office
with lot of greens and decorations like a man made Great Wall on top of the cooling tower. I could only
hear the low frequency noise generated from the machinery so closely nearby when I physically stood
outside the machine building. The whole power plant was very clean and beautifully crafted, very
different from the traditional dark, unorganized and noisy factory impression I had. I felt so excited such
large scale infrastructure could be so well planned and built to meet not only its primary purpose as a
Power Plant to serve the Olympics but also became an important component perfectly integrated into the
environment. The whole plant was definitely a smart energy design by shorten the distant to transmit the
electricity to the end users, resulted in reduce energy lost during transmission. Friendly Tai Yang Gong had
gained its acceptance in the city and I could not see any fault that deserved any criticism in Tai Yang Gong.
Capital Steel gave me a strong feeling on contrasting history with tomorrow and in continuous
improvements.
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Thanks to our guide DanDan, I learned so much of the history of
Capital Steel from the day established to today as it stands as a giant.
The factory tour gave me so much into the past, where many historic
events took place physically there, all inside Capital Steel factory. The
high temperature furnace, the melting iron, the transportation
system and the workers inside Capital Steel are pieces of history and
puzzles to a full picture of Capital Steel today. The challenge Capital
Steel faced during her development in the past, today and towards
tomorrow when concern over a “Greener world” globally in the future was never ending. The question of
“What is a Capital Steel worker should be” reflected exactly my feeling towards this famous SOE. The
passion, the feeling and the loyalty resembled in emotional mix along the passage of time. The workers in
Capital Steel had mixed emotions towards the move as one can understand. They wanted to work
continuously in Capital Steel. Mr. Zhang, the factory head who met with us recalled how an old worker
who just passed away recently had contributed his life completely towards the company. He worked until
the last moment of his life. I could feel his passion was as hot as the melting iron from the furnace. His
dedication was a true reflection of what a Capital Steel worker should be. Capital Steel is now facing a
challenge in time – A challenge for a change. Moving to a remote island far away was not easy for
everyone and change is inevitable. However, I was delighted to see Capital Steel was willing to take the
move and commit the concept of environment first on future Capital Steel planning development.
Visit to the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall (BPEH) www.bjghzl.com.cn
During our conversation with Dong Mei on
city planning criteria for the Beijing Olympics
village, she recommended an invaluable
source for understanding Beijing City
planning was the BPEH.
Due to its closure by 5:00PM, we only have
around an hour visit to the BPEH. However, it
was amazing how Beijing had put City
Planning first in her development. I was
surprised to see City Planning was not a new
concept to the ancient Chinese intellectuals
but was started hundred years ago in many
different dynasties. The concepts of the Central Axis and Fung Shui had deep rooted in Chinese mind
where a balanced, harmonized equilibrium between human and environment concept was adopted long
time ago. On the third floor of the BPEH, the whole city of Beijing was resembled in front of us in
miniatures. A model of the whole city with details on the different sectors of the city provided a bird-eye
view of the city was spectacular. I was amazed the modern Beijing Master City planning for the future
had also been so detailed and it had been categorized into four categories: Transportation, Environmental
Protection (even includes sound pollution as well!), Water and Building Energy Conserving Area. More
impressively, Beijing had reserved dedicated land in the center of the city for the BPEH. One can see huge
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effort has been put in preserving the heritage and education on the public to understand the history of
the past.
After thoughts
I believe I see things very differently in China after the trip, compared to my impression years ago during
regular business trips to the mainland .Thanks to the special arrangement, I had the opportunity to talk to
different people such as the Tsinghua students in this trip. They were true hearted and enthusiastic
individuals who take very special care of us during our half day visit to the campus. Their escorts under
the rain, their hospitality to show us different sight-seeing spots inside the campus and the many dishes in
the student canteen were touching. Their desire to reach out and exchange information with us, not only
limited to academic but every aspects of the world was encouraging. It is interesting to know that most of
the students are not local but come from different parts of the country. Their different views on looking
at Beijing as a capital city and how Beijing undergoes changes for the world are fascinating. The Tsinghua
students encounter left me a very sweet memory of the trip.
The passion of our lecturers is also impressive. They are dedicated, committed, logical in thinking and also
very knowledgeable. (Remind me our dinner with Miss Jiang from Beijing Nightingale on her sharing to be
focus, reiterate, thankful, review and use systematic and logical thinking in our daily life) They are open
minded and willing to share their knowledge with us. The communications were always in two ways. The
capability to apply successfully the western civilization and concepts into “Chinese way” effectively is
important in achieving a win-win solution. There was so much I learnt throughout the trip, much boarder
than the syllabus stated. I was impressed on how different China nowadays compared to the past in terms
of knowledge sharing and exchange. Some of the conversions and discussions could be so direct and to
the point but always accompany with a warm heart underneath.
China definitely underwent changes to align with the rest of the world, realize she is struggling to protect
the oldies and the history. Chasing Western philosophy that may not necessary helps is not a sound move.
The question becomes how the Chinese can identify where an appropriate line should be drawn. The
Olympics definitely is a catalyst that successful speed up the momentum of the country towards
modernization. During our visit to Google and CICC, I saw stories of top overseas educated individuals’
willingness to contribute what they had learnt to China after they returned home. From the class of
Chinese media and marketing by Prof. Liu, I learnt the new Chinese generation boldly expressed and
reflected their opinions extensively by leveraging the power of the internet and mobile communication.
Look at SKII and Carrefour cases for example. Look at how a single careless mistake of using the China
symbolic Dragon in a creative Paint advertisement can draw public’s attention that results in
dissatisfaction. Chinese nowadays are much willing to express their viewpoints directly without
reservation and with modern technology, creating an enormous power that we should not overlook,
especially when an element of nationalism is involved. I was proud how much we loved our country.
As a conclusion, I would like to quote an answer from my question to Prof. Hua Ruxing in China
environmental protection during our visit lecture to the Tsinghua campus. Prof. Hua answered. “It is quite
a difficult topic. We are still learning and education is needed to carry on to next generation.” Today, I see
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China has made her move towards protecting the environment, not only on the visible level where we can
witness so much have been done but also the momentum raised in every Chinese’s heart. Ranging from
large corporation like Hanergy to small medium company like GreenTech, China has taken her every little
step towards a greener country. On one side of the city, Capital Steel is quietly moving her factory to a
remote island with new manufacture facilities aimed for zero pollution. Somewhere close-by inside the
city, Tai Yang Gong has proven to be an excellent example how Green energy can benefit our living
environment. China has showed commitment in protecting the environment with significant examples.
The seed has already been implanted. Of course, there is still a long way to go and a big room for
improvements. However, I believe, in time, we will see more successful stories and bigger steps in China
taking her role as a leader in environmental protection of the world.
Remember the picture from NASA taken over East China Sea? It was taken more than 10 years ago in
1996. I am looking forward to China to take a similar photo by China ShenZhou showing the world China
has committed and successfully exceeded in protecting our environment.
Finally special thanks to Prof Fu and Haina Zhang for making such memorable trip comes true. Without
your help, I will not be able to make so many new good friends in this trip as a third year student knowing
no one in the class prior to the trip. Also, I was touched by the action of Prof. Fu filling tea in the class.
Personally, I do not feel comfortable because it contrasts the Chinese traditional way of respecting our
predecessors (前輩). However, I was shocked, and also I can speak for the rest of the class, on how much
Prof. Fu is committed to teaching us and so much have been done to make this trip delivered in quality,
when I paused and sip down the cup of tea just filled. Once again, thank you very much Prof. Fu.
The End
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Li Sum Yi, Yvonne
It was a memorable trip to Beijing; it was a valuable experience in CUMBA. We stayed in Beijing for 5 days
and we have made lots of accomplishments throughout this trip.
Being the first time to Beijing, I was surprised that the city was much cleaner than I thought while the
people are very nice, too. It was the very first day when I already realized I hat got too many
misunderstandings towards Chinese cities. A good impression started me off for my 5-day Beijing learning
journey during Jun 7 to Jun 13.
People I met in Beijing
During the trip, we were able to meet a lot of people from different backgrounds. Each of them has
his/her story and this made the trip very interesting and fun. The meeting with Tsing Hua University MBA
students was a very memorable event. The school tour and the lunch with them allowed me to know
better about MBA school life in China’s first class university. Their sharing in finding jobs and their
experiences were valuable experience during the trip. They are very passionate and kind. They touched
me the most as they were all willing to share their time with us, I felt welcomed and warm especially
when our meeting day on Jun 7 was indeed a rainy day.
The professors who taught us during the 5 days trip including Professor Hua, Professor Liu, Ms Dong Mei
and Professor Guo provided us a very good overview to the related topics. Professor Hua was passionate
about Chinese economics and his passion could be felt during the lectures. He showed us the macro view
of the world economics and pointed out how China’s position in the future. It was a very interesting
lecture and I was delighted that we were having the class in Tsing Hua University. The topic was very
important for me to know how much more can be done for China development. Professor Liu who
delivered us the lecture “China Media and Marketing” gave us very interesting case studies. Her real life
examples enabled us to know the real marketing practice in China and she also demonstrated that doing
marketing campaigns in China one would need to have a lot of considerations including the understanding
of Chinese culture. Being a marketer in Hong Kong, China certainly has a very different style in marketing.
The examples mentioned in SK-II reminded me that customer shall always be respected, especially a
foreign brand outside the home country. An arrogant brand would never succeed in the market even its
product has a premium quality.
Nevertheless, the people we met during the company visits were very kind and passionate. Although
taking care about 30 of us consumed lots of time, energy and required lots of arrangement beforehand,
they were all passionate to show us their companies. The CEO gatherings particular impressed me as we
seldom have chance to talk to senior management in Hong Kong. Their experiences and sharing of their
success certainly benefit me a lot.
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I was very honorable to meet Mr. Fu who has tried many different things throughout his life. He used to
be a worker, a reporter, a CEO, a consultant…etc. He is willing to try new things and he did not hesitate to
take responsibilities. He is passionate in his work and his attitude is what we should learn. He is also very
kind and generous that he is willing to share his experiences and I believed meeting with him has inspired
my thoughts.
I also have to express my thanks to Professor Fu and Kathy because they tried their best to accommodate
our needs and arranged a marvelous trip for all of us.
The trip in Beijing this time allowed me to know more about China as I never been to Chinese major cities
before. The perception of an old city was wrong and Beijing left me a very good impression. While
meeting with different people living and working in Beijing, I felt the energy and potential in China.
Company Visits
Apart from the lectures, the company visits are also remarkable. I was impressed in GreenTech and
Capital Steel. These companies are large and I felt that their employees love their own companies. I was
especially impressed by GreenTech because it was started from a small company and the achievements of
the company were actually huge after such a limited number of years. I could feel the passion and fire
inside Mr. Cheung and he was so proud to introduce his company to us. “People is always said to be the
most important assets of a company” is what I recalled in my mind. The workers must be very pound to
work in GreenTech as the company involved in so many country projects in infrastructure and has
contributed so much to China.
The visit in Capital Steel opened my eyes as this state owned company had an enormous scale. The entire
steel production process was very new to me and I was impressed by the facilities there. After more
understanding to the company, I found that Capital Steel was just like a small community in Beijing and
workers treat it as their home. The culture developed in Capital steel is the management role model
which managers nowadays should learn.
Structures and Buildings
The trip was packed with lectures and company visits. I was impressed by the architectures of Bird Nest
and Water Cube in the Olympic Village as they are giant structures that are well design. The commercial
buildings I saw in Beijing are all modern ones. They are tall and trendy which are extremely eye catching.
Other marvelous structures included the National Theater and the new China Central Television (CCTV)
Tower were also unforgettable ones.
Besides, being the capital of China, Beijing is also a city which combined ancient and modern. There are
lots of historical buildings including the forbidden cities, summer place and great wall. With the old
culture meets the modern civilization, Beijing itself is a very special city for China development.
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Marketing
Having worked in the Marketing field, my experience to China has opened the door towards
advertisement and observed that there were several types of promotions. During the trip in Beijing, I saw
there were lots of huge outdoor billboards and MTR display advertisement boards. Besides, sales
promotion including the most preliminary stage - price cut and lucky draw promotions could be found in
lots of retail stores. Sponsorships events were common when I went to restaurants, shopping malls and
entertainment areas.
During he lectures, Professor Liu showed us some failure cases of international brands in China and
illustrated some examples and the correct attitudes foreign brands should have. China is a very
interesting place for marketer to build branding because Chinese are more conscious in price rather than
intangible names. By understanding more about the culture and gaining more experiences, successful
marketing campaign could be seen in the near future. Nevertheless, we all knew that China is still under
development and apart from its fast growth; there are lots of things for her to adapt, learn and improve.
It definitely will be an exciting market for everyone.
My thoughts and feelings
China was always a place that I hesitated to visit. I always got a wrong perception and I just admired
foreign countries too much that I forgot the goodness of my home country. I felt like I needed to
experience myself how the home city likes and hence I joined the tour in CUMBA. I felt excited before the
trip because there are lots of people telling me that I am going to see a well developed city. After the trip,
I was glad that I was being the witness of myself as Beijing is far better than I had imagined.
I felt strongly towards the people I met in the trip. The passions of the CEOs and the CUHK alumnus I met
during the trip inspired me a lot. People I met were patriotic to China, they had kind thoughts that they
would like to assist to build a better China, creating more opportunities. Some of them are very successful
businessmen and some of them studied in Hong Kong, but this made no difference for their passions –
trying their best to contribute and share their experiences and vision with our people in the home country.
Being patriotic to one’s own country is important because this is the only way to help ourselves become
stronger and wealthier.
Apart from the academic sharing in our trip, I also enjoyed my time with all my MBA classmates. I traveled
together around in a lot of famous scenes including the Water Cube, Bird Nest, Forbidden City, Summer
Place, Great Wall with my classmates. It was a unforgettable trip which I learn more about China, my
home country.
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Li Wai Chung, Owen
Prologue
I used to think that this Beijing trip would be a highlight event in my MBA life. I am a year two evening
mode student. This trip could be a way to celebrate graduation. However, I was a bit disappointed in the
beginning. This was because most of my classmates and best friends had joined the trip last summer. I am
the only year two evening mode student in this trip and feel like a stranger in the group initially upon
receipt of the list of roommates. Well, I told myself, though without friends I already knew, that is not the
end of the day. Anyway, the purpose of the trip is to get to know Beijing and thus China. I may also get a
chance to make new friends in the trip. I was with such mind set when I began this trip.
My First Impression
The last time I was in Beijing for business was almost seven years ago. I was not able to really get to know
Beijing during those days. This time, I arrived at Beijing on my own in the evening on Sunday. The Beijing
International Airport welcomes me with a surprise. It was really up to international standard and large in
scale. Being designed by the same architect of the Hong Kong international airport, The Beijing one was
even more impressive in the night time, quiet but lively. I then deliberately took a shuttle bus and then a
cab to get to our hotel. By taking the bus, I could have a look of Beijing at night. The bus passed the Water
Cube and Birds’ Nest Olympics stadium, as if greeting me with a message that this is a symbol of new
Beijing, remarking how China proved herself to the world in 2008 that the Olympic Games held is such a
success. The significance of the success is that it also symbolized that China is ready for anything to lead
and to surprise the world again.
Places, People and Experience
Throughout the visit, with Professor Fu’s tremendous effort, we were able to visit to a variety of
companies and contacted different people. These events and the dialogues all enabled us to understand
China in both breadth and depth; such arrangement is unique and irreplaceable. I would elaborate my
personal reflections in terms of the places, the people and the experience in the Beijing trip.
Places…...
Beijing, the capital of China, is a collection of the physical evidences of the development of China, both
historical and cultural. One always associates Beijing with relics like Imperial City, Great Wall or Temple of
Heaven. During this trip, I could have a closer look at Beijing from other dimensions. Firstly, there is also
the contemporary side of Beijing. I am an architect and thus architecture in Beijing appealed to me. All the
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curtain wall buildings in various bold forms in the CBD, together with the CCTV building and the Olympic
Games stadiums are all self-explanatory examples that reflect how open China is to accept new ideas and
to develop it into reality. The sophisticated metro network is also a fundamental element for a well-
developed city. All these prove that the hardware for a contemporary international metropolitan city is in
Beijing here already. Of course there is surely room for development so that the existing city fabric can be
modified to merge with the infrastructure required for the development pace of Beijing such that
problems like traffic congestion and pollution can be resolved.
Visits to Taiyanggong, Greentech and Capital Steel also captured my attention. On the one hand, I can
have a feel of the heat and industrial setting of Capital Steel, which reminded me that secondary industry
is still vital to a country, apart from the rapid development of financial industry. Taiyanggong and
Greentech demonstrated how China is willing to work towards a better tomorrow in terms of
environmental consciousness. Green issues had been specially paid attention to as a global issue. China is
determined to develop in harmonious pace or even advance at the level of that of the whole world.
People……
Throughout the trip, we met different people. Some of them are returnees, left China previously but came
back. Some of them had been fighting all their way for a better tomorrow and a better China. The
dialogues between us is inspiring and as if trying to bring a message for me.
When we visited CICC, we met David Lee, head of the Risk Management department. He worked well in
the Wall Street for 20 years, but seeing China as an opportunity, he returned and worked for the
development of financial industry in China. We visited Google. The marketing manager is another
returnee, from his appearance and accent, I can tell he had been in the States for very long. He returned
and worked for an international company which grasped the opportunity to develop in China. Not only
those who shared with us, but I can tell there are plenty of staff members in these companies who
worked there are either returnees or energetic local people. All of them are vivid proof that people of
different age groups returned to work In China after making effort to go out because they can see the
future in our country.
In addition, with great thanks to professor Fu, we got chances to meet the young Tsing Hua MBA students
and visit the campus. Last time when some of them came to HK and had dinner in Shatin, I was with them
and took them to LangKwaiFong with our schoolmates. They are energetic, optimistic and sincere. They
are the pillars of our country and form a strong competitive force in China
Dinner with the three CEOs at Daoxianghu also benefits us a lot. Through their sharing, I can then learn
from another perspective about how they struggled, and how to develop the attitude to fight for a better
environment and future, to advance and improve. I sincerely treasure those sharing because I know
someday when I looked back, I can further understand the deeper meaning and respect them more.
Another even is dinner with CUMBA alumni. They are not people so far away. They are Hong Kong people
and studied in the same school with us. They are of different age groups and gave me a vertical section of
the feelings and experience of Hong Kong people in Beijing. New comers still struggle to adapt to work
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harmoniously with local people, to get to consider from their perspectives as well. Middle age people with
a decent job found themselves well settled down, just have to travel a lot to take care of family members
in Hong Kong. Retired people even do not want to come back to Hong Kong……
Experience……
I deliberately stayed behind for a few days so as to get myself to relax from work and also get to know
more about Beijing. I went to National Opera House for an orchestra performance and went to 798 as
well. In there, I can see the budding artists showing the public their talents, showing how freely they want
to express themselves, to reconcile themselves in terms of the inflow of the information from the world
and the heritage they had been inherited. This is something good for Beijing, better than Shanghai. Beijing
is not only developed as solely a financial and commercial city. But its historical and cultural richness is
even more attractive. The co-existence of all different elements makes this city a unique place.
During the trip, I also went to Tiananmen Square to see the flag raising ceremony. Waking up at 2am is
never an easy experience. However, upon waiting for around three hours, witnessing the whole progress,
I surely would say that it is worthy to attend. That was an experience that I had not come across in Hong
Kong. At least, I started to feel that I am part of the country in a more vivid way.
I went to the Great Wall with classmates on Saturday and to the Imperial City on my own later on. This is
my first time to be there and again, once I stepped on it, feeling the steps are real, feeling the historical
relics as if being part of history as well. These relics are proofs of the power of our country in the history.
After all these years of developments, I believed that our generation is lucky enough to see how our
country re-gains its position as the leading country in the world again.
Message for myself and Road Ahead……
I take China concentration in the MBA course, through which I aimed to get myself to know more about
China. I work on China projects currently and do some travels to China occasionally. Even that is the case;
I find that this trip can still bring me lots of inspiration and experience about China. This trip is essential
for all of us to get ready to face the challenges ahead.
Now that I can see China is really such a huge market and with lots of opportunities. Dialogues with
different people equip me with a better understanding of the experience to work in China. What next?
I am about to start a new page in my life. Believe it or not, what a co-incidence that I get an offer to
station in China upon completion of my MBA course in August. I work on China projects and understand
that it is a trend as well as a must to station in China in order to have a better understanding of the
operation in China, and hopefully more chances for advancement. Even understand that logically, still I
am full of hesitation. I have to leave my parents, I am the only son and that is something painful. I have
lots of friends here in Hong Kong and terrific social life and networking, but it seems that we can only
transform into friends on-net in the future. I may have to choose to form my own family in China if I take
the offer. Well, well…...as if gives up a lot. I am going to station in big cities like Beijing or Shanghai,
instead, it would be Shenyang, starting in mid-September 2009. The weather could be tough and thus the
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construction duration would be longer due to cold weather. The project is big and I may have to stay
there over 10 years to see it completes if everything proceeds smoothly. Well, of course, I would then
gain a lot of invaluable experiences to take up this challenge. The Beijing trip helps to build up the
confidence for me to take up the challenge and reinforces me the idea that we have to fight hard for a
better future.
Last but not least……
Life is like this, full of unexpected. I used to think this trip as a celebration of an end to my MBA life with
my classmates, end up; I went alone but knew more friends. It was almost the last page of my MBA life,
end up; it led to the new page in my life, to work and live in Shenyang.
The trip served for me not only a glance of China, but I enjoyed every moment to have dialogue with
people and thus helped me to understand life in Beijing in a much different perspective.
Professor Fu, Great thanks to your effort to organize the trip for us. When we look back someday in the
future, this is certainly a very important part of our life. Thanks and all the best!
I have to stop here; do wish me good luck for my new life in Shenyang!
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Lui Ching Man, Esther
There are indeed lots to share from the Beijing trip as it is not a pure academic and business exchange
tour but also a trip that I learned how Chinese leaders do their business and being a great person. Some
principles that I heard throughout the trip refresh my beliefs for life. This trip is just like a retreat that
revitalizes me from busy working and study life.
Among all the company visits and lectures, I have a strong feeling
that China has truly developed to a more internationalized country.
With the help of Olympics, Beijing people’s quality (from taxi drivers
to CEOs), environment protection (relocation of Capital Steel, huge
investment by GreenTech), city appearance (cleanliness of roads,
buildings), business environment (CICC entering into global financial
market), architecture (lots of remarkable historic buildings yet full of
contemporary state-of-the-art buildings like Olympics Stadium &
Water Cube) have improved a lot when compared with 5 years
when I firstly visited this capital. I could see the whole country is determined to open to the western
world; every sector is switching on its engines to grow larger and stronger with the goal to contributing to
become a “large & influential country” in the world.
Behind the scene of rapid development of a country where wealth is
pouring into your pocket and opportunities are prevalent for you to
seize, what attitude you should have while pursuing your career?
I find the answers from the three CEOs we met in the DaoXiangHu
Hotel. Their way of doing business and treating people do inspire me a
lot. It could be generalized in 4 words (which are also used in our
presentation).
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打拼精神
Still remember one of the CEOs mentioning that she will evaluate what she has done every day. She is
willing to share information with her colleagues and help them without a purpose. Although it is difficult
for many people, she does gain respect and pride by her colleagues to work for her. A great leader should
not be afraid of getting brilliant subordinates; he should rather give abundant opportunities for those who
are capable to move up. Only by this way could your
people learn from you and be loyal to you. Even
though they leave your company one day, you
should feel happy for them as they are capable to find
somewhere else suitable for them. The philosophy of
general management is the leader inherits the
ability to distinguish highly calibre people and train
them up to become future leaders – succession
planning for company, society and eventually the
country.
Aside from being a good leader, one should always be passionate to their jobs. I remember another CEO
has once mentioned her selection criteria for a job. The first one is your character. If you are an outgoing
person, you will be suitable to doing people-related jobs. Oppositely, if you are a rather introversive
person, low people contact works will suits you more
like research, auditing etc. One’s personality eases you to
work efficiently as you need not train up yourself in order
to cater for the job requirement but simply act like
yourself to get the job done. The second criterion is
interest, which also means your degree of passion you
have for your job. I always find it true. If you do not like /
love what you are doing, you won’t input effort into the
job, you eventually will get bored and create a
feeling of inertia to get lazy.
面面俱圓
Mian mian ju yuan sometimes is right to attain people’s recognition as it means you won’t make enemies.
However, I find this quite difficult to do so. If I identify someone not good, I cannot pretend to be good to
him/her. But being mian mian ju yuan do helps you a lot. You could solicit important information that
could help with your work from your friends. Your road would be much easier if you have others’ support,
especially in China where relationship does count. I recall a Tsinghua professor telling us one thing during
the dinner session – do not mind being taken advantage by others as they may help you back one day.
Who knows?
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為國營商
Doing business for your country! Another memorable advice shared by another CEO – Life is short, but
effective life is even shorter. We should do what we really want to do in our lifetime. Like the CEO who
helps the farmers in rural area of China. He has found his dream and
being passionate to pursue it till now. That is what I admire him the
most. I need to figure out what I want to do that makes me happy and
satisfied. What I am doing now is purely in commercial sector, mainly
contributive to my company to make money. I was given lots of
chances to talk with top management to share their vision for life when I
was a management trainee of my company. They somehow
inspire me what to do next. Being addictive to move up the ladder
or do something different? I think I still need time to figure out. The CSR
conference held by CUMBA is a good example for all students to take
as reference. Sometimes people should not only focus on making money,
but should do something make you happy. Happiness cannot be bought by
money!
One CEO share with us his vision of life is not built on economic
efficiency to society but how much you contribute to society by
helping the needy. That motivates him to invest a lot to help the
farmers. Another impressive example is shared by a Tsinghua
professor at a dinner session. He attended an annual conference with
many Chinese enterprises to exchange their success. A construction
company (TecSun, or 德胜 ) that builds villas in Suzhou by employing
farmers as workers. Their management philosophy is to train up
the technical skills of farmers, don’t forget there are a large number of
non-educated farmers in China, and enable them to be the best self and
create the best villas for customers. This company is a truly social
enterprise to conduct the business by turning those farmers who
cannot find skillful jobs elsewhere into the main workforce. It even opened a school to train up its
employees and provides them with proper benefits. When I listened and watched the professor’s
description, I could see his eyes are shinning. He is very proud of this company and hopes to see more of
these kinds.
人間有情
The chairman of DaoXiangHu Hotel has been taking care of her colleagues for many years. Even though
the hotel is hit by weak demand and faces closure before, she still insisted on operating it so as to
maintain a living for her people. She has gained much respect and won allegiance from her people to
continue operating the hotel to sustain the downturn. Another impressive memory is that when one of
her senior managers was diagnosed to suffer from cancer in recent years, all employees were sad for him
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and took care of him in return. This is Ren Jian You Qing!
Luckily, he found out later it was a wrong diagnose at the
end. I could see people relationship / friendship is more
valuable than money / jobs positions to them. When you
need support, your friends will appear in front of you to help
you. When you are sad, they are also the first group to
comfort you whereas money could not heal you.
To sum up, I believe the four attitudes would be acted like
my life mottos when pursuing my own achievements in
future, no matter how hard the situation would be and how challenging the tasks are.
Another highlight in the Beijing trip is Mr. David Li of CICC. His speech about the company strategy gives
me lots of insights for my work.
David’s Leadership Model:
1. Learn from success – Only by learning from others’ success could you know which approach could lead to success. The essence is to identify the factors behind somebody or some projects’ success!
2. Sit back & think – Thinking what you could learn from the key success factors distinguished in first stage. You must think whether those approach suitable for you and your company, analyze the impact of adopting this approach to your workplace and predict if this approach would also lead to success for you.
3. Learn the constraints & design the best strategy – Do not forget to observe your / your company constraints before applying the approach because same approach may be worked at some place but not at the other place. Try to fine tune the approach according to the limitations of your company and design the best strategy.
Last but not least…
I have strong feeling of Chinese patriotism in Google and CICC company visits.
He shares with us the reasons for his return from working at Wall
Street for nearly 20 years is because he is a patriotic guy. He feels
sorry for leaving China for a long time and when he comes back to
China some years before, he feels like he is a foreigner without
knowing the inherit meaning of various Chinese historic buildings
and local culture. That is why he determined to come back and be
a real Chinese. He also brings back his rich international financial
experience to help Chinese investment bank to be in line with
global standards.
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Google China – Steve Han, Business Development Director
I have been hearing that many wealthy Chinese families raise
their children in western countries but they will most likely
come back to work in China in order to contribute to their home
country with their foreign mindset, knowledge and
experience. Steve Han is a good example to illustrate the trend.
He is raised up in US and has been penetrating in IT industry
thereafter. But then he determined to back to Beijing to
seize opportunities and indirectly pour his western business
practice to China. He is energetic and willing to take up challenges,
is a devoted management.
The returnees stimulate me to think for being a Hong Kong people, how could I grasp this golden
opportunities to indirectly contribute to my country? Professor Hua has
hinted us at his lecture that only Hong Kong collaborates with China
could she grow larger in today’s global competitive world. What we
have is people, soft skills and well-established system, we could actually
provide professional advices, build up a sophisticated supporting
backstage for China to move up to international platform. We should
make use of our comparative advantages to facilitate our counterparts
to achieve our common goal and attain win-win situation.
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Mak Ho Pong
The idea of joining the China trip happened a year ago during the Outward Bound. Everyone from our
team felt so bonded after four days of extraordinary advantage. We were all looking forward to having
another chance to reunite again. Our year-three teammate, Michael Lee, suggested that we should join
the China Trip the year after so we could re-experience the fun we had during the Outward Bound.
Michael told us that his classmates always recommended this course and said that the experience you
would have from this trip would be a one of a life time experience. We were so excited and registered the
course last September.
After a year of waiting, finally came the time for taking off. However, instead the moment of joy, the kick
off of the China trip became a taste of bitterness. All of my Outward Bound classmates dropped the
course, except Michael, because of their leave applications were rejected by their supervisors. All the
excitement that I was expecting in the last ten months turned out to be a great disappointment. I was
thinking of dropping the course, too, since I felt I was the abandoned one. However, everything changed
after the first class gathering in April.
After a warm welcome by Professor Fu, the idea of quitting the class vanished. Professor Fu’s introduction
of the class had corrected my mindset for the course. Instead of paying too much attention to who was
taking the class, I realized I should focus on what kind of experience and knowledge I was going to gain
from the trip. After Professor Fu’s presenting the course outline to us, I realized that the one-week trip in
Beijing was quite substantial. During the week, we would not only get some first-hand academic
information about China from the local professors, but also would have close encounter with students
from Tsinghua University. Besides, we would also have a chance to visit the head quarter of international
enterprises like Google and local mega manufacture like the Capital Steel. I was so glad that I did not drop
the course at the end.
The delightful China trip started with a tour to the National Stadium (the Bird’s Nest) and the National
Aquatics Center (the Water Cube). I have seen these two buildings on TV for so many times during the
Olympic Games. However, it was a completely different experience when I was inside the buildings. I
believe all the athletes in the world will die for to have a chance to race in here, even he/she is the last
one to cross the finishing line. When I was in the Bird’s Nest, I could almost hear the audience screaming
and cheering for the athletes from their own countries during the Olympic Games. I could almost see Li
Ling walking in the air with the torch in his hand. The memory of the Olympic Games was coming back to
me like a rerun of a classic movie. I was so proud that my country had hosted the most spectacular
Olympic Games of all time.
The tour of the Olympic Games did not end after the visit of the stadium but extended through the
memory sharing session with Miss Dong Mei. She told us some ‘behind-the-scene’ stories of the Olympic,
which were as interesting as the performance and fire work you had seen during the Olympic opening
ceremony. I was an assistant director for a movie a few years ago. It was so difficult for me to coordinate
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a scene with just two hundreds of people. After listening to Miss Dong’s elaboration, I was amazed by the
number of people which were involved in organizing the Olympic Games. What stroke me the most was
that a lot of these workers were volunteers and students. One could tell it was the cooperative works of
people from all levels of the Olympic Committee that made the event became so successful.
Besides the National Stadium, the Tsinghua University is another major landmark I wanted to visit in
Beijing. It is always my dream to study in one of the most reputable universities in China – the Tsinghua
University. The colonial style buildings, the bike riding experience on the campus and the friendly faces I
encountered, these were all the things I treasured during my stay in the campus. At dinner time, students
from Tsinghua told me a lot about their lives and their MBA program. They also told me history and
stories about Tsinghua University. I was so surprised that although we were living in two different cities
with such different and distinctive backgrounds, we share so many common goals and dreams about life.
To me, people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are the model of great leaders. The companies that they
manage are international enterprises which generate billions of dollars every year. However, these CEOs I
met during the China Trip had shown me a different perspective about leadership. The value of a leader
shall not be measured by the size of the company that he/she is managing or how much money the
company can make. A respectable leader shall be the one that cares about the people around them,
which can be the customer that they work for or the colleagues that they work with. To make the world a
better place, it does not always require a great leap in technology or giving millions of dollar to the poor.
All you need is to pay extra attention to the people around you and care about them. One of the major
characteristics of a great leader is not afraid of giving and always having faith in life. These three CEOs
have taught me a lot about how to manage by heart.
One of the major disappointments I had during the China Trip was the visit to Google. I was absolutely
dissatisfied by the talk given by their manager. As the company which produced one of the most powerful
search engines in the world, I could not believe the manager from Google could only give me information
which I can easily find on the internet. However, this dissatisfaction with Google was erased by the great
time I had during the company visit of the Capital Steel.
Before visiting the Capital Steel, I heard lots of great things about the Capital Steel from the senior year
students. However, the actual visit still created a great impact on me. First of all, I was astonished by the
physical size of the company. It is as big as the size of a town. It not only has factories, but also residences
for the workers and even a lake within the building compound. Secondly, the machines that are used in
the company are extremely unique. The heat that the furnace produced can go over a thousand degrees
in order to melt the iron ore. Even when I was standing twenty meters away from the furnace, I could still
feel the heat as it was generated by the sun shine above us. Although the Capital Steel in Beijing is going
to close down in a few months, it is also going to have a new beginning. With a major equipment upgrade
and a better logistic arrangement with all the factories located in the same area, Capital Steel can surly
become one of the world major steel manufactures.
Besides the above mentioned, the visit to the Green Tec, Hanergy, and Taiyanggong, together with the
lectures given by Professor Gao, Professor Hua and Professor Liu had made this China Trip an
unforgettable experience. Although I had been to Beijing five years before, it has evolved a lot since then.
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It is truly a city where the east meets the west, and the traditional buildings standing side by side with the
modern construction. The unique characteristic of Beijing will still stand tall even comparing with any
major cities in the world. It is a city with a strong sense of Chinese culture yet full of surprises of new ideas.
With the beautiful blue sky which the government had spent so much effort to improve its quality, I wish
that this China Trip will not only last a week but forever. The journey which supposed to be a reunion of
friends became an unforgettable memory of a life time.
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Ng Man Fai, Catherine
Time flies. The Beijing Business Filed Trip finally ended. I miss the trip so much and to be honest, I did not
want to go back to the battle field in the office the next day. However, when I ponder further, the
purpose of the trip is to let us apply what we have learnt to our career, as well as life. I was then re-
charged with the energy to return to office, with a smile on my face.
However, the reality is that tight schedule and heavy workload continues everyday. Human is human, and
sometimes, I feel exhausted and helpless. It seems that human is human, and I am limited.
Approaching the end of my MBA life, and grasping this opportunity, I should reflect on myself… Thanks
Professor Fu for asking us to write on our own reflection. I hope I can re-organize my thoughts. Let me
rewind to the start of the trip…
It starts on a good morning. Everything was smooth starting from the airport. I was very tired as I worked
over-night on my previous night. However, from the very beginning, I trust and believe it would be a
good trip. I like the Tsinghua experience from which I became friend with a student, David. He said he
would come to CUHK for an MBA semester. I immediately said that when he comes, he must look for me
so that I can meet him in CUHK. When I visited him in Tsinghua, he welcomes me. When he comes to my
university, I must accompany him. It is not obligation, just an extension of friendship. Friendship can
start everywhere, as long as you want to keep it. It does not matter with whether he or she has different
personality or location with you.
The journey continues. Our whole class attends lecture and visit companies together. After class finish,
we went to sight-seeing and had dinner. I was happy that my relationship with my Year 2 classmates has
greatly become closer. Throughout the 2-year MBA life, I have less opportunity to work with this group of
classmates. I am glad that in this Beijing trip, I become good friend with them. I feel the happiness and
warmth. I gradually make friends with Year 1 classmates too. All are very nice. Throughout the journey,
we all have a common goal, that is, to learn, participate and enjoy.
The company visit of Google and CICC has enlightened my vision. I understand how an international
company like Google manages PRC staff. For example, as Google is the company having a creative culture,
it will allow staff to utilize their creativity. Therefore, Google will not use strict discipline, but rather it
allows staff to freely plan their time. They can go to do sports in the gymnasium if they wish to recharge
themselves.
I also enjoyed our visit in CICC. I met the Human Resources lady. She organizes the visit and welcomes us.
We talk about each other’s role and share with each other’s human resources experience.
I believe the episode of the visit is the dinner with CEO in the hotel. We have the honor to dine with Fu 總.
He told us his exciting career history. He started as a teacher and then he worked for different industries
until finally he became the CEO. His devoted nature impressed me. He never asked his boss for better
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salary. He advised us to observe the environment and learn to make inferences and draw relationship
between things around us.
I also learned a lot from 李總, the CEO of the hotel. She cares and manages her staff well. One of her
staff has worked for her for many years. However, he has a serious illness, but he insists on working in
the hotel. Her love of her staff makes everyone working for her devotedly. When a classmate asked her
how to handle stress, she told us that we should believe that the sun will always come out and tomorrow
will be a better day. Although I have heard this many times, this advice further reminds me when I feel
unsure and fragile. I need to try my best to solve problems. After this, the good times will return again.
The encounter with CUMBA alumni is also meaningful. The alumni lady, Diana, is working in the Peninsula
as Learning and Development Manager, is so committed to her job. She chooses to work in Beijing to
widen her exposure, at the expense that working here is hard.
Life and working is tough. Everyone has his or her own challenges and problems. The most important
thing is we need to be positive and believe that nothing cannot be solved! Patience is the virtue that we
should hold on. In case there are not any solutions at the moment, we should believe tomorrow will be a
better day!
I feel relaxed when I went sight-seeing with my classmates. We explored, talked and took a lot of photos.
Our laughter made me feel warm, and I hope that although the trip has ended, the laughter will remain
and cheer me up whenever I feel lost. When we traveled to the Arts Gallery, 798, I felt relaxed to explore
the pictures and crafts. I realize that arts is as important as business, it helps us understand the nature
and human.
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After this trip, I believe that as a CUMBA student, we should first believe in ourselves, we should find out
our shortcomings and improve. We should extend our life horizons, for example going out, asking
questions in our mind, be curious, and learn different things as arts, culture, music and traveling.
I really feel lucky to have registered in this course. This course has exceeded my expectation. I am glad to
have closer relationship my Year 2 classmates and to work with my team on Green Energy. I hope that
our friendship will last. Thanks Professor Fu for organizing such a wonderful trip for us! It marks the end
of my MBA course. I hope I can apply what I have learnt to my career and life!
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Or Shuk Kuen, Irene
The course of CUMBA Business Field Trip is organized twice a year. Those who attended often mentioned
how fun it was during the trip; however they did not tell us a lot on what they learnt from the lecture or
through their business visit. To me, I find that this field trip is not just a normal study or business trip, it
does give us some insight on how to make my own core values on work, life and society. During the trip,
we did attend a number of lectures, talk with different speakers, visit some remarkable firms and have
dinner with CUHK alumni members. All of this makes our trip more meaningful and fruitful in terms of in-
depth discussion regarding Beijing current situation on environment, government policies, living
standards and changes after 2008 Olympic. After the trip, it really urges me to think of my values and
consider finding a job in Beijing or China.
I am going to divide my sharing into three sections. First, I am going to share what I learnt from the
lectures. Second, I will talk about my experiences to visit one well-known firm in Beijing. Third, I try to
digest what I heard from the personal sharing of those successful people of Professor Fu’s friends.
Lecture hosted by Dong Mei
Among all lectures, the one presented by Dong Mei
greatly made me feel that how a woman could be so self-
sacrificing in a way that she used her 10 years golden time
to be one of members to align the arrangement with
foreigners for the Olympic Game in Beijing. She said she
found it was so hard to perform well on her role because
of resources limitation, time constraint and some ad-hoc
adjustment to make things better before the Game began.
She did not have enough sleep for the whole year. She
would still make the same decision to work as this role
even if she had to choose again. I believe the reason
behind on her strong passion on her job is that she, as a
Chinese, wants to do something to make this Game run
not only smooth, but also successful to show that China
can be as strong as those well-developed countries.
Although she knows China may have a lot of issues that
need to be changed or improved, she still prefers to be
one of the participants to make all Chinese’s dream come
true.
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From this perspective, I will feel a bit ashamed of Hong Kong people including me, because how much
time we really spend on our societal issues to make Hong Kong more prosperous, such as the goal toward
Universal Suffrage (普選), suggesting positive recommendation on our education or health system. Most
Hong Kong people are concerned of their studies when they are young; concerned for their work and pay
after their graduation, concerned their standard of living after their retirement and so on. Indeed, after
the trip, I really have a feeling that what we can do is to step forward to speak up in defense of those
minor groups or the weak. Otherwise, if we do not take any positive initiatives to make Hong Kong better
or protect our environment, I think our young generation will be the one to suffer the most.
Firm visited – Shougong Group (Shougong)
Because of 2008 Olympic, Shougong was instructed by Beijing government to shut down its plant in
Beijing in order to minimize the pollution problem in Beijing. This action to a certain extent lowered the
year-end income generated by Shougong. When we visited Shougong, we did hear a story regarding one
employee with long-service payment. He worked for the company for many years. No matter which role
he was assigned or what position he did, he still worked very hard. He treated this company as if his own
company. Thus his children also worked at Shougong. Even after his retirement, he was still helping
Shougong.
The above story really tells us what is loyalty and commitment to the company. One staff can work for a
company for his whole life, and his family members also follow their parents to work for this company. I
am thinking is this loyalty and commitment still exist in our or next generation. I really have doubt on it,
because we always look for a
better career path in terms of
better pay, more promotion, and
giving us attractive package. If a
company lower our salary or
downgrade our role, will we still
have the whole-heart towards
the company. I believe most of
us will choose to find another
opportunity rather than keep
working hard for the company.
Therefore, loyalty and
commitment are the words
firstly come up to my mind. Hope
one day I can fully digest these
two words and work like this
employee.
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Even after 2008 Olympic, Shougong needs to align its objectives with the Government to close down its
business in Beijing to keep the environmental protection last long. Shougong will move its plant to the
Island in order to achieve zero pollution and to be one of the contributors to make Beijing sky blue. To
conclude, we can find that everyone sacrifices one’s advantages so as to do good for companies, the
environment and the society.
Sharing session by Professor Fu’s three friends
After the whole night sharing with Professor Fu’s friends, I found that they had some commonalities. They
are all very keen about their core value. They are all very serious people not only to get the job done, but
also to use their utmost effort to achieve the best results to eliminate any regret in their daily lives. What
they did is not for their own interests, but is to do something to make China more prosperous. They
admitted that they were willing to make their choices everyday. Like Ms. Li who runs the hotel, she
worked very hard at her previous job with good performance. However, because of political reasons, she
was forced out of her job and start her own business – hotel management company. No matter how
difficult it was, she always insisted on keeping the staff paid and she worked with them day and night and
brought the small government training hostel to a five star hotel.
What makes Ms have this motivation to go through so many hardships in her life? I believe it is because
she found her own values. She runs business not only because of profit she gains, but also the dream she
wants all visitors find a comfortable place to stay in her hotel. She understands that only this value is the
key success factor to run her hotel business. We could find her tiredness during the sharing session, but
she was still willing to share her successful story. She fully demonstrates a good leader model for us.
To conclude, we not only have lots of self-reflections from the lectures and site visits, but also have a
great fun to see flag raising ceremony 升旗禮 in the very early morning with a group of our classmates.
Honestly this is not easy for us because we had to wake up so early, sleep only a few hours and then need
to attend class on time. Thus we are so proud of ourselves. In addition, we have a memorable time along
the trip with Professor Fu as she took a good care of us anywhere and anytime. As you can tell from the
photo below, she treats us not only like students, but also like friends too. I believe this is what we define
as a good leader who can teach us, play with us and give us direction in our lives.
Dearest Professor Fu,
I really appreciate all your great effort you did in the
past few days, and in many times, guide and wish us
be a good leader to make a difference in the world.
Thank you so much!!!
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Tse Chun Ho
Introduction
It was my great pleasure to join this course to have a recent outlook of Beijing City and also study in
Beijing. It was a valuable chance that I could attend several lectures in Tsinghua University and share the
successful experience of the CEOs of different China enterprises. In addition, after the successful
completion of Beijing Olympic, many people doubted that whether the amazing condition in Beijing City
can be sustained for long run. We could take this opportunity to examine the condition of Beijing to see
any great different between pre and post Olympic. The objective of this paper was to share my personal
reflection on the trip.
Blue Sky
It was my fifth times to visit Beijing. Before that trip I visited Beijing in between 2002 to 2006 for both
business and travelling purpose. The most difference was that I could observe the “Blue Sky” for a whole
week of the trip. Frankly speaking, I could not observe such blue sky for my last several visits. As we
know, Beijing Government had to maintain the “Blue Sky” during the Olympic by means of controlling the
vehicle flow (i.e. Alternative no.), stopping some polluted activities, etc.. Not only the Blue Sky had been
maintained in Beijing during the Olympic, the Blue Sky accompanied us for the whole trip almost a year
after the games are over!!
Infra-structure Development
A systematic public transportation system had been developed for the Beijing Olympic. Almost all of the
city area was covered by public transportation in order to improve the situation of traffic jam. In addition,
the Government had encouraged citizens to take Metro with subsidy in the ticket price (PS. Only one
dollar for whatever trip). However, one comment should be made is the distance among transit stations.
I had to walk about 15 minutes for transiting from one line to the other.
In addition, we had visited Bird’s nest, Water Cube and CCTV tower. I am proud of being a Chinese for the
fact that our Country can build such extraordinary structures within such a short period. I think most
foreigners would not have even imagined that China could build such structures twenty years ago.
Lecturer in Tsinghua University
This was my first time to attend the lecturers from the reputable Professors of Tsinghua University. We
had a wide range of lecture topics, from Marketing to Finance, from Economics to Government Policy.
They gave me some ideas to stimulate my thinking in the recent economic development in China and the
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strategy of China Marketing. All Professors were very familiar with their topics and they used some
simple examples to explain some difficult theory. In addition, the professors had presented some views
from the perspective that I never heard.
Exchange with Tsinghua MBA student
It was a great chance for us to share different insights for China economic development and career
prospective with Tsinghua MBA students. During the meeting with them, we had deep conversations.
We shared our career goal, the reasons why studying MBA and the views of recent financial crisis, etc..
Although there was only a few hours interaction, I realized that they showed a great passion towards our
Country and also are proud of the recent development of China. Definitely, I also had the same feelings
as well!!
Awareness of Environmental Protection
The importance of environmental protection had been raised a lot compared with several years ago.
Previously, I didn’t think environmental protection was a critical concern for a property or infrastructure
development project. However, with the several years’ development, Beijing citizen had cultivated a
culture of environmental protection. From the visit to the power plant, 太陽宫, we understood that the
City had stringent requirement to noise issue. The high standard of noise deduction measures should be
implemented in the plant and it demonstrated how important eliminating noise nuisance is to the Chinese
public. The nearby citizens’ feeling had been put in a top priority.
In addition, we visited Greentec Group (綠創環保集團 ), a company committed to deal with
environmental problems. It has carried out numerous environmental projects for the past ten years. It
was also responsible for the noise mitigation measures for maintaining a extreme quiet noise level in the
power plant, 太陽宫. It seems to me that with the rising trend of environmental awareness, the needs of
environmental project was inevitably increasing. The understanding of these new development and
research areas will be critical to proper China growth into the next level.
We had also visited Capital Steel who will be moved to rural area of Beijing to ease the environmental
concern of Beijing Citizen. Although Capital Steel had invested a huge amount of money for maintaining
the surrounding environment (E.g. maintain a lake and a park near to the steel plant), the steel plant still
had to move to countryside area of Beijing city. It was an unchangeable trend for moving heavy industry
outside from CBD of Beijing.
Entrepreneurship in China
The CEO forum was a valuable platform for us to learn the successful experience from those CEOs of
different successful enterprises. We could learn what the philosophy they followed and the correct
attitude for running business. Through the forum, I understood that we should not draw all our attention
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to short-run return, but more importantly, is the long run and also the benefit towards the country. In
addition, the other successful key factor was to show our respect to not only our clients but also our sub-
ordinates.
Conclusion
In the Beijing field trip study, I had a chance to share experience with Tsinghua MBA professors and
students. Through the trip, we had experienced different cultural impact. More importantly, I received a
new concept on the Chinese communists from different Professors of Tsinghua University and also
Professor Fu. I would highly recommend other CUMBA students to join this course in future.
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Wong Kok Meng, Joe
With distinguished lectures and visits to pioneering industries, the 5-day China Study Trip covered a wide
spectrum of issues. Together with the sharing of industry leaders, the trip opened up new perspectives for
me to understand the economy of contemporary China.
Overview on Chinese Socialism
This trip of learning embarked on a mind-blowing pre-trip lecture by Prof Wang Shaoguang. With the
ample use of statistics and pictures, Prof Wang vividly depicted the economic growth of China since the
early era of the Communist Party and revealed to us the Chinese style of governance. Under the backdrop
of current financial crisis, Mr. Wang’s message really came as a dawn to me. Considering the unique
history and characteristics of the country, socialism/controlled market is indeed a logical outcome for
China. In China, income disparity is the most imminent source of social unrest, which could be devastating
considering a 1.3 Billion population, of which over 60% are living under poverty. The recent turmoil in
Xinjiang Urumqi served as a timely illustration of how disruptive this affluence gap could be. Market
autonomy that encourages swallowing the weak by the strong simply tightens the tension between social
classes and results in various kinds of social injustice. Until a more even distribution of income becomes a
reality in China, government’s intervention over market is crucial to ensure growth in provinces falling
behind and to protect the fundamental welfare of the underprivileged groups. Therefore, our central
government had been boosting second-tier cities and putting forward policies beneficial to farmers,
hoping that the wealth of the country could be spread across the land rather than being confined to a
small bunch of people. Comparing to the absolute capitalism in western countries, I really found this
“Chinese Socialism” a more humane system complying with the Chinese context. Serving aptly as a
premier view over the Chinese economy, this 2-hr lecture ignited my genuine interest to further explore
the Chinese characteristics of economy in this trip to Beijing.
Swift Implementation of Policy
Indeed, throughout the trip, I found China was now developing her own genre while catching up quickly
with global trends. From Hanergy and GreenTec, I was appalled by the advance of their green
technologies as well as their wide coverage of research, while for Capital Steel and Taiyanggong, the
incorporation of anti-pollution plans was just impressive. All these had been a kind of revelation to me.
Not that these technologies were new, but I was stunned by the determination our country had put into
environmental protection and how fast it could harvest the results. What we were seeing during the trip
was such a contrast to the Beijing with dusty streets and grey sky a couple of years ago. This success
manifested a unique trait of China’s market: the swift implementation of policy. Under the planning of
Central Government, much controversial legislation was able to bring out its beneficial effects smoothly.
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Thinking about the environmental policies like “odd-even car alternation” and “halt of all construction
works” during the Olympic, each of them could itself be a debatable topic that took torturing process to
get legitimized under the “democratic” system. However, they were all put in place without many
obstacles in Beijing under the umbrella of the government. Regardless of this seemingly authoritarian
approach, one must agree with the efficiency such governance brings. Glazing across the blue sky and
breathing the clean air in Beijing, I started to see the wisdom in China’s central planning governance.
Patriotic market
While the influence of central government to the market is utterly significant, Chinese people themselves
also play a vital role in shaping the market environment. In Ms Dong’s presentation of the Beijing Olympic,
in addition to the thoughtfulness behind the plot of Olympic Game, I saw from Ms Dong a strong
patriotism, which to me was another unique facet of Chinese market today. Ms Dong, who devoted her
golden 10 years to Olympic Game without any grumble, is just one out of the many patriotic examples. In
Beijing, many people offered themselves as volunteers serving tourists even after the Olympic Game; The
CICC speaker, Mr David Li (head of QA group), also sacrificed his luxurious position in Wall Street to come
back to China to witness and be part of her tremendous growth. The recent blooming of Chinese
economy in the global arena definitely instilled a flux of confidence and pride as a Chinese among the new
generation. While this patriotism is conducive to our country’s growth in many ways since citizens are
more willing to offer themselves for the country’s best interests, it on the other hand poses extra hurdles
to investments. Such patriotic hurdles were also highlighted in Ms Liu’s presentation about marketing in
China. Many foreign firms had bitten their own arms for ignoring this important feature of Chinese
Hanergy (漢能) Capital Steel (首鋼)
Taiyanggong (太陽宮) Blue Sky and White Cloud (藍天白雲)
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market. Nowadays, anyone wading into the Chinese market must be very vigilant in their commercials or
promotions not to touch on the patriotic nerve of the Chinese.
Chinese Entrepreneurship
Apart from the macro-views about the Chinese market mentioned above, I also took a glimpse into the
micro-aspect of Chinese entrepreneurship through the session with the three CEOs. Before their sharing,
through Prof. Fu’s detailed narration of these CEOs’ extraordinary backgrounds, I was already very
amazed by how tough they had been to reach where they were today. From their sensational sharing, I
really felt their passion to serve the community and to bring betterment for people around, which further
shed light on the value of “Care” deeply embedded in Chinese management philosophy. All of the three
CEOs had been very caring for their subordinates. Relationship with staff to them is beyond merely a
contract, but a relationship of trust. Ms Li had a subordinate diagnosed for terminal illness and yet he still
made working for Ms Li as his last wish. The fact that all Ms Li’s senior managerial staff were willing to
quit their jobs to follow her to Daoxianghu was another touching story. Such trust might not result in
business decision of highest efficiency, but it certainly builds up teams of strong cohesion. From their
colleagues, they then extended their care further to the nation, like the CEO of Nightingale, whose goal
was to spread the Nightingale spirit across the whole country. From these exceptional leaders, I see the
embodiment of the Confucius idea: “推己及人” and “修身、齊家、治國平天下”. Comparing to the
mere focus of efficiency and profit in western ideologies, I recognized the superiority of Chinese
management philosophy in terms of humanity.
Beijing Olympic Marking in China Visit to CICC
Sharing with CEOs
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Reflection on My Own
With heaps of mind-blowing ideas, the trip definitely brought me with new understanding about China.
But to my very surprise, it also brought to me new understanding about myself. During the mingling
sessions with the Tsinghua MBA students, I exchanged views on MBA study with them. Regarding the
plans upon graduation, unlike me or most people I known in HK, whose goals were pretty much confined
to attaining a decent position in a multi-national firm, quite a number of Tsinghua students actually laid
their eyes on starting up their own businesses. In pursuit of their goals, they made lots of socializing
activities apart from their study to widen their horizons and to develop their people network. They held
strong conviction in their goals. To them, the opportunities were just teeming in China. The only matter
was whether they had well-equipped themselves to grasp the chance and get on the train. Thinking back
to myself, I suddenly realized how small I was compared to their ambitious goals. Without wars or great
depression in my generation, pursuit of stability and a decent living appears to be the only agendum in life.
With passion and dreams, the Tsinghua students reminded me a long forgotten question to myself: “Can I
still make a difference to the world?”
Summary
With a span of only 5 days, the course was much shorter than other ordinary summer-term courses, but
yet, the learning from it is no lesser than any of them. Though no textbook or examination, the trip did
inspire me to dissert our China’s economy and market from new perspectives, for which, I now realized
how much the public media had been deluding us about our own motherland. China is flying and I believe
the rapid growth will continue in the next decade or so. At the prime time of career, I should tap on this
growth trend and try my best to achieve great things.
Having these believes, I made a promise to myself after the trip:
“To really work on my Mandarin.”
Mingling with Tsinghua MBAs
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Wong Lai Yee, Jodie
Beforehand Expectation
I was longing for the Beijing trip for a long time with an excitement and expectation. The best way to
understand China is nothing more than having a real touch and experience in China. With great
eagerness to learn the latest Chinese development from the local perspective, to understand the
operation of enterprises in China, to have sharing with CEOs, local students and CUHK alumni, as well as
to explore the new Beijing with my own lens, I felt the trip was short but lecturers and company visits
were more fruitful than what I had expected. The trip was a great experience to me.
Learning from the Lecture – To understand and respect China
All professors from Tsinghua University gave us inspiring lectures that were significant to our
understanding of China in different aspects. Among them, I was much impressed by Professor Liu, with
her usage of vivid real-life examples, to explain the importance of local wisdom, group collectiveness and
herd instinct of doing business in China. In her lecture, I learnt how a marketing communication without
considering the sentiment of nationalism and respecting the Chinese culture could cause failure. Just like
SKII, what they said in response to the product safety and quality showed its perception, and its arrogance
aroused the anger from the public; while some large brands like Coca-cola used Tibet monk in commercial
demonstrated their lack of internal knowledge to China. Success of a foreign brand may be built over a
long period of time but can be easily ruined in a split second when scandals happened or came under
attack by the public.
Insight from Company Visit – Vision of better life tomorrow
After visiting Hanergy, GreenTech, Taiyangong
and Capital Steel, I was so impressed with the
advanced technology and development of
environmental protection in Beijing. It changed
my impression which gained from newspaper
that China developed its industries at the
expense of the pleasant environment in the
long-run. Hanergy not just aimed at developing
renewable energy but also advocating public
education on green energy; GreenTech focused
on noise control in a bid to achieving “harmony
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between human being and nature (天人合一)”; Taiyangong converged used heat to electricity power
while itself had high safety standard and four pollutants control to merge peacefully in the residential
area; and Capital Steel has been working hard on achieving zero pollutant discharge. They all showed
their determination and efforts in creating a better living environment. No wonder we could enjoy the
fresh air, blue sky and clean city in Beijing.
Touched by CEOs, Tsinghua students & HKCU Alumni
Love and Passion
My learning was not just being enhanced from the lectures and company visits, but also from the people.
There was something in common I found from most of the people I met which deeply impressed me – the
passion and love. Their passion and love to the country, to the family, to the job, to the ideals, and also to
other people.
CEOs – Passion to the industry and caring to the staff
From Ms Li, the Director of Daoxianghu Hotel 稻香湖景酒店, I could see her devotion to the resort and
her caring to the staff. She had a loft ideals that “把我管过的酒店變成自己心中的静土”, with this vision,
she overcame the difficulties and turned the loss-making hotel into the profitable resort. She also
showed her concerns to the staff, that was why her ex-subordinates at 西苑 hotel were willing to quit
their jobs and followed Ms Li to work in Daoxianghu. Her management by caring won the heart of her
staff and her passion in pursuing the ideals kept her moving.
Alumni – Love to the family, Say “I love you”
I was pleased to have Mr Hilson Ng at my table in the Alumni dinner gathering. Mr Ng was a professional
in insurance industry and now is enjoying the retirement life in Beijing. He loved to share his life
experience and philosophy with us all the time. The most touching story was about his family. Just like
many successful people, he has been
busy for his career in the past few
decades and feels guilty to his two
daughters. To him, saying “I love you”
to his daughters was vital but also very
difficult. It is not difficult to understand
that under the Chinese culture, we think
our parents or children do get the
message through our behavior rather
than our words, and that three magic
words made us feel uneasy. To us, even
we are the new generation, it may also
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be hard to say that to our parents. Mr Ng, out of pure courage, in the end said “I love you” to his
daughters in front of the relatives at a dinner, he felt relieved. He shared his story to encourage us to say
that to our beloved. It may not be easy, however, what about if you do not have tomorrow? Would it be
easier for us to say so? We always think that we have such chances in the future, but we never know. I
think everyone does not want to regret. Of course, love is an action more than a word, but I think such
small words still have big meaning to our beloved. I also rethink how much time I am willing to listen to
my mother.
Professor Ping Ping Fu – Passion to teaching
Our Professor Fu was eager to share everything she thought was meaningful and enlightening, for
instances the story of 海底撈 and the history of communist party stemmed from 井崗山. She also
ensured we would not miss something good or important. Insisting to ask the manager of Capital Steel to
tell us the story of a retired worker, fighting for the visit of Taiyangong power plant till the last minute,
picking different dishes for every meal, were just some of the demonstrations of her passion to the job
and also caring to us.
After thoughts
I still miss the days in Beijing even after coming back to Hong Kong for more than a month. I had a bike
riding in the beautiful campus and lunch in student canteen with Tsinghua students in Tsinghua University,
I felt like being one of them enjoying the
school life in top-class University. I
witnessed flag raise with national anthem
by live band and visited the magnificent
Bird’s Nest and Water Cube, I was proud
of being a Chinese. All these are happy
and unforgettable memories for me. I
really want to show my sincere thanks to
Professor Fu for her arrangement for
every single detail, also to Kathy for her
assistance offered and to my fellow
classmates for the fun they brought and
the learning they shared in the
presentations. Without you all, the trip
would not be the same.
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Wong Wai To, Oscar
There are many memorable scenes from the China trip, especially on people we met, places we went to
and, most importantly, Chinese culture we experienced.
People we met
Trip with classmates from different classes
We are from different MBA classes in different school year. Nevertheless, we truly enjoyed the trip
through attending lectures, visiting firms and several tour sites all together. This is a great opportunity to
know each other from other classes.
During the trip, we met several brilliant managers, who shared their valuable experience before and after
the Olympic Games, as well their personal career development. China has taken through a giant step
towards a “developed” country. Beijing is very clean everywhere, while citizens are very polite and
companies are well established.
Beijing shop managers are polite towards tourists. They are willing to answer our questions, as well as
serving us well when needed.
Nice professors, CEOs and Alumni
All these people we met are nice. They are all willing to share their valuable experience with us. Professor
Hua, professor Liu, professor Gao all expressed their confidence in the future of new China, while Dong
Mei shared her views on Chinese developments from the Beijing Olympics.
Apart from lectures, Managers and CEOs all give us speeches with rich contents. CEO Fu told us not to
open our mind and always accept new ideas by working in different industries. One crucial point is to
forget about money when choosing a job, while need to just put all of our enthusiasm to it. This is an
important working attitude, however, people nowadays seldom remember this.
Staffs from Hai Di Lao Hot Pot
Professor Fu highly recommended us to visit Hai Di
Lao Hot Pot. It is one of the famous hot pot
restaurants in Beijing. It was a small shop established
five years ago but expanded vapidly to have eleven
shops in Beijing recently. Some may question why it
can expand so quickly, especially there should be
plenty of hot pot shops in capital city like Beijing. The
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company strategy played an important role. The management cares not only customers’ need but also
staffs’, as well as their families. This give staffs the motivation; employees are happy to work there.
During our visit, we not only found the mutton was extremely delicious, but also got very good service,
which was even better than those from most of the famous hot pot shops in Hong Kong like Dao Heung or
Little Sheep. The company logo already shows much of their enthusiasm. “好火鍋自己會說話” simply
means good food taste and excellent services can persuade customers to come again. What a wonderful
slogan telling their mission!
Places we visited
Among the companies we visited, we found Google was the most brilliant. The office design is a
mixture of eastern and western culture. Like the office at Silicon Valley, it emphasizes both work and life.
It has refreshment, amusement and gym room to provide staffs additional facilities. Traditionally, Chinese
corporations used to have harmonious atmosphere. But these corporations focus on business guanxi
more than personal requirements. So Google got to maintain this if it wants to be successful in China.
Google not only requires staffs to maintain good guanxi with business partners, but also cares very much
staffs’ life. Employees there feel like working at home and they can contribute as much as they can.
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Hanergy/Tayanggong power plant/Green Tec Corporation
Hanergy
Taiyanggong power plant
Green Tec Corporation
We have also visited several Chinese energy companies like Hanergy, Taiyonggong power plant
and GreenTec Corporation. Most of these companies favor china’s future energy development. Hanergy
specializes on developing new energy sources, while Taiyonggong and GreenTec business are mainly
improving pollution problems, by reducing wastes from coal during electricity plants and noise
respectively. This environmental protection trends shows China has changed a lot. In the old days, China
was classified as a dirty (serious air pollution and hygiene problems) and technology outdated country.
Along with the developments related to Beijing Olympics, this is no longer the case. Beijing has turned
into modern city and is very clean everywhere. She has started many research and developments on
improving the world and those bad perceptions should no longer exist. Therefore, we are really proud to
see China to have such a big improvement.
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Chinese culture
In additional to visiting, experiencing unique Chinese culture is the main theme of the trip. We’ve
visited various sceneries to feel it.
Flag raising at Tiananmen Square
The greatest scene experienced, without doubt, is to see flag-raising at Tiananmen Square. As a
local Chinese, we believe this is sort of glory to see it there. It is completely different from what we can
see in Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong. First of all, we got to wake up early enough to get a good
position in Tiananmen Square. It worth a lot to wake up at 2:30AM as we did because the flag raising was
held in front of Chairman Mao, our beloved leader.
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Apart from positioning, the timing for the flag-raising is much earlier there. The time for the flag-raising is
around 4:45AM, meaning there is chance to see sun rise as well. Comparing with the one in Hong Kong
(8:00AM everyday), it is about 3 hours earlier. It was a sunny day and the sun rise at Tiananmen
contributed a very beautiful scene. This brought us nice pictures cannot imagine before.
Finally, seeing flag raising there leave us much pride to be Chinese, especially China is becoming
more and more financially and politically important in the world. Being a normal citizen, we don’t have
chance to represent our country to participate international competitions. So we seldom find it is “proud”
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to see a flag-raising. But after seeing all those Olympic Games results, Chinese technology developments
and successful stories from CEOs, we can feel that “China can be really strong” now.
不到長城非好漢
Stone inscription of 不到長城非好漢 at Badaling,
Quote from Chairman Mao ZeDong
Long time ago, Qin Shi Huang ordered the building of The Great Wall to protect the empire from northern
invaders. The Great Wall was also rebuilt, repaired and extended during Han, Shui, Ming & Jin Dynasties.
It defended Chinese empires for so many years and, from time to time, most sections are already eroded.
So the Great Wall is mainly for tourists now.
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We went to Badaling of the Great Wall, which was the first section to open to tourists. It is about 3741
meters long while its highest point is about 1015meters above sea level. There steps are quite large so it
makes really hard for invaders to pass through.
It took us about an hour to reach the highest point, while there were many nice scenes during the process.
We earned the “pride” pretty smoothly, thanks to a nice weather. After all, visiting the Great Wall is an
excellent experience and a very good exercise! With the help of The Great Wall, others can hardly invade
China. And we hope Chinese people can work together to achieve more success in the future, just like the
Chinese soldiers did in fighting against external enemies in the old days.
Conclusion
As a whole, the China trip is composed of nice people, nice places and nice experiences. We have seen
our new China, with clean environments, enthusiastic citizens and great business opportunities
everywhere, pretty much thanks to development of Beijing Olympics. From now on, we should think more
about ourselves, our roles and our positions in China to face huge challenges coming by. Life journey is full
of opportunities, while how many we can grab only depends on how we act. Once again, thanks very
much to Professor Fu to arrange such a memorable adventure for us by selecting right companies, places
and wonderful guests.
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Wu Shuk Ling, Iris
The Glamorous Beijing
I landed on the small old airport the last two times I went to Beijing. This time, it was the glamorous new
Beijing Capital International Airport, which is comparable to the award-winning Hong Kong International
Airport. Giving that I was excited by the international standard of the appearance and facilities of the
new airport, I was also curious about what Olympics had brought to our Capital, Beijing.
The National Stadium (鳥巢), National Aquatics
Center (水立方) and National Centre for the
Performing Arts (國家大劇院) are brand new
landmarks that impressed me a lot. The artistic
and technological architecture stand out in the
Capital ancient buildings. They demonstrate not
only the capabilities of Chinese that we were
longing for decades, but also the determinations
of China to step on the world stage.
The sky was clearly blue and the roads were
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absolutely tidy. The road signs contain Chinese characters, pinyin, as well as English. Most importantly,
the Beijing citizens learnt to queue up wherever it was needed. It is always the capital investment able to
change the environment and appearance of a city, but can hardly change the socio-culture of people lives
in there. Nonetheless, the Olympics, the utmost effort of the Chinese government and the unity of the
nation had contributed to this great achievement.
Has China changed structurally beneath these appearance enhancements? I was given the opportunities
to find out the answer during the 8-day business field study trip.
The New China
Over the last few decades, China had gone through drastic economic reforms like the “Four
Modernizations”, joined in World Trade Organization, etc to speed up its economic development. Every
piece of China, especially the business environment, was facing the strong pull of international standards
and stretch of progresses. There was negative news that Chinese products failed to meet safety
standards repeatedly in the past few years. It was known that they were all about the continuously
changing standards in foreign countries. Nevertheless, I had never understood but was told in this trip
the serious effort that Chinese corporations had paid for a recognized status in world trade.
Professor Qu of Tsinghua University told us the work slogan of Mengniu, “勉強成習慣,習慣成自然。”
The statement itself had told us the enormous effort and the thirst for attaining progress and higher
standards of the corporation.
Another impressive circumstance told by Professor Qu was the staff training program of a construction
corporation, “A corporation offers construction training to every construction staff, who had low
education background, and awarded the professional certificates to the staff upon training completion.
This practice provides dignity and recognition to the humble group. It ensures not only the work quality,
but also enhances sense of belongings of staff and unity of the corporation.”
Ms Li, the CEO of Daoxianghu also taught us the customer oriented spirit. She treats and concerns all her
staff nice wholeheartedly, which in turn expressed by all staff to every customer. During the SARS period,
Ms Li treated the hospital doctors and nurses to live in her hotel without charges. Ms Li recalled her
memory, “We considered the hospital doctors and nurses working so hard for the public during SARS
heroes, but they were not able to return home with reason of isolation. We loved helping them, in order
to do our share in dealing with the disaster.”
I was impressed by the enthusiasm of the entrepreneurs in developing their businesses. It was crucial to
meet international standards and success, but there would be many different ways to achieve them. The
most valuable virtue of ancient Chinese was to build up the success from within our heart. The Chinese
ancient idiom “修身治國平天下” elaborates the spirit appropriately and we have been taught a lot of the
real practices from the CEO and entrepreneurs we had met during the business study trip.
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The future of Us
Being a member of the nation, I was so proud of the positive changes of China. In the second thought,
shall we also contribute to the development and future of China, instead of being an onlooker?
In the lecture in the first day at Tsinghua University, Professor Hua expressed his view of the status of
China in the world economy, “We can only participate in the world economy, but we are not capable and
not recognized for taking the leadership role yet. We lack talents.” I was reminded something very
important for the success of Chinese development.
During our visit to CICC in the last day, Mr. David Li, the risk management department head of CICC told
us the reason of his return to China, “I studied in US since I was a child and had worked in Wall Street for
20 years. I was watching the tremendous growth of China in recent years. Some magazines forecasted
that China will continue its growth in the next 40 years. I want to be part of it.”
The president of GreenTec also studied overseas with subsidies of China government and came back to
China for supporting the nation development. In the short history of GreenTec, it had provided tailor
made sound insulation investigation and installation to the Olympic stadium and National Centre for the
Performing Arts, while oversea corporation refused to provide such solutions.
China needs talents and enthusiasm for promoting the ongoing development on our own effort, but
should not rely on foreign resources anymore. Can all of us also take the opportunity to play a role in it?
Over the dinner with CUHK alumni, I heard about the
aspirations of Hong Kong returnees for their career.
There are so many challenges and opportunities in the
current and coming China – apply patents and start up
own business, take a leadership role in nationwide
companies, expand business from Hong Kong to the
enormous China territory, etc. It had bought new visions
to my own career development, as well as the possible
contributions to the mainland China. It is time to get
ourselves well equipped for the coming challenges.
Lastly, I recalled the public speech given by Mr. Hu
Jingtao, the President of China government a few years
ago, “Some economists commented that China would
become one of the topmost nations within 10 years. I
believe it is untrue because we still have many rural
areas that are in poverty status.” With all of our effort, I
wish China can get rid of poverty in the very near future.
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The Endless Treasure
Apart from the inspiration attained from the entrepreneurs and changes of China I learnt during business
field study trip, I’m so glad to meet
and retain contact with fellow
Tsinghua MBA students, I believe it
will enhance my understandings on
Chinese business development in
the coming future.
Lastly, I enjoyed the great treasure
of strengthened friendships among
fellow classmates and the attentive
care from Professor Fu in this trip.
Thank you so much for all the
wonderful memories during the 8
days!
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Yang Huajun, Frank
New Energy Revolution
As the last student joining the China Business Study Trip, I think I am lucky. During the 7-day trip, we not
only visited some of the famous companies, but also listened to some good professors in class. We got
very memorable experiences, but the most important thing is that this trip drove us to think deeply from
what we saw and what we felt.
The communication meeting with the professionals from China New Energy Chamber of Commerce gave
me a dominant impression. Actually I have been concerned about new energy for a long time, because my
family business is producing spare and accessory parts for new energy industry. Now, I am going to
elaborate my thinking about new energy revolution.
1. The new energy revolution has already started
The statement of “Which country keeps ahead on clean-energy technologies, it will lead economic of the
whole world” by the American President, Barack Obama, has gained recognitions from many countries,
including China. There is a wide gap between China and other western countries in traditional energy field.
However, as a developing country, China took off in new energy field almost at the same time as
developed countries. U.S. government will invest 150 billion US dollars in researching alternative energy,
developing new energy industry in order to become less dependent on oil and reduce environmental
pollution. No doubt the new energy revolution is already under way.
Each industrial revolution, without exception, is related to energy-related technical progress. The symbol
of the first industrial revolution is the steam engine, which was used to replace the manual labor. The
second revolution is the electric power, which can be transmitted to large areas, so that people can
realize large-scale energy production and cost reduction. The Third Industrial revolution is the use of
computer and the Internet. In the context of dual impacts from the financial crisis and the energy crisis,
“the fourth industrial revolution” may be the new energy revolution. China's GDP unit energy
consumption is significantly higher than other countries’ and regions’, so China will actively participate in
the process of the new energy revolution. China can kill two birds with one stone. From the energy
revolution, China can solve the increasingly serious environmental pollution problems and the problems
of economic growth pattern. China must grasp this chance to exceed the existing developed countries.
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2. The new energy revolution took place in three areas
First, the supplies of energy sources are being changed from oil and coal to clean energies. Second, the
mode of energy transmission is being transformed from traditional power grids to the smart grid. Third,
the consumption patterns are being turned from using oil to using electricity, reducing energy
consumption of buildings and developing new energy automobiles.
a. renewable energies and clean energies
The current development of nuclear, wind and solar energy is very popular in many countries.
Nuclear energy
In 2004, China's 9 nuclear power plants were put into operation with installed power capacity of
7,000,000 kilowatts, accounting for 1.7% of China's installed power capacity and 2.3% of China’s power
generating capacity. In Zhejiang and Guangdong, in 2003, nuclear power all accounted for more than 13%
of their power generating capacity. Nuclear power has become an important source of the electricity
supply. On the other hand, China has plenty of space to develop nuclear energy.
The expected nuclear power industry development planning made by China's National Development and
Reform Commission may improve the goal of installed nuclear power capacity from 4000 KW to 6000 KW
by 2020, accounting from 4% of total capacity to 6%. In other words, China will build more than 60
equivalent of Daya Bay nuclear power plant.
Wind power energy
In 2008 the growth rate of installed generation capacity of global wind power is much higher than the
average growth rate over the past 10 years, reaching 28.8%. Wind power energy is expected to maintain
high growth rate in the next 5 years.
In 2008 China's installed capacity of wind power was 6.3GW, increased by 109%. The development target
of China's former wind power plan was 10 GW in 2012, but wind power capacity was already exceeded in
2008 with 12 GW installed. The development rate of wind power generation was much faster than
expected.
Recent energy revitalization plan disclosed that, by 2020, the proposed China's wind power goal was
adjusted to 100-150 million kilowatts.
Solar energy
In China, the installed power capacity of solar energy is 40MW, and is expected to reach at least 10GW by
2020 with the average annual growth rate of 30%. This benefit from the efforts of the government and
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the greatly decreasing cost of solar power generation. The cost of solar power generation declines 10
percent per year, beginning to replace conventional energy sources. China's production of solar
photovoltaic cells was 2000 megawatts in 2008, ranking first in the world and accounting for one third of
the world's total output. More than 90% total production was exported to other counties, with a
considerable competitive edge. Ministry of Finance announced the implementation of the “Solar energy
roof plan” to subsidize solar energy projects with 20 Yuan per kilowatt.
b. Smart grid
In future energy systems of the United States, smart grid is a very important platform. The U.S. power
generation, electricity transmission and distribution are established on a smart grid in order to improve
transmission efficiency and management of electricity power, at the same time, to seamlessly switch the
distributed power systems, including wind power, small hydropower and solar roof, in power grid. Smart
power grid in China is based on the “Information technology and ultra-high voltage transmission system”,
comprehensive reflected in the power generation, transmission, substation, distribution, scheduling and
so on. Smart power grid in China, above all, is a strong power grid. The core is ultra-high voltage
transmission system, which has features like long-distance transmission, high-capacity and low-loss
efficacy.
c. Energy saving of construction and vehicle
Energy-saving construction
U.S. started to emphasize the energy-efficient building as one of the key tasks of controlling greenhouse
effect. For example, U.S. embarked on a comprehensive renovation of the Empire State Building to
replace its glass with energy-efficient glass, improve air-conditioning systems and upgrade lighting
systems. The goal is to reduce 38% of its energy consumption.
China's construction industry built around two billion square meters of construction per year. However,
only 10% of existing construction reached real energy-saving standard. This part of energy-saving
renovation projects means 2000 billion Yuan of investment.
New energy vehicle
The U.S government has announced automotive energy-saving and emission reduction plans. Its goal is,
by 2016, to reduce the fuel consumption of new production of mini passenger van and light truck to not
more than 6.62 liters per 100 kilometers, reducing carbon dioxide emissions to one-third of an average
emission of current vehicles. The new energy vehicles will experience a rapid development. The same
story is being staged in China.
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3. Potential adjustments of government policy
Based on recent policy made by China’s government, I think China government emphasized particularly
the sources of new energies, but overlooking the smart gird. If the power isn’t transmitted via the smart
grid, even there are many new energy plants, like wind power plant, the electricity power can’t be
transmitted. Actually, in China, more than half of the existing wind-power plants are left unused, because
their unstable electricity power can’t be switched in traditional power grid.
Moreover, Chinese government paid more attention on nuclear energy. However, China lacks uranium
ore. This means, if China develops nuclear energy rapidly, we will suffer from rapidly increasing price of
uranium ore, and we need to pay more to other countries with rich uranium ore deposits. Therefore,
Chinese government should adjust its policies to develop new energy more efficiently.
Summary
In summary, I think new energy revolution give China a distinct opportunity to surpass the existing
developed countries. Taking advantage of new energy revolution, we can stimulate our economic and
protect our environment. But we still need to pay attention to balance some potential problems during
the industrial development.
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Yong Wai Ling, Winnie
Introduction
This business field study started on a rainy day that refreshed my memory of the first course – outward
bound which was under the bad weather of typhoon No. 8 also. The same emotion I felt that day as I felt
in the outward bound training. As luck would have it, the rain only lasted one day. Instead, it was crystal
clear the whole time I was there. This is the last course of my whole MBA program and also the right time
for me to think about what I have earned within these two years. Definitely, I have earned a different
experience thanks to this trip.
Academic Meetings
The lectures presented by Tsinghua Professors
and guest speakers provided valuable insight
into China’s current dynamic business
practices and economy. They all had unique
analysis and thoughts about the current issues
and how they will affect the future
development. They gave us forthright answers
on the issues presented. This attitude of
presenting an issue is a part of my learning
and will be useful on my work.
We went to Tsinghua University and met with fellow MBA
students; had chat sessions with them about Chinese
society and university education. It was really neat,
learning about them. I was influenced by their passion of
seeking opportunities to work outside their countries. Their
eagerness to develop their talents in their future jobs also
impressed me. I was encouraged of thinking how to
develop my ability in my job as an MBA graduate.
In their words, I could feel that they were very proud of
China. Although I did not have such a great emotion at this
moment, I was being impressed by China’s emergence as a
rising power and the new role in the world today.
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Companies Visit
During the study tour, we visited 6 organizations. It was the experience of a lifetime. I have learnt how
each company operates its business within the country and how each competes with the rest of the world.
It was one of the major highlights of the MBA learning and an eye-opener for me. This first-hand
experience helped me to see China’s dominance in attracting job markets and leading the way to the
future. Other than that, I was impressed of being a “首鋼人” during the visit of Capital Steel as it was hard
to imagine that a person could work for a company of his/her whole life. There should be some unique
attributes to attract people to stay a whole life. People worked there were proud of being a member of
the company. It is less so and difficult to find that in Hong Kong. Therefore, there will be a need to
cultivate this atmosphere for Hong Kong companies to improve staff motivation and morale, which is
especially needed to overcome the time of economic depression.
Dinners with CEOs and Alumni
It was a rare and valuable opportunity to have a dinner with Chinese CEOs who have established their
businesses successfully. I was excited that they were happy to share their experiences and beliefs that
inspired me to think about my career path. What I imprinted the most was quoted by Mr. Fu, “You should
have passion in what you are doing. You have to do what you want according to your interest and
character. Also, you have the time to try everything you can as you are still young.” With everything we
do, find a mission or a grand purpose beyond making money we can become passionate about. I believe
that passion gives me the intestinal fortitude I need to never give up. I was motivated to explore my
interests and how they became part of my jobs. Doing what I love also means doing something I can do,
something I am good at. Also, it was not too late for me to try as much as I could. And that I would like to
have a more fruitful life. By running the successful businesses, their ultimate goals are not as simple as
earning revenues but contributing to the society in different aspects. To me, money and senior positions
are still important at this stage. But I started thinking to do something for the society even though my
power is very limited.
From the alumni gathering I have gained
valuable information pertaining to a
personal and practical approach to living
and working in Beijing. It seems that I can
adapt living in Beijing. Therefore, I will
welcome an opportunity to work there
and gain more working experiences in
different cities. This would be a great leap
forward in my career development.
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Cultural Awakening
In my short week in Beijing, I witnessed a very vibrant, creative society that enjoys a high standard of
living, giving me a sense of artistry, scale, and warmth of the Chinese ancient relics and the beauty of the
land they inhabit. Even many of the newly constructed buildings have character and improve the skyline
as they seemingly tell their individual stories. Beijing used to be a great forest of mostly drab, medium-
sized buildings stretching off into the horizon. The city now has all the trappings of modern city with a
burgeoning middle class. There are beautiful and distinctive skyscrapers. The airport is extremely modern.
The Olympics left their imprint with an amazing stadium and much improved related facilities.
No trip to Beijing is complete without visiting the great triumvirate of Chinese mega projects: the Great
Wall, the Forbidden City and its recent equivalent, the Olympic stadiums. Each is breathtaking in its own
way. The Great Wall is nothing short of amazing. The clear air meant I could see the wall snaking across
the hills for miles into the distance. The Forbidden City is another mega-marvel. Both Bird’s Nest and
Water Cube that were just as impressive up close as they seemed on TV, and in the case of the Water
Cube, perhaps more so.
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Apart from sight-seeing, I experienced the
unforgettable service from Hai Di Lao also. The
service standard was higher than most of Hong
Kong restaurants even some upper class. The
continuous keeping of simile on each staff was
hard to come by without any motivation. Each of
them enjoyed working there and was being
energetic to every customer. I, doing the retail
business in Hong Kong, was stimulated to thinking
about how to motivate my sub-ordinates to work
as similar attitude as theirs in order to provide
excellent service.
Conclusion
The study trip was an awesome experience which provided opportunities to learn and understand about
the current business practices. This was more than a tour; it was a back-stage pass into the inner workings
of a society and people. I was not only inspired and motivated but also excited to get the next chapter of
my life started. I acquired many life-long memories. Along with the experience of the MBA program, the
experience in Beijing affirmed me what I want to experience in life. Amazing, wonderful,
outstanding….these adjectives plus many more can be used to describe my overall experience in Beijing. I
believe that this trip will greatly influence my future, as well as my career.
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Yuen Koon Chi, Christine
Introduction
In the 5-day study trip, I gained quite a lot of insights for both my career
and personal development. Although it was pretty exhausting and I feel
extremely tired after coming back to Hong Kong, I still found the trip
memorable and fruitful. I’m happier to get acquaintance with some of
the CUHK Alumni people who shared their valuable experiences with me
and more than lucky being able to keep contact with two of them until
now. All these friendships share a beautiful episode in my MBA study life.
Among those happy memories, I particularly have deep feelings and self-
reflection over a few topics which are very relevant to my career as well
as personal growth. They bring different ideas to me after the trip.
Communication through Advanced Technology Vs Personal Contact
Before the Beijing trip, I nearly forgot the warmth of communication through personal contact. People
nowadays are used to relying on electronic things like facebook, emails, MSNs, Skype, etc. for
communication. Everything has to be quick and short. If you don’t follow, it seems that you are outdated.
Starting from some time ago, I find people’s handwriting getting worse and worse around me. Perhaps it
is because they seldom write by hand after using the computer to write. People I met in this trip
reminisced about the joys and warmth of personal contact in old days. The direct interaction with
professors, Alumni people allows true feelings from faces and body language that is solid and real.
Somehow advanced technologies shorten but concurrently lengthen the distance among people. Hence
we should dare to insist on what we believe rather than jump on the bandwagon. I think courage is one
of the important traits of a good leader.
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For my career when we face external parties
On Day 2, Professor Liu’s lecture on Market Communication in China was very inspiring. From her one
after another real cases of foreign brands’ difficult encounters with consumers in China, I realized that
social-cultural trends, consumer power, sentiment of nationalism and media influence must be taken into
account in product or brand marketing. Toshiba, Carriefour and P&G (SKII) all paid for their lessons
learned. Timely communication with consideration of recipients’ interpretation is very important,
otherwise there will be big and bad consequence to the company.
While I was listening to Professor Liu’s speech, I felt delighted to find what I learned in class can
extensively be applied to my work. As a branch manager, I’m leading a team of frontline staff in providing
bank service. When we deliver messages to customers, responses from each of them can be totally
different. Reasons behind can be quite a lot. How they interpret what we want to deliver becomes the
key to success or failure. If our customers get disappointed or find the outcome contradict their
perception like the incident of SKII in China, bank bear the risk of not only losing that group of customers
but also leading to reputation damage. The cases mentioned by Professor Liu serve as kind of
constructive soul-searching tool for me in leading my team. Try putting yourselves in others’ shoes,
understanding what they feel based on their individual culture and background would surely build up
good understanding through effective communication for both sides.
For my career when we face internal counterparts
Another insight I got during the chain of company visits comes from Google China. Google China Staff are
allowed to decorate their own work area with most creativity. It is a workplace full of happiness, people
wearing cheerful faces. Although rules and regulations are inevitable in an organization, as a leader we
should never forget to encourage creativity and give support to our team despite limitation. It doesn’t
matter how big or how small it can be. Teammates are prone to be positively influenced by one another
and manage to “think-out-of-the-box”. It fully meets with the philosophy “No happy staff, no happy
customers” mentioned on CEO night in the resort hotel.
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When our teammates work out something creative or awesome no matter how trivial it is, leaders should
give recognition or encouragement. In the past few years, I have been proud of myself being a small team
leader but always encourage and participate in creative work, making work lives more interesting and
enjoyable for people around. I am happy Google China once again reinforces my belief and I will work
harder towards this direction.
For my personal development
A Chinese saying, “A Good Friend is like a Good Book”. I feel like reading through many good books
during the trip. I treasure the night shared with CEOs. I could not forget the sincere talk with the Alumni
people and I miss the moments shared with Tsinghua University students. One common point for those I
met is that they are all passionate about their lives. If chances are available, I really want to understand
them more.
Much of the sharing on the CEO night touched the bottom of my heart. Notwithstanding I learned some
of the theories in management books in the past, it became much more convincing on that night. It just
happened that I felt a bit lost because I would move to a new position in my company after the trip,
words coming out of the CEOs’ mouths turned to be enormous encouragement for me to step ahead. I
remember clearly that one saying, “When you have to shoulder a new responsibility, don’t bother
anything, just go straight ahead.” “Pressure increases while responsibility and power increase, don’t
worry because you’re not alone in your team.” These kind words comfort my soul.
I was so lucky that I sat next to several pragmatic businessmen on the Alumni night in the French
restaurant. Their sincere talk lightened my self-reflection again. I am grateful for receiving their warm
reply from my thank you email to them after back to Hong Kong. Hopefully our friendship will grow and
flourish.
One of the Alumni gentlemen, Mr. Deng reminded us that study trip might be short and intensive.
Remember to not judge anything by what you see or what you hear. Use your heart to feel what you
come across. I believe it is true. “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. It is exactly why I join this Beijing
study trip. This also applies to our personal life. Everything can easily be beautified in the contemporary
world. We have to feel it by our heart and be patient because it sometimes takes time to know the truth.
Another gentleman, Mr. Michael Ma is very nice and he introduced 易經 to me for further self
enrichment. I will surely share my insights with him when I finish it.
The round table dinner with President Jiang JingHui was also impressive to me on the CEO night.
President Jiang demonstrates how a successful Chinese lady should be nowadays. She is honest with
clear objective in life. She strongly proposes everyday self reflection and systematic way of thinking. She
told us we have to make choices everyday; select the right choice especially in key moments. I couldn’t
agree with her more. Making right choice is of paramount importance in our personal development. The
point is we may need to suffer a bit from wrong choices before manage to make right choice.
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Last but not least ……
Life is a journey. I always aim at filling colors for my journey. Heartfelt thanks to Professor Fu, all
schoolmates in this course and people I met in Beijing. They painted a wonderful brush in my journey
book.
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Happy Journey….June 2009