* 7/28/09 11:32pm Day 24: Company Visits *

Today was TIRING. I am exhausted, and I want to go to sleep asap, so I’ll make this quick. We visited two companies today. In the morning, we went to SinoPacific, which is a shipbuilding company in China. It was pretty interesting. One of the co-founders spoke to us about the company, and he kept emphasizing that although he is French (his partner is Chinese), they are a very Chinese company. He kept showing us pictures of the employees and showing us that everyone was Chinese, except for a few people. It was just interesting to me that he made that such a point to emphasize…I feel like that wasn’t necessary, but I think he really wanted it to come across as a true Chinese company. I’m not sure why that is so important though. In the afternoon, we went to Heng Yuan Xiang, which is a wool-manufacturing company. They won the bid to make all the outfits for the Beijing Olympics last year, so that was pretty cool. They showed us the uniforms they made for the officials, referees, and athletes, and they let us hold the official torches that the runners used to carry the Olympic flame. Also, it was kinda like a museum because the CEO of the company liked to collect old historic artifacts, so he put them all on the first floor of the office building that we went to, and we got to look at all of them. There were things like wood carvings, a crystal Buddha, an exact replica of an emperor’s study, etc. It was so cool; it was totally like a museum. And all the flowers & decorations in the room were made out of wool…it was so cool (HAHA that rhymed). I wish I could’ve bought some flowers made out of wool…they were so intricate and cool looking, and I would never be able to kill them! So that company was cool…and they gave us souvenirs too! They gave us a box of 8 pins commemorating the Olympics. They don’t even sell it…so it was really special for us to get it.

Anyways, after the company visits we got back to the hotel at like 5 or 5:30, then we had dinner with Dan, Evonne (Joanna’s friend), and Laurie at 6:30. So, we headed over to the restaurant and met for dinner. It was a really nice restaurant…and really good food. It’s a pretty popular place apparently, and the décor is REALLY nice. The main room looked like a Spanish courtyard, and there were tons of cute little private rooms that looked like they could’ve made up a quaint little cottage or something. It was cute. And the food was super good! It was very interesting and very delicious. Anyways, we spent a good deal of time talking after dinner, so we didn’t get back to the hotel until 11pm.

Now, I’m working on my presentation with Nikki and Joanna and we’re all falling asleep. Hopefully we can finish and sleep soon…good night!