Numerous companies from our region now have distribution company offices in Shanghai. This is why our local vocational school organises a trip to the Chinese metropolis every three years. Our trainee Lisa Schwab was part of it from 26 February to 11 March 2011.
There is definitely no better place than the Sky Lounge of the Grand Hyatt in the Jin Mao Tower if you want to enjoy an all-round panorama view of Shanghai. And so the visit to the highest bar in the world was one of the most impressive experiences of our trainee Lisa Schwab during her two-week stay in the Chinese mega city.
The real reason for the trip, however, was of course work, and not just pleasure. During the first week, the twelve vocational school students worked in the subsidiaries of their companies, and so Lisa Schwab was introduced in Pudong to the special characteristics of Chinese business life and culture by Memmert manager Clement Mu and his employees. She got first-hand impressions of how the cooperation with the parent company in Schwabach works and how the distributors in China are supported.
The students spent the second week together, with trips through Shanghai, a boat trip on the river Huangpu, factory visits and lectures, for instance at the German Chamber of Foreign Commerce. There, they learned that some 3,000 branches and subsidiaries of German companies have now settled in Shanghai, and that despite all the growth, Shanghai is striving to become a “green city“ and considerably reduce its CO2 emissions.
People were friendly, the food tasty, and there was an unbelievable amount of new things to learn and discover. Our young trainee was wildly enthusiastic about her two weeks in China - with one exception: she will certainly not miss the chaotic driving style of traffic on the road.
For our German-speaking readers we also have a report on the 12 students’ trip to Shanghai that appeared in the Schwabacher Tagblatt, available in PDF format.
