This has only developed over the past two weeks, but I'm going to China for two weeks in January!

I'm a management professor at the University of Tennessee, and this semester have been teaching an upper division class called "International Environment and Management." It focuses on culture, strategy and human resource management in global companies. I absolutely love teaching the class and this will be my main teaching assignment next semester too. I have lots of experience related to Europe and worked for several years in a German joint-venture company, but have never traveled to Asia, the Middle East or Latin America. The last few months, while teaching this class, I've gotten increasingly interested in experiencing one of these dramatically-different cultures.

It's worked out for me to go on a faculty study trip to China before the start of our spring semester. (I also looked into trips to India and Chile.) The trip is through the University of Colorado-Denver. This is a learning trip with a group of about 20 faculty members from various parts of the US. I leave January 2 and fly home on January 16. The trip includes four different areas: Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. It's a mix of cultural experience, company visits, networking with Chinese counterparts, and some sightseeing. Our company visits will include a piano factory, a beer factory, and a GM plant. I ordered business cards today with Chinese on the back.

China wasn't really on my list for a "vacation," but I'm really psyched for the experience of this trip and what I can bring back to incorporate into my classes-- and my view of the world.

I know there are several here who have traveled in China. I'd appreciate any input on what to expect in China and how I could best prepare to get the most from this experience.

Kathy

Kaydee,

Expect a good reply from TourMama, who was our chorus' tour manager for our two week tour of China in 2002.

As Jon said, I had the wonderful opportunity to see five cities in China as part of a 75 member choral perfoming tour in 2002 - way back before I "discovered" this website. Kaydee's announcement led me to look back at the travel notes I had from that trip, and remember how exciting it was to spend time in a country on the brink of change. My guess is that the China Kaydee will visit will be different from the one we experienced - and I wish I could be with her to see just how much change there has been.

Looking through my notes - we found the people friendly and curious,interested in finding out about us, and in sharing their culture. Members of our group became regular participants in early morning tai-chi and ballroom dance exercise groups, and were taken under the wing of some of the locals. They were respectful when we sang our western music for them, and delighted and very responsive when they recognized our only partly mangled attempts to sing three Chinese folk-songs in their language. We were feted as rock stars by students from local music academies and language schools -- they formed a cheering path for us from the theater to our buses after one of our concerts.

We adapted, reluctantly, to the primitive toilet facilities we found many places (outside of our hotels, which were VERY western and comfortable) - squat toilets were the rule rather than the exception (don't know if that is still the case).

Once we convinced the tour agency representatives that we were familiar with and enamoured of a wide variety of Chinese foods, we were treated to an amazing variety of wonderful dishes (our first few days we found ourselves facing very bland "dumbed down" dishes - but that changed quickly)- every meal was a banquet.

We learned an amazing amount of Chinese history from our tour guides - they were amazingly informative, and quickly became our friends, but would often sidestep politically sticky questions. But we grew to understand there would be at least one "shopportunity" each day - a stop at a pearl factory, or a silk manufactory, or a jade carving exhibit. It was expected we would help the local economy with out purchases (and we sure were good at doing that!)

There were crowds everywhere - and aggressive and annoying street vendors vying for our custom. But we were treated to visits to wonderful museums where we saw awe inspiring items thousands of years old, visited the Terracotta Warriors and marvelled at the workmanship, and were privileged to be able to visit services at Buddhist temples.

In short - we had the wonderful opportunity of looking into a culture as different as any of us had ever experienced, learning to appreciate its beauty, its history and traditions, and, at the same time, seeing it straining to move into a more modern mode. I think the consensus of all who participated was that we were incredibly lucky!

I am sprucing up my travel notes, and will submit them soon as a travel postcard -- hope I can find my photos, and scan them into the computer (still using a film camera then!)

Judy

Kathy, this sounds like a wonderful way to experience China with a professional purpose and fellow academicians.

It may be that your time is ultra structured and mostly within the bubble of that group. If so, be sure to pass on a group activity or meal or two and strike out on your own. Knowing you, I'm sure this comes naturally.

Does your university have international students from any of these areas? They will know the latest cultural scoop.

Kathy,

How wonderful. All the cities on your itinerary are major foodie cities (not to mention major environmental pollution cities…) Well, it's a major foodie country, duh. Yes, "do" do a tourmama. Convince your minders right away that your group accepts authentic food and does not want dumbed-down food. And try to visit the old neighborhoods in the old alleyways. They are all disappearing fast and won't be there the next time you visit. This may be your last chance to see what a Chinese city lifestyle was like: how the neighbors treat their street as their gigantic collective living room, in a way living "together", taking care of each other's children, retirees playing cards together on the street, organizing dances (their old revolutionary dances! must see) every morning and evening, bringing out their prized birds so that the birds can sing together, after carefully hanging the beautiful cages on tree branches (so that the birds feel better, one elderly resident told me).
Another "sight" to watch out for in those old alleyways: elderly ladies in bound feet. Their feet were bound way back when and never grew back to normal size. You can distinguish them from very far away by their special gait. I do not mean for them to be looked at like a zoo animal. You can't help but admire them. They go to all the dances and waltz and tango, and go on a very full and interesting life as they shuffle their way around. Watch their morning calisthetics and weep. We who are half a decade younger can never put our foot on one of those traffic barriers then do a straight-legged plié the way they do. Ok, maybe one.

I have given many eatery recs on HK, GZ and S'hai on this forum, which you can look up if you like. They tend not to be the de lux hotel restaurant type.
Am glad your minders will be academics and industry people, so there should be no obligatory tour of empty malls.


Tourmama,

I laughed out loud reading you "doing" China.

A cheering path for you!
My husband's uncle and aunt visited China back in the 70's shortly after Nixon's visit, at a time when no tourist visited China. One morning their group was told they were going to a parade. OK. They were put on the back of an open truck, going toward a village, along a hillside path where more and more Chinese gathered in silence. Then slowly they realized that THEY were the parade !

O yes the Chinese - vendors or not - can be very loud and act aggressive, but they are not aggressive. -- I wonder whether they are not all victims of extensive urban noise pollution making them half deaf and needing to yell. They can be most helpful, telling you the nicest things, SCREAMING ! If your mind can somehow "turn down the dial", then you realize that 99% or 100% of the time they are not aggressive.
Another trait that may make them seem more aggressive than they are: They, uh, have a different concept about privacy. They tuck at your sleeve. They love children, especially foreign children, and love to touch them, out of affection. Some of my non-Chinese friends's children who grew up in China used to recoil from all Asian people. Took them years to be reassured that not all Asians would come up and pinch their cheeks.
Once I was staying at a traditional "si he yuan" architecture (courtyard house) hotel in Beijing. Some renovation work was going on in the courtyard, and one woman worker was allowed to use the hotel shower before going home - very nice of the hotel.
The very helpful elder lady receptionist came out after a while, yelled in the courtyard toward the shower room: "You have taken too long a shower. It's been 8 minutes. Wrap it up!"
The same receptionist was for some reason fascinated by me. Like all the rooms, my ground floor room has windows that face the inner courtyard. She used to stand by my window and smile and just watch me. I didn't know what to do. Soon I forgot her watching and went on to perform tourist.

Bravo, Tourmama, you "adapted" to toilets in China. For me the squat toilet is the least adjustment. It's the rest… that drove me bonkers. Last time I was in China with my husband, I had to arrange our day's visit so as to make certain we would go back to our hotel in the middle of the day… in order to use the toilet. No way I could use the toilets outside. Bravo again.
But according to several colleagues, the trains now have very clean toilets in the 1st class cars.


Yes the dumbing-down of food. Being of Chinese origin, I am often exasperated by how Chinese restaurateurs think that foreigners will reject any dish that is authentic. And once you convince them you do have taste buds, then they "allow" you to taste endless dishes that are nothing like what you had tasted as "Chinese food" in the west.

So many times, - with my friends, with my husband, with one friend who is a mega-known food writer, esp on Chinese food, - I tried to order authentic dishes, only to be vetoed by waiters who would make a surreptitious gesture toward my dinner companion and say: "he no like".
Once a Chinese restaurateur explained to me why he had eliminated all black beans from a dish that traditional uses black bean as a must ingredient, - like ratatouille without zucchini, - he said that westerners reject all things black on their plate.

Thank you all for such enthusiastic posts and great information! I'll definitely browse more in this forum (not my regular hangout ) to learn more.

I'm a bit of a non-traditional academician (really consider myself a business person who enjoys teaching and mentoring students, and of course a traveler), so it will be interesting to spend two weeks in the company of college professors and joining a "tour" as a solo traveler. We actually do have several blocks of free time (like entire afternoons) several times during the two weeks to explore on our own.

The idea of connecting with international students to learn more about China is one I've thought about and will pursue. There is a professor from China in another department in the b-school that I want to meet with. A big part of my International Business class is focused on culture (how to learn about them, various aspects to consider, how to adjust your own behavior and attitude), so now in getting ready for my unexpected China, I'll practice what I teach.

I welcome any other suggestions to help me prepare for my trip.

Kathy

You'll find Hong Kong to be far more "westernized" than the rest of China, due to it's British history. As a Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong is pretty much left on its own by Beijing. It is terribly expensive compared to the rest of China, however.

Expect crowds and traffic on a major scale and expect that your idea of personal space while on line or jostling down the street is about 10x larger than the local version.

On the business front (having worked in China off and on throughout the 90's) expect a keen understanding of business practices, pitfalls, unquestioned loyalty to management by employees and a thorough appreciation of negotiation technique and fact based decision-making.

Kathy, we've just come back from a 3 week trip to China where we spent a week in Kunming (Yunnan province), Shanghai and Beijing. We also squeezed in a day and a half in Hong Kong. If you are anything like us you will be amazed and delighted by China.

First of all, the food is AMAZING!!! Until this trip I found chinese food OK but nothing particularly special. But when we got there we found the food everywhere to be delightful, fresh, full of delicate flavours and wonderfully different from any chinese food I'd ever eaten before (as well as being different from region to region). What's more we managed to lose weight while eating all this food. My theory is that eating with chopsticks slows you down so much you actually eat less. Since coming home a couple of weeks ago I've been frantically scouring the local chinese supermarkets for the ingredients and cooking up a storm at home.

Secondly, and to my surprise, China is quite beautiful. I had a picture in my mind's eye of endless concrete blocks - and there are plenty of those - but there are also fabulous gardens, interesting temples and a certain amount of old architecture coupled with interesting new stuff. Shanghai in particular has some splendid buildings. If you get any time to yourself in Shanghai do visit the Shanghai Art Museum. You'll love it.

My tip - apart from eat everything! - would be to take someone Chinese with you if you go shopping. You can have the edge taken off by people hassling you to buy things (I never realised how many people don't have a watch). I'm quite jealous. I want to go back.

Jeff and Beebee, thanks for adding some other perspectives about China. Great info! Jeff, thanks for the business-related insight from your work experience there.

Beebee, it is so good to hear from you-- you were the first Slow Traveler I ever met in person! It sounds like you had a fabulous trip to China.

Interesting suggestion to have a Chinese person go shopping with me. Another friend told me that I should get fitted for clothes when I arrive so they could be made for me before I leave-- or to take my favorite clothes so they could be copied. Never would have thought of that...

Food sounds great!

Kathy

quote:

Another friend told me that I should get fitted for clothes when I arrive so they could be made for me before I leave-- or to take my favorite clothes so they could be copied.

In China I like to buy and cashmere - a very good buy - with the least styling possible. China produces great materials like silk and cashmere. But the fitting and fisnihing are not there yet.
And even in a city like Bangkok in Thailand where a lot of well-trained tailors are used to doing the kind of reproduction work by request from tourists, I'd have a simple skirt or top copied, never something complicated like a jacket. I mean, a jacket could have collar, sleeves, pockets, waist, in all the right places and could still not fit right if the tailor is not experienced in the intricate structural fitting.

In the 40s Shanghai tailors were trained by Savile Row tailors in the foreign concessions. Today, to see such workmanship, you have to go to the exquisite shop Shanghai Tang on Peddar street in Central District of Hong Kong. Do visit the shop. It is a Cheongsam (or "qi pao") museum.

I took out a trouser suit I like but can no longer get into and went to a shop that produced own made fashions with a Chinese mentor. I can't speak about the quality of the work they do - except that the clothes on display looked lovely - but I had been under the impression that the cost of getting the suit copied would be fairly low. In fact I didn't think the price I was given was all that cheap so didn't proceed. That was in Kunming. Perhaps Shanghai would be different?

Perhaps others who have been to China could share some experiences and offer some advice...

I was planning to take my laptop on my upcoming trip, so I could get some work done, post to my blog, and keep up with e-mail.

One friend who visited China recently with a university group told me I needed to take a "stripped down" computer with nothing on it but the programs-- no personal information, no documents, anything. I got the idea that computers were somehow screened and data inspected.

Another friend visited China twice, in 2007 and 2008. He told me not to take any computer at all, that your computer would not be the same when you brought it back. He advised to use business centers in the hotels, but also said I should change my passwords before I went and when I got back.

The info I got today from the university organizing my trip said that a computer wasn't needed and most people on their trips didn't bring computers. They said business centers would be available, though at an additional cost.

I had been thinking of buying a netbook for travel and using this trip to prod me into doing it. I could take it without anything on it... but I don't want to bring it back with problems.

Any thoughts on this?

Also, the university office said immunizations were not required, but also said this: "According to the CDC, travelers coming from the United States may be checked for fever and other symptoms of H1N1 flu upon arrival in many countries, including China. We strongly recommend that you consult with a travel health professional, and encourage you to ask if it is appropriate for you to receive both the seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccinations. We also strongly recommend that you request an international certificate of vaccination, available only through a certified travel clinic. Although flu vaccinations are not normally recorded on this World Health Organization-approved certificate, if you receive both the seasonal and H1N1 vaccinations, ask your health care professional to list them. This will protect you and the group with which you’re traveling, and will reduce the probability of quarantine upon arrival into China and Hong Kong."

I've had my seasonal flu shot and planned to get the H1N1 shot (has been limited here and I'm not in high risk group), but hadn't thought about an international certificate of vaccination. I'd welcome any thoughts about this as well.

Kathy

On the laptop question, all I know is I carried and used a full blown laptop all over China for four years without problems back in the 90's and my friend brought his and used it on our trip in May of this year with no problems.

On the flu thingie - in May, we had our temp. taken upon arrival and filled out a "health card" asking Y or N questions about symptoms. This wasn't a problem, either. Of course, if you're with a group or flight and one or two have answered Y to symptoms questions (or actually have a fever when checked), then the entire group "might" be subject to quarantine and exam, I guess, so it's a Clint Eastwood kind of question, "Do you feel lucky?"

We didn't take a laptop but only because our friend who lives there said we could use hers so I just took out my portable hard drive. She does take her laptop with her when she goes in and out of the country, so I'll ask her if she is careful about what is loaded on it and report back.

I also took my Nokia 97 which is equivalent to a tiny laptop (in that it has internet and file storing capabilities) and I had no problem at all transporting either.

The Chinese do seem to censor some sites, but I couldn't get to the bottom of it. I don't think it was censoring by a government agency, but a sort of self censorship by ISPs. For example I was never able to access Facebook by computer anywhere I went, but I had no problem if I used my phone. I don't know why the mobile network operators would have different criteria, but the left hand wasn't talking to right on this occasion.

Re flu screening: We had the same experience as Jeff. The health investigators boarded the plane on arrival and took everyone's temperature using a machine and collected our filled in health questionnaires. The process took 5-10 minutes. Our plane was clear though so we didn't have any problems. Since we've been back I've read a couple of stories of school trips etc. being placed in quarantine for several days because they found evidence of illness. We didn't have any vaccinations of any sort before going.

There are indeed some very dire computer viruses circulating in Chinese-language sites. Kathy, if several sources have advised you against bringing your laptop, I'd follow the advice.

Censorhip
Yes, expect it, although it is not always efficient.
Beebee, youtube and facebook are regularly blocked around sensitive anniversary dates, which include earlier this year in March (runup to 10 March), in June (4 June), 1st October...
On the c-word issue, see this very funny New York Time article's explanation . Well, more tragic-comic than just comic.

Kathy, have an amazing trip. We'll be thinking of you.

Hope all is going well. Looking for your posts on fb too.