Now in its 4th year, the MBA Travels to China program attracted 30 full-time and evening students to spend spring break traveling together to Shanghai and Beijing, where they visited top companies and cultural sites. Their tour began in Shanghai in the old financial district, the Bund, along the Pudong River where neon names and logos of familiar corporations define the horizon. Nearby, in stark contrast, they toured the one-story, candle-lit rooms which surround the temple of the jade budah, adorned by squat juniper and cherry-blossom trees, koi ponds, and artistic tiles and masonry.
Students not only sit for a lecture on Chinese Culture, Civilization, and Implications for Doing Business in China, they see it firsthand. Before leaving Shanghai, students hear presentations on finance at GE Capital, on logistics at the Yangshan deep-water port, on going-global at Cisco Systems, and still have time to take-in the thrilling Shanghai acrobatic show before transferring to China’s capitol.
In Beijing, students hear presentations on the legal environment from Allen & Overy and a couple presentations on the special challenges of the Chinese market from TEWA and Airbus. Of course, no visit to Beijing is complete without a tour of the Forbidden City, bargain shopping at the Silk Market, and a walk upon a section of the Great Wall of China.
Before their feet even hit the ground back in Atlanta, some were convinced they could live and work in China.