First Month in Shanghai,

Dear all,

We'll as some of you might know there has been a rather serious metro crash here in Shanghai. The line involved is Metro Line 10, which just so happens to be the line which all students of the university take to the uni everyday, seeing as it is the only line that stops at Jiaotong Station. Non of the exchange students were on the train during the impact. Yet some traveled just before!! So It gave them quite a fright and now everyone had to walk quite far or take a taxi to get to the uni. But all that aside I have survived my first month in Shanghai and what a city it is!

Don't worry this will not be a recap of the last 3 weeks since my last post but it will cover some highlights. To start of with the main reason for my stay here in Shanghai, study. I am currently following 6 courses here at SJTU and 2 courses long distance at UvT. The courses listed below are the courses I follow at SJTU.

E-Marketing

E-Commerce

Management of Technology and Innovation

Compensation Management

Multinational Firms and Cross - Cultural Management

Quality Management

All courses apart from Quality Management are not extremely challenging. However there are a lot of differences with how the courses are taught. As mentioned before your grade is partly based on attendance and class participation. Therefore there is a clear incentive to prepare when you go to class. In addition to a prepared set of students the classrooms are rather small with only roughly 40 students attending each lecture. Therefore the lecturer knows the active and bright students by name. It also enables the lecturer to be far more interactive with his students. In addition to an active and participating class the lectures are made more interesting by the excessive use of cases. I know we do use case studies at Tilburg University however it does not nearly compare to the number of cases and real life examples we go through every lecture. Each class makes clear distinctions between the how Chinese and Foreign firms act in both domestic (China) and foreign countries. Which causes for lively discussions on which is better.

Even though we only have class once a week for 2 hours, I spend more time on each course here than I do in the Netherlands. This is due to homework! It feels like you’re back in high school. For almost all classes we have compulsory reading and homework which needs to be handed in the following week. The homework so far has not been really challenging but it does ensure that you are actively engaging in the course and are up to speed with the course material. In addition to homework, which by the way is all graded and has a weight in your final grade, we have team assignments for all classes. Teams are mixed and matched so all nationalities are bundled together. Assignments so far have been challenging to do while working with the Chinese students. Their lack of English does prove to be an issue and they will expect

you to do all class presentations. However issues such as font and size of the text in documents and PowerPoints is a lively discussion which, believe me, is not something we discuss at length in Holland! However although sometimes challenging lessons are mostly fun and interesting because for me it is the first time that I have been able to chose the lessons I take. So no more Maths, Micro, Statistics or Kotler’s Marketing Management. Now I am able to follow classes I enjoy and find interesting so there is an extra incentive to do well.However the students we interact with in class are mostly the upper-class students so they are not as stubborn as the locals we meet. So when in a discussion about certain ways business is done in China they do not slam the door but do try to reason. We are constantly reminded that these discussions are for the classroom only and should not be held outside of the freedom of the University. Also topics such as ‘The Wall’ (China’s firewall) and other government restrictions are talked about freely in class. Much to the surprise of myself and my fellow international students. We are assured that in the University we must know what the world is ‘really’ like and once we understand it we can find ways to cope within the limits set by the Chinese government.

Of course I have done more than just studying! I've visited Hangzhou, which the Chinese call a small city (more than 5 million inhabitants) which is near a beautiful lake at the foot of the Yellow Mountains. A truly beautiful sight! Getting there is quite a hassle. You cannot hop on and off of trains here. You get in a train at the starting destination and get out along the way but you cannot hop on the train half way. In the trains you are assigned a seat and you have to pass through airport-like security to get on the train. If you want to continue your journey from the end destination of the train you have to get out of the station and buy a ticket there and then get back in. Which believe me is not a quick undertaking. So when we arrived in Hangzhou we still

had a 50 minute carbide to the lake, even though there is a train station 5 min walking from the lake… So we got into an illegal cab and for next to nothing the guy drove us at insane speeds to our destination. However if the reckless driving did not scare you the guy was drinking alcohol, smoking, spitting and reading the newspaper all at once. We went with a group of 10 people and had a wonderful time. Enjoying a boat ride and a local evening meal only to take a bullet train back to Shanghai

Off course the PuDong area has not escaped my eyes. The wonderful building surround you as well as the nicest cars money can buy. The Oriental Pearl Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center (which was the world’s highest building 2004-2010) do catch the eye. However I do have a tip. Going up to the top of the Pearl and the SWFC costs roughly 15 euro’s. What you can better do is take a walk around the entrance of the SWFC to a side entrance and go into the Park Hyatt. Do ensure you are not sweating like crazy and make sure you dress reasonably and take the elevator almost to the top and sit in the bar of the most expensive hotel in Shanghai. Where the same view (even higher than the one on the pearl) and a 15 euro cocktail will make the experience unforgettable! Watching the sun set over Shanghai while sipping away at a perfectly mixed Harvey Wallbanger and during the second Original Daiquiri watching the skyline light up from the building lights makes the start of an unforgettable night.

Clubs such as Bar Rouge, Mint, M2 (and M1 and M3) really are good places to go and enjoy yourself but be prepared to pay top dollar for drinks. Getting a table will set you back several hundred euro’s but is defiantly worth the wile! (However do make sure you have friends to split the bill with!) Yet if your budget does not stretch endlessly Cottons, Zatapas, Phebe and Soho enable you to sip away all night for less than 10 euro’s. Club life is very lively because all internationals are eager to meet new people and it makes for an interesting crowd!

So how do I get around this busy city of Shanghai. the best way some say is the Metro. However as one could even read in my regional paper ‘De Gelderlander’ it is not as safe as people say. Others say taxi but they are clearly not familiar with Shanghai traffic. No the best way to get around any major metropolis is by scooter! Yes you heard me, and not one of those gas guzzling noise making ones. No! A quite, sophisticated, and beautiful example of Chinese engineering, the electric scooter! I am currently the owner of a Vespa-look-alike scooter whose brand does not have a name! I paid roughly 300 euro’s for my little Vespa which is half a year old. It is electric which means that I don’t pay tax, in shanghai electric scooters are the same as a bicycle so no insurance. If you crash it’s covered under your ‘WA’. I charge it in the garage of our apartment for FREE otherwise you pay 23 euro cents per day. And it will take me 50km before the battery runs out! However I do not count on the thing going any further than 25 because then I’m scared of getting stuck! I simply use it to go to university and back and to the supermarket and out to dinner. However it’s a good thing that I have my motorcycle license in the Netherlands in combination with having owned a scooter which has provided me with some much needed experience. Traffic in Shanghai is dangerous! There are no real set rules people follow here and your horn is more important than your break of you catch my drift. But the dangers and pollution aside I still ride it to class every day smiling knowing I don’t have to stand in crowded subways or get stuck in traffic while sitting in a taxi!

Food here in China is great! However breakfast, lunch and dinner consist of either rice or noodles. You have to try and try again to find the best places for a good price. I have never cooked here at home because dining outside is more fun and no dishes and the price is roughly the same. However we do have a lovely Chinese roommate who cooks for us once in a while!

So I’m now busy packing for the Chinese Holiday which is from the 1^st till the 7^th of October. However holidays in China are really from the 1^st till the 7^th. What I’m trying to say is that on the 8^th and 9^th of October which are a Saturday and a Sunday I have to go to class because those days are not a holiday! So the holiday is really only 7 days after that it’s back to class! This just goes to show how dedicated these students are! Putting this aside I leave for Inner Mongolia on the 29^th of September and am returning on the 6^th of October. I will go to the grasslands to ride horses and sleep in a local tent which looks like a ‘tipi’ and visit many temples and tombs. I’m sure I will have a wonderful time and look forward to telling you all about it on my next blog entry!

With kind regards,

Didier Lambriex