Our study trip to our partner university in Guangzhou in China
As we sat in the plane, we have already thought much about what awaits us the next days. After all, China is not just around the corner, where you can go spontaneously. Most of the students of the group haven’t had a chance before to discover China. So the trip was perfect for understanding and learning a bit about Chinese culture.
Especially impressive are the mentality and the hospitality of the Chinese. Our guides helped us so much throughout the stay, for example when we went out for eating, when checking in at the hotel, using public transport, and they organised excursions and sightseeing events. The Chinese students have always been passionate about it.
We have realised also a few differences compared to Germany. For example, studying in China. Since we have had a lot of contact with the Chinese students, we got an insight into the life of a student in China. In Guangzhou, the university has about 25,000 students and there is a huge campus. Our university in Schweinfurt looks like a small school compared to it. But in China, the size of this campus was rather smaller than average. There are many universities that have many more students and much larger campuses. We also think studying is taken much more seriously than in Germany. In China, parents also pay a lot of money so that their children can study.
Another difference we noticed is paying in China. You can pay cashless all over China with the app “WeChat”. Even in the smallest restaurant or tiny shops, people pay with the app. In Germany, it is hard to imagine that one pays a roll at the bakery with a mobile phone. The smartphone is even more important in China than it is here. It regulates the complete life of humans. We also noticed that almost every one has a smartphone, no matter how old they are.
Similarly, the work mentality is different than in Germany. The worker protection laws in china have become stricter in the last years but not as the same level as Europe. In China, people work really hard for the money and only stop when the work is really done and the family has enough for living. On a Saturday we were in a really good restaurant and were a bit shocked to learn that the restaurant is open 24 hours 365 days a year. You can’t imagine that in Germany.
Special highlights of the trip were, of course, the exchange of experience with the Chinese students. This way we had real contact with Chinese culture and we could ask a lot of questions and this way we got much more than all the typical tourism insights such as sightseeing tours only.
With this in mind, we would like to say thank you very much in the name of the whole group to the responsible people of the MBA program of the University in Guangzhou for the great planning and for all their support throughout our time there. And we would also like to say thank you to all the people responsible at FHWS for making this trip possible and especially for the grants that made the trip affordable for all of us as students. Also a big thank you especially to Mrs. Weberbauer and Mrs. Gampl for organisation and for joining the trip.
The trip was a complete success and we can say that we got great insights into the Chinese culture and about China.
