Day 9, Shanghai (Team 11: Massion, Guy, Wallace, Sprecher)

June 18th, 2008

Today was a day of industry and fun for all of the members of our trip. The day started early, far earlier than any other day we had had, 7:45 am. Reason being, we wanted to make sure our arrival time stayed on track and was not delayed by traffic on our way to Shanghai Portola Packaging Company. Sure enough, we did not hit one bit of traffic and we arrived to Portola ahead of schedule. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it enabled us to meet and spend ample time with the Managing Director of Portola Asia and discuss the packaging industry.

The Q and A session that was held was both informational and most enjoyable for all the students. Who knew the packaging industry in China was so much different from the packaging industry in America, not so much factory wise but more infrastructure? Portola’s Managing Director was both informative and impressive in his background. The man knows 20 languages, speaking 7 of them fluently. This shows the importance of understanding other cultures and embracing other countries and their customs. The factory tour itself was also very exciting. Being able to see how Portola utilized injection molders, compression molders and assembly was interesting. The warehouse, that was primarily Just-In-Time (JIT), was also interesting to see from a packaging perspective. One of the most interesting things was how the corrugated shippers used were different from those used in America. Instead of using a B and C flute double wall container, they were using a C and A flute double wall container. That is just one example of the different practices used in China. We thank Portola and their representatives for their time.

Following a final Q and A with the Managing Director, we made our way to the Yangshan Deepwater Port, just off the coast of China. The drive out to the port was long, which enabled most students to catch up on sleep on the bus ride. The suspense leading up to the port became more apparent once we made it to Donhai Bridge, the second longest bridge in the world. The bridge itself is 21 miles long and spans for as far as the eye can see. At the end of the bridge was the Deepwater port which was impressive in its own right. All of the port was built from the ocean up and contains 25,386 container slots, with 18 container gantry cranes to move the containers from the port to the ships. What was interesting was that this port holds the record for the most containers moved in an hour, 120. Following our Q and A session with the port representative, that was translated by the great Gary Chow, we made our way up to the exhibition room that contained a model of the entire port. It seems apparent at this point that the Chinese enjoy models for displaying the structures and areas that they are proud of. This is the second model that we have seen on our tours, with a third being at the regional planning museum in Shanghai. The model was informative and really put the idea of the port system into perspective. We thank the Yanghshan Deepwater Port for its time.

The final event of the evening was our fair well dinner at Yakshi! We were provided with dinner and entertainment throughout the evening, both dancing and singing, with many members of our MBA/ITS team joining in on the fun. Following dinner was a trip to a top end nightclub, where Dr. Carr’s friend Alex kindly hosted us for an evening of dancing and clubbing that could only be brought to us from the city of Shanghai. While there we me additional interesting and successful expats and locals to build our social and professional networks. I could not imagine a better way to spend our last evening in Shanghai and in China. Alex was very kind to do this. Thank you Alex!

Tomorrow it’s off to our final company visit in China, and then tomorrow night we fly to India!!

Entry Filed under: Shanghai, China