Day 03:
The 3rd day of our trip started off with the usual breakfast at the hotel and off we went to Tian Jin University via 1 hour bus trip. We also met the representative at the South entrance as there are a total of four entrances in the university, North, South, East & West.
Tianjin University is a national university under the direct administration of the Ministry of Education in China.
It is also the first modern higher education institution in China. Established in 1895 as Peiyang Western Study School (天津北洋西學學堂/天津北洋西学学堂) and changed to Peiyang University (Chinese: 北洋大學堂/北洋大学堂).
Later in 1951, after restructuring, it was then named as Tianjin University, and became one of the largest multidisciplinary engineering universities in China.
Tianjin University is one of the first 16 universities accredited by the State in year 1959. Also, it is among the first group of institutions of higher learning in the national "211 Project" to which priority is given in construction.
Below is a picture of the University via South entrance.
We first arrived at the school's History Museum for some history and background information of the school. It was well-renovated and spacious. What interested us was the artifacts and interesting time lines.
Also, I managed to have a chat with Mr Ong and know more about Shanghai that I have not visited yet. He also exchanged some views on the economy and pace of China.
This is how the school badge and flag in year 1895, before the school is renamed to Tianjin University.
This was the school's magazine in year 1955. It made me wonder how the inside looks like.
The interesting timeline that noted down the history of this university. It has more than 100 years of history since its establishment in year 1895. Wow!
This was the first certificate given to their first graduated student.
Another stretch of time line showing videos of the school's history! So engaging while we walked down the path.
Sculpture of the principal.
The Double- dragon Treasure Stars Honor medal that Dr Charles Danie Tenney received in 1903 by the Qing Government.
The textbooks used by universities and colleges in China edited by Tianjin University.
Students' answers marked and edited by teachers. Their handwriting were really neat and pretty.
Mr Zhao Tianlin was the first president of Tianjin University (Previously Peiyang University) from year 1914 to 1938.
Here is a list of presidents and their background information of the school throughout the 100 years history. And below is the current president of the school.
We then moved on to pass by the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology! They have different schools like us, polytechnics.
We moved on to the School of Engineering and to their workshop to take a look of what they do in reality. This is a student working on the handicrafts and operating the equipment. It was quite an eye-opener as the equipment we used in our Design and Technology classes were so much easier to operate.
Having to walk around the campus, we find the facilities are not as much as the polytechnics in Singapore and the learning environment is poor especially the stinking smell is obvious through the corridors.
The classrooms are also too small for the many students, resulting into cramped learning space.
The equipment requires the user to be careful and skillful. The student followed a list of code to control the equipment and each step takes up a lot of time.
Here is the end products of so much hard work by the students! Look how exquisite the pieces are and how delicate each cut is! We probably do not have so much patience to last us the work-shipment.
The equipment with so many steering wheels to control.
Old-school computer like engineering equipment to control how the equipment works.
Next stop was the university's sport hall and running track. To cater to all the students (about 15,000 undergraduates) of the school, the running tracks is so much bigger than the one in our school. The whole place is gigantic even when we view it from outside. We were not allowed in at the point of school tour.
We were very much distracted by the dog nearby the stadium. His name is Pang Pang and barks at everyone who comes near her.
At last, we had our lunch at the Tianjin University's restaurant. The dishes in Tianjin were very much expected and each meal gets better so our appetite got so much bigger! We managed to finish more food each time.
I really loved the fact that we were given both hot Chinese tea and coke/ sprite each meal. Tea really helps us to digest better as we were always sitting on the bus after each meal. Chinese tea tastes really good too!
Aftermath, we had a Q&A session where the group asked relevant questions. We got to know that the school has a variety of co-curricular activities like Singapore. This is also to encourage of work and play for students.
When we were leaving the school, a Caucasian approached us asking if we are from Singapore as he was previously from National University of Singapore. He later introduced himself and that he came here to learn Chinese. He made me understand the need for independence and the beauty of independence.
When we were on our way to the Tianjin University, our tour guide, Min Jun talked to us about the university and education system in China. She raised up problems the country is facing as it is growing massively.
This makes me realize how fortunate we are in Singapore and our problems are probably not as severe as China. Some things are still up to us to decide and in our control. The citizens in China may not be as fortunate in this case.
We then made our way to Tianjin train station. We were going to take a 28 minutes long shuttle train to Beijing. It was my first shuttle train ride.
The train is spacious, allowing passengers to place their bags on top of seats and spaces around the seat.
There are also beverages, food & products for sale on the train, so much like a airplane.
This is also where Min Jun left us to travel to Beijing as another tour guide was taking over her. We missed her so much! She is like a motherly-figure to me. Thank god she was back for the company visits with us.
When we arrived at Beijing Train Station, it was completely different from Tianjin Train Station. It looked so much more modern and clean.
We then walked a distance to the bus to meet our new bus driver and tour guide. We unloaded our bags and went on the next destination for shopping, Wang Fu Jing Jie/ Street!
It is also known as the walking street, selling everything from women's fashion to eyeglasses and Chinese tea. Surrounding it are Beijing Department Store, Sun Dong An Plaza, Wang Fu Jing Department Store. Opposite this street would be Dong Dan Bei and Dong Si Nan Avenues which consists of small restaurants, shops and boutiques. Adding on, street food stalls must not missed. Brave ones might want to try deep-fried scorpion or grasshopper.
Unfortunately, we headed straight to Forever 21 since it was four-storey high and spent almost 9/10 of the given time. Almost the prices are similar to Singapore's Forever 21 but the variety were so much better. I brought 1 dress, 1 pullover and shorts.
With the remaining 1/10, we headed for our dinner since it was not provided. As the street food is too far out of direction, we went to buffet which costed only 66 RMB which is S$13 with free flow of beef, chicken and mutton.
One of the biggest regret for not having enough to visit Intime Lotte Mart.
This was where we were going to stay for the next few days: Royal King Residence Hotel, Beijing! Sadly, we only have access to wifi from 10am - 10pm. And we only arrives at the hotel at 8-9pm daily!
To end it all for Day 3:
This is how the check-in progress at Tianjin Train Station is like.
- Briefing by the teacher to keep in line as there are many people at the train station and it is easy to get lost.
- Going to queue up to get our bags checked.
- Tianjin Train Station practise strict customs checks. We were getting all our baggage scanned before being allowed into the train station.
- Finding our way to the correct exit and the right train. It happened to be the last one of the row which is at the other end of the waiting area.
- Getting up and unloading, making ourselves comfortable for the 28 minutes ride.
Day 04:
It was the most tiring as we had the most number of company visits packed on the day. We visited one of Big Four Accounting firms, PriceWaterHouse Cooper Accounting & Consultancy Company.
It was really a fruitful visit for me and the accountancy students as it is relevant to our field of study and perhaps career for some.
There were three speakers, Ms Iris from Singapore, Ms Emily, Ms Jone and Mr Simon.
They were really well-prepared although their English language were not very good. Their slides were in English so it held on our interests. I can see their interests in sharing about what really is like to be in an accounting firm. Furthermore, their slides were really detailed, covering most of the aspects that we are concerned of.
Firstly, they corrected our wrong perspective that PWC is a group company. In actual fact, PWC is a network of firms, a brand. It does not act like an agent and is not liable and responsible in any way for its clients. It is a network member firm and has to be localized as there is no unique law applies to the world.
In a situation where a Singaporean asks for service in Singapore, it may include other countries's law as they may sub-contract it with other countries' branch.
Thus, there are PWC firms in cities like Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Tianjin & Shenzhen. In total, there are 8,697 partners, 169,000 employees in a total of 158 countries.
Together, they share resources which is people, experiences and solutions. Employees may go over other branches in other countries.
PWC in China is the leading professional as PWC in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai are of the biggest with 13,000 staffs and 16 offices. They are divided into regions of North China, Central China and South China (Hong Kong and Macau). They plan to have more and more office in China as there are currently 23 offices in Mainland China, HK, TW and Singapore. They all work together in collaborative basis.
PriceWaterHouse Cooper services would include a pyramid with Assurance at the top, Tax and Consultancy at the bottom. Assurance would refer to auditing while tax is a set of services and consultancy is to come up with solutions with information.
Assurance and Auditing uses International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and aims to come up with corporate improving solutions, financial statements and internal auditing. They use same auditing methodology, techniques and tools and had by far audited over 11,000 domestic and multinational company.
Initial Public Offering (IPO) consists of Hong Kong Main Board, GEM Hong Kong Growth Entreprise, New York Stock Market Exchange, London Stock Market Exchange and Singapore Stock Market Exchange.
Tax services, on the other hand, would be China Tax, Mergers & Acquisitions, International Assignment Solutions, Tax Planning & Compliance, Indirect Taxes, Customs and Trade and Transfer Pricing.
Corporate tax services would include non-tax resident enterprises reporting and filing, ownership structure, "health check" on China Entity, Tax consulting and Tax Planning Services.
Building up effective organizations, innovation & growth are parts of Consulting & Deals. Its definition would be more of dealing with people, advice for clients and thinking in various ways.
A career life in PWC is an opportunity of a lifetime. It make sure you know exactly what decisions to make, build career that is right for you and different opportunities for different people.
PWC creates unique solutions, have balanced and objective opinions and give tax advice to help clients and divide themselves into different teams like audit team etc.
One would have a career less ordinary by giving clients more than what they ask for, build relationships that help create kind of value people want and will never get to work alone.
Your career path will go as an associate for the first 1-2 years, a senior associate on the 3rd to 5th year, assistant manager in in between 6-7 years in Singapore, 7-12th year would senior manager and it takes 12 years to be a director or partner.
As an associate, you will learn the business and develop skills while you receive professional qualifications as a senior associate. Later as a manager, you will develop strategic planning skill and drive firm's relationship as a director or partner.
Doing business in China would refer to looking at the Economic Development of China. Some initiatives would be Open-Door Policy to attract foreign investment, regional or special industry areas for foreign industry, states-owned enterprise, domestic enterprise and 4,000 billions investments on infrastructure.
Basically, the GDP growth in percentage from year 2006 to 2011 is 12.7%, 14.2%, 9.6%, 9.2%, 10.4% and 9.2%. In 2010, 10.4% edged past Japan's 39.8 billion RMB.
One contributing factor would be China's 12th Five-Year Plan, "We should not only make the cake of social wealth as big as possible but also distribute it in a fair way and let everyone enjoy the fruits of reform and reopening up."
PWC's key themes are sustainable growth, moving up value chain, reducing disparities, scientific development, energy efficiency and domestic consumption. Important goals would be to develop China's western regions, protecting environment and improve energy efficiency and improving lives of Chinese citizens.
Foreign direct investment for 2010 was 105.7 US $ billion and China has been actively encouraging foreign investment and opened its markets to foreign industries. The manufacturing sector is very big part of China's economy and it has a falling percentage of growth. Government is being very cautious in controlling and monitoring pace of opening up.
China's Catalog Guiding is Encourage (Energy Saving Projects), Restricted (Heavy Energy Areas) and Prohibited (Media).
Foreign exchange control is tightly controlled, RMB is not a fully convertible currency. It is controlled by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). They separate foreign currency into different bank accounts like capital and currency. Currency account has not restriction while capital account is being subjected to FX.
To hedge foreign exchange, similar to Singapore, China would network with other economic bodies under WTO membership for free trade agreements (FTA) and DTA Double Trade Agreements for Singapore, Japan, USA, Germany, Malaysia and Thailand. This way, it is safer in economic basis and in China, we would have to go to the bank to apply for change of currency. If all these are not being restricted, internal conflicts will arise.
WFOE, Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise is very popular in China now, setting up a WFOE would include steps like getting approval from Commerce Burean, Registration with Administration, Registraion with Tax Burean and Registration with other bureans which will take a total of 2-3 months.
Aftermath, we had a short Q&A session where questions are open to the ground. We learnt that the differences between China's tax system and Singapore's tax system is private car expenses being able to be deducted while it is not in Singapore. China goes with ballet system to get cars and reliefs is claimable on individual basis while it is on family basis for Singaporeans.
PWC provides the best services out of the big four firms. The user experience includes professionalism set of standards followed and coaching. They may have the same products as other accounting firms but they are not conservative in their perspectives and advice.
The slide below shows the China's Tax Administration System.
After the whole session was over, it was actually my second time to present the gift on behalf of the school. I was asked to add on more stuffs to say to the PWC staffs just 5 minutes before my speech. I had to come up with the speech few minutes before and I see the need for impromptu speech practice in Business Communication 2.
I added sincere thoughts and completed my speech by thanking their time to make us know more about PWC culture. It was the best company visit of all. We felt really comfortable asking them about the differences and practices.
We headed over to He Feng Si Jia Cai Restaurant for Beijing Roasted Duck for lunch! We were excited over this for almost the past 3 days in China. At least Beijing duck is something all of us are familiar with and would like!
The other dishes before Beijing Roasted Duck were good too and we ate a big big share for all the dishes.
The chef cut the duck on the spot and we were waiting patiently for the duck to be served!
And yes, everyone tried to control ourselves and took a photo before we started eating like gluttons.
Next stop is Meng Niu Dairy Factory!
Some background information of Meng Niu Diary Factory is that it is a manufacturing and distribution company of dairy and cream products. It is based in inner Mongolia. The company's main competitor is Yili Group.
We often find interesting chinese quotes in the factories of various companies.
As hygiene is very important in manufacturing processes, we were to wear shoes gloves even when we are touring around the factory.
Meng Niu's spokeperson briefing and introducing to us the different products they produce.
Yogurt which is widely found in the country.
Exhibit products like pure milk by Meng Niu.
Fermented Milk in various favor, pure, strawberry and kiwi.
Yogurt drink which is very popular in China and Fresh Milk.
There is also a information board dividing the company's operations.
After a tour around the factory and knowing about the operations of a milk factory, we were treated to their pre-launch product, Winter-Melon Ice Cream. It was a prefect treat of the hot weather.
We also had a short Q&A question and asked about what they think about their competitors. The spokeperson replied us with confidence that they are not competitors but friends. We should learn from their achievements. This makes me think that it is the real way to perceive people working on the same things as you.
We also got to know how they keep up with the competitiveness in drinks and dairy products. They keep up with the pace by coming up with a new product every 5 days in average.This really tells us how much passion they have in work and the fast-paced nation.
The last company visit for the day was a talk at a hotel with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. The speaker is Mr Zhang, a senior staff of the company.
The logo of the company is an ancient China coin, started at 1 January 1984. It was previously named as Zhong Guo Ren Ming Gong Si. They had their first branch in Singapore and was basically a Bank of China for citizens which comprises mostly of savings and loans. The company is limited by shares in year 2005.
Just last year, 2011, their total assets is RMB $154,768,689.20 and had an average return of 1.44%. 408,859 staffs in the company, 239 foreign countries, 411 million of company clients and 2.82 billion of clients.
The bank's activities are company enterprise, personal banking services, services outside Singapore via foreign outlets, sales where demand determines supply and mobile/ ibanking.
In terms of risks management, they aim to combat trust/ credibility risks, movement risks where adjustments need to be made, market risks, operating and internal risks, controlling employees behavior and of course, internal control.
The culture of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China consists of its mission and vision.
The mission of the bank would be to provide excellent financial services, reap returns for shareholders, fulfill staff satisfaction and contribute to China's society by donating.
Vision is to be the most respected, outstanding and helpful bank in China.
In year 2010, it was voted by the media being China's Best Bank & international award, Millward Brown Optimer Number 11. The company emphasizes on honesty, integrity, personality, stability and outstanding.
Risks faced would be the world economic crisis and loss of profits which led to control of supply of currency and before investments, the bank would assess the company first.
Rewards for employees would be insurance policies, bonus every year and shares for good employees.
There is a customized risk management system which led to falling rate for bad debts and lowered possibilities of bad debts. And in order to sustain assets, there is a restriction of bank's expenses and that would restrict risks.
After the presentation was over, it was my turn to present the gift to Mr Zhang as a spokeperson of the group. I was not confident of public speaking and resulted in loss of speech in between. It was really bad and James, one of our tour guide talked to me on confidence and practising more to make perfect. James even shared his experience of speaking in front of 2000 people before.
It was truly one point to improve on for me.
