Day 2 - Shen Zhen and 華南城

After a day and a night spent in Hong Kong, it was time to enter China via Shen Zhen on a coach. Our HK guide brought us to the immigration centre when we were greeted and handed over to our Mainland Guide - Mr. 'Xiao' Deng!

He is 'Da' man!

Here's another one, that's our module and trip tutor, Mr. Wong. Looking like he's the big boss isn't he?

Mr. Wong's favourite pastime on the trip, taking photos! The other gentlemen in the picture is Mr. Kam, that's another of our tutor following us on the trip.

This is our company visit of the day: China South International Industrial Materials City.

How thoughtful of them to welcome us with a message on their electronic signboard, it reads: Welcoming the students from Singapore's Ngee Ann Polytechnic to the Materials City. The photo below is one of the many many group trip photos we took throughout the 12 days.


Oh, there was another group of NP students travelling with us on the same itinery while we were in China as well, the students are from the School of Engineering.

The Materials South City aims to create an interactive environment that houses thousands of industrial material players. It compromises of 5 main trade centres, each headed by five prominent investors from Carrianna Group, Man Sang Group, Kin Hip Metal and Plastic Factory Ltd, Luk Ka International Ltd and Kings Faith International Pte Ltd. The 5 main trade centres are:
1. Textile and Clothing Materials
2. Leather and Accessories
3. Metals, Chemicals and Plastic Materials
4. Printing, Paper Products and Packaging Materials
5. Electronic Accessories

We were given a close look of the city after a briefing by the manager. We travelled around in mini vehicles such as these:

The main advantages of 華南城 is that it is in close proximity of Hong Kong, and it is easily accessable by all modes of transport. Given that it sits right in the middle of all major expressways, is close to Hong Kong International Airport and Shen Zhen International Airport, as well as Hong Kong's seaport, one of the busiest ports in the world.

Other incentives for businesses include rental fee waive for the first two years of business operations in order to encourage more businesses to enter and invest in the China South City.

Day 1 - Hong Kong Trade Development Council

After lunch, we headed over the the Hong Kong Trade Development Centre. Our first reaction when we alighted the bus was that the weather was freaking cold! It was like walking around in an air-conditioned room with the cold air blowing in your face! These are my groupmates, from left, Yong Wei, myself, Edward, Christine, Glenda and Tiffany, we were given about 15 minutes or so for photo-taking before we entered the main office. This was the site where the Hong Kong Handover Ceremony took place in July 1st 1997.

We were greeted by Ms. Emily Cheung, Corporate Relations Executive of HKTDC. She gave us an overview into the operations of the HKTDC. The services the HKTDC provides businesses, in particular, Small and Medium Sized (SMEs), with a wide range of practical, relevant services that are easy to access and easy to use, and with targeted promotional activities in international markets. Many TDC services are provided for free.

After the briefing and the Q and A session, Ms. Cheung showed us around the building and within the building, there are souvenir shops that has set up their operations within the TDC building, where such shops are given special previlages, such has having their tax on porfits being absorbed by the TDC.

We were than given a tour of the library and were shown the facilities it has. It is a two-storey library with a wide range of facilities, such as internet login points, printing and photocopying services and a wide range of catalogues for businesses to utilise.

In particular, businesses that are targeting to enter the Pearl River Delta region through Hong Kong, there is a specific section that has information regarding China Trade and Investment resources. In that section, people can find information on the Laws and regulations for foreign companies operating in China, guidebooks on import and export procedures, trading guidebooks on the Chinese Market and telephone directories on businesses operating in china.

There is also a section containing entirely statistics of everything related to the Chinese Market and the business environment. Information in that section are sorted according to type of statistics, statistics specific to provinces and statistics specific to Industries, suited to businesses’ needs, depending on what type of information they are looking for.