Day 5 - Pearl River Piano Company and Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University

This was the first visit of the day.

The most notable point of this company is that they all their employees are musically trained before they are allowed to work in the production line.

Their production line is huge. And it is really interesting to see how the piano is assembled, they have a level for assembling the normal upstanding pianos and exam pianos, and another level for the assembly of grand pianos.


Prettyyyy in Pink. This sexy, foxy looking piano was the attraction of many of us. Even the black keys (flat and sharp keys) are in pink.

This grand piano costs just SGD$4,000 - SGD$5,000 (or there abouts). That's awfully cheap for a grand piano.

The company, at one point, realised that they did not have what it takes to compete with piano manufacturers in the West because the piano itself did not originate from China, but from the West. What the company did was, in 2000, they decided to use and integrate German technology into their production line.

After which, we toured their shop in the factory, and we learnt that the company do not just manufacture and sell pianos, but they also produce:

Violins,

Guitars,

Electric Guitars (pretty in pink again),

and even trumpets,

And that was when we caught "Lao" Yao...

After which, we proceeded to their function hall, where Pei Xuan and Stephie played the piano for us before we proceeded with the briefing and Q&A session.


And during the video session of the history of the company...

As you can see, this was the front row. We were all exhuasted as we've been staying up really late the last few nights creating a havoc in the hotel, not to mention we received a few complains from the hotel staff regarding our noise as well. *Opps*

And after the video, we had the Q&A session under way, and...


half of us were asleep. And in case you're wondering, I did not take this photo, because I was trying to fight the 'Z' monster myself at the back of the function hall. *Double Opps*

This must have been the shortest Q&A session we had in all of 5 days, so peiseh lah, everyone of us falling asleep right in front of the host company.

Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University

After that, we proceeded to lunch, before proceeding to the Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University for a (in Mr. Wong's words) "solid 2 hour lecture" from hell (those were my words) about the development of Guangdong province, its industries, its consumer market and the investment opportunities.

Just take a look at what the professor had on a typical powerpoint slide:

He was practically reading every single word off the slide, and many of us were trying very hard to stay awake through out the lecture. Geroge was saying that during the first few slides, he was still thinking that it'll be over soon, but when the Prof got to his 8th or 9th slide, he knew we're all in for a crazy lecture.

And that's when we started doing things like, taking photos:


Some of us were drawing, others are just copying notes in chinese for the sake of keeping ourselves awake.

And here's the hero of the Lecture, Professor Le Che (second from left):


When we were about to leave, Geroge realised that he left his bag and wallet in the lecture room. And to make things worse the student who locked the room was no where to be found. The incident resulted in several people getting unhappy and upset about it, as well as other incidents as a result of this.

Thankfully, Lao Yao went back to the university at night to recover hisbag and the matter was resolved.

Day 4 - Guangzhou leather wholesale market

This was the first real eye-opener of many of us in the trip.

Many of us came into the place with the mentality that we are there to shop, much to our surprise, and disgust in some cases, that it is not to be.

We were seperated into groups where there is at least a guy amongst the guys for safety reasons.

Most of us came back to the assembly area empty handed, as well as disappointed.

Many of the vendors there simply aren't interested in doing 'business' with us simply because they know we are not there to do business, but to shop.

In other cases, because we were all dressed in our blazers, some of the vendors were rather intimidated by our presence as we were travelling around in big groups of at least 7 people per group.

3 major incidents that took place in that place were:

1. When Edward and I were in one stall, the moment we went in and picked up a wallet to see, the staff hauled us out of their store and close their doors, and switched off the lights and drew the curtains.

It was only when we walked around the bend when we realised why, there were police patrolling in the area, and that stall, along with at least a dozen others, had something to hide. We could only think its bootleg goods.

2. A couple of us walked across the street and there was a stall we managed to strike a deal whereby we buy at few belts at a predetermined agreed upon price. But when the girls picked out their belts and were ready to pay, the stall owner hiked up the price. We got upset and walked away, with the lady hurling vulgarities at us.

3. Just before we left, Tiffany and a group of girls were ready to buy a few wallets (or was it bags?) at a stall in the complex, after they agreed on a price, Tiffany went aside to collect the money from those who wanted to buy while the vendor went to another outlet to get the bags. It was then when someone heard that vendor telling other vendors while smiling, "今晚请你们吃饭!" It was then they realised that the vendors were trying to make a quick buck out of us, they quickly left the compound before the vendor returned.

Day 4 - Lunch-in with Mr. Nee

Mr. Nee is the Regional Director of IE Singapore's branch office in the South China region.

During the session, he gave us an overview of the role of IE Singapore in international trade as well as the history and purpose of the entire organisation.

IE Singapore has 500 staff in 37 offices across the world. 7 of which are in China, with one office in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Maccu, with substations in Qingdao and Dalian.

We also learnt that Guang Zhou accounts for 1/4 of China's foreign investment, and 1/3 of the country's foreign trade.

The biggest lesson we all walked away from the session was, as what Mr. Nee told us, that we can have all the money in the world, but if we don't have the brains or the motivation to work and make things work, we'll never succeed.

And he also told us to bear in mind that we should always retain our values as who we are as a Singaporean and as a person.

His advice for Singaporeans thinking of investing overseas? "Don't lose your values, principles and sense of integrity.

Day 4 - 72 Stones Memorial and Wu Yang Park

We visited two local tourist attractions today, the 72 Stones Memorial and Wu Yang Park. Nothing much, we just took a couple of photos at these places.

Xiao Deng said that the 72 stones memorial was called as such because it is the tomb of the 72 Martyrs during the Chinese Revolutionary War.

It was also in this place that I started to feel that things were out of place. Just that I couldn't quite place my finger on it. The problem comes in when people read too much into things. I'd like to think that I don't have to constantly look at my back, worrying about when and where something will stab me in the dark or what have you.

From left top: Dickson, Yong Wei, Keiza, Wen Song, Sherly, Pei Xuan and myself, the one below is Ying Hui. This was the beginning of the coming uncomfortable 8 remaining days. And it is still kinda hard to let all these past me by...


Wu Yang Park was the place where all of us took our first group photos with our cameras, starting with the guys:

Top (Left to Right): Guan Hong, Nicholas, Wen Song, Yong Wei and Benson
Center (Left to Right): Dickson, Ying Hui, George, myself and Edward.
Bottom row: Zhi Wen

The girls took the photos for us, and Benson always seem to always have the most interesting of poses. The guys next helped the girls with their group photo;


Top (left to right): Winnie, Tze Kee, Denise, Vanessa, Evelyn, Keiza, Sherly, Pei Xuan, Wei Xuan and Joyce
Bottom (left to right): Yiling, Elizabeth, Baoyi, Stephaine, Andrea, Rong Xing, Tiffany, Carol, Mingli, Jasmine, Christine, Xin ni and Glenda

Hmmm, and where are the tutors all these while?


And what is Mr. Kam looking at?

I have no idea where were Ms. Ng (Ah-Bu) or Mr. Wong though.

Most people boarded the bus rather quickly, I was one of the last to board the bus because I was waiting for Rong Xing and Elizabeth (as usual... Haha). They were buying some snacks or something, and admist the rush, they brought the wrong one.

And Rong Xing, being herself, even tried bargining at the packet of snack she brought... and she failed to cut it to a lower price. Haha.

We next proceeded to our only lunch-in of the trip, we were supposed to have 2 or 3 of such functions.

Day 4 - Zhu Jiang Brewery Group Ltd

Our first visit of the day was to the Zhu Jiang Brewery.

Established in 1985, Guangzhou Zhujiang Brewery Group Ltd is a large state-owned enterprise which is deals mainly in beer and its relative products such as label, carton, crate, etc. It is now a RMB$5 million per year production. It currently has 9 production lines in all of Mainland China.

Much of the production line is automated, as such, not many staff needs to be in the production line. This is evident as Zhu Jiang Brewery currently only has 2,800 workers spread across its 9 production plants.

Production begins with the milling of the four main ingredients used for the brewing are:

Hop (啤酒花),

Malt (麦芽),

Barley (大麦) and,
Rice (大米),
This machine that fills up the beer bottles with beer can fill up to 48,000 freaking bottles of beer per hour, which will make up to approximately 350,000 bottles of beer per day. That's like 13 bottles per second!

At the end of the tour, we were reach given a complimentary beer, which didn't (naturally) taste as good as Carlsberg or the beer we usually drink in Singapore (though Tiger sucks as well).

Day 3 - Transfer to Guang Zhou

We only spent one night in Shen Zhen, and today was the day we will be leaving for Guang Zhou. Before leaving Shen Zhen, we spent the morning visiting two of Shen Zhen's tourist spots:

Window of the World; and the Shen Zhen Muesem

We were greeted by the statue of an eagle as we entered the first exhibition hall:

The reason why an eagle was on display was because the shaped of Shen Zhen and its coastline resembles that of an eagle spreading its wings wide while soaring in the sky.

After which, we headed to lunch, when Xiao Deng told us that every meal we'll have in China is gonna be 8 dishes and a soup, 八菜一汤. Epps.

So we were on our way transfering to Guang Zhou to visit the only company of the day, Aztech System Ltd. It was a 2 hour bus ride, which turned into a 4 hour bus ride when the driver lost his way.

That's our driver who was with us for the 9 days we were in China. He rocks too!

So with the long 2 hour turned 4 hour bus ride, we all did what we always do the moment we were on the bus:

Sleep lah, what else can we do?

哎唷! Who's that sleeping with his mouth wide open?


Edward!!

Day 3 - Aztech Systems Ltd.

We ended up arriving to Aztech Systems Ltd at around 4pm. As a result, we had to postpone a visit to another company we intended to visit today.

However, Aztech was the most comprehensive visit and detailed tour we went through in the entire 12 days.

We were greeted by Mr. Jeremy Mun, the director of operations for the Aztech Factory in Guang Zhou. He first gave us a brief overview of the company's background and the range of products that the company unfolds, as well as its future plans.

When he finished his presentation, he simply said, "I understand that there is a list of questions that you guys have prepared, can somebody pass the list to me?"

And we were shocked because he was so helpful. We asked a few questions before deciding to have the Q&A session after the factory tour because it was close to dinner time, which means the workers are going off soon.

We were decided into three groups and being lead by Mr. Mun himself, and a NP intern doing her 6 months APT with Aztech, as well as a guy named Jeremy (I think) who just recently graduated from NTU, majoring in Electronics Engineering.

We were given a tour of the factory production line, the living quarters of employees as well as the recreational facilities. And we were all taken aback by how 'Singaporean' everything looks like in that place.

The living quarters were undergoing Lift Upgrading (LUP - Soooooo Singaporean lah). What to expect when you have a Singapore company operating in Guang Zhou?

Even their basketball courts looks Singapore-like:

And so does their canteen:

After the tour of the factory's facilities, we toured the production line. We weren't supposed to take any photos of the production line, but Mr. Mun allowed us to do so, but we can't take any pictures of their products though.

The production line area is very neat and well organised. Everything seems very efficient. There are even flow charts that shows the entire manufacturing and assembling processes can been seen by all employees so that everyone knows what is going on.

Other notable points are that their employees are colour coded in a sense that workers in different areas of production are identified by the colour of their attire so that no one gets mixed up.

Seen here is the Quality control point where workers check the quality of the materials before sending them to the production line. These workers are identified by their pink tops. Which at this stage of the tour, we realised that Elizabeth (bird) is also wearing an identical pink top. Haha.

After the tour, we headed back to the meeting room where we continued with the Q&A. We were blasting Mr. Mun with so many questions that Mr. Wong had to stop the Q&A session as it was getting really late.

By the time we were done and ready to leave the place, it was already past 7pm. All of us were hungry but felt that this was the best company visit we had so far.