Day 5: Suzhou, Thursday, June 21, 2012

Place: Suzhou, Mingtown International Hostel

Wakeup: 7.00 am

Weather: Cloudy but hot

Breakfast: Banana

Topic of the Day: Foreign direct investments / Knowledge spillovers / Chinese Entrepreneurship

In the morning we took the bus to get from our hostel to the Suzhou New District, which is located west of Suzhou. During our journey entertainment was provided by the authors of today’s article. The first surprise, as we arrived at the Jakob Müller Machinery (China), was a cup of the greatest coffee we drank so far in China (brewed by a Swiss made Jura coffee machine). The company, with the headquarters in Frick, Switzerland, is the market leader in the production of narrow knitting and weaving machines. We gained an impression of the assembly of these machines by walking through the production hall. As the new production site of Jakob Mueller China just opened a few weeks before, the factory seems to show a more transparent organization and Swiss precision in the design of the production line. We also gained insights into the company`s practice of quality management. The next highlight of the day was a lunch in the firm’s own canteen, sharing our meal with the employees. We learned how to correctly act with the chopsticks: Face down and just shuffle in as fast as you can! The Lonely Planet guide book has already been updated with this modern Chinese behavior.

Best coffee we have had so far (Photo: Mario Huber)

Lunch at the canteen at Jakob Müller Machinery (Photo: Mario Huber)

Group picture at Jakob Müller Machinery (China) (Photo: Mario Huber)

After lunch we moved to Times Square in the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP). There we had time for shopping, having a cup of coffee or walking along the lake. After a short visit of the library of Suzhou Dushu Lake Science and Education Innovation District, we were guided to the exhibition hall of the district. There we got an introduction to the ideas, situation and policies for this district from the institution's representative Alice. The multimedia technology used in this presentation was impressive (Imax Cinema, Matrix reloaded layout and the 3D-model of the city master plan). The male audience surely enjoyed the tour – we truly felt like in Wonderland.

Sign at the show room (Photo: Mario Huber)

In the late afternoon we had an interesting meeting with some students of the Hong-Kong Space Global College, which is located in the Innovation District. There we were warmly welcomed and got an interesting introduction from the students about both, Suzhou district and Suzhou culture. We also had time to chat about life, higher education systems and impressions about China.

Meeting with students at the Hong-Kong Space Global College (Photo: Mario Huber)

Making friends (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Chinese student presenting about their college life (Photo: Mario Huber)

Impressions from Suzhou old town (Photo: Heike Mayer)

The day ended with the Chinese version of the fondue chinoise called “hot pot”. There you just put everything you find around in spicy boiling water and you just wait until it’s done. Respecting the temperatures outside we chose a meal which traditionally was a Chinese winter meal. ;-) So everyone was just sweating during the whole dinner. Lucky but tired we went do bed.

Not really, we just went out and had a really good last evening in Suzhou with the whole group.

Step count on our pedometer: 12 685

Mario Huber, Christoph Stäussi