Day 07 - A day of tours (05/26/11) - UMD LSBE Study-in-China 2011

Today we had no classes, but we went on two tours; one of a winery and another of an electronics recycling plant.

The winery was pretty interesting to me, I hadn't learned much about making wine other than that grapes are used. It was cool to learn about the process, and the history behind the company. The company, Dynasty, was a joint venture with France. Dynasty was the second wine company in China, and has since become very popular. They became successful enough to create a castle in their name close to their plant, almost like a museum for their history.

The recycling plant was a bit more interesting to me. We learned that China actually manages 90% of the world's electronic goods recycling. While China might be behind in some things like manufacturing or recycling, it's interesting that they actually buy the 'waste' from other countries to be able to handle its recycling and sell the raw materials back. While we were walking around the lot, it was pretty interesting to see electronic goods from the 90s getting disassembled for recycling. There were even first generation flat screen TVs, which seem thick now.

Later at night, a few of us went to a hip-hop party hosted by the same bboys that Alex and I sessioned with earlier in the week. The party was not how I had expected it to be, in fact... it was better than I thought it would be. Hip-Hop has evolved very differently in China due to its contextual culture.

While in the US it is likely that everyone wants to represent themselves and show how they are better than everyone else, while saying their style is the way to go... it is very different than here. In China, it seems that everyone is just in it to have a good time, while supporting everyone around them. At the party, there was a lot of studio styled dance. This would be frowned upon by the people I learned from, however I think that it's great that it is growing and that more people are involved in doing what they love.

Here are some highlight pictures:

Dynasty Castle