After promoting Sweden Day and a “Sandvik factory visit” on Tsinghua and Beihang in Beijing we were happy to pick up 40 students this last Thuesday for the excursion.

Josefine and Kristina had prepared an engineering quiz for the students to entertain them during the ride (as if they didn’t have enough problems to solve at their Universities…).
The bus ride lasted about an hour and a half before arriving at the entrance to the factory, where some skilled Chinese gardeners had done their work.

On location the students were introduced to the global Sandvik organization and the Lanfang factory before taking a tour through the production line.
The visit was rounded off with lunch in the factory restaurant (actually very delicious for beeing a cantine lunch!!) and all the students received Sandvik backpacks, which they loved! (btw, Chinese students love giveaways like nothing else)

During the ride home the winners of the engineering quiz were announced and received their extremely precious prizes: swedish candy!! (that was met with alot of suspicion…)
Josefine and Kristina also arranged a “true or false” competition with vital facts about Sweden so the students are now certified Sweden connoisseurs.

At the end of the day everyone was tired but happy with another successfull Project China arrangement!

At the moment we have been in China for two and a half weeks. (You can follow our proceedings closer on minimax.hhss.se, where we are videoblogging and blogging more frequently).

During the first two weeks in China we stayed in Beijing. The first week was spent close to the campus of Tsinghua where we worked hard preparing for the big day, Sweden Day. We did a lot of promotion activities at Tsinghua campus but also at the Beijing Univeristy and Beijing university of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Beihang) campus. We gave out flyers to promote Sweden Day and the Sandvik factory visit. Some of these flyers were in the form of fans, perfect for the hot Beijing weather!

Liya and Viktor spent the days planning, delegating tasks to the rest of our project team as well as to the Tsinghua students from ASIC (Association of Students International Communication). They also spent various hours negotiating with the administration of the University to for example make sure that the TV-team from Chinese TV were allowed access to campus and so on. The rest of us spent our days carring out diverse tasks such as purchaseing necessary material for the Sweden Day expo, preparing texts for the exhibition of Swedish photos or working on designing and printing marketing materials.

The day before Sweden Day we spent our evening and late night with packing 1100 goodie bags and erecting the tents together with 30 enthusatic ASIC students.

After a week of working hard and late nights we were finally ready for Sweden Day. Early Sunday morning we were all at Tsinghua University prepared to fix the final things before the opening of Sweden Day. The last goodiebags where packed, stickers where put up on all posters informing the students that it was Sweden Day, tables and chairs where arranged and the companies came and arranged their tents.

The expo started at 10 a.m. and the first visitors started to arrive. At 11 a.m. it was time for the grand opening ceremony. For the ceremony we had invited the deputy principal of Tsinghua University and the Swedish amabassador Mikael Lindström who both held inspiring speeches and together inaugurated Sweden Day.CCTV-9, Chinese television with internation focus, were present during the day and interviewed students as well as the ambassador. The feature was sent twice later the same day on the programme Biz China.

During the day we had busses going back and forth between Beihang Univeristy (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics) and Tsinghua University to bring Beihang students to the expo. Our gold partner Sandvik also had a very interesting and popular lunch presentation for 50 selected students. The Swedish Institute also gave an informative and presentation about Sweden and how it is like to study in Sweden, which was very much appreciated by the students. The Sweden Day expo was very successful with approximatley 3500 visitors! The visitors were happy with the information about Sweden, our Universities and participating companies. At 3 p.m. the expo was officially over and it was time to pack up.

After the expo we went to Swissôtel for a banquet where everyone who helped to arrange and make Sweden Day a success were invited. After the banquet the celebration of the great Sweden Day expo continued at Vics, a popular night club in Beijing.

On Tuesday, June 9, it was time fot the last part of Sweden Day. 40 students from Beihang and Tsinghua Univeristy left for “Sandvik's factory visit.” Josefine and Kristina had prepared an engineering quiz for the students to entertain them during the ride. The busride lasted for about an hour and a half before arriving at the entrance to the factory, where some skilled Chinese gardeners had done their work by using bushes to form the company's name Sandvik.

On location the students were introduced to the global Sandvik organization and the Lanfang factory before taking a tour through the production line. The visit was rounded off with lunch in the factory restaurant (actually very delicious for beeing a cantine lunch!!) and all the students received Sandvik backpacks, which everyone appriciated.

During the ride home the winners of the engineering quiz were announced and received their extremely precious prizes: swedish candy!! (that was met with a lot of suspicion…) Josefine and Kristina also arranged a “true or false” competition with vital facts about Sweden so the students are now certified Sweden connoisseurs. At the end of the day everyone was tired but happy with another successful Project China arrangement!

Now that Sweden Day is officially over, the primary focus of Project China has shifted to gathering material for the Report book. We stayed on another week in Beijing to conduct several interviews with buisness representatives in Beijing in several diffrent industries. Among others we went to visit a Swedish bank, a hotel, an engineering buisness, the swedish embassy and Finnair which is in the airline industry.

Kristina and Josefine are getting prepared for China Week in September and have already started creating and purchase marketing material. Last Sunday, a week after Sweden Day we finally left Beijing for Qingdao. Qingdao is a smaller city by the coast (only approximatley 7.5 million inhabitants), which is mostly famous for its brewry and the beer Tsing Tao. Qingdao was also the location for the sailing competitions during last years olympics games and has therefor been particularly hurt by the economic recession.

Last year was a very good year for buisnesses such as hotels and taxi companies and so on, partly thanks to the Olympic games and the good economic situation. However, this year's different. These industries have been hurt more than others by the recession. This is something that we've noticed in Beijing as well.

May was a busy month for Project China! It started off with China Weekend held between 7/5-11/5, a whole weekend filled with lots of fun activities. This was a new feature for Project China! The weekend turned out to be sa great success!

The Sunday before the Weekend, part of the group spent the day baking fortune cookies together.

The fortune cookies were used as a fun promotion activity at SSE during lunch time on the first day of the weekend. Each cookie had a small slip inside which told a fortune on one side, and promoted our pub Naughty Noodles Night on the other side. These cookies were handed out to students at SSE and were very appreciated. Yummy! Later on that day, we arranged a movie night at KTH. We showed the film Hero and served popcorn and Chinese candy. This was a great start for our China Weekend!

Our next event was Naughty Noodles Night, a party held at SSE. The party exceeded our expectations when more than 240 people showed up to play ping pong, eat fruit plates, sweet popcorn, drink Chivas, Chinese beer TsingTao and dance to Chinese music videos.

On Monday, the last day of China Weekend, we hosted a lunch lecture where Börje Ljunggren, a renown sinologist, gave us some insight into the Chinese culture and what is happening to China at the moment.

Other activities during May were preparations for the trip to China in June, the many interviews conducted by the Report group as well as the discussion forums with focus on Sweden held at Tsinghua University as preparation activities for Sweden Day. The first discussion forum was held by Fredrik Ektander from SEB, who gave a short lecture about “The global financial crisis and its effects on Asia, reflections from a Swedish banker.” He believed that the seminar was very rewarding and the students were active and asked a lot of questions!

On May 14th we participated in the launch of the Swedish pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 held at Tekniska Museet in Stockholm. This was very interesting and inspiring, we really recommend you to go to Shanghai and check out the Expo next year!

Thursday May 7th: Movie night

What: Hero

Where: Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) E1

When: 8:30 pm –

Register to: anmalan@projectchina.se (Put movie night as the subject)

There will be some snacks and the thirty first arrivals will receive a treat. N.B. there are a limited number of guests.

Friday May 8th: Naughty Noodles Night

Where: Stockholm School of Economics Pub (Kungstensgatan 32)

When: 9:00 pm until …

Entry fee: 40SEK

For guestlist e-mail to fest@projectchina.se

The first hundred guests will have the opportunity to win a ticket to our banquet during China Week at the end of September.

Come dressed in only noodles and you will receive a free Tsingtao

Monday May 11th: Lunch lecture with Börje Ljunggren, former Swedish ambassador to China.

What: A lecture about how the financial crisis has affected China

Where: Stockholm School of Economics (Sveavägen 65)

When: 12:00-13:00

Register to: anmalan@projectchina.se (Put lunch lecture as the subject)

Once again the entire project group is on the same side of the world. When the preparation party came back allot had happened. Corporate and the project leaders are working on finalizing most of the partnerships. But foremost many decision have been made about the forth coming trip to Beijing. Sweden day is now set to June 7 and the activities during Sweden day are being planed. Also we have decided to have lectures about Sweden and Swedish culture at Tsinghua University every week the month before Sweden Day leading up to the day. The rapport group has started planning for the interviews we are going to make in Cina, we plan to visit Shanghai, Hong Kong and maybe somewhere else as well as Beijing to conduct interviews.

As we will soon be travelling to China most of the group had to take vaccination shots. Last Tuesday we went to the vaccination central, Wasa Vaccin whom we are partners with, to get the first vaccination shot.

Last Tuesday (as well) we arranged a visit to the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Östasiatiska Museet). There we had a guided tour of the exhibition “The Middle Kingdom” we all thought that the guide was smart and the visit was very interesting. The guide told us about Chinese culture and showed us Chinese china, he also spoke bout ideal looks where he compared today’s silicon breast with how the Chinese used to break young girls’ feet and bandage them.

The next events that will take place will be at the (7,) 8 and 11th of May, so you mark these dates in your calendar for our “China Weekend”. At Friday the 8th of May we will have an amazing party at Stockholm School of Economics and Monday the 11th May during lunch we will have an interesting lecture.

We’ll give it 5 out of 5 chopsticks.

Part of the project group, as you all know, travelled to Beijing to prepare for Sweden Day. At the end of the week they will all have come home, but they have already updated us back in Sweden on all their doings.

During the last week they have been busy. They met the students in china whom are going to work with us, TeamTsinghua, these are: Zhu jun, Lillian, Erica, Candy and Ivy. And they have had a dinner and hung out with them. They have also met a lot of other interesting people both in the University world and Business world and made contacts both for Sweden Day and for the Project Reports interviews. Annie visited a class in Applied & Macro International Economics at the MBA program at Tsinghua Uni. They’ve visited a lot of potential partners among them the Swedish Embassy and they will probably make an appearance during Sweden Day in June. They have also spent a little time shopping and tried out the night life of Beijing during the week end.

Here in Sweden things haven’t had the same quick phase but they are moving forward. We are planning exhibition in next Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Östasiatiska Museet). Where we will have a guided tour of the exhibition “The Middle Kingdom”, there will only be a limited people attending so if you want a place please email us at anmalan@projectchina.se.

As the group has been reduced to half its size here in Sweden, we have taken the opportunity to, instead of the usual meeting arranging dinner during the meetings.

Although the last two weeks have been filled with exams for both the KTH and SSE students, Project China hasn’t slowed down. The Report Book has had more interviews, one of them an interview focusing on the environmental aspect. The Sweden Day website is finally up and running. And the date for the China lounge is set to May the 8th, don’t forget it.

Last week Rui visited his old High School, Norra Real Gymnasieskola, and told the students about Project China. The students seemed genuinely interested and they all got a copy of last years Report Book.

At the en of last week part of the group travelled to Beijing for two weeks to prepare for Sweden Day in June. They are meeting up with the students at Tsinghua and the school and they are also going on a lot of other meetings.

Rui’s Realia

During our meetings Rui has given us some interesting facts about China which is good to know, to prepare us (less knowledgeable) about China.

Chinese Food culture
China is separated into 4 regions.

1. In the southern region the food is sweet and greasy. The Chinese food you eat in Sweden is influenced from this part of the country. They eat a lot of vegetables and fish. There is a saying that they “eat everything with four legs expect tables and everything that fly expect airplanes.” Famous dish: Dim Sum
2. The inland: Here they eat extremely hot food,”málà”. Famous dish: Hot pot “huoguo” & “mapodoufu”- extremely hot tofu.
3. Northern region: the food is salt and sour. The food is more based on wheat. Famous dish: Peking Duck
4. Coast: Not as spicy as the other regions in order to enhance the natural flavours. Famous dish: ”hundun”

Codes of conduct when in China Business cards: when offering and receiving business cards grasp it with booth your hands, it’s polite to take a little bow. Be humble and show respect.

While eating: do not put your eating sticks straight down into the food as this symbolizes death. Put the sticks beside the plate. The table is set with a plate, bowl, spoon of porcelain and eating sticks. The plate is there to put bones and such on. The bowl is full of rice this is where you put the food when you take it. Usually there are as many dishes as there are people, everything is served at the same time; the meal is not divided into entrées, main course and dessert.

It is not accepted to burp after eating.
Hosts: usually urge the guests to eat more. As a guest it is important to try to say no before you accept. It is also important not to take the last piece since this means that the host has prepared to little of the dishes. It is better that there are leftovers.

The check: to pay the bill indicates status. Everyone shall at least want to pay the check; to split it is not entirely ok. Although as a youth exempted from this and it is okay to split, then you say that you want an “AA”.

Taking a cab: choose the well established companies. There are a lot of illegal taxi drivers that want to trick tourists.

We’ll give it 4 out of 5 cans of soy.

The year started with the project group getting to know each other during a China inspired evening, where we all learned the fine art of making dumplings and had a fantastic dinner. Later on we went to a Karaoke place, where everyone impressed each other with their incredible singing-voices. It is amazing how fast we are becoming friends and how much fun we already have together.

We also had a dinner with last year’s project group. Our predecessors, Project China 2008, gave us advice on essential things to bring to survive in China. Together, we also had a Singstar battle, which we of course won!

Apart from all the group activities we’ve had, we have also begun working on the actual project. The group has decided on a theme for this year’s project, with focus on the Global Financial crisis and it’s impact on China. We believe that the crisis is an interesting topic since it’s extremely current and the situation in China can be viewed from several different perspectives. Rui and Sandra have carried out their first interviews and have begun to outline the structure of the Report book. Fredrik F, Corporate Relations, has involved the entire group in fundraising and attracting potential partners for the project. He is, together with our Project Managers, Annie and Christian, attending a great deal of meetings and we are happy to note that the group’s hard work is beginning to payoff. Kristina and Josefine are planning the schedule for China Week, to be held at the end of September. Fredrik R, is actively working on the homepage for Sweden Day, which will be launched soon, so please stay tuned!

Fredrik R. and Eleanor are planning the events to be held this spring and they have also had a meeting with CNN World Report discussing possible media coverage. Liya and Viktor, responsible for Sweden Day, have been in contact with Tsingshua University in Bejing and they are travelling to China later on in March to prepare for Sweden Day, which will be held in June. Annie, Christian and Fredrik F are also a going with the Sweden Day crew to China to meet the students who are helping us at Tsingshua University and to meet potential partners.

This year’s project group truly is amazing and this will be a fantastic year. We hope that you are all looking forward to this year, we certainly are.

We’ll give it 5 out of 5 noodles.