China Reflections
China Reflection Paper
Shanghai and Hangzhou, May 11th -19th, 2012
For: Dr. John McCreery
By: Bimal Kaur
Dated more than several hundred years BC, China is an ancient civilization that can be broadly categorized into the prehistoric, ancient, imperial, and modern China timelines. The modern China that our MBA class of 2013 experienced May 11th – 19th will remain imprinted in my mind as fascinating a memorabilia as a country can offer to a tourist of a week.
In this paper I try to capture not only the planned itinerary of industry visits, but also all that I absorbed in the two cities, Shanghai, and Hangzhou – the people and my walks in the evening, the smells and food, billboards and the weather, and my adventures into back alleys haggling with Chinese people over the calculator while I buy faux designer brands. Before delving deeper, I would like to state that my humble observations in this paper are merely reflective of a visitor trying to soak in an entire country and its various cultures in a short period of one week, and so some portions may be biased, naïve or even totally oblivious to the actualities of a country as historic, vast, vigorous, beautiful, and ambitious as China.
Our tour began in Shanghai with sight seeing activities of the White Buddha temple, the Bund and some gardens in the City, where we dispersed into the red brick stone streets to finish the day shopping for Chinese jewels and souvenirs - pearls, jade, and silk. Beginning the trip with a visit to the Buddha temple was apt in my mind since Buddhism prevails as the most popular religion in China. Throughout the visits to the Buddha temples, including the one in Hangzhou, there were indications of the religion being derived from Buddhism in India. For instance, there was a striking resemblance in the statue of Mercy, the female Buddha, with the Indian Hindu god, Ma Kali. Another noteworthy evidence in this context is the Pagoda structure, which is a derivative of the Stupas
Shanghai and Hangzhou, May 11th -19th, 2012
For: Dr. John McCreery
By: Bimal Kaur
Dated more than several hundred years BC, China is an ancient civilization that can be broadly categorized into the prehistoric, ancient, imperial, and modern China timelines. The modern China that our MBA class of 2013 experienced May 11th – 19th will remain imprinted in my mind as fascinating a memorabilia as a country can offer to a tourist of a week.
In this paper I try to capture not only the planned itinerary of industry visits, but also all that I absorbed in the two cities, Shanghai, and Hangzhou – the people and my walks in the evening, the smells and food, billboards and the weather, and my adventures into back alleys haggling with Chinese people over the calculator while I buy faux designer brands. Before delving deeper, I would like to state that my humble observations in this paper are merely reflective of a visitor trying to soak in an entire country and its various cultures in a short period of one week, and so some portions may be biased, naïve or even totally oblivious to the actualities of a country as historic, vast, vigorous, beautiful, and ambitious as China.
Our tour began in Shanghai with sight seeing activities of the White Buddha temple, the Bund and some gardens in the City, where we dispersed into the red brick stone streets to finish the day shopping for Chinese jewels and souvenirs - pearls, jade, and silk. Beginning the trip with a visit to the Buddha temple was apt in my mind since Buddhism prevails as the most popular religion in China. Throughout the visits to the Buddha temples, including the one in Hangzhou, there were indications of the religion being derived from Buddhism in India. For instance, there was a striking resemblance in the statue of Mercy, the female Buddha, with the Indian Hindu god, Ma Kali. Another noteworthy evidence in this context is the Pagoda structure, which is a derivative of the Stupas