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| Here I am in the Aberdeen Fishing Village! We took
small boats out on the river for a tour of Hong Kong. Our boat driver gave us these awesome hats to wear on the trip. |
Hey there! Ni Hao! My name is Taylor Peck and I’m an Apparel
Merchandising and Product Development major with a minor in Supply Chain
Management. I just spent 16 days abroad in China with the faculty lead apparel
study tour! Including faculty, there were about 16 of us along for the
adventure.
During this short time, I traveled to 5 cities- Shanghai, Hong Kong,
Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Beijing- and traveled by all the basic types of
transportation- plane, car, bus, boat, and train. The plane ride from Dallas to Shanghai was
about 15 hours! Good thing the airline provided a ton of movies to watch!
During our time abroad, we stayed in hotels. Breakfast was
always provided and sometimes lunch would be too. Dinner was almost always on
our own, which gave us free time to venture out into the city. Our last meal of
the trip, we23 cooked our own traditional Chinese dishes! I am proud to say
that I prepared spicy tofu!
One goal of this trip was to meet with large retailing,
sourcing, manufacturing, and advertising companies and learn about their
business practices in China. Some businesses we met with were Topson Downs, Li
& Fung, C & A Trading, Spin Master, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Walmart.
We were also lucky to have been given two factory tours to see merchandise
being made for companies like Walmart and Target!
When not dressed in our business best, we loaded our tour
bus for cultural tours. In each city, we had a tour guide with us to explain
the sites and lead us on excursions. Some of my favorites were going to see Big
Buddha, Victoria’s Peak, The Great Wall, and of course, shopping at all the
markets!
This trip flew by, and I thought I would summarize my
amazing experience with pictures.
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| There’s me in the front row, 3rd from the right. Our group is at the Topson Downs factory, a factory that produces apparel for major retailers such as Target. The man on the far left is the factory manager, who kindly treated our entire group to a banquet style lunch after the tour! |
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| Meat markets like this one are a common find along
the streets of China. Usually out front of the store are buckets of fish and frogs! |
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| My roommate and I were feeling on top of the world at Victoria’s Peak, Hong Kong! The peak gives you an incredible view of the city below. Many of Hong Kong’s wealthy have houses on this mountain. |
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| We took a 20 minute lift to get to the top of Lantan Island where Big Buddha is located in Hong Kong. The views were incredible, even with the fog and clouds from earlier rain. |
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| Here we are at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. |
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| The girl in the middle is Annie, a student at South China Agricultural University. We quickly became friends after her and other SCAU students gave us a tour of their fashion design school. |
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| Last but not least is the Great Wall! The steps were so steep and we were exhausted after climbing to the highest point at this section of the wall. It was amazing checking out the views and experiencing the history of the wall |
Finally, I thought of some tips and tricks if you are
thinking about studying abroad, especially to China. These are all things I
didn’t expect to happen, wish I had known, or learned while I was there!
1. Banquet style meals are just buffets on a round table with a
lazy susan. We ate at 6 of these banquets, so you will have these meals a lot.
Warning: They are a formal style group meal that usually consists of very
traditional Chinese food, and when I say traditional, I mean heads on chickens
and fish, chicken feet, tofu, squid, jellyfish (yes I tried jellyfish), and
leeks. Bring your snacks!
2. Chinese businessmen and women take pride in their
presentations and love when you ask questions! Also, bring a journal to
meetings to write down all you learn.
3. Bring hand sanitizer and use it!! It is RARE to find soap in
any bathroom. Not to mention it’s just a good idea to sanitize regularly and
before eating.
4. Speaking of bathrooms, bring tissues or small packs of
toilet paper. They will be your best friend. It is also RARE to find any toilet
paper or paper towels in bathrooms.
5. TRY the foods. Yes, many of them look gross, and it’s hard
to eat the chicken when it’s staring at you, but the meals will be so much more
fun and memorable when you try the foods. It is also a sign of respect for your
host.
6. The fried rice will probably include shrimp eyes.
7. Go exploring in your free time! My group had so much fun
trying restaurants and enjoying the night life. One market, Ladies Night
Market, only opens up at night!
8. Random people WILL take pictures of you. Expect it and it
won’t be as creepy! Well, it probably will be…
9. Splitting the bill is not a thing over there, so try and
have cash (yuan) so everyone can pitch in on the check.
10. Yuan is not accepted in Hong Kong, so bring Hong Kong
dollar!
11. Take millions of pictures and enjoy every minute! It went by
too fast!
Thanks for checking out my trip! I had a blast during this
once in a lifetime opportunity! Studying abroad was one of the best decisions I
ever made and allowed me to see sights and meet people I would have never met
traveling on my own. Be a Hog Abroad!
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For more information about the U of A Faculty-Led: Apparel Merchandising and Product Development China Study Tour, visit http://studyabroad.uark.edu/aflschina
