My nervousness over the complete lack of preparation before landing in China was given some relief when I met Sanket, my roommate in Ann Arbor and in Shanghai, on the plane. We were lucky enough to have met some current students from CEIBS who were also coming back from India and were kind enough to make sure we reached the campus safely. From there on out, it was a completely awesome experiences where I learnt about China, its people, its economy and most of all, had fun just being there. Here I am trying to capture some key fun facts I learnt on my way:
1. Everyone in China uses WeChat!
Me and Sanket, unlike most exchange students at CEIBS had decided to stay on the campus to make the logistics easier and to reflect our complete lack of preparation. It was not that we had not tried to find accommodation in Puxi (the more happening part of the city) but just that sitting in Michigan it was very hard for us to trust something which we could not understand in Chinese.
Reaching late at night on the campus, we felt kind of hungry, for food and for exploring at least somewhat of the surroundings. One of our friends who we met at the airport decided to take us to the most well known street joint in the area. Now if you are an American, you would look at street food through a lens of bad hygiene and food poisoning risks, coming from India however Sanket and I had stomachs made of tungsten, we actually looked forward to streetfood as buffaloes look forward to water, its part of our natural habitat.
That was however the first time China amazed us. After a plate of delicious and very cheap fried rice, our friend paid the street vendor with WeChat. We had heard about the app before coming to China and its magical powers, but this was the first time we realized why it was so. You see, even the street food vendor had the basic infrastructure necessary to accept payments in both WeChat and Alipay. All he needed was a smartphone, and a printout of his QR code which was pasted on his cart, through which people could pay him. Having seen companies such as Square and Stripe becoming the darlings of the Silicon Valley and Wall Street alike, it seemed that China had something working which made both these companies look like betting on pager companies in the age of iPhone.
2. Classes are on time, and if you are late
The classes began with a Finance focused class where a German Professor talked about the state of Global Banking with a special discussion towards the banking sector in China. There were three great things about that class, firstly there was not much homework for the class and it got over in a week. Secondly, it had some local foreign bank executives coming in to talk about state of challenges in heavily regulated industries such as banking in China, and thirdly, the class almost exclusively consisted of exchange students which was a great way to both meet people from other schools and also test out the group features in WeChat.
3. If you want to see modern tall buildings, come to Shanghai
In parallel however, I was getting to know more about the country and the city. In terms of sheer infrastructure, Shanghai I believe is the most modern mega-city I have been to by far. It beats New York on the newness of the infrastructure and the level of maintenance it has. It beats Chicago for the ease with which one can go around the public transport system, without knowing a word of Chinese. It does have some pretty dodgy drivers who do seem to make you think twice before crossing any street though (again very disciplined driving according to Delhi benchmarks). The New York skyscrapers lack the contemporary architecture and flurry of LEDs on every facade. Shanghai just seemed to be created just yesterday and it was constantly evolving. Case in point was a wall of LED screens which is installed in the tunnels of the metro which produces images so that the viewer in the moving train can watch it.
1. Everyone in China uses WeChat!
Me and Sanket, unlike most exchange students at CEIBS had decided to stay on the campus to make the logistics easier and to reflect our complete lack of preparation. It was not that we had not tried to find accommodation in Puxi (the more happening part of the city) but just that sitting in Michigan it was very hard for us to trust something which we could not understand in Chinese.
Reaching late at night on the campus, we felt kind of hungry, for food and for exploring at least somewhat of the surroundings. One of our friends who we met at the airport decided to take us to the most well known street joint in the area. Now if you are an American, you would look at street food through a lens of bad hygiene and food poisoning risks, coming from India however Sanket and I had stomachs made of tungsten, we actually looked forward to streetfood as buffaloes look forward to water, its part of our natural habitat.
That was however the first time China amazed us. After a plate of delicious and very cheap fried rice, our friend paid the street vendor with WeChat. We had heard about the app before coming to China and its magical powers, but this was the first time we realized why it was so. You see, even the street food vendor had the basic infrastructure necessary to accept payments in both WeChat and Alipay. All he needed was a smartphone, and a printout of his QR code which was pasted on his cart, through which people could pay him. Having seen companies such as Square and Stripe becoming the darlings of the Silicon Valley and Wall Street alike, it seemed that China had something working which made both these companies look like betting on pager companies in the age of iPhone.
2. Classes are on time, and if you are late
The classes began with a Finance focused class where a German Professor talked about the state of Global Banking with a special discussion towards the banking sector in China. There were three great things about that class, firstly there was not much homework for the class and it got over in a week. Secondly, it had some local foreign bank executives coming in to talk about state of challenges in heavily regulated industries such as banking in China, and thirdly, the class almost exclusively consisted of exchange students which was a great way to both meet people from other schools and also test out the group features in WeChat.
3. If you want to see modern tall buildings, come to Shanghai
In parallel however, I was getting to know more about the country and the city. In terms of sheer infrastructure, Shanghai I believe is the most modern mega-city I have been to by far. It beats New York on the newness of the infrastructure and the level of maintenance it has. It beats Chicago for the ease with which one can go around the public transport system, without knowing a word of Chinese. It does have some pretty dodgy drivers who do seem to make you think twice before crossing any street though (again very disciplined driving according to Delhi benchmarks). The New York skyscrapers lack the contemporary architecture and flurry of LEDs on every facade. Shanghai just seemed to be created just yesterday and it was constantly evolving. Case in point was a wall of LED screens which is installed in the tunnels of the metro which produces images so that the viewer in the moving train can watch it.
Comments