This morning, we had our fourth lecture with Claudia, discussing the Chinese economy and how it changed along with the government. I had learned about historical economic policies like the Great Leap Forward, so what I found most interesting was Claudia’s discussion of present-day issues like how the government deals with unemployment by having mandatory retirement ages and overstocking positions.
In the afternoon, we had our final tour at Hanvon. This company specializes in Chinese character technology and handwriting recognition, but also had a variety of products like e-book readers and eye-recognition security gear. Like Lenovo, this tour seemed mainly focused on the products and felt like a sales pitch. I did, however, find these products more interesting and innovative. The book reader was my favorite – it allows the reader to take notes on the e-book directly, which I haven’t seen in similar products.
In the evening, the group went to a KTV, or karaoke bar. This was a lot different than karaoke bars in the United States – every group that visits gets a private room to sing. I really liked that setup because it allowed our group to be crazy and sing along to the American songs available without disturbing other groups of people. The karaoke did get a little old after a while, mostly because many of the American songs the karaoke machine had were outdated.