January 14, 2014

Today we spent most of our time at Shenzhen University (SZU) and later we went on a tour of a Lenovo factory. Since both of these places are located in China, we had to go through customs in order to leave Hong Kong. While we knew that it would take a while to travel from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, China, we didn’t anticipate it would take 3 ½ hours; we thought that we would arrive in Shenzhen by about 10:30, but because we were traveling by train we actually arrived at 11:15am.

 Just outside of customs, we were greeted by a group of students holding signs reading “Welcome Dear Guests From Whitworth University.” The students seemed very excited to meet us and talk to us about our lives in America. While we talked, the students led our class to SZU’s Math and Computer Science building for formal introductions. The introductions began when the professors from Whitworth and SZU exchanged gifts, and the professors from SZU presented information about the Math and Computer Science department and degree programs. Our professor Kent Jones, gave a brief presentation on the similarities and differences between Whitworth’s Math and Computer Science programs.

Once the formal introductions were complete, the students from SZU led us on a campus tour. We took many group photos with the university students and the staff. SZU campus has the most scenic campus we have seen so far on this trip. There was a large pond and many surrounding areas where students could study or relax outside. The student guides from SZU showed us a few of their buildings including a room with real time stock market information and their library.

After the tour of the campus we were served a family style lunch with some of the most high quality sea food on the trip so far. We had whole crab legs, clam, fish, and a whole chicken. SZU’s hospitality surpassed the kind of hospitality we would have experienced in the United States. Although an extravagant meal may have not been necessary, I think it displays Chinese hospitality, even toward foreign guests.

When we finished our meal, we met with another group of students from New York to visit a Lenovo Factory. For those who don’t know, Lenovo is a computer manufacturer (think Dell, HP, etc.). Before we entered the working area, we received lab coats, hats, and shoe covers for safety reasons. We were also told that no pictures were allowed inside the factory, but we managed to sneak a few pictures of the workers from afar.  We saw two floors where graphic cards and card readers were manufactured and tested. The smaller components are first placed on the circuit board and the board is heated, melting solder to hold the components in place. Larger components are applied through the process of wave soldering. Other parts of the board, apart from circuitry, are applied by factory workers on an assembly line. The last part of the process involves testing. Upon passing this phase, the card is packaged and shipped to another location. The tour guide said the factory was able to produce about 10,000 cards per day using the process they showed us.

As the tour ended, we said our goodbyes to the New York and Shenzhen university students and staff. Some students from our class exchanged contact information with other students in order to keep in touch with the friends that we had made today. After making it back to Hong Kong everyone began to split into smaller groups to enjoy dinner and free time.

-- Hannah Cruze & Brennan Metzelaar