Maxime Gauvrit

2017 Year group

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCY

JOURNAL

Beihang University expatriation

January - May 2016

Page | 2

Table of contents

I - PERSONAL WAY OF MIND AT THE START OF BEIHANG’S EXPERIENCE 4

PERSONAL REASONS, MOTIVATIONS & INTEREST ABOUT CHINA 4

PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE ABOUT CHINA 5

WHAT EXPECTATIONS? 5

II - DOCUMENTARY REVIEW 7

CHINESE BUSINESS CONTEXT 7

GLOBAL OVERVIEW ABOUT ECONOMY CONTEXT 7

COMPANY’S STRUCTURE & ORGANIZATION 8

EMPLOYMENT FRAMEWORK / WORKING CONDITION 11

MANAGEMENT STYLE 12

GOOD PRACTICES IN BUSINESS 13

TRANSPORT: TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE 14

AIRPORT/AIRLINES COMPANIES 14

RAILWAY NETWORK 16

SUBWAY NETWORK 17

HIGHWAYS 17

MARITIME HUBS – PORTS 19

POLLUTION AND THE ENVIRONMENT (ELEANOR & BEINA, 2016) 20

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS? – UNDERSTANDING OF THE ISSUE 20

CONCRETE DECISIONS TAKEN 21

III – OBSERVATIONS 23

CULTURAL EXPERIENCE OF LIVING WITH THE CHINESE 23

CULTURAL SIDE 23

FOREIGNER’S LIFE 27

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES ACROSS CHINA 30

THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE 32

CHINESE EDUCATION SYSTEM FRAMEWORK 32

TEACHING STYLE 34

ADVANTAGES AND DRAWBACKS 35

COMPARISON WITH FRENCH EDUCATION SYSTEM FRAMEWORK 36

Page | 3

CORPORATE & BUSINESS LIFE IN CHINA 37

WHEN CHINA? 37

ECONOMIC REASONS FOR SETTING UP IN CHINA 38

COMPANY’S STRATEGIES IN CHINA 38

MAJOR CURRENT CHALLENGES FOR FOREIGN COMPANIES 40

KEY FACTORS WHEN DOING BUSINESS IN CHINA 42

IV – ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION 45

ANALYSIS ABOUT PRECONCEIVED IDEAS 45

CHINESE’S WAY OF LIFE & ATTITUDES 45

POLLUTION 46

CHINESE’S GOVERNMENT & ITS AMBITIONS 47

BUSINESS CONTEXT ANALYSIS 49

REMARKABLE LESSONS AND INSIGHTS LEARNT 50

CHINESE’S PERSPECTIVE 50

OPEN-MINDEDNESS 51

IMPACTS ON THE PERSONAL LEVEL 51

NECESSITY TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT CULTURAL DIFFERENCES 51

OPEN’S ONE MIND TO ANOTHER CULTURE 52

IMPACT ON THE PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 53

INTERNSHIP IN CHINA 53

BIBLIOGRAPHY 55

Page | 4

I - PERSONAL WAY OF MIND AT THE START OF BEIHANG’S EXPERIENCE

As St. Augustine (354-430) said: “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only

one page”, this quotation from this north-African author sounds like a philosophy of life which

completely reflects the way of thinking I have ever had.

Personal reasons, motivations & interest about China

I have always been interested in travelling, discovering new cultures, traditions and languages

to improve the global vision and understanding about how the world runs I thank, and also

understand every little (or not) differences between each other, whatever the home country,

religion or personal background.

My first experience abroad in Thailand as a marine conservation project volunteer during 3

months, deeply changed my way of thinking and future expectations. I realized that there are

so much things to see in the world, that these same things have the power to transform you

little by little in a better person by improving your open-mindedness, altruism and problem

solving skills. Travelling give you the opportunity to become more autonomous but first of all,

to appreciate every little good things that could daily happen.

That is why, I chose to do my second semester abroad as an exchange student. It is worth

noticing, that Beihang University was not my first choice, and I hesitated during a couple of

day if I really wanted to go there during five months (which seems a long period at first sight),

because I did not feel attracted by this country at all. However, I finally realized that it was a

great opportunity that was given to me to discover a new country, culture, language and

habits. Indeed, China seems to be a real challenge for every foreigners, due to many

differences compared to Europe in the way of life and thinking.

However, I know that experiences overseas such as academic expatriations or internships

boost a lot student’s employability in France but also abroad, and employees are more and

more looking for international profiles.

Page | 5

Previous knowledge about China

I did not have a lot of knowledge about China before coming there excepted the common

knowledge everybody must have concerning factual sides of the country: China is one of the

biggest country in the world, not only by its people which almost reach 1.4 billion of inhabitant

but by the fact that it is one of the largest country in the world as well.

The economic side of the country is also one of the few aspects I was aware of, for instance

the fact that China has known an unexpected and quick growth over the past 20 years, that it

was the “factory of the world” of every developed countries from the North (Europe + USA)

because of the cheap labour-force but that trend was little by little going on the way around

because of that growth.

Another thing I knew about China was pollution, this huge and thick fog which forces every

“beijingers” or Chinese citizens to wear a mask against that scourge every day. Before taking

off from Paris, I have also heard some crazy and stunning stories about that phenomenon, for

instance the fact that some companies were selling pure air in plastic bottle (expensive) to

Chinese citizens because it was almost impossible to breathe pure air in big cities. Some stories

like that which seem completely crazy with an “outside view” as the one I had when I was still

in Europe, but stories for which Chinese people are used to. So I thought that every Chinese

were wearing masks every day and did not see the sun at all.

What expectations?

I expected China to be very “grey” in general, a sad country because of the pollution and the

lack of sunshine (especially in Beijing which is in the north of China with low temperatures in

January/February and the most polluted city) with high and impressive buildings in city centre.

My grandparents who have been in Beijing before told me it was full of policemen and soldiers

everywhere, with huge highways in cities centre, so I expected China to be a country just as

we think North Korea is, which means a very sad country, without brightness and life.

Page | 6

However, I will always remember Laurence Collin Isabelle’s words during our first meeting in

September 2015 in La Rochelle, while introducing the English Track. She said, it is time for us

to “challenging” ourselves, to be aware of our limits and try to go beyond.

I definitely wanted to take this experience in China as a challenge, which I had to manage as

best as possible in order to figure out something good for my future.

I really wanted to make this experience a great opportunity to discover a new country as I

already said, but also to become fluent in English and learn Chinese.

Before going in China, I was quite afraid of being with 19 other French from La Rochelle, the

fear to be always together and not improving our English skills at all, but also, the fear to stay

every day and every time together which could prevent us from meeting international

students here. I also wanted to feed my brain and soul from every single experiences I would

have known in China.

Professional expectations as well, in order to how and why China has known such a growth,

and also to create its own professional network here.

Finally, I really did not think I will be able to adapt myself to this country which seems so

different from Europe and my first’s choices of countries for this academic semester.

Page | 7

II - DOCUMENTARY REVIEW

Chinese business context

Global overview about economy context

The fact that Chinese’s economy shifted from a centrally planned to a market based economy

leaded to a quick economic and social development (WorldBank, s.d.)1. Its annual GDP growth

helped almost 50 million people moving out from poverty, a figure which seems quite

exaggerated at first sight , but we should first of all, emphasize that Chinese mainland

population reach approximately 1, 3 billion (September, 2015).

For the organization, China’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) was made in order to resolve the

issues built from that fast economic growth, such as: high inequality due to the rapid

urbanization of big cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen or Chengdu (internal migration labour in

order to find a better quality of life) which leaded to the apparition of the Chinese middle

class. That plan also took into account environmental sustainability challenges due to that

growth (we will discuss about this issue later in this report). That plan highlighted the

willingness of Chinese government to resolve these issues by setting target to reduce

pollution, to increase energy efficiency, and most of all, healthcare and education easier to

access. The attention was to focus much more on quality of life rather than growth, growth

and growth.

While the world average GDP growth was 2, 5% on 2015, the 5th March of 2016, The Premier,

Li Keqiang, revealed the Five-Year Plan (ChineseGovernment, s.d.)2 for 2016-2020, targeting

an annual GDP growth of 6, 5%/7% which emphasize the fact that the government wants to

keep on pursuing its willingness of economic development but also to improve the quality of

life of Chinese mainland citizens.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China (press release, 15/4/2015 “China’s

Economy Showed Steady Growth in the First Quarter of 2015”), agricultural production remain

stable since few years excepted in the animal production. It is said that the total output of

pork, beef, muttons and poultry reached 23, 15 million of tons in the first quarter of 2015

1 http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/overview 2 http://country.eiu.com/China

Page | 8

which is a decrease of 1, 4% compared to last year. Furthermore, let’s emphasize the pork

industry, which is the industry with the biggest loss, the total output, on the same period down

by 3, 1%. The animal production in China remains one of the biggest challenge for the country,

and the government would like to have the French expertise in agricultural in general, because

French farmers are the worldwide leaders in that industry with a renew know-how.

However, when we take a look at the Chinese high-tech export, 74% of them are represented

by computer and telecommunication (a lot of Chinese companies are specialized in that

industry, and a lot of brands manufacture their computer or smartphones in China: Apple,

Samsung, Lenovo). Then, 13% of their high-tech exports are from electronics components. We

are going to explain in the next part of this report how these figures are represented in the

daily life in China.

Between 1994 and 2010, the number of Fortune 500 companies (Lee, Kim, Park, & Sanidas,

2011)3 and their sales sum to GDP ratio in China, passed from 3 to 61 companies. Currently,

61 Chinese companies represent almost half of the total Chinese GDP (49, 2%). China became

one of the first top rankings countries worldwide with the number of billionaires (due to quick

economic expansion).

Company’s structure & organization

State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) – Government Owned Corporation (GOC)

The term “state-owned enterprise” (OECD, 2009)4 has been used since the mid-1990s, it refers

to businesses established by central or local governments and whose are managed by

government officials. Currently, there are almost 150,000 SOE controlling $17tn in assets and

employing more than 35 million of people in the country. Example of SOE: Air China, Bank of

China, China Mobile, China Resources, Dongfeng Motor. These kind of companies enjoy

massive state support.

3 According to research findings by Keun Lee, Byung-Yeon Kim, Young-Youn Park, Elias Sanidas (2011) 4 OECD Working group on Privatisation and Corporate Governance of State-Owned Assets “State-Owned Enterprises in China: reviewding the evidence”, 26/01/2009

Page | 9

However, as Chinese economy begun to slow (7, 4% in 2014), there is a discrete willing from

the government to launch a “half-privatization” of SOE. Indeed, last year, when the

government has launch (Cendrowski, 2015)5 its new five-year plan, the government had

announced reforms allowing SOEs to accept private investors in order to face the future and

keep on economically growing. This mean two things: the first one is, with private investment,

SOEs will be able to have new funds and develop themselves more than ever, the second thing

is, this willing to accept private investors does not mean that Chinese’s government will lose

the control of those companies, for the Party, economic independence is one of the key

feature of their development.

Foreign Direct Companies/Investment

According to KPMG (KPMG, China Outlook 2015, 2015)6, MOFCOM’s statistics show that

Foreign Investment Investments (FDI) into China set a record in 2014, reaching US$119,6bn,

which represents a growth rate of 1, 7% compare to 2013 ($117,6bn). This highlight that China

is still an attractive country in which business opportunities are huge. This report also

emphasizes that global FDI into Chinese service sector grew by 7, 8% in 2014, contrary to the

manufacturing sector in which FDI decreased by half year-to-year. These figures reflects the

will from Chinese government to focus on the service sector in order to hold its economic

growth. Indeed, market opportunities remain multiples due the growth of service

consumption (increase of the middle-class which want a better quality of services) & massive

urbanization of Chinese cities (Shenzhen, Chengdu etc.)

Value of China’s FDI: 2007 – 2014 (ChineseGovernment, China statistical Yearbook, 2014) 7

5 http://fortune.com/2015/09/15/why-chinas-soe-reform-would-always-disappoint/ 6 KPMG, « China Outlook 2015 » ; http://www.kpmg.com/ES/es/Internacionalizacion-KPMG/Documents/China-Outlook-2015.pdf 7 « 2014 China statistical Yearbook »; NBS, http://data.starts.gov.cn/english/easyquery.htm?cn=C01

Page | 10

Furthermore, it is worth noticing that in 2014, the Chinese government have made several

new policies to facilitate FDI in services industries, in order to have a better access to the

Chinese market. For instance, a new policy have been announced in 2014 which allow full

foreign ownership of private hospital in the biggest Chinese cities.

Private Owned companies

Looking for any information about this kind of company in China, I found a report (Eklund,

s.d.) 8 about a seminar on new and controversial researches on private on state owned

enterprise in China.

It is said that Chinese private enterprises have a crucial role to play in China’s economic

development in terms of contribution to GDP, innovation and source of employment.

However, those enterprises are witness of discrimination in favour of SOE in order to have

access to liquidity (strong economic limitations against private enterprises) and market

accesses. Lecturers emphasize the fact that private enterprises has more potential to bring

innovation to contribute to the economic development.

However, it is still important to underline that Chinese government little by little understand

the fact that private enterprises have a crucial role to play in the next decades and thanks to

its new 5-year plan, some SOE will become private enterprises.

High Tech zone based companies: universities & university-industry consortiums

China National Economic and Technological Development Zones (also called ETDZ) are the

specific areas in China where FDI are encouraged. It began in 1984, when Chinese’s

government decided to further open on the global economic market.

There are currently more than 100 of those specific areas in which thousands and thousands

international companies are present and some of them even have their headquarters. Those

zones are made with universities, research centres, shopping malls, companies (Samsung,

Applied Materials) & hotels. Some people identify those zones as “Chinese Sillicon Valley”, if

we take for example the oldest and most known worldwide of those zones, Zhongguancun in

8 http://eng.entreprenorskapsforum.se/state-and-capital-business-dynamics-in-china/

Page | 11

Beijing’s Haidian District, the Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo have been created

there. According to the Chinese daily newspapers, FDI into those zones has been between

$800 million and $1bn annually.

The success of ETDZ mainly comes from their location near local universities (Beihang

University in Beijing’s Haidian district) is worldwide known for its talent in aeronautics and

engineering.

Those ETDZ reflects China’s ambition to be a global technology leader through innovation.

Employment framework / Working condition9

China is one of the most populated country in the world with almost 1,4bn of inhabitants

(which represents almost 20% of the total world population). Since the late 70s and beginning

of 80s, Chinese economy has known a rapid growth and the question of employment have

been a crucial key to the government. Since then, the Chinese government gave a strong

important of this issue and make the employment task as a top priority of people’s livelihood

and also in order to ensure the stability of the country.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) is the government which is in

charge of the employment at the national scale and also social insurance issues.

The Labour Law of China (1995) is the basis on which each Chinese companies have to referred

concerning employment, it requires employees to sign an employment contract with their

workers by adapting a standardized employment contract provided by the local labour

authority (Cooke, 2005)10. The aim was to protect employees because most of them came

from rural areas and did know their rights about work framework.

The contract should include several information:

- Length of the contract

- Work content

- Health & safety protection

- Working conditions

9 China Employment Law Guide (McKenzie, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2013) 10 « HRM, Work and Employment in China » ; Fang Lee Cooke; Psychology Press, 2005

Page | 12

- Remuneration

- Discipline

- Conditions of contract’s ending

- Any other important clauses

Chinese regulations (Labour Law of China, 1995) in terms of working hours provide a standard

working hour’s systems in which employees should not have to work more 8h/day and

40h/week. However, employers may require that employees have to work more than they

have, if it is the case, overtime compensation must be paid. Local rules of each provinces

define each specificity of high-top manager whose are require to work more than 40h/week

without being compensated for the extra-work. These regulations, provide a legal framework

under which every HR practices such as training, working time and employment have to be

controlled.

Usually, as far rest days are concerned, the minimum given is one day rest given per week,

which can be any day in the week.

Part-time job remain something new in China, and most of jobs currently are on a full-time

basis.

Minimum wages level are fixed by local governments and are adjusted regularly.

The national retirement for male workers is 60, and 50 for female workers of 55 if in

managerial position.

Management style

The Chinese represents the world’s largest cultural and linguistic group and are spread all over

the world. Their cultural heritage are mainly reflected through the Confucianism philosophy

(Kai-Alexander, 2002) which still are distinctive of the Chinese management style. Despite of

the fact Chinese culture have been symbolized by different philosophical factors such as

Buddhism & Taoism, the Confucianism still reflects the way of thinking and living of most of

Chinese people and are mainly represented in business management:

Page | 13

Respect of age and hierarchy: Confucianism emphasizes respect of seniors and leads to a

strong degree of hierarchical orientation which also leads to a high degree of centralization.

There is a high power distance (Hofstede). The leader has to take care of the employees

(paternalistic approach).

Group orientation: In the Confucianism philosophy, the individual exists for the benefit of the

collective. People adopt group objectives and opinions in exchange for protection and care.

Social status among a society or an organization is often perceived more important than

individual needs and autonomy.

Face: This is viewed as one of the eight most important elements of Chinese cultures known

also as “Mianzi” which reflects the importance to “keep face”. According to Schlevogt, group

pressure is used to ensure conformity through eliciting shame (loss of face).

Important of relationship: Another important aspect of the 8 elements of Chinese culture, the

term “guanxi”. Relationship based on “trust” are often most important than the legal

framework.

Good practices in business

The Chinese business society is based on relationship while, western business society is based

on “transaction” (Ming-Jen, 2003). The Chinese business practises are based on what we call

“guanxi”, the importance of relationship, based on trust on mutual connections and

obligations so that both parties can work together for the benefits of both. However, the

Chinese word for negotiation is “tan pan” which combine the meaning of “to discuss” and “to

judge”. This reflects completely the first step of doing business of Chinese people, the

negotiation process goes through the understanding of each other in order to create a long-

term business partnership.

According to Betsy Neidel11, this process is constitute with five main factors:

- Knowledge of the deal’s context

- Knowledge of the Chinese partner

- Knowledge of yourself

11 Founder of Blue Heron Holding, an US company specialized in US-China business strategy and intercultural effectiveness

Page | 14

- Put relative strengths and weaknesses

- Strive for operational readiness

Transport: transport infrastructure

After knowing its economic growth, transport infrastructure in China was not as efficient as

today. There have been many changes affecting the transport sector in China, passenger and

freight traffic increased quickly. Currently, transport infrastructure play an important role in

its socio-economic development.

By developing a better connectivity inside the country, China hopes to keep on economically

growing by a faster and a greater exchanges between cities and also balancing development

between urban and rural areas. In 2014, Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang announced

investments in transport infrastructure has reached $4,9bn (in the last Five-Year Plan)

including railways, roads, airports (Yang, 2014).

Airport/Airlines companies

In 2016, China is going to invest $11, 7 billion in the construction of civil aviation infrastructure,

include upgrades of the existing one and also in the construction of new one (66 new one are

projected to be built until 2019), according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (Zhao,

2016). The country has almost 500 airports in the whole territory from different type and size.

Chinese people are more and more willing to travel by plane because of the efficiency of this

mean of transport and also because China is such a huge country that some train journeys

could take more than 35h (Shanghai – Chengdu for instance) depending on which specific train

category each traveller book.

Page | 15

As we can see, major Chinese airports are located in the West part of the country, Beijing

Capital Airport is the most crowded in China and Asia, with 78 million passengers in 2011. This

airport remains the world’s second busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic since 2010.

However, Chinese government is willing to develop the inner territory with also airport

expansions, for instance, in 2012, Gansu province (in the North-East of China) has been

accepted to build a new 6,000 sq. m terminal and commercial facilities to keep on

economically growing. They are expecting an additional 960,000 passenger per year.

However, as far domestic travels are concerned, in 2011, it was more than 570 million Chinese

people12 who travelled through domestic flights, with a constant growing year after year due

to the investment made in many Chinese airports.

12 Civil Aviation Administration of China, http://www.caac.gov.cn/I1/K3/201203/P020120321570053265625.xls

Page | 16

Railway network

China’s railroad operators announced they plan to invest $121 million, $5 million on railway

infrastructure in 2016 (Asia, 2016). In 2015, almost 2, 5 billion people travelled by rail which

represent almost twice China’s global population.

It is worth noticing that rail is the main mode of transport throughout China. In 2015, the

railway network was constituted by 120,000 tracks.

Through this network plan, we can highlight the fact that the high-speed railway network is

mainly developed in the West part of the country. However, as the Chinese government is

Page | 17

willing to develop the East part as well in cities such as Chengdu or Kunming, investments in

railway network will be mainly focused on this part of the country.

Investments are important in the network development, but also in railway R&D, China has

the world’s first commercial high-speed maglev train service (maglev stands for “magnetic

levitation”) between Shanghai and the Pudong Airport, this revolutionary project costed $1, 2

bn.

Subway network

23 Chinese cities have a subway network totalling 2735km, and it is worth noticing that a

further 2853km are still under construction. The first metro construction was built in Beijing

and since then, has known a very quick growth thanks to the Summer Olympic Games in

Beijing in 2008, and the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010. Currently Chinese metro’s network

are known all around the world, especially the one in Shanghai which is by far the largest

metro in world (538km length). 54 Chinese cities with a population of one million of habitant

or more are actually planning to build their own metro network (Hans-Ulrich, 2014).

Chinese metro are by far the most crowded in world. For instance, Beijing has the same

number of metro line as Paris but with four time the population of the French capital.

Two billion people travelled by metro system each other in Shanghai and Beijing gathered.

That is a huge business opportunity even if opportunities for foreign companies to participate

are very limited (government regulations). Actually, Hong-Kong’s MTR Corporation (MTRC) is

the most active foreign company in that market but foreign investors remain pushed aside

except for supplying technical equipment (KPMG, Infrastructure in China: Sustaining quality

growth , 2013). For instance, in 2011, the French company Alstom announced two joint-

ventures with Chinese companies for a €140 million contract to provide Beijing metro line 6

with the latest traction system.

Highways

According to its economic growth, appeared the Chinese middle-class who are more and more

willing to own its own car. During the past decades, cars manufacturers have known a

Page | 18

substantially growth of their sells (19, 3 million vehicles sold in 2012). In 2009, china became

the world’s largest market for car manufacturers.

New vehicle registration13

That is why according to this growth, Chinese government implemented strategy to increase

the numbers of roads and highways.

The 12th Five-Year Plan, has outlined an expansion of the National Trunk Highway System

(NTHS) at about 83,000km in 2015 in order to link every big Chinese cities. Besides, the

proportion of “basic” highways represented 650,000km in 2015. In 2012, Chinese government

invested $207 million in road construction and upgrades. Currently, Chinese expressway

network is the largest in the world and 90% of Chinese cities are linked between each other.

The national highway plan has been structure in order to link at least, one billion people

around China (around 1, 470 km of roads are classified as “village roads”) through 34 trunks

network: seven from Beijing, nine north-south vertical trunks and 18 horizontal.

13 China Statistical Yearbook, 2011, Vehicle registrations

Page | 19

Maritime hubs – Ports

If we take a look at the ten busiest port in world, seven are located in China: Shanghai,

Shenzhen, Hong-Kong, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Qingdao, Guangzhou & Tianjin14.

Shanghai is the world’s busiest container port with 33, 62 million in 2013.

Major Chinese ports are located around three crucial manufacturing hubs: the Pearl River

Delta, the Yangtze River and the Bohai Rim (KPMG, Infrastructure in China: Sustaining quality

growth, 2013), which are main crowded area in China.

However, thanks to the world largest waterways in the world (110,000km), import goods can

be send everywhere in China.

14 http://www.worldshipping.org/about-the-industry/global-trade/top-50-world-container-ports

Page | 20

Pollution and the environment (Eleanor & Beina, 2016)

What are the problems? – Understanding of the issue

Due to the quick industrialization and economic growth of China, the environmental crisis

slowly appeared before becoming the biggest challenge the country has to face nowadays.

Leaders who hold the economic growth for the past decades exploited natural resources in a

way that led natural disasters (land deterioration, air pollution, water contamination etc.).

Currently, China is the world’s largest source of carbon emission and the air quality in major

cities does not succeed to meet international standards. In 2014, China was responsible for

27% of greenhouses gaze’s global emissions. According to Elizabeth C. (global environmental

issue expert): “China’s current environmental situation is the result not only of policy choices

made today but also of attitudes, approaches […] that have evolved over centuries”15. Indeed,

during its economic growth, China only focused on development and coal power plants

constructions, neglecting its footprint carbon on the environment.

The Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping implemented a series of policies which gave more authority

and power to local governments (provinces scale), but as the industrialization has lifted

hundreds of millions people out of the poverty and created the Chinese middle-class, local

governments were very difficult to manage and stayed focused on economic targets over the

environmental targets given by the central government.

For the very first time in December 2015, Beijing issued the “red alert” for the pollution and

closed all schools, limited the car traffic, and have made every manufacturing plan stopped.

However, this decision has remain temporary.

Coal is the main guilty according to the air pollution issue. China is world largest coal producer

and represents almost the half of the global coal consumption. Even if, in 2014 coal demand

dropped about 2 points due to the economic slowdown (annual growth expected about 6, 8%

according to the Chinese government), China’s coal power plant increased by 55% in the first

semester of 2015 and 155 new coal plants have been approved. Economic slowdown is really

complicating anti-pollution efforts. The main challenge is the government has to maintain a

15 « The River Runs Black » ; Elizabeth C.; Cornel University Press; 2014

Page | 21

certain balance between unemployment and economic growth, coal power plants permit a lot

of people to have a job and then to consume.

The rapid urbanization is also guilty, more and more Chinese neglect rural areas to settle in

urban areas in order to find a job. The urbanization increases energy demands and it is not

going to be reduced, the government aims to have almost 60% of its population living in cities

by 2020.

According to Elizabeth C., the human cost does not have to be neglected as well. An estimation

said that there are on average 1, 2 million premature deaths annually. And some studies claim

that air pollution leads to important health complications such as respiratory, cardiovascular

and chronic diseases. It is said that almost 11% of digestive cancers as the result of unsafe

drinking water.

However, air pollution also affects international diplomacy16, China’s neighbours: Japan &

South-Korea expressed their anxiety about pollution threatening their population coming

from northern China.

And the other hand, the main problem for the Chinese government according to the pollution

remains the population unrest which could be viewed at a threat to the party legitimacy.

Indeed, more and more demonstrations are organized in order to express concerns about

pollution. Air pollution is becoming a social issue, in 2013, Chen Jiping (government’s member)

said that most of “mass incidents” are because of environmental issues.

Concrete decisions taken

The air quality was considered a state secret until 2008, then the government denied air

pollution until 2013 when the country was pointed out by the world community about its

pollution issue (Zhang, 2016).

In December 2013, China’s government issued its first nationwide blueprint called “China’s

policies and actions for addressing the climate change”, constituted a list of objective targeted

for 2020.

16 http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1348605/japan-south-korea-concerned-chinas-smog-will-affect-them

Page | 22

Besides, in January 2014, the government has required 15,000 factories to publicly report their

figures on air emissions and water dumps (including State-Owned Enterprises) 17 . That

emphasize the first step in the will of the government that each plants have to monitor their

pollution release.

According to renewables energies, China is becoming the biggest investors (nearly $90 billion

in 2014 up to 32% than 2013) and some specialists18 are agree to say that in a couple of years,

China will be the leader on the production of wind energy far from the US as far as new wind

and solar installations are concerned.

17 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-chinas-war-on-bad-air-government-decision-to-release-data-gives-fresh-hope/2014/02/02/5e50c872-8745-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html 18 http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/20/china-overtake-us-leading-wind-producer-2016/

Page | 23

III – OBSERVATIONS

Cultural experience of living with the Chinese

The stunning thing when arriving in China from Europe, is the feeling of landed off in another

planet, the feeling of being very far from what we have always known in our home country

even if we already travelled in Europe, every European countries remain the same than

another (way of life and modern cities). The fact is with Asia and China in particular is that

everything is very different: first of course, the language, also being surrounded by Chinese

people could be disconcerting.

Cultural side

Language is maybe the most difficult step Europeans people have to face there, it is worth

noticing that most of Chinese people does not speak a single of word English, especially in

rural areas. Besides, most of them even does not understand the pinyin, which is the standard

system of romanized spelling for transliterating Chinese, but only understand characters.

However, in major Chinese big cities, it is common to find some Chinese people able to speak

English, but they reflect only a minority and, most of them have already travelled around the

world, and have an “international view” compared to the other Chinese. This means, they are

completely aware of what is going on the country: censorship, and high degree of pollution.

During my expatriation, I met a Chinese girl from Shenzhen who travelled in Europe and Asian

countries, currently working in an international company in Beijing. She told me, she was very

lucky to have this opportunity and even if she does not really like her job, she is not willing to

find another job in another company because, working in an international company allow her

to have a full access on the Internet and is able to read news from all around the world, besides

of course all the advantage of working in an international company such as more day-off and

vacations.

But, this kind of people only represent a minority in China. Most Chinese people who did have

any “academic” background, which is the main part of the Chinese population are only able

Page | 24

to speak Chinese which is the main cause of every misunderstanding and surprises we had in

China. But during all our Chinese’s experience, we get used to this linguistic gap and took all

our precautions before going anywhere, for instance: always have the Chinese address of

every places and areas we wanted to go (travel books appeared to be very useful as well as

screenshots or pictures with the Chinese address).

Surprises in the way that at the restaurant, everything is written in Chinese and we did not

know what we should order, so we ordered randomly and sometimes it is a good surprise and

sometimes not (very spicy dishes or typical Chinese food).

Security remains one of the biggest chock after arriving in China. They almost do not have to

be afraid of terrorism acts because they remain rare. But the way everybody is under control

could be frightening at first sight. In each subway stations, everybody have to go through a

security check and put its bag though X-ray scanner and the number of cameras are also

stunning. The people are placed under surveillance in order to prevent them from unofficial

gathering or forbidden demonstrations for instance. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to

cheat the subway because there are security guards at every exits and entrances to check if

you have your subway ticket.

During my trip in Chengdu (Sichuan province) I was witnessed of a military action in the

Buddhism district and that was a little bit frightening because Sichuan province is one of the

oldest Chinese Buddhism province, and Buddhism minority are really under control and

watched. The military surveillance is this province was the strongest I have ever seen in China.

However, in sensitive areas such as the Forbidden City or Tien’An Men Place, military are

everywhere and so military patrol are very often.

But the paradox is, even if the security is much more important in China than in Europe, it

makes you feel safer than Europe. People are not afraid of going back home late at night alone,

or playing with their smartphone in the subway and are not afraid of thief.

Exercising/dancing outdoor are something very common in China especially among seniors.

Senior people are used to gather in parks or public areas to plays majhong (Chinese traditional

Page | 25

game) or dancing. This is something part of the Chinese way of life which seems a little bit of

former times but which is always pleasant to see. Even in areas such as The Temple of Heaven

which the entrance is not free, there were plenty of seniors gathered in order to play majhong,

dance or sing together. They just enjoy a sunny day and being together.

However as far exercising outdoor is concerned, exercising facilities are present everywhere

in cities (no matter the size of the city). They are mostly used by senior people as well in order

stay healthy. Every day in Beihang University campus, it was very common to see seniors doing

exercise early in the morning doing stretching, push-ups, running etc. whatever the weather

(around 8am).

The “Family Planning Policiy” was introduced in 1979 in the country and has been removed

last year in 2015. Before, Chinese citizens were strictly allowed to have one child per family, it

was very hard for a family to have a second child, if so, the family had to pay a fine to the

government called “social maintenance fee” based on their city average annual post-tax

income which varies between each city/province in China. However, if the fine was not paid,

the second child could not obtain what they called “hukou” (户口) which is a household

registration document which brings basic rights (such as education and social welfare).

This policy has leaded to narcissistic and too much cherished child. It is reflected in the way

parents react with their children, as they were used to be allowed to have only one child, they

used to give everything to their children. Narcissism reflected in the way the most of young

Chinese adore taking selfies, and conversation are usually focus on themselves.

Humility and reserve are two of the main features of Chinese relationship. They are not known

to be an expressive people, also in order to not “lose face” or “mianzi” (面子). Those are

virtues extolled by the Confucianism philosophy and is deeply rooted in the Chinese culture.

It is a people very humble whose do not look after compliments when they have done

something in order to be viewed as someone great. It just reflects the way things are and the

way they have to be accomplished without any pretentiousness.

Page | 26

Chinese young adults and teenagers undergo a strong pressure from their family and parents

contrary to European. Indeed, they are doomed to succeed in their life, professionally and

personally especially Chinese girls whose have a lot pressure concerning personal issues such

as family and pregnancy. This leads to important troubles because, they have to face the

pressure of their family whose want them to be married as fast as possible, and the pressure

of the society in general which pleads for professional achievements. It is very common to see

Chinese from middle-class putting a lot of pressure on their children for an educational

success, this starts since they are still very young: they are used to play an instrument, having

advanced private courses in order to be in advance on the other pupils. Their timeline is very

busy.

China is not the country where most of smartphones are made for nothing. Chinese people

are very connected and use their smartphone for everything. It is stunning to see every

Chinese looking at their smartphones in the subway or in streets (watching TV shows or

movies in the subway), even to pay the laundry smartphones are required. The most famous

Chinese app called “WeChat” is something required and compulsory for every foreigner in

China, useful and without it, foreigner’s life would be more complicated. During the spring

festival in February, the laundry of our dormitory was closed for several weeks, so we had to

go in another dormitory to do our laundry but the fact is we had to pay the machines with our

smartphones and through two different applications. When you do not know how it works, it

makes the thing more complicated than usual and also takes more time. Indeed, while in

France we still have to insert coins in those kind of machines, in China, we have to use our

smartphone (which could be low battery, without Internet or Wi-Fi). Number of smartphone

shops are also very impressive, while in France it is very complicated to find an Apple Store,

the American company is present every two streets next to its competitors such as Samsung,

Huawei, Oppo etc.

Another example of the use of smartphone in China: the application WeChat could be also

required to book a checkroom in nightclubs so that the establishment can give you back your

jackets through a simple message.

Page | 27

Another important point that have to be highlighted is the transport infrastructure, indeed,

as a foreigner especially from France which gets a much smaller territory contrary to the

Chinese one, we are used to be able to go everywhere in France in less than 12h by car or any

other mean of transport. In china, if you want to travel economically, foreigners would need

a lot of patience. From one border to the other (East to West), the length is approximately

5,000km which is three time longer than France. Chinese seaboard is equal to 18,000km.

Should be prepared to have train journey on average 30h (Beijing – Shanghai in K train,

120km/h).

That point leads naturally us to the way of life of Chinese people in train which is also

completely different than our European standards and at first sight, as European, it is very

destabilizing and stunning to see Chinese people’s behaviours in train. First, smoking is

allowed in some train categories (K and Z for), and as journeys usually take lot of time, Chinese

people are in trains are they are at home. They bring a lot of food, they also spit and that is

something natural for Chinese people, they also burp, and eat at any time. Smells are sickening

but after all, that is also the Chinese way of living.

Pollution and respect of the environment is worse than European countries, and I also

noticed it when I was in Thailand, but I just think, this is something cultural, and people from

developing countries such as China or Thailand really have to be educated about these issues

in particular because most of them are still not aware about the importance of the

environment and the impact of their behaviour on the planet. Even if, as China is more

developed than Thailand, we can see some progress about these issues such as we already

said a little bit earlier on this report about the concrete actions taken by the government.

Foreigner’s life

The first thing we could notice when arriving in China, it is how Chinese people look at us. On

big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai or Beijing, Chinese people are used to see “white people”

like us, and do not pay attention at our presence. However, the more you travel in mainland

China, the more you go on lost and rural areas, the more you can experience how Chinese

Page | 28

people look at you. In some areas, Chinese people are not used to Europeans and it could be

very destabilizing.

Actually, I noticed different kind of stare Chinese people have on us:

- Curiosity: more in rural areas where Chinese people are not used to see “white people”

travelling. It is the most interesting and stunning stare because they are very curious and

want to speak with you even if you do not understand a single word.

During my journey to Chengdu from China, we took a “K” train with a hard seat, it was on

our first week in January and were not aware about the different train categories existing

here. Once in the train, we just realized by reading our travel book, that we were in the

cheapest train category with the cheapest seat existing. To summarize, it was the

cheapest way to go to Chengdu (but prices were very attractive 35€ for 2 000km, a

travel long of 36h). The first couple of hours every poor Chinese people in the wagon were

staring at us, wondering why two Europeans people were there, trying to communicate

with us but without success. It was very destabilizing and we were a little bit afraid at the

beginning, but after few hours (out of 36h), those Chinese people got used to us, and we

did the same.

The same thing happened in almost every rural areas I have been in China, but that is

extremely rewarding, because as they are curious about us, they want to know more

about us, and a real cultural exchange takes place and we really have the opportunity to

discover how most of Chinese people live every day (according to the WorldBank, 200

millions of people live under the poverty line: $1, 25/day19).

- Do not pay attention: more often big cities such as Shanghai, Beijing or Shenzhen, where

Chinese people are used to see “white people” in their daily life.

The second thing we could notice in our daily foreigner’s life is the way Chinese treat us.

Because of the linguistic gap, some Chinese people are more willing to use us, such as

unlicensed drivers whose want to make us pay more than it should be with a real certified

driver. For example, the first day I arrived in Shanghai on January 7th, a fake taxi proposed to

19 http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/societe/20141015.AFP8340/chine-plus-de-82-millions-de-personnes-sous-le-seuil-de-pauvrete.html

Page | 29

drive me to my hotel for 400rmb (54€), while I only paid 100rmb (15€) with a certified driver.

We always have to make sure the taximeter is switched-on at the start of the ride, some

drivers can charge every sum they want and take advantage of unsuspecting foreigners. They

enjoy the fact we are completely lost in a country far from Europe, we do not know how

everything is working, we do not know the language etc. That is only one example of traps

foreigners are susceptible to fall into, Chinese used to see foreigners as rich. However, taking

taxi is very common for foreigners here, because it is very cheap contrary to French ones.

Then, we could observe that relationships are more complicated when we do not speak

Chinese. As we said, most of Chinese people does not speak English at all, and it is deeply

complicated to communicate with them, and Chinese experience would be nicer if we were

able to speak Chinese.

Moreover, foreigners feel like rock stars, it is important to note that foreigners are usually

taken in pictures by Chinese. At tourists place, it is still common to have Chinese come up and

ask to take a picture with us. We cannot even count how many times it happens. Somewhere

in China, a Chinese child is growing with a picture leaning on my bike on Erhai Lake in Dali

(Yunnan) holding him in my arms.

Foreigners could also feel annoyed, buying train tickets, buying sim cards, getting on a subway

or a train, opening a bank account, all those activities take more time here in China, because

it is crowed, and everybody is trying to get at the front once, does not respect any queues.

Also, it is the “1 job = 4 people” policy, which Europeans are not used to, and with we can lose

patience. Indeed, in Europe, people are asking to be productive and efficient in their work,

Chinese do not work well and take time to understand what we really want (even when they

speak English).

Foreigners could feel amused and scared at the same time, especially of food. From France,

it is very complicated to get used to another kind of food, and some Chinese food really look

special, for instance, at the beginning as foreigners we could be amused of street foods after

several minutes wondering about what it is exactly, make up our mind to taste but still without

knowing what is it (dogs, cats or rats) and honestly I do not think we really want to know what

ingredients there are after all. It is more about how we survive the intense challenges we have

to face in our daily life, humour may be the best way to deal with

Page | 30

Cultural differences across China

The more you travel across China, the more you understand what China is exactly. I will always

remember a Chinese man I met in a youth hostel in Kunming (Yunnan province) who told me

that as a foreigner, I should see China as Europe: different countries with different cultures,

traditions and languages but gathered in a shared area (unified through the government in

that case). Indeed, China has nothing to compare with France, Chinese territory is 14 times

larger than France, and is even larger than Europe. That is the strength of the Chinese

government, they succeed in gathering more than 1, 3 billion of people in a territory large as

9, 597 million square meter under a single country, that is what the communist party is really

efficient in China by establishing a common nation to keep all Chinese gathered.

I have been travelling through six different provinces (Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, Yunnan,

Hainan and Guangdong) during my Chinese experience and no one were the same.

- Beijing province is culturally rich, with a lot of palaces and temples. Temperatures are

frozen in winter and very hot in summer. Despite the fact it is one of the biggest Chinese

cities, Beijing is still a traditional area and is also the politic symbol of the country. People

are quite individualistic and not too easy to communicate with. That city is very interesting

because it represents the modern part of China in some districts but other are still very

traditional, and it makes a very wonderful mix of culture of way of life. The city is expected

to keep on growing to have a 6th ring until the next decade.

- Shanghai: the most crowded Chinese city, with a lack of traditional and cultural areas. The

nickname of that city is the “Chinese New-York”, but except shopping, working, I did not

realize that city was really worth it. This city reflects the modern part of China, the way

how the country liberalized business. Being in Shanghai feels like being everywhere else

except in China.

- Sichuan: I went to Chengdu for few days, and went to the National Park to see the pandas.

That city is the perfect reflect how China wants to develop the West part of the country

by building a lot of shopping malls, trying to attract international firms (ostentatious part

of the country). Sichuan is one of the very old Buddhism provinces and I had the feeling

Page | 31

that Chinese government is trying little by little to erase that part of the province’s history.

Besides, that province is known to be one of most beautiful Chinese provinces with two

wonderful natural parks surrounded by alpines valleys and wooded hills. Even the

language is different, here, Chinese people are used to talk a mandarin dialect and

Tibetan. Sichuan food is also the spiciest of all China.

- Yunnan: located in the south-west of the country at the border with Birmanie, The Laos

and Vietnam, that province was cruelly rewarding with different kind of landscapes and

people here are the nicest I have ever met in all China. In the North of the province, we

went to the Tiger Leaping Gorger (at the border with Tibet) and, in the south, the

landscapes are very different, there are a lot of jungles crossed by the Mekong River and

rice fields. The weather is also colder, people here are more traditional, and it was

common to see people wearing traditional clothes. Transports infrastructure are not

really developed and we had to take several hours and mean of transport to go where we

wanted to go (we always forecasted one day at least). Being in Yunnan feels like being far

away from the modern part of China.

- Hainan: that province is completely different from the other. Located in the very South of

the country, that tropical island is known all around the world as the “Chinese Hawaii” full

of coconuts trees and sandy beaches. Hainan habitants are nicer than the North, we could

suppose that thanks to the sunny and warm climate, those make people nicer and open-

minded. Ways of life are also different than the North (thanks to the sunny climate),

people are more relaxed.

Besides, even inside that provinces we noticed contrasts, Sanya and Haikou are the

biggest city of that province with a lot of shopping malls, symbol of the modern China.

But once we travel more in the countryside, things are truly different, during our stay in

Riyue Bay (also known as the “surfer bay”), the closest village was 3km further, and it was

poor area and we felt amused to see camels and wild horses on the beach.

It is not a very traditional province, even when we went to Nanshan Temple (which had

to be a traditional Buddhism temple), everything was fake, even the longevity mountain

with the longevity temple on the top was still under construction.

Page | 32

- Guangdong - Shenzhen: Shenzhen city is one of the newest Chinese cities. It is a special

economic zone since 1980 and since, known an increasingly growth. Shenzhen is the

perfect symbol of modern China, with a brand new stock-exchange, high skyscrapers,

many shopping malls etc.

As we said, China is a country full a contrasts: landscapes, weather, cultures, tradition, food

and languages. And that makes the country wonderful so far. However, it is also important to

notice, that as foreigner we could have the feeling that there are a lot fake things, such as

temples, IT, clothes, purses etc. What is really surprising is even traditional area look fake such

as the Forbidden City or the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, which is quite disappointing because

we were expecting something incredible. The fact is, they try to restore those traditional areas

but they do it wrong by deleting the traditional aspects.

The educational experience

First of all it is worth noticing that we did not have a real full opportunity to experience the

Chinese educational university system. Indeed, having French classmates and international

teachers as we had made it difficult. As well as the fact that Chinese students are culturally

“shy” and no special events were set up in the university to meet other international or

Chinese students.

Chinese education system framework

Since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the government attached a

great importance to education and has established several laws so that everyone as the

guarantee to be well-educated, especially ethnic minorities groups.

Page | 33

Chinese education system is divided into six educational levels and two of them are

compulsory for each Chinese citizens (compulsory education program takes nine years):

- The primary school takes 6 years and each year are divided into two semester of 38

weeks of teaching and 13 years of vacations. It exists nine teaching subjects during all

those six years: Moral Education, Chinese Language, Mathematics, Social Studies,

Natural Science, Physical Education, Music, Arts and Labour Services. Students move

to the junior secondary school after an examination about Chinese and Mathematics.

- The junior secondary/Chuzhong - 初中 : takes 3 years to be accomplished. Every

provinces arrange 13 teaching subjects: Politics, Chinese Language, Mathematics,

Foreign Language, History, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Physical Education,

Music, Art and Household skills.

Government forecasts that in 2020, 165 millions of Chinese kids will attend those compulsory

educational level. The challenge is in rural areas where education is not the top priority among

families whose already suffer of poverty.

Chinese education system

Education School/Level Years Age from Age to Compulsory

Primary Primary school 6 6 12 YES

Secondary Junior secondary school 3 12 15 YES

Secondary Senior secondary school 3 15 18 NO

Post-

secondary

Undergraduate level – Bachelor’s

Degree 4 18 22 NO

Post-

secondary Graduate level – Master’s Degree 2 22 24 NO

Post-

secondary Graduate Level – Doctoral Degree 3 24 27 NO

Page | 34

China education system is the largest in the world but some improvements are needed to

make it even more efficient. Education level is not as high as European countries, during our

company visit to the Hotel Novotel Beijing Peace, the general manager, Thierry DOUET told us

that usually foreign companies settled in China would rather hiring international graduated

student because they are more productive, multitasking and have a better understanding of

globalization.

Teaching style

China is well known all around the world for its tough education methods and the fact that

students are undergo a very strong pressure, especially when they pass the “gaokao” (高考)

at the end of the senior secondary school, the national examination which will allow each

student to attend such university depending of its grade. The competition is very tough

because universities places are limited, and most high school are evaluated on their academic

performance at this examination.

That is already a first key factors which emphasize the fact that teachers (and family as well)

are putting a lot of pressure on students.

Nonetheless as we have seen in Beihang University, teachers are cruelly respected among the

society. Indeed, Chinese teachers have the highest level of public respect, almost revered. In

the Chinese culture, a teacher is not only viewed as an instructor but someone who allow

student to get knowledge which leads to a social distinction. Even the language and way

students addresses the teacher show a huge respect. Indeed, while in western countries, it is

common to address teacher with “mister” or “miss” attached to the last name, however in

Asian society, calling a teacher by the first name is something wrong and could be viewed as

a disrespect and rude. In China, students have to address teacher first by its status, which is

“laoshi” (老师) which usually makes: BAI laoshi or « teacher BAI » (BAI is the teacher’s family

name). International students really have to be aware of this tiny distinction between western

and Chinese habits.

Page | 35

I had the opportunity to get several interviews with Chinese students who had an open-

minded vision of the Chinese educational system because they went on academic expatriation

abroad. All those interviews led to a common point: Chinese education system stifle creativity

and prevent Chinese student to think by themselves. It relies on cramming theories and

courses and they try to write it back during examinations.

On the other hand, as a foreign student in Beihang University, we had Chinese teachers, the

way of teaching was not so different than Europeans ones, but the main complication was on

the understanding. Indeed, some of our Chinese teachers had a very strong Chinese accent

while speaking English which led to misunderstandings. Besides, while Europeans teachers are

trying to make students involve in the course and make them participate so that everybody

can build the course, Chinese teachers are more in explaining theories as lectures which is a

little bit frustrating because as student, we could have questions about the course, but we do

not have the possibility to ask them because either the teacher does not understand our

question or do not let us ask questions.

One another thing, is the fact that teachers have always wanted us to give them back our

paper work on printed version. While teachers in La Rochelle Business School were more

about numeric version, Chinese teachers preferred to have them on printed version. This may

reflects the fact that Chinese people are not used to take care of the environment.

Advantages and drawbacks

Advantages

The main advantage in the Chinese educational system is that it emphasizes the importance

of school and work every day. Students are asked to give their best in their daily work school.

Besides, thanks to the nine-year compulsory school, most of Chinese are lettered, during my

researches, I have seen that the literacy rate reached 95% in mainland China in 2015.

Drawbacks

As the national examination at the end of the senior secondary school remains on memorizing

theories, students are undergo a strong pressure to succeed it because it is the only proof if

Page | 36

the university admit this student or not. However, it is common knowledge to say that Chinese

students are among the best worldwide in remembering facts and recitation.

Chinese educational system leads to very goods workers and but not thinkers, especially when

we talk about problem solving skills. It becomes more complicated for Chinese people when

they have to an issue they do not have any ideas about how to resolve it.

On the other hand, we can suppose the educational system also dig inequalities among

Chinese citizens. Indeed, it is worth noticing that south-eastern provinces are wealthier than

north-eastern ones, so that students have more chances to succeed the “gaokao” and go to

an undergraduate level.

Education in China is also very expensive, and all families cannot afford to pay tuitions fees.

For instance, annual scholarship fees for Peking University reached 27 200rmb in 2015

(3,720€) while the average annual income is 36,500rmb (500€).

Comparison with French education system framework

One of the main difference between French and Chinese education system we noticed is the

compulsory education program. In France the compulsory program takes 12 years (from the

primary school: “maternelle” + “cours préparatoires” which takes eight years). Just to

remember what we said on the previous section, Chinese compulsory education program

takes nine years.

After those first eight years, French pupils have to attend to fourth first year of the secondary

education called “collège” which is equivalent of the Chinese junior secondary school.

Besides, student fees in France are much lower than in China, it depends of course of which

kind of university the student attend. If students attend public university, tuitions fees will be

on average 184€ (1,345rmb) per year for an undergraduate program. Educational access is

easier in France because of low tuitions fees but also, inequalities could be reduced towards

students who want to attend private school because many national scholarship helps are set

up.

On the other hand, university campus lifestyles are completely different than French ones.

Indeed, it is worth noticing that as China’s territory is 14 times larger than French one, and

Page | 37

China is most populated country in the world, everything is bigger than France especially

university campus. Beihang university is home of almost 30,000 students and cover an area

large of 100 hectares. French universities campus are nothing compared to Chinese one based

on American models: a lot of shops, banks, shopping malls, gymnasium, swimming pools,

stadium, and dormitories. All these facilities make the campus life as an anthill: dynamic and

full of life. Also, I have learnt that Chinese government wants to build more and more

universities across the territory based on the American campus’ way of life. They want to

attract more international students and think that if campus look like American’s one,

international students will be attracted and will expect the same level of education (as

Harvard, Stanford or MIT).

Furthermore, in France our score in the “baccalauréat” does not decide in which university we

can attend or not. The post-secondary education in France is easier to access, because we

think this is something everybody should have access that is why also the tuitions fees in public

universities are very low contrary to American or Chinese universities.

Corporate & Business life in China

This section will mainly talk about the two company’s visit we had the opportunity to get

thanks to the Mission CCI France-Chine: the first one in the Hotel Novotel Beijing Peace located

in Wangfujing (王府井) district, and the second one is Airbus Training Centre near Beijing

Capital International Airport. Those visits were very interesting, but at the same time, French

workers expatriates we met, were a little bit reluctant about giving us a lot of details about

their strategies how they deal with issues related to corporate social responsibility for

example.

When China?

Airbus decided to set up in China in 1997 when they sold their first plane in the Chinese

territory to a Chinese airline company. They thought it was crucial for them to implement a

Page | 38

training centre in order to train Chinese pilots to Airbus flight systems on the different kind of

planes. In 1997, Airbus had 100% market share on the pilot training market in China but now,

it has decrease to only 3% in 2015 (we will explain that decrease few points later).

AccorHotel sat up in China in 1985 while the country was knowing a really economic boom,

with a development around 13, 5%20 and was one of the pioneering international hotel

management companies to settle in China.

Economic reasons for setting up in China

One main reason made those two companies setting up in China, is the fact that China has

always represented a strong potential of development due to its population and large

territory.

Besides, the development of the Chinese middle-class who got a higher purchasing power and

who want a better way of life, the growing of mega cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xi’An

or Chengdu make the country very attractive and full of potential for foreign companies.

It is also important to say that visa simplification and trade liberalization make more and more

companies to set up in China.

Company’s strategies in China

Those two companies evolve in different industries/sectors but shared the same ambition:

keep on economically growing in China because of the huge business potential this country

represents.

As far as AccorHotel is concerned, we should first highlight a crucial strategic alliance, the

company made few months ago with one of the major leading hospitality group in China:

Huazhu Hotels Group. AccorHotel confirms it will take a 10, 8% stake in Huazhu and also will

be able to have a seat at the Chinese group’s board of directors. This alliance will enable the

French operator to accelerate the development of few of its brands and open between 350

and 400 new hotels in the five years. Huazhu Hotels group is a powerful hospitality company

20 http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG

Page | 39

in China represented with more than 1,900 hotels in the territory from the economy scale to

the luxury scale.

The aim of this alliance for both of them is to accelerate their own economic development in

China, in relying on the powerful network of the Chinese operators (suppliers, investors), and

the worldwide fame of AccorHotel group. This agreement will be available over the next 70

years.

However, Huazhu Hotels Group’s services are more focused on the economic scale, and as the

expansion of the Chinese middle-class does not stop, this partnership will enable AccorHotel

to pursue its expansion on this typical kind of services. Indeed, according to Ji Qi (Huazhu

Hotels Group’s CEO), there are on average 600 million new customers who can afford to go to

hotel henceforth.

This agreement will allow the Chinese operator to open Ibis, Ibis Styles, Novotel, Mercure &

Grand Mercure in China, Taiwan and Mongolia through a “master-franchise” agreement21, so

that AccorHotel will be able to only focus on its luxury products such as Sofitel, Pullman,

McGallery and The Sebel.

Currently, AccorHotel is represented in China through 140 hotels in more than 45 cities in the

whole territory, but those figures are expected to exponentially grow in the next few years

thanks to partnership like this one. This alliance will give birth to the 1st leading hospitality

group in China.

Moreover, with more than 30 years of development experience in the country, AccorHotels

had developed a strong understanding of the Chinese hotel industry and Chinese people’s

expectations. That’s why, they tailored a brand new concept of hotel called Grand Mercure

especially tailored of Chinese people and expectations.

On the other hand, Airbus’s business strategy for its training centre rely on the quality of

services provided. Hua-Ou Aviation Training Centre is a joint-venture between Airbus and

China Aviation Supplies Import & Export Corporation (CASC), located near Beijing International

21 http://www.accorhotels-group.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Contenus_Accor/Finance/Pressreleases/2014/FR/20141214_cp_accor_huazhu.pdf

Page | 40

Capital Airport. It provides training to most Chinese airlines companies and operators in the

whole Asia. However, time has running complicated for Airbus on this line of business (training

formation), because most of airlines companies decide now to be equipped with their own

training centres. Indeed, the profit an airline company could make by implemented a training

centre is none neglecting, training fees for each pilot in the Airbus training centre is

approximately 150,000$. That is why, Airbus wants to develop its training services activities

through joint-ventures with airlines companies’ local & national scale.

At the same time, Airbus strategy in China in general is reflected through a joint-venture

signed 2009 in Tianjin (near Beijing in the northern part) for a final assembly production

manufactory. The China’s airline market is expected to increase in a crazy manner thanks to

the development of the middle-class but also the willingness of the government to develop

the eastern part of the country by building airports by hundreds and also by opening new

airways.

Major current challenges for foreign companies

The major challenge AccorHotel has to face off in China, is the fact that it is really complicated

for foreign companies to own their own establishment. For instance, on the 3,700 hotels

AccorHotel have in the whole world, only 1,290 are really owned by the company.

That is why, in that kind of industry, companies such as AccorHotel have to find investors to

buy the infrastructure and own it, and let AccorHotel operate the business.

Airbus, have met a lot of challenges since they are operating their business in China, and still

have to face with Chinese specificities.

The first one is the Chinese airways framework. On the picture below we can see world’s

airways, and we notice that China’s territory have a crucial lack of airways. What are the

reasons? Chinese government implemented a lot of military zones whose are completely

forbidden to cross, and China is one of the first countries in the world to have such amount of

military zones. And then, as we can see on this map, the western part of the country have a

lot of airways contrary to the eastern part. The reason is, on the eastern part of country, the

Page | 41

landscapes are very hilly with for example the Himalaya Chain which make some part of the

country impossible to fly over.

This leads to the second challenge, Airbus have to take into account. China’s eastern territory

is full of different altitudes. They categorized different altitudes: high altitudes (between

1500m-8000m ft.) and ultra-high altitudes (more than 8000m ft.). That specificity in in

particularly in Tibet, Sichuan or Yunnan provinces force them to adjust their product with

different motorization so that planes can take-off. For instance, they have built special planes

for airlines companies as Sichuan Airlines.

Airbus Group is composed of three main departments: Airbus, Airbus Helicopter and Airbus

Defence/Space. It is worth noticing that in that training centre, only Airbus and Airbus

Helicopter exist with respectively three FFS (Full Flight Simulator) for Airbus and only one for

Airbus Helicopter. The cost of each simulator varies between $12 million to $16 million, which

seems a lot, but each simulator are made with real tools as a real cockpit plane.

However, Airbus Group have a lot of difficulties to develop Airbus Helicopter in China because

they are not focused on the same customers and for instance, also customers for helicopter

are fewer than for planes because they are institutions . While an A320 simulator is working

Page | 42

almost 20h/day, the helicopter simulator is only working on average 2-3h/day which is not

profitable for Airbus Group. That is why this segment remain a real challenge for the company

that they have to develop.

Key factors when doing business in China

Adapting to Chinese customers and habits

China is maybe the most exotic country in the world as far as habits and way of life are

concerned. That is why it is crucial for foreign companies to adapt their products or services

to Chinese customer’s demand. They do not have the same expectations and issues related to

consumption as westerners and foreign companies really have to take all these factors into

account.

For instance, AccorHotel tailored a specific kind of hotel for Chinese travellers called Grand

Mercure, which are more focused on a family hotel experience reflected through the

importance of the family and the implementation of the one child policy for years.

Concerning Airbus, they decided to build planes tailored to the Chinese specific territory (as

we already said in the part: “Company’s strategies in China”).

Besides, when we visited the CBD district with Mrs Serena Rovai, she explained us how KFC

failed to enter into the Chinese market because they misjudged the local market and failed to

develop suitable business model. They did not understand how food is at the heart of the

society, and finally understood how it is important to be seen as part of the local community

and not as western fast-food chain selling expensive western food, but as a restaurant selling

a large variety of food and traditional Chinese dishes that could appeal Chinese customer such

as: spicy chicken or soy milk drinks. Since then, KFC is one of the most powerful fast-food

chain in China, far away from MacDonald’s. Also, many of KFC’s advertisers reflect the

importance of the family and collectivism whose are two strong cultural features of the

Chinese.

Many foreign companies have taken into account this crucial fact, the services provided in the

Chinese Apple Store are truly different than westerners. In fact, Chinese customers have to be

educated to the technology and for instance, employees in Apple Store provide full services

Page | 43

to customers such as synchronizing files between every devices, so that when the customer

go back home after the purchase, he has nothing to do in more. The difference is, in most of

western Apple Store, customer only purchase what they want and personalize and

synchronize everything alone at home.

Managing Chinese people

One think we could easily notice while experiencing the Chinese’s life is the fact that Chinese

people have different habits compared to westerners and it could be complicated to know

how to manage these differences at first sight, but the most important step is to be aware of.

Not only Chinese people habits are different than westerners one, but it is even more difficult

when foreign companies are becoming aware about every regional differences: northern

people are more nationalistic while Chinese from Shanghai are more ambitious Cantonese

people are more traditional. So many differences that foreign companies have to be aware in

order to have success while doing business China. However, it exists some important key

factors whose are common to every Chinese:

- Mianzi: we already talked about this important concept in the Chinese culture, it is the

fact of not losing face, and it emphasizes the importance of people’s honour.

- Guanxi: relies on the fact that relationship are based on trust. Airbus really understand

that crucial factor of the Chinese culture and really want to take care of their

relationship with the Chinese government by organizing visits and meetings for

“government officials. And that is how, Airbus has succeed in being the first plane seller

in China.

Communication is another key success in managing Chinese people in a foreign company

settled in China, most of Chinese people have a very low English level, and it could be quite

difficult for managers to be fully understood, that is why it is important to have some Chinese

in the managerial staff to ensure accuracy productivity.

Page | 44

Recruitment

This factor is a real challenge for every foreign companies in China. It is common knowledge

that foreign companies prefer hiring foreign students because of their better educational

backgrounds.

It is quite complicated for them to hire well trained and qualified Chinese staff member, some

companies prefer recruiting young graduated student and train them thoroughly to their

standards so that they can be productive and efficient enough. Some others, prefer recruiting

highly skilled Chinese people that has been educated abroad, they are well-trained and have

an international way of thinking, which is very crucial into foreign companies.

Another important factor is that Chinese people are more motivated by the money than the

professional experience itself, which leads to a faster job force turnover.

Furthermore, it is important to notice that Chinese workers are generally reluctant to

professional mobility because of what we called the “hukou” which is basically a household

registration system which determines a citizen’s entitlement to social welfare and benefits

depending on his area of residency.

Page | 45

IV – Analysis and conclusion

Analysis about preconceived ideas

Chinese’s way of life & attitudes

Before going in China I was aware that it would have been difficult to adapt myself to another

country and it is true, it happened. My main preconceived idea about Chinese people was the

fact that they are cold and narrow-minded about foreigners they see as threats because of

the government’s brainwashing, lack of freedom expression and government’s control.

However, during my academic semester in Beijing I realized that in fact, most of Chinese

people are aware about how foreigners use to see China, about how Western newspapers talk

about China, it is important to emphasize how French newspapers gave us a very biased view

about Chinese’s way of living. Indeed, they mainly show us negative sides of China: lack of

expression freedom, pollution due to the economic growth, communist party, Chinese’s

labour-market of the world.

Besides, when you experience China and stay in the country for few months, you have enough

time to really adapt yourself to the country as we did, you realized how China’s way of living

really is, and the fact that they have nothing to envy to other cities in the world (if as

foreigners, you are ready to keep an open-mind during all the Chinese experience).

It is true that, Chinese people are not the most extrovert and communicative people in the

world contrary to Western people, their way of communication and living are poles apart with

ours, it is based on unsaid and how people interact with each other through their behaviours

which come from their cultural heritage through the Confucianism and Taoism. In fact, when

you arrive in China, you realized that Chinese people are a bit shy towards foreigners and will

wait for you to do the first step, to show your interest about the country and the Chinese in

general, but it is true that the linguistic gap does not help in doing that first step, but once you

have done it, you realize how Chinese people conceived relationships and how those

relationships are as strong as the one you could build with western people.

On the other hand, as explained in the first part of this report, I also thought that China was a

sad country to live full of old communist buildings, grey because of the pollution and an

Page | 46

atmosphere lacking of dynamism. That particular point has to be nuanced. Indeed, I realized

that China is a country very full of contrast, a developing country in transition between its

traditional history and the modernism’s government willingness. We cannot deny the fact that

Beijing in winter is a sad and depressive place to leave when you just arrived in China and you

do not know how the city is running, where the dynamic and popular places are. But, once

you went through the cultural choc of Chinese way of living and try to adapt yourself to that

new way of life, it appears that especially Beijing is a dynamic city with more than 40 million

of inhabitants and where the economic development is growing quickly with a lot of buildings

under constructions, many urbanization development projects, many events organized and a

strong expatriate community.

Pollution

As far as pollution is concerned, it is crucial to notice, that in Europe we mainly think that

Chinese people never see blue sky and never have sunny weather. It is true that pollution is a

very important challenge

for the Chinese

government, but I

thought that China in

general was a country

“grey”, lack of brightness,

I was wrong. As you can

see on those two

pictures, the perception

of the environment could

be completely different

from one day to another.

Furthermore, during my

experience in Beijing, I

discovered that Chinese’s government is able to control the weather thanks to a scientific

approach. Pollution is one of the biggest challenge, the government has to face off, but its

economic development willingness does not fit with the environmental policies Chinese

Page | 47

government are asked to make. Indeed, Chinese’s energy mostly rely on coal plants which

allow millions of people to have a job and consume.

One another important thing about pollution in China is the fact that it is a new issue that the

population is aware of. Pollution is not only the result of policy choices made but also of

attitudes and approaches. And I also experienced it during my volunteering mission in a

Marine Conservation Project in Thailand. It appeared that, people are not educated enough

about the environment importance, the fact of recycling, the food chain and how crucial the

role of factories and economic development have on the environment. But, after analysing

Chinese’s behaviour about environment, we clearly notice that there is a crucial lack of

education about environment, the mass tourism for example in Hainan Island, the most

tropical part of the country, they built so many huge resorts that they destroyed all the

underwater life, and they still offer scuba-diving excursions for Chinese tourists whose are

amazed about the underwater life there, but it has nothing to compared with the underwater

world in the Adaman Sea (Thailand) for instance. It is also common to see Chinese people

throw away their garbage everywhere and also in the most beautiful touristic areas such as

The Great Wall or even in temples.

The issue remains cultural, and the only way to resolve that education issue, is to go through

the next generation of Chinese: go in primary schools to sensitize children about the

conservation of the environment.

Also, as we clearly noticed in our “Observation” part, China is still a developing country,

people, especially in big cities such as Beijing are more and more aware about the effects of

the pollution on the environment and also on the health, and more and more demonstrations

are done in order to force the government to take concrete decisions.

Chinese’s government & its ambitions

Coming from France, the country of the Human Rights I was of quite reluctant about the

Chinese way of ruling the country because of the communist party, and expression’s freedom

which remains controlled at every stage. But, after analysing the Chinese way of life, after

visiting 7 different provinces, after talking with Chinese people in order to have a better view

Page | 48

of the big picture, after researching data about the government on the Internet, one debate

took place among us: is the communist party the best governance way for such a big country?.

Indeed, the communist party have huge ambitions for the country as we have seen in the

documentary review, concerning the transport infrastructure, the economic development of

the country. The government is well aware about the crucial challenges that the country will

have to face and the crucial role China will have in the worldwide economy in the next few

years (China will represent 20% of the global economy in 2025). And we can wonder if the

Chinese government could have made the necessary reforms for the economic development

if the government structure was another? This question is even more legitimate, when you

take a look at the difficulties the French government have in order to make the necessary

reforms in order to resolve the economic and social issues in France without starting

demonstrations.

On the other hand, as we have said in the documentary review, transport’s infrastructure

represent a crucial key for the socio-economic development of the country. With the biggest

railway infrastructure transport in the world, and strong airport’s infrastructure development

ambitions and also the development of western cities, Chinese government are willing to

develop the western part of the country which remains landlocked because of its complicated

landscapes full of different attitudes. I observed during my trips in Sichuan and Yunnan

provinces how those cities will be crucial for the country’s economic development. For

instance, Chengdu in Sichuan province is a very new city where many buildings are still under

construction and where the subway network is expected to exponentially grow. An economic

growth only possible through the transport infrastructure development because all imports

goods arriving in Shanghai will be transported in western countries through the railway

network and highways. It is important to remember that, in 2014, Minister of Transport Yang

Chuantang announced investment in transport infrastructure has reached $4,9bn (in the last

Five-Year Plan) including railways, roads, airports (Yang, 2014). And when we are in China we

can clearly confirmed how that huge investment will permit to those provinces to grow.

Improve infrastructure transport will allow greater exchanges between cities in mainland

China and also balance the development between rural which remain poor and urban areas.

Page | 49

Business context analysis

When we implemented the concept of High-Tech Zones based companies (also called

“university-industry consortiums”°, we highlighted the fact that the Chinese government

wants to operate a change in its economy which was known as the labour-market of the world

with low skills, into an economy based on innovation. Those specific zones are attractive for

Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and aim to be viewed as Chinese Silicon Valley, a place where

the Chinese grey matter is actively working about product development, and some famous

Chinese worldwide companies started in those kind of zones such as Lenovo which was the

world’s largest personal computer vendor in 2015. That company has its headquarters in

Haidian District (Beijing) which is one of those China National Economic and Technological

Development Zones (also called ETDZ). In that particular district, there are 17 different

universities and 9 companies headquarters whose international companies such as Lenovo,

Baidu (the Chinese Google), Youku (the Chinese Youtube). FDI into the Chinese service sector

grew by 7, 8% in 2014, and decreased in the manufacturing sector, it reflects the will from the

Chinese government to focus on the service sector in order to hold its economic growth.

The fact that China wants to become the new leading innovative country in the world reflects

the fact the government is trying to give a new impulse to its economy according to its first

place in the worldwide economy.

We also observed how complicated it could be for foreign companies to operate in China,

because of the government market’s restrictions. For instance, it is clearly impossible for

foreign companies to own buildings, which make the business more complicated for

companies such as AccorHotel which needs Chinese investors to buy the building and let them

operate it as they want. Good practices in business theories and the importance of the

“guanxi” (the relationship) are also important to take into account, Airbus often organize

meetings with Chinese officials in their offices near Beijing Capital International Airport. It is

crucial for foreign companies to know how doing business in China, because they are well

aware about the potential of the Chinese market.

Page | 50

Remarkable lessons and insights learnt

Chinese’s perspective

I have learnt, especially in China and during my trip in 7 different provinces, that it is very

important to keep in mind the Chinese perspective according to the western one. Indeed, it is

easy to stay on our European references, which mean, developed countries, with a certain

high standing of services, especially when we talk about accommodation, a certain

organization pf things, also the fact that in Europe, it is easy to go everywhere, and it will not

take so much time because we have an efficient railway network, and the territory is much

smaller than in China.

The most important thing I have learnt during my academic semester in China is the necessity

of enjoying the little things that could happen in the life. For instance, in Beijing, seasons are

clearly defined, when we arrived in January the weather was frozen with temperatures around

-25 degrees, but months after months, it got warmer, and in spring, you really can see trees

flourishing days after days until summer is coming, with high temperature around 25/30° in

beginning of May. The fact that seasons are clearly defined like this, contrary to France for

instance, make us enjoying even more the weather and flowers in the trees. It could be a bit

stunning to see all the Chinese people taking selfies with flowers in parks, it really give the

impression that they are simple-minded of enjoying every little things that for us, foreigners

it is just normal things that happen in our daily life in Europe. However, when you see life with

Chinese’s eyes, you just understand that contrary to us, they have that capacity to enjoy every

little things such as season swings. And it is true that after knowing such negatives

temperatures for half of your academic expatriation, we even more enjoy the sun, the warmth

and high temperatures.

The other important things a foreigner learn from going abroad and even more in developing

countries such as China which is trying to find a balance between its economic growth and

traditional aspects is that fact it could always worst. French people are known all around the

world for complaining all day about everything, never satisfied of what we already have. In

china, I have seen so much poverty and met so many people whose enjoy their lives as they

are. It makes us realize how different people in different areas could have such a different way

Page | 51

of life, and the fact that those people look very happy and satisfied with what they already

have and do not want to have anything else and not interested in getting wealthier.

This Chinese experience have teach us the importance of perspectives, to have a different look

at what we could see.

Open-mindedness

This concept of perspectives is closely linked to the open-mindedness concept. Indeed, as

foreigners it seems useless to go abroad by keeping western references and way of life. Having

an open-minded teach us also that the concept of beauty is different and have to be clearly

nuanced. The beauty if not only something tangible such as beautiful streets full of flowers

and designed buildings, the beauty is more than something we can see, it is a feeling, an

emotion you can feel in the atmosphere. Let us take for instance very traditional hutongs full

of poverty with people sleeping or cooking in the streets, clothes held up among bad smells.

It is true that image does not look very beautiful at first sight, but that is one of many aspects

of China that we have to experience, that is how most of Chinese people are living in China,

and seeing those pictures teach us about the Chinese culture more than the other side of the

country such as roads which could be full of skyscrapers, shopping malls or highways.

Impacts on the personal level

Necessity to take into account cultural differences

As foreigners coming in China, the very first feeling is astonishment, a feeling which makes

you keep your eyes opened for each single seconds after the arrival because each of those

seconds are surprises, surprises and surprises again. Stunning surprises, amazing surprises,

astounding surprises as many things are new for us. By “things”, we of course talk about the

Chinese way of life and environment such as Chinese women holding their baby on their backs

with wearing with open pants in case of the baby have a sudden desire to pooh. In Chinese

culture, it is said that bad things are better “out” than “in”, this concept is not only reflected

in the way they conceive relationships, but reach paroxysm in their daily attitudes such as

splitting or farting.

Page | 52

On a psychological level, Chinese’s mind is also worlds apart from western one, they have a

completely different way of thinking due to their deep cultural roots from the Taoism and

Confucianism, those two cultural heritages influence most of their behaviour such as Mianzi –

the fact of losing face, and Guanxi – the importance of relationships. Taking into account this

knowledge allow foreigners to more understand Chinese behaviours and stop complaining

because we think they are strange. The fact is, it is just a different culture from the western

one, and not taking into account this different is remaining narrow-minded.

One other important point resides in their attitudes towards pollution, they do not have the

same respect for the environment as westerners. At first thing, we could think they do not

respect anything except themselves, but it is important to take into account that, China is a

developing country and pollution issue have been highlighted only for few years and it takes

time to educate people about pollution and to have daily reflexes such as throwing garbage

in a dustbin for example. Of course for us, it looks normal to do so, but I think we should take

some perspectives about this. As we said, China is a developing country in which business

opportunities are huge and their energy has always been based on coal production, it will take

years or decades to have an energy based on coal to an energy based on renewables (in the

part “Pollution & Environment” we described every government’s progress about that issue).

Besides, every government would have done the same as the Chinese one: keep on

economically growing to take back it’s late on western countries. Pollution attitudes and views

about China really have to be nuanced. We could wonder about the hypocrisy of developed

Western’s countries about their willingness that China have to reduce its carbon emissions

because those same countries polluted also a lot when they were in development. The fact is

China is one of the largest country in the world which means emissions carbons are

proportional.

Open’s one mind to another culture

A student cannot go abroad to live an experience as ours by remaining narrow-minded and

watertight about another culture’s adaptation. Of course, depending on your home country

and your destination the adaptation is easier or not (between developed countries actually

the adaptation is easier). But the specific thing with Asian countries and especially with China

is the fact that every aspect of the way of life are completely different.

Page | 53

That is why, according to my previous experience in an Asian country (Thailand) and my

current experience in China, I really want to emphasize the fact it is crucial to have an open-

minded and remain open to everything we could experience here such as the food, the

transports, Chinese behaviours and should be ready to give up every single habits we are used

to in our home country, such as a very good western breakfast. If not, the experience does not

worth it according to all the expenses and efforts made, but the worst thing is, going through

a real chance to learn another way of life and improve its way of thinking.

When a foreign company want to settle down in China ignoring all the methods how doing

business in China as we explained the documentary review, that company is doomed to fail.

During our first interview in the Mission CCI France China’s building, we met an entrepreneur

who settled in China for years, we already built several companies which all failed because he

did not take into account the cultural aspects of China, and implemented his strategies as he

was in Europe.

Impact on the professional project

Internship in China

This Chinese academic semester deeply impacted my professional project, indeed I realized

that China is a country full of incredible business opportunities. Through our several

professional’s interviews with Novotel Beijing Peace, Airbus and also thanks to the winter

break we had in February during which we had the opportunity to travel around mainland

China, I discovered a developing country full of contrasts between rural and urban areas, and

even inside urban areas. I discovered also how the emergence of the middle-class boost the

consumption of services and want a better quality of life through better services.

According to my professional project in the tourism and hotel industry, China is a country in

which this sector is expanding very quickly not only in the modern part of the country such as

the East coast but also in inner-China and the West part such as little traditional touristic cities

like Lijiang (in Yunnan province). For instance, Starwood Hotels & Resorts which was one of

leading hospitality group in the world (after being bought by Marriott few months ago) have

decided to open one of its first leading luxurious brand there: St Regis.

Page | 54

China is a wonderful country with so many different landscapes that are worth to experience

and hospitality groups fully understood it by investing and opening more and more hotels in

the country.

When I decided to do a gap year after my 1st year of Master’s Degree, I wanted to do my first

6 months internship in Asia, but not especially in China, in South-East Asia in countries such as

Vietnam, Thailand or Indonesia. However, when I found the internship opportunity in the

Sofitel Wanda Beijing I did not hesitate even for one second. I knew it was a huge opportunity

that was given to me, to have a better understanding of the Chinese culture, a better

integration also in the Chinese culture, but most important, the opportunity to do a

Management Trainee in the Guest Relation Department in which I will be able to be trained

with methods of excellence and boost my employability after all.

When I arrived in China and thus for 2 months I never thought I will be able to stay any longer

in the country, an academic semester was well enough but now I feel ready to stay 6 months

longer for an internship. Because I know that experience will be very different than the

academic semester and on a professional and personal level, I will learn much more.

However, I did not feel ready about staying in China for years, because the life is so different

and Chinese’s life could be annoying in many aspects, but that is my feeling from now.

Perhaps at the end of the internship I will feel myself ready and willing to stay for decades.

We never know.

Page | 55

Bibliography

Anne, V. (2013). China's new infrastructure. Fortune.

Asia, U. (2016). China railway says it's spending $121 million on infrastructure this year. Caixin

Online.

Cendrowski, S. (2015). Why China's SOE reform would always disappoint. FORTUNE.

ChineseGovernment. (s.d.). Récupéré sur http://country.eiu.com/China

ChineseGovernment. (2014). China statistical Yearbook.

Cooke, F. L. (2005). HRM, Work and Employment in China . Psychology Press.

Eklund, J. (s.d.). Private and SOE - Business Dynamics in China. Récupéré sur

http://eng.entreprenorskapsforum.se/: http://eng.entreprenorskapsforum.se/state-

and-capital-business-dynamics-in-china/

Eleanor, A., & Beina, X. (2016, Janvier). China's environmental crisis. Récupéré sur Council on

Foreign Relations: http://www.cfr.org/china/chinas-environmental-crisis/p12608

Hans-Ulrich, R. (2014). Chinese metro boom shows no sign of abating. Rail journal.

Kai-Alexander, S. (2002). The Art Of Chinese Management: Theory, Evidence & Applications.

Oxford University Press.

KPMG. (2013). Infrastructure in China: Sustaining quality growth.

KPMG. (2013). Infrastructure in China: Sustaining quality growth .

KPMG. (2015). China Outlook 2015.

Lee, K., Kim, B., Park, Y., & Sanidas, E. (2011).

McKenzie, B. &. (2006, 2009, 2011, 2013). China Employment Law Guide.

Ming-Jen, C. (2003). Inside Chinese Business: A guide for manager worldwide. Harvard

Business Press.

OECD. (2009). Working groups on Privatisation and Corporate Governance of State-Owned

Assets. SOE in China: reviewding the evidence.

WorldBank. (s.d.). Récupéré sur http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/overview

Yang, Y. (2014). China's 2014 transport infrastructure investment to hit 2,5 trl yuan .

English.news.cn.

Zhang, D. J. (2016). What is China doing to tackle its air pollution? Récupéré sur BBC:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35351597

Zhao, L. (2016). China to sink into new airports this year. China daily.