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Viet's China Trip
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Location Date North America 
1426377600 Asia 1426291200 - Oregon
- Portland
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Location Date Sun, 15 March 2015 1426394707 Wed, 28 January 2015
1422469212
- My international experience(s) to date is(are):
- I was born in Vietnam and lived there until I was 2 and a half. I don't remember much of my childhood over there but have been back twice since immigrating to the USA. Last year, as a part of E-Scholars, I travelled to the UAE, visiting Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I also visited Mexico last summer for vacation with a small group of friends.
- I want to go to China because:
- I want to go to China because of its central role in the business and engineering world. According to the IMF, if we take into account purchasing power, China overtook the US in late 2014 as the world's largest economy. In terms of raw GDP, the US is still a larger economy than China but that is projected to change in a few years. I don't want to be at a disadvantage in the corporate and engineering world when that moment comes.
- I think the main professional work differences I experience will be:
- I expect most of the technical skills to be equivalent, if not superior to the technical skills of US employees. However, based on my experiences of working for a multi-national corporation, I predict there to be a lowest standard of quality for some Chinese based companies when compared to US based companies.
- I think the main cultural differences I experience will be:
- A lot of my predictions will be based off of my experiences with the Vietnamese and Chinese community in Portland. I think there will be a higher standard for respect towards elders and people with high titles. In America, people are encouraged to speak their mind but I suspect that in China, people have to be careful about how they want to critique ideas so they don't risk offending someone.
- I think the main political differences I experience will be:
- I am interested in experiencing how a communistic government affects companies doing business in China. In the US, every company is treated equally but I have read many articles that say that the Chinese government favors Chinese based companies. This leads to some unfair business practices and I wonder how companies based outside of China cope with it.
- I predict that I will be surprised about:
- I have come to imagined that the food in China will be amazing but a lot of my friends have told me that I shouldn't get my hopes up about eating good food there. I hope they are wrong and that every dish I taste will be just as amazing as I imagined it to be.
- I think the major differences in living conditions will be:
- I think the major difference in living conditions will be dealing with a highly dense population. Many Chinese people are moving towards the big cities because they are having a hard time making enough money in the countryside. I am also a little concerned about the air quality of being in such crowded cities. I hope that the air quality isn't too low during our trip.
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