"I had a fantastic time as a guest of IMI. Seeing how everything's done in the factories to optimise efficiency and productivity, I learned how and why China's become such a popular location for industry. I also discovered how motivating it can be to be asked for your opinion, as we were thanked by many of the people we interviewed for giving them the opportunity to have their voices heard"

Fellows spent two weeks with IMI in China. Below, Lara shares some of her thoughts and experiences.

Yesterday we began our time with our host companies, and I have been placed with IMI. I am going to be honest, and since I discovered that I was being placed with IMI, I have felt a little apprehensive for being placed with an engineering company as I have little knowledge of the field and felt completely out of my depth - as I am a Geographer.

On the first day, we discovered our intense itinerary, and it wasn’t until today that I fully appreciated just how much experience and opportunities IMI will give me. To explain a little about IMI. It consists of five separate areas; four of which are located in China and thus we will be visiting, including Indoor Climate, Fluids and Beverage Dispensers. There are several things that I am grateful for - having the chance not only to travel all over Shanghai, but also being lucky enough to be flown to Tianjin (which is just south of Beijing) and for having a task to complete for the two weeks as we are all glad that we are active and not just passengers for the company to ‘put up with’.  We also had a short talk on Chinese culture, and it was interesting learning Chinese Business Culture, with the importance of face, recieiving and giving with two hands, and their general integrity and diligence. From my time in both Beijing and Shanghai, I can definitely see how, even from people working on the streets all the way up to the top executive positions, maintain and value a strong work ethic. The importance placed on their positions and hierachy, even through to how to address people, is evidently different to that of the UK. For example, a teacher in the UK is addressed as Mr, Miss and so forth. In China, a teacher is addressed by the Chinese word for teacher, followed by their surname. Furthermore, for a taxi driver, it is quite

insulting to call him a driver, but very acceptable to call him a manual, 'hands-on' worker, which shows the importance of work and title which is intriguing.The past two days with IMI have been intriguing. We have started interviewing the IMI Employees with our questionnaire and all four of us are equally impressed with both the number of English speaking Employees and their level of English. I, who cannot speak another language, am even more determined to continue with Mandarin once back in the United Kingdom as communication is crucial in an ever-shrinking world, and the employees have highlighted our complacency of an ‘English speaking world’.

So far we have visited Norgren and ICG

(Indoor Climate Group) with tours of the plants and offices after presentations on

the individual work of each section. With ICG, we were extremely lucky to visit and drive around the construction site of the Shanghai Expo 2010 which will be impressive with its innovative architecture once fully constructed. The purpose of Expo does, in some ways, serve as a reminder of a globalising world. With each country represented by its own Pavilion, constructed amongst exhibition and events buildings, the idea is to instigate how the “world feels at home in China” whilst the actual project is intended to be sustainable for urban dwelling. Similar to the Olympic stadiums, many of the buildings will be utilised for public use once Expo ’10 has finished. However, the fact that many of the buildings will be replaced by residential dwellings highlights Shanghai’s ever increasing population.

In addition to the past two days, today we visited CCI, where there was a large amount of valves and Becky felt rather ill after a rather bumpy, crazy taxi ride across Shanghai. We were fortunate enough to meet Jill today. She is the same age as us and currently on an internship from Singapore, and so we now have an awesome friend in Shanghai. We also ventured out of the luxury of Shanghai to the outer districts where there is a stark contrast between the wealth of central Shanghai and the conditions on the streets. The infrastructure and building material changed rapidly, degrading quickly as signalled by the increasing number and depth of the potholes on the road.

And finally... Annie, Jon, Jake and Calvin were on the television at a school for B&Q. They were amazing!