During the past week, students from the five campuses in Spain where the Master in Business Management (MBM) of ESIC Business & Marketing School is taught had the opportunity to participate in a unique academic and cultural experience.
Through the International Business Study Tour at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam we had the opportunity to learn fundamental aspects about the business structure, culture and history of China.
The first day, we had the session Chinese economic development and Macroeconomic policies. The class was given by Roger Busser, who explained how China has become the great world power it is today through long-term GDP growth.In the afternoon, we made our first visit to ABN AMRO Bank, one of the country’s leading banks. Upon arrival, we were all amazed by its incredible facilities, where we would be lucky enough to receive a talk from a representative of the bank, who would explain to us the bank’s current business and its objectives. Then, at the end of the visit, all the students went together to have a few beers at a bar in order to get to know each other and do some networking. Finally, all the students went to dinner with the trip organizers at a Chinese restaurant. There we were able to enjoy a wide variety of Chinese dishes, however, we learned that ordering spicy is not a good idea.
On Tuesday 10th, we had the second session of class Building up professional relationships in China. Do’s and don’ts in China.Claudio Perottiexplained how to do business in China and gave us a series of recommendations to take into account when doing business with China. In addition, the class was very interactive as the professor gave real case examples. In these classes, we had the opportunity to learn Chinese from Zongyan Chen, to whom we are really grateful for his facilities in explaining such a complicated language and making us have a good time. After school, we had the pleasure to visit one of the most emblematic places in the country, the Rijksmuseum. During the visit, we had a tour of the entire museum where we were able to appreciate the art and history of the Netherlands.
On Wednesday 11 May we went to class like every day at 9:00 pm and on the blackboard in front of us there was a Chinese teacher who explained to us the economic development of China with the thinking patterns and the open-door policy. It was a very interesting class where we could learn more about the culture of China since it seems to me a very interesting and unknown culture for the occidental people.
After we have a break like every day with some hot water for make a tea, coffee, and a few typical cookies from Netherlands that they were very good, you had the chance also of go to the bathroom or just walk around the campus. After the second part of the class, we had to make ourselves a covid test for the visit to Huawei in the afternoon since the company ask for the requirement to be negative to visit the company.
Before going to the visit, we went to the cafe to have lunch like every day with the other classmates, the food was very good and every day they were changing food. After the lunch, all the people went outside and a bus picked up us to take us to Huawei that was in La Haya, a city very close to Amsterdam, to be more exact, like an hour in bus.
On Thursday we woke up as any other day, had breakfast and then, attended our lessons. He had to be there at 9 am. The first part of the lesson, from 9 to 10:30, we discussed the main barriers when entering in China, not only to do business but also as tourists or foreigners. We also commented the main things that must be taken into account in order to have a suitable integration in the country. Basically their customs and way of living. We understood that at the end, despite of our differences, we all share similar ideas regardless of our origins. The second part of the morning was quite different, the teacher tried to help us to improve our chinese skills, what was hard and really difficult to reach. The language has nothing to do with english and spanish, what made it even harder. It was dynamic and, overall, really enjoyable.
Once we finished at 12 am, he had lunch and got ready for our visit to the city centre, by boat, where we were explained the most relevant facts about Amsterdam, what a nice and interesting city. The trip lasted no more than two hours, but it was enough to take a look at most of the city. Afterwards, we had free time. Some of the students were tired and came back to the hotel, while others decided to go for a walk across the city. At 12 we were back at hotel, getting ready for the next day test.
On Friday, the day was going to be slightly different. We had breakfast and met at university at 9:30. It was the exam day so we all were at class on time. We did the test, through Kahoot, it was funny because we all checked the answers after each question, it was like a quiz. Probably it was one the funniest exams we have ever done. It took us an hour to do the exam and afterwards, we were given a bag with our lunchtime meal. Most of the people came back to the hotel to have lunch and to rest a little bit, in order to have energy enough fot the night. That afternoon we booked our tickets for a disco in the city centre. After resting at the hotel, we had tickets for beers in a bar, all the Esic students attended that meeting. It was great, we enjoyed it all together. The night was amazing, we were all together in the same disco, with nice music and in an attractive environment. At 5 am, we came back to the hotel because the disco hat to close.
What a nice night, what a great week, what an amazing group of students.
Saturday was the worst day of the week, it was time to pack our luggage and come back to Spain. Our holidays were over.