Luding Tong, Chinese Professor

As part of the McDonough Leadership Study Abroad Program, Dr. Matthew Young and I led a group of students, faculty, and staff to China in May 2005 (May 9 –May 23, 2005) to experience the country’s significant changes in its economy, leadership, and politics. The trip focused on Beijing’s cultural treasures and Shanghai’s business and commercial ascendancy.

In Beijing, the participants experienced, firsthand, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and other world-famous wonders of China’s over- 4000-year-old civilization, in and around China’s capital.

The group also visited institutions of higher education and two non-governmental organizations (NGOs): an orphanage and a nursing home. In Shanghai, participants went the Bund, Shanghai’s historic financial center, and the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. The group also toured the operation of major multinational companies like General Motors’ state-of-the-art Shanghai automobile assembly facility, inspected the operations of a domestic Chinese business, and heard about the logistical and human resources challenges that China presents for such cutting-edge American businesses as General Electric and DuPont—on site—from company executives themselves.