Meetings in Shanghai and Suzhou

Work meetings at some of our partner schools in Shanghai and nearby Suzhou. The Chinese are working hard on higher education reform to introduce more applied vocational (college-type) training programs to sustain/maintain their fast growing economy.

IVT is a college 20 years young/old. In 1998 I visited here when they were just starting in a new industrial park. Niagara College became one of their founding board members.....

The proof of that was still on the wall of one of their newer buildings. They have created many partnerships with industrial companies who set up shop in the industrial park. They also fly the flags of all these companies in front of their main building...

Industry driven training has become their main theme very much in line with what the Canadian college system has developed as their main strength. The IVT buildings are full of fantastic labs and training rooms for students as well as employees from these partner businesses.

Recently they opened a new school for industrial design with initial focus on interior design and fashion design.

The IVT campus also houses a tourism call center of one of the two large on-line companies in China who function like Expedia in North America.

An impressive school with whom Seneca will develop jointly delivered programs in coming years.

Walking around in Shanghai

Arriving in Shanghai on December 1, a city with clear land-marks as the two high rises on this photo.

The same two high rises from another angle during a wonderful two hour walk through this mega city of 30 million people. Lots of modern new buildings but also still some older "corners" and streets.

And the famous Nanjing street, the main shopping area leading to "the Bund" on the river dividing Shanghai and Pudong. On a nice clear day "the Bund" is a board walk to make beautiful photos of the buildings, people strolling and boats passing.

Changes in the world

On the flight from Singapore to Shanghai two interesting pieces of news in  a Shanghai newspaper indicating things in our ever-changing world: China is now producing aircraft and women in Saudi Arabia are eligible to be candidates during elections. In my lifetime significant changes....

From Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore...

The office building in Ho Chi Minh City in which the Canadian Consulate has  its offices.  We met with the Consul General and one of the Trade Commissioners to get some more information on the developments in Vietnam and to update them on our activities.

Across the street is the central post office. When I traveled with my little backpack in 1982 and 1983 I would find these post offices happy places because in the "poste restante" section there might be some letters waiting for me from Holland. Nowadays with the internet and smart phones that romantic concept is certainly history. This post office is still a bust place though....

And the long distance phone booths are also still there, but obviously not much used anymore.

From Ho Chi Minh City we flew two hours further south to Singapore today for meetings on Monday.  A bustling city and for me hard to recognize since  I was here in 1982...... Just a few photos from my hotel room for now.

Motorcycles and statues

Motorcycles....there are millions of them in the cities in Vietnam. They are everywhere at any time of the day. Carrying sometimes 3, 4 or more people. Carrying kids picked up from school. Carrying the most amazing packages (and in rural areas also animals). An amazing sight for us foreigners...

After arriving in Ho Chi Minh City this afternoon, we invited a number of our agencies for a dinner. It was very nice to meet some of our partners in active student recruitment in this city. The company was good and the food was delicious.

During the walk back to our hotel we enjoyed the lively scenes of the many people out on the streets (of course in the pleasantly warm evening temperatures here). The statue of Ho Chi Minh keeps an eye on these new generations of his country (Vietnam has a very young population). The center of the city has some beautifully restored old buildings from the colonial periods.

Beijing to Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City....

Today we had a busy day in Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. We reviewed possibilities with the VACC with whom Seneca signed a MOU two years ago. The college system in Vietnam is rapidly growing to respond to the changing labor markets needs of this fast moving economy.

Only at the end of the meeting did we notice that one of our Vietnamese colleagues had been sitting barefoot on the meeting table. That is how I want to be in my office!!!

Afterwards we were at a national TV news show (photos later) and then we visited an IT university in an economic development zone where the government hopes to create the Vietnamese version of a Silicon Valley. We had dinner with a few students from Brunei and Nigeria, studying here in Vietnam but also interested to come for post-graduate studies to Seneca. Fast changing world it is!

Tomorrow we fly to Ho Chi Minh City (as the Saigon of the past is now named.....).

Back in Beijing (and a few other cities...)

Back in Beijing (3rd time within 12 months). Snow in the city + a few of the coldest days on record; just our luck coming from cold Canada. We were with a team from Seneca presenting on work we have started in China with a partner organization on developing curriculum and training teachers on courses from our practical nursing program (the country is waking up to the hugely increasing need for health care workers for the fast growing aging population)....

Lori and Sharon, two of the Practical Nursing program coordinators at Seneca, presented with translator Nick, our Director Asia Pacific. After a few presentations Lori and Sharon started their 2nd training session this year, and Nick and I visited a few of our Beijing partner institutions.

A former Minister of Education welcomed us at one of the presentations and then hosted us for a wonderful lunch.

Always nice to be warmly welcomed. And one of those interesting translation examples...

One of our partners took us to an amazing "Peking Duck" restaurant where the menu was bigger than I have ever seen.

Stylish restaurant where the ducks are grilled on wood-fires.....

Also in Beijing now the rental bikes on the streets. One more meeting in which we joined a trade mission of the City of Markham, and then off to Vietnam....

Packed up and ready to go + unpack in another hotel; the life out of the suitcase for a couple of weeks on the road: from Beijing to Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore to Shanghai and to Manila + then back to Toronto via Tokyo. Just another day in the office...