This day started on the 32nd floor of our Hotel Hyatt on the Bund, in the waterfront area in the centre of Shanghai. From this rooftop bar we could enjoy the view of the iconic illuminated skyline of the enormous city of Shanghai.
After waking up for the luxurious breakfast buffet (there was brown bread with cheese!) we were able to sleep some extra hours in the bus to Lingang Fengxian Park.
After a 2 hour bus drive we arrived in Lingang Fengxian Industrial Park for a lunch and a presentation about the park. This enormous area of 17 Square kilometers was founded in 2008 and is now one of the leading industrial parks in the Lingang Industrial zone. The park combines industrial buildings with nature, infrastructure by road, water, tracks and air, schools and universities and housing for employees. It is estimated that the total population of this park will grow to 20 000 people in 5 years.
After a central presentation about the park we went to BE China Forging, which occupied one of the many construction halls in the park. This Chinese division of BE was opened just one year ago and is finishing its production lines to start producing the first aluminum products in September. While we enjoyed a presentation about how the company started in Shanghai and about some differences about how to start a company in China and in Europe, German workers were installing forging equipment outside the canteen.
The second company in Lingang Fengxian Park we visited was SANY group. After a general presentation of the SANY group we visited the assembly hall of the heavy equipment department, were huge excavators were being assembled. In this hall every 10 minutes a completely assembled excavator exits the enormous building. At the end of the afternoon we went back to the touring car for a two hour drive back to the hotel, but not before we could make an epic group picture with a lot of large, yellow excavators.
After some rest in the hotel for the long bus ride, we visited Nanjing Road, the main shopping street of Shanghai that connects the Bund with People’s Square. Unfortunately our plan to visit the Old City of Shanghai failed, as this city center was closed down earlier as expected.
