Business & Economics
School & College Tours to China
The economy of China is growing at over 1000% of the rate of the UK economy. As a result of this phenomenal growth China is now the second largest economy in the world, behind the USA with an economy some 350% larger than the UK’s.
As a comparison we might note that in 1978 (when the reforms started) its economy was so small that it could hardly be measured on the world stage. China is, in short, the living example of the greatest economic growth ever seen on the planet, and probably the quickest resultant reduction in poverty. (According to China’s own figures the poverty rate fell from 53% in 1981 to 2.5% in 2005.)
You only have to take a bus trip in one of the big cities to realise the huge scale of the development. As the tour guides will blithely announce, “we have seven road bridges across the river here – and you’ll see another eight under construction, two with monorail, three with rail lines” students start to realise just what an extraordinary place China is. And when they hear the same guide say, “this is the IT and mobile phone district of the city. About a million people work in this part of the city,” mouths drop open. And yet, at the same time, it is possible to drive along an inter-city highway and find one of the lanes closed by local rice farmers using the tarmac as a place to dry out their crop.
As such, China is a unique destination for school groups wanting to explore the country’s huge expansion and study its influence on the western economy. In an Equity China study tour, groups will visit various established Chinese companies such as the Beijing Enamel Factory (Beijing’s traditional craft), and contrast it with a steel plant in Shanghai, noting that from a standing start 40 years ago of chaotic home based production, China is now the largest steel producer in the world.
There’s also a visit to Shanghai’s financial district – an area that some economists claim now dictates American financial policy because of its huge holdings of US securities.
China is the heart of the change that is happening today in the industrial world, a world that (because of China) will never be the same again. Visiting China enables students to put their general assumptions about the country and about business, trade and economics into a true perspective. We utterly guarantee that upon return your students will never see the world in the same way again.
Read more about Equity School Travel's School & College tours to China
