This nine week long internship, organized by IAESTE, let me to China in a rural area nearby Shanghai. I worked at Giant Elevator Co.,Ltd. That has its lead office in Nanxun nearby Huzhou city, Which is again located in Zhejiang Province. Nanxun is a typical rural town in China with approximately 50000 inhabitants. There is located a considerable number of companies but mainly the area is dominated by farmland. Giant Elevator is a medium-sized enterprise with about 250 employees. If produces a wide variety of elevators and in escalators. Both are very fine examples for mechatronic systems and in this way the internship fitted almost perfect to my courses, which I have taken at university.

I learned a lot about Chinese culture and the manner how a Chinese company is run. Certainly this is one of the most important experiences I made in this practical training. I lived in a company owned flat, which I shared with some other working mates. This was a good opportunity to get involved into the Chinese everyday live and to take part at the spare time activities. Most time I had my own room, only two weeks I had to share it. This was not a real problem, but for a longer times it would be uncomfortable, because I'm used to have at least a little privacy. The good integration was easy due to the great help of Mr. Lui, also a working mate. He introduced me to many locals, helped me wherever he was able to and accompanied me at some of my weekend trips. For the organization of some of my weekend trips I got also a good support of my company.

Unfortunately the work itself was not so well organized. I worked in the field of elevator control, but the content of the internship was not clear as I arrived. I had to ask several times for proper work. In the end it was barely enough to fulfill the guidelines of my university for practical training. In this matter I also like to mention that I got the acceptance for the internship just three weeks before beginning. This is no time at all to organize a visa, get a flight, and find a lodger and so on. But it was also impossible to clear the contents in the run-up to the internship, which would have prevented the problems mentioned above. The company and the local Chinese IAESTE team didn't response immediately on my requests by mail and fax and so it was too late. Maybe it would be a good improvement to give the out-going students, who are leaving Germany in spring or early summer a higher priority by the German IAESTE team and the DAAD in order to send them their acceptance as early as possible.

As a whole I can say that I had a great time in China and it was a very important experience for me.