Leafing through the China guidebook on the way to the airport, relieved that my civil engineering exams were finally over, I happened across the beginning of one introductory line. "The country with over 5000 years of civilization¡­" I realized that there was a lot to learn about China and that maybe I should have slipped in some Ming Dynasty poetry with my structural mechanics revision notes a couple of weeks earlier.

The experience I was to have in China involved more learning than I had perhaps foreseen. I learnt a lot about the profession I am due to join in two years. I learnt how to teach a language and how to be taught a language. I think I learnt a lot about the places and people I visited and met and I definitely learnt a little about myself.

My journey to China started in both a physical and social sense at Heathrow airport. A customary mix up at the airline desk meant a couple of hours check-in wait followed by a headlong dash down the aisle, straight through gate nine and (after a brief respite) out onto the steaming tarmac at the Shanghai PuDong airport. Fortunately throughout this stressful and shattering experience I had the good luck to speak to many Shanghainese. Their good will, good advice and obvious delight that I was going to experience their home country was my first introduction to the friendliness and approachability of the people in the People's Republic.

On arrival in Shanghai I was met by an IAESTE-China representative who took me to lunch, took me to a hotel and helped me set up for work the next day. I managed to get to the office of EnE (Ecology and Environment, Inc.) on time the next morning, despite a wayward taxi journey, and was greeted with surprise by my colleagues to be. It was quickly established that there was no work for me in Shanghai and that I would in fact be of greater use in the Beijing office. Having mentally prepared myself for "the Paris of the East" and not the capital this came as quite a shock but I was quick to appreciate the opportunity presented. I decided from that point onwards to try and manage my expectations and not to build too many hopes of what might come. This attitude, I found, helped to create a degree of flexibility in my outlook so that I was more open to the final nature of my placement and in a better position to benefit from the experience.

After a couple of days, in which I managed to see a lot of the futuristic Shanghai, I was flown to Beijing to start work proper. EnE work closely with H&J, a smaller consultancy firm founded in the U.S., where I was to spend my working time in China. The small office of eight people were incredibly welcoming and after the first day, during which I remained shell-shocked from jet-lag, I found myself in a restaurant with my new workmates cheering on Brasil in the world cup semi-finals. This kind welcome extended to my accommodation throughout the stay. For the first half of the visit I stayed in the apartment of the company founder and after he returned from the states I stayed with my boss in his flat. This willingness to accommodate me was not exclusive to my superiors at work and I often visited the homes of my other colleagues, met their families and ate out with them on an almost nightly basis.

The openness that I was shown by my workmates was felt in the workplace itself where I was lucky enough to have a lot of input into the nature of my work. When my boss asked me to tell him my objectives I managed to explain my desire to see what engineers and engineering consultants actually do.

Throughout my studies thus far I have always noted the very theoretical nature of my course. I have always enjoyed the coursework and projects which demand the application of problem solving and business management along with the theory. From what I have learned about the industry through college and previous work experience it is the skills of strategy, management and lateral thought that are often most applicable to the civil engineering world. It seems that the responsibilities of engineers usually encompass social and political considerations and whilst invariably challenging and extremely hard work they can sometimes be slightly boring.

With this picture starting to form in my head I wanted to use my trip to try and see some real engineering, from the consultants down to the contractors, and to get an idea of the differences in the working systems of China and the UK.

H&J deals primarily in environmental development projects that often mean the involvement of foreign bodies like the WB (World Bank) and ADB (Asian Development Bank) and so many of the tender documents need to be in English. Initially there were a number of proposals and bidding documents that needed correcting and translating. This gave me an excellent opportunity to not only learn the ins and outs of the bidding process but to gain some knowledge of the very progressive projects the company are involved with.

I was particularly interested by their environmental monitoring work which is a key issue starting to emerge through the smog that must be cleared from Beijing's streets before the 2008 Olympics. After developing Beijing's first ground air quality monitoring stations H&J are looking to set up a receiving station for the EOS-MODIS Satellite which currently orbits the globe sending down environmental data to anyone who wants to pick it up and are hoping for support from both the American TDA (Trade and Development Agency) and the WB.

The involvement of these international bodies in regional China made me investigate the conditions behind their support and led me to define the rather vague goals I had communicated to my boss. I explained to him my interest in the WB projects and my inclination to see some more hands on engineering and he helped me organize trips to Handan and Schuezhuang city in the Hebei province surrounding Beijing with one of the engineering specialists from the company to visit a WB funded project.

Dr Hua, project manager and team leader for Montgomery Watson Harza (International Consultant) in charge of engineering supervision on this $300 million water and wastewater development project (a job with too many responsibilities to list), looked after me during my stay. I was lucky enough to benefit from his vast international experience and understanding of WB projects and I learnt a lot in the few days I spent at pre-qualification bid reviews, at the existing treatment plants, at the proposed sites and at the sub-contractors who were preparing the new pipe network. The outcome of the visit was a report concerning western influence and development of Chinese construction as a condition of WB funding but I learnt many more valuable things about a Project Managers job and the responsibilities of engineering management.

On my return to the office I was rewarded with the task of writing an application to the TDA. This 100 page application was in response to a RFP (Request for Proposal) from the TDA and put forward an H&J U.S. consulting team as contractors for the undertaking of a feasibility study analyzing the issues surrounding the implementation of an e-procurement system for Sinopec International (China's leading petrochemical player). Prior to China I was not overly familiar with the workings of E-commerce and so I had to quickly learn a lot about this type of system, Sinopec's business strategy and indeed a lot about H&J's capabilities. The contract was worth $500, 000 and even though I had a lot of support from my boss in reviewing my work I inevitably felt a lot of pressure. I am in contact with my employers in China, who have asked me to return next year and have proposed a full time position for after the completion of my degree, and am eagerly awaiting the outcome of Sinopec's tender review. The whole process gave me an excellent understanding of the stresses and workload involved in putting together a tender document but I am confident that this type of work is well within my capabilities.

Having worked on site last year and seen many aspects of a consultants work this year I think I am now beginning to get an idea of the possibilities within the engineering world. I could not help but get a picture of the many opportunities that someone with international engineering experience has in ever-changing China.

It is strange to walk to work on an old pavement one day, a new one the next, beside a newly opened road at the weekend and then bypass it all by taking the new footbridge the week after that. The state of political flux, massive construction boom and staggering economic growth create a constantly changing environment that, I think, would be very stimulating and rewarding to work in.

One element that would of course make a career in China infinitely more enjoyable would be the ability to easily converse with the people. Knowing the name of David Beckham is not enough to sustain a conversation with a Chinese person (although a necessity during any interaction with taxi drivers) and so the language barrier was a real challenge to the enjoyment of my placement. This stumbling block ended up creating one of the most rewarding aspects of my work.

My keenness to learn Chinese was picked up by my colleagues, their desire to learn English resulted in a busy dual carriageway of words, verbs and pronouns. Although we would often reach gridlock this basic motivation to communicate meant that I could build up rapport with my workmates a lot easier than if we had only been discussing wastewater treatment.

At one of my workmate's suggestions, and at my boss's approval, I began giving daily one hour English lessons to six of the staff whose level of spoken English varied greatly. Having never taught before this was quite daunting but proved much more enjoyable than I'd expected. The lessons turned out to be an excellent forum for swapping information about our two countries and an even better opportunity for me to learn more about my friends' lives. Teaching English taught me a lot about communication. My workmate's inquisitiveness and the distinctly different ways of life in our two countries led me to examine the perceptions we have of foreign places.

After much hesitation a Chinese friend asked me one night at dinner: "What do people in England think of China and of the Chinese?" A thought provoking question which led me firstly to all the old stereotypes -kung fu, dim sum, Chairman Mao- and then back again to my own preconceptions. After all I must have had some outlook or understanding of China before I boarded at Heathrow? I guess that I was aware of some of the sensitive political issues surrounding the country -Tibet/Taiwan/Human Rights records- and of course I knew that the Chinese government are in name communist. What really struck me after only a second's thought was how little we generally know about Chinese people in the UK. There are stereotypical caricatures painted of our european neighbours daily in the tabloids and we would not be too far pushed to come up with a few national characteristics for the Japanese or Indian peoples however the Chinese might prove harder. What my experience in their country has told me is that the Chinese people are overwhelmingly welcoming, incredibly accommodating, naturally inquisitive and keen to tackle the issues of the future despite the fear that lingers from darker, more oppressive days.

A fear that perhaps they are misunderstood or maybe misrepresented in the eyes of the west seemed to preoccupy some of the Chinese I met. Others were less inhibited by fear of outward perception and were happy just being themselves. Although I saw many wonderful and awe inspiring sights in China it was the time spent with the people who were going about the business of their daily lives that proved to be the most memorable.

The experience of visiting other countries is, I think, an enlightening one. The advantages of working in another country therefore can only be numerous. The benefits of working in a country that one has little preconception of can prove to be not only bountiful but also surprising. The friends that I have gained and the skills that I have developed along with the incredible places and things I have seen in China have made this an unforgettable experience.

This report is incomplete in that it is missing a million details about China, my friends and my work which rush into my head every time I have sat down to write. The one thing that constantly recurs is the warmth of the relationship I have built up with my friends in China. The breadth of Chinese culture and history is only matched in magnitude by the warmth and humour of the friends I made in China. Not only did my IAESTE placement prove an excellent, if unorthodox, training opportunity but it gave me a lesson in human interaction that I will never forget.

Joe Mulligan, October 2002

Oral Presentation: Outline/Headers

IAESTE PLACEMENT: BEIJING 2002

INTRODUCTION

WHAT I DID
- World Bank Project Visits
- Sinopec Proposal
- Language Lessons

FRIENDSHIP
- Communication Lessons
- Chinese Culture
- Flexibility

WHAT I LEARNT
- The breadth of Civil Engineering discipline
- Pulling the threads together (Writing tender documents)
- Opportunities for the future