Exploring Chinese Culture and Lifestyle
As the financial and economic center of China, Shanghai is a modern city with lots of skyscrapers, especially in Pudong District. It tells the fascinating economical achievements of China. Without a close look at Shanghai, it’s hard to imagine the fast ecomonic development of China.
As we walking along the Bund and enjoying the Night Scene, it was interesting to “see” the word “incredible” from the expressions on both Chinese and German students’ faces when we were surrounded by countless skyscrapers with neon. As I still remembered one of the German students said, “It’s hard to believe this is in China!”
As we all know, Shanghai is a modern city, but Shanghai also has precious historical heritage. Yu Garden, located in the center of the Old City next to the Chenghuang Temple is considered one of the most lavish and finest Chinese gardens in the region. Except the wonderful architectures, we also saw lots of traditional Chinese Arts there, such as calligraphy works, Chinese landscape painting, Beijing Opera facial masks, silk clothing and so on. It was memorable to get the chance to “touch” the culture in reality for the Germans and also with the introductions from the Chinese.
Learning from the real-world
SAP Labs China with more than 1.500 employees is the fourth largest Labs within SAP globally. As a global operating corporation, employees working here will have intensive experience in working together with people from different cultures. With recommendation from Faye Zhao (KPS Training Manager), our group was invited to pay a visit to SAP labs China Shanghai on March 22th, 2010.?
Stephanie He and Linna Zhao from Communication Department, showed us around the campus which impressed us a massively. SAP provides a very comfortable working environment, incl. exhibition hall, coffee corner, gym center, and canteen. It demonstrates the culture SAP pay attention to.
Andy Tang (Executive Assistant of the MD office) gave a brief and vivid introduction to SAP in general, and SAP Labs China in detail. He talked about the inspiring history, business development and future plan of SAP Labs China. However, a company can not develop so fast without talent. So Elaine Wu (Senior Recruiter APAC) introduced us to the the talent recruitment practices at SAP in APAC and China, incl. the campus marketing, recruitment and the career development for talent.
Finally our group discussed about the international recruitment practices and cross-culture competencies with Andy Tang and Elaine Wu. Both of them answered the questions from their professional’s point of view and also they shared their intercultural working experiences. We have learned greatly from their presentation and discussion.
