In April 2016, as a council member of the Chinese Association for International Understanding (CAFIU), I joined the delegation of CAFIU and visited Japan and Thailand. Although this tour only lasted for 8 days, ranging from the people and fields I contacted to the means of exchange, it was a totally new experience for me and I experienced and benefited a lot from this visit.

 

Via this tour, I achieved new understanding on the foreign exchange conducted by CAFIU and felt that as a council member working in the field of business management, I should shoulder more responsibilities and obligations. On the one hand, I should make my due contribution to the job of CAFIU; on the other hand, my career development will also benefit from and get inspired in the process of participating in the work of CAFIU like foreign exchange.

 

With the in-depth implementation of reform and opening up, it has become more and more important to learn about the outside world, communicate and exchange with the rest of the world, get new knowledge and experience as well as know about new practices and things in this process. From this perspective, this visit was a precious opportunity for me. From my point of view, in combination with my work and study, I have the following thoughts and feelings to share with readers.

 

The first stop of this trip was Japan. In Tokyo, we visited a quake-proof apartment, which was as tall as 93 meters. The periphery layer of this building was 16-layer high strength laminated rubber and the inner structure of it was made of natural rubber and laminated rubber. Therefore, when earthquake occurs, such structure and material can help to reduce the force on the apartment by 50 percent. As we all know, Japan is an earthquake-prone country. Each year, there are more than 1,000 felt earthquakes and at least one earthquake larger than magnitude 6. Frequent earthquakes strengthened the awareness of crisis and prevention of Japanese, and forced them to constantly improve their anti-seismic technologies. Just as Terasaki Yuki, designer of Pavilion of Japanese Industry in the Shanghai World Expo, said in an interview, when designing architectures, the Japanese designers and architects will strictly adhere to the anti-seismic standards specified by Building Law for Professionals. And this law will be revised in every few years. It was the gradually formed technological system and strictly abided legal standards ensured the low casualties despite the frequent occurred earthquakes. In contrast, in the Wenchuan earthquake occurred in Sichuan Province of China in 2008, we suffered much greater casualties. It inspired me that whether for a country or an enterprise, the awareness of crisis and prevention should never be absent and only by this can a country or company enjoy prosperity in the long run.

 

In Japan, we were fortunate enough to meet the heir of a 500-year shop named “Toraya” which was specialized in cooking paste products. As early as in 2012, the sales volume of Toraya has already surpassed 1.81 billion Japanese yen. And the objective of Toraya was to make their products as popular as chocolate and promote them all over the world. Why could this company live for 500 years and still maintained its vitality? On the one hand, it was due to its dedication and inheritance, awareness of environmental protection, and the innovative spirit of keeping up with the times; one the other hand, it was attributed to the national economic policy, property rights system, development environment and cultural antecedents. According to the report themed The Secret of Longevity of Japanese Enterprises and Its Implications published by the central bank of South Korea, among the 5586 companies with a history of over 200 years from all over the world, 3146 of them were Japanese enterprises, which accounted for nearly 60 percent of the total. While in the mainland of China, companies with a history of more than 100 years were rear. According to incomplete statistics, there are only a handful of mainland enterprises with a history of over 150 years, such as Liubiju (pickled vegetables), Zhang Xiaoquan (scissors), Chenliji (medicine), Tongrentang (medicine) and Wang Laoji (herbal tea). Visiting Toraya reminded me of the core concept expressed by an ancient Chinese masterpiece named “Historical Records: HuoZhi Biography” — there is a huge potential in every industry and the core of success lays in devotion and concentration. “Devotion” means to devote all your attention and strength to your business. “Concentration” refers to concentrate on your main business and work persistently. In my opinion, if Chinese companies all adhere to such business philosophy and concept, more and more century-old businesses will emerge.

 

The second stop of our visit is Thailand. In Thailand, we investigated the national strategic enterprise named “613”. In our contact with Chang Nianzhou, President of 613, I got to know more about this envoy of China-Thailand friendship. Chang Nianzhou was born in an eminent blue-blooded family of Thailand. In 1950s, when his grandpa served as senior advisor to prime minster, Chang’s mother was sent to China to receive education under the care of Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and Minister Liao Chengzhi couples.  In order to express her appreciation to Zhou Enlai, Liao Chengzhi and the Chinese people, Chang’s mother named him Nianzhou and his young brother Nianliao, which in Chinese respectively means appreciating and missing Zhou Enlai and Liao Chengzhi. After growing up, Chang Nianzhou devoted himself into friendly exchange of governments and businesses between China and Thailand, especially people-to-people exchange. In our exchange with Chang Nianzhou, I realized that trust and understanding are always the cornerstone of exchange between countries, companies and persons, and got a better understanding on the connotation of the ancient Chinese saying “do not do onto others what you would not have them do onto you”. In my opinion, in the process of carrying out foreign exchange, we should conform to the diversification trend of international exchange by breaking through traditions, further diversifying the scope and layers of exchange, expanding the fields and content of exchange, innovating the means and methods of exchange, thus enabling people from different organizations, sectors with different ages all have the opportunity to directly participate in international exchange of diversified content. For instance, we could encourage more young people to go abroad, organize more cultural activities in the fields of cooking, medical care, sports and arts, and take advantage of new media such as micro-blog, WeChat, and news clients, so as to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of international exchange.

 

Just as the Chinese saying goes,“it is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books”. I sincerely hope that via the platform of CAFIU, more and more people can have the opportunity of traveling abroad, viewing the beauty of outside world, and learning from the merits of others to perfect ourselves.