Jacob Ward: TCL Factory Tour

Having already spent one week in China, our versatile 26 (including Casey) was beginning to feel comfortable with our surroundings. At the start of a bright and sunny day in Huizhou, we were preparing to head out for our daily activity – touring the TCL factory.

We had to meet early in the morning so we could be ready to board the bus and still have time for my planned activity. Some had visited the local café to grab a bite or some coffee and afterwards we all regrouped in the lobby of our hotel.

As the daily leader, I felt it was important that we all were comfortable with each other’s names and knew a little about one another.  Therefor, for my daily activity I organized a game that focused on remembering names and personal facts. Each player took a random piece of paper with a name written on it, and without looking, held it on his or her forehead. I separated the group into two small circles and had each person ask yes or no questions to find out which name was on their forehead.

Faith ended up winning the game by guessing her name the fastest, and the rest of the group went until everyone had figured it out. It seemed to cause a lot of laughter and got everyone in a good mood for the bus ride to the TCL factory.

 

Upon arrival of the factory, a welcome message for Capilano University was displayed on the electronic banner above the entrance to the large building. There seemed to be several buildings just like it that stretched farther than we could see behind the one we were to tour. I believe this helped our group gain perspective on how large of a scale China manufactures goods.

We were greeted by our tour guide and shown into the main lobby. Here we saw a few TV monitors displaying camera footage of people working hard to build TCL products. The footage seemed to be on a loop replaying every few minutes. A few students noticed this and debated why we were being shown this footage instead of a live feed. Everything discussed, however, was speculation.

We were then brought into a large show room where every kind of product TCL sold was on display. This included state of the art 3D TVs, cell phones, air conditioners and more. We were allowed to interact with the products and people enjoyed playing with the flashy electronics. It was clear to see why TCL was one of the leading companies for electronics in its industry.

 

We were shown around the building to several other rooms where workers were building intricate parts to bigger products. Everything seemed organized and relaxed. Although there is no way to tell, it seemed like we were only shown a factory and not how a factory actually operates.

 

 

Jacob is a second year Bachelor of Business Administration student.  This is Jacob's first time in China.