On Friday morning, we woke up to realise that it was the last day of our Chinese guests. We headed to Tampere and Cargotec at 10am. The party of the previous night had made the most of our passengers tired and a few-hour bus drive to Tampere was the most quiet bus trip of the week. After taking a nap, our cheery and more enthusiastic group arrived in Tampere.
Architecture of technology and learning centre has been infuenced by the industry. Photo by Suvi Koskipalo/Cargotec
Cargotec is a Finnish listed company whose brands include MacGregor, Kalmar and Hiab. Cargotec is a provider of cargo handling solutions for ships and ports, for example, and during the day we learned much about the wonderful world of containers.
Introductory lecture on Cargotec operations
There are approximately 600 million containers in use around the world and every fourth of them is moved with the help of Kalmar equipment. Every other ship in the world carries MacGregor equipment. Therefore, Cargotec is not a small player in the world’s ports and the sea. The Chinese markets and ports play a significant role as the world’s busiest container port is located in Shanghai, China. In top 10 port statistics, the Chinese are strong, as China has as many as six of the ten largest container ports.
Our group in front of the testing area
In Kalmar technology and learning centre, we learned about testing and simulation, which are an important part of product development process. Moving containers with a control panel was surprisingly difficult and of course they would not let our group to move real containers. With the help of virtual reality glasses, we could walk in the middle of a 3D model which maintenance men, for example, use in their work.
After returning to Helsinki, our Chinese guests had a few hours for shopping in the city centre, where they purchased some Finnish design classics and Moomin products. After the shopping spree, we headed to Kruununhaka to Restaurant Kolme Kruunua along a beautiful coastal road. Secretary General Koskenniemi and the chairpersons of the board Liu Chang and Ferm gave touching farewell speeches that emphasised the uniqueness of our cooperation but also the fact that after this intense week we made several new friends from the other side of the world. The visit was eye-opening for both of the parties and also taught us westerners to look at our culture in a new way. We had a delicious meal and discussed about eating meat and compared holiday and working hours, but also discussed marriage, having children and the rights of sexual minorities over the dinner.
The last picture together before our farewell
After the dinner, the majority of the Chinese delegation came to AYY’s central office to play werewolves despite their early wake-up call and tiredness that had accumulated during the week. The relaxed closing of the busy week ended with casual hangout and naturally involved a few more gifts: our own Board posed wearing Tsinghua shirts and our architect students both got special drawing books from Chairperson Chang (architect himself). We were rather sad to say goodbye to our new Chinese friends in front of the central office a few hours before their flight. But this is not the end.
-Anni ja Santeri
Thank you for our partners who made the cooperation possible!
