May 18th, 2013

We started our Saturday by visiting the Tian'men Square located in the center of Beijing.  500,000 tourists visit this area daily, or 15 million a year.  The area of the square amounts to 110 acres.  The China National Museum, China's People’s Congress Building, Mau's Mausoleum, and the Gate to the Forbidden City surround the square.  Tian'men to the Chinese means the Heavenly Peaceful Gate.

We then ventured into the Forbidden City.   It was built in the Ming Dynasty starting in 1420 AD and took 30 years until completion.  We were constantly getting bombarded by the local people wanting to get pictures with the westerners.  The Forbidden City has 8,764 rooms and covers over 200 acres.  12,864 dragon statues are located within the enclosed walls.  Only 3/5 of it is open to the public.  It was full of beautiful sites and ancient architecture.  Many decorative relics and treasures are located in the original sleeping chambers of the Emperor and Empress.  The walk through popular tourist attraction took us almost an hour.

Following the Forbidden City we all boarded 2-person rickshaws manned by Chinese men on bicycles.  The route took us through the Hu-Tong Village along the Rare Lake River.  The area was a quiet and pleasant change from the busier car filled roads.  Our destination was a local family’s residence where they served us a traditional Chinese meal.  It was refreshing and filling.

After our meal we visited the Olympic Village where the 2008 Olympic Games took place.  The main visual attractions were the Birds Nest and the Water Cube.  It is still a very popular tourist destination for both Chinese and international travelers.

We students were then able to practice our bargaining skills again as we went to the Pearl, Toy, and Jewelry Markets.  After spending most of our remaining Yuan we were ready for FOOD.  We fulfilled this need by going to a Hot Pot supper.  Each of us had a pot of boiling broth with spices, meat, and vegetables at our disposal to cook in the pot and eat!  It is the equivalent to American 'fondue'. 

It was a very informative and eventful final day in China as tomorrow morning we will depart for the homeland. Peace out.  

 Bird nest

 

 Forbidden City

 

 Tianamen Square

 

Rickshaws

May 17

               Today was a slow morning for most preceding the good time we had at China Ag University. We had a two hour bus ride to the Tian Jin port. It is the fourth largest port in the world and second biggest port in China behind Shanghai. They move shipments of coal, containers, crude oil, iron ore, bulk grain, soybeans, and steel from all over the world. It has trade relations with over 500 ports in over 180 countries and regions. In every month there are over 400 vessels that travel through the main port. We witnessed a large barge dock at the port. They plan to expand to be even bigger by 2017. We toured their exhibition hall looking at some of their history. They had a scale model that was 1/1000th of the actual port.

               We then took a short bus ride to John Deere in Tian Jin. We toured their engine manufacturing facility that opened in 2012, and has only been in production for 2 months. Currently the factory only makes five engines a day but at max production they can produce 200 engines a day.  It is very similar to the plant in Waterloo, Iowa but they are only making tier three engines instead of tier 4 engines since China only requires that level of exhaust control. We learned that China needs to improve their mechanization of agriculture. Currently only 67% of farmers use mechanization for plowing, 62% for planting, and 51% for harvesting. The factory currently works 250 days a year with eight hour shifts five days a week. It was very interesting to see the size of equipment they use compared to the United States.  The tour was led by Troy Schlotman, who is from the same hometown (Kingsley, IA) as Andrew Langel, who helped arrange the visit.

               We had a two hour bus ride back to Beijing after John Deere. We then had supper and celebrated our fourth birthday of the trip. It was Philip Lorch's 21st birthday today, and he got a delicious cake and crown! After supper we went to an acrobatic show. It was very interesting to see the way they perform acrobatic stunts. Their ending stunt was having eight motorcycles in a very small steel globe. It was a very neat show to witness.

 JD Group

 

 Port office

 

 Port

 

 Troy and Andrew

 

Troy

May 16

Our second full day in Beijing started off in a packed traffic jam, but in a city of 20 million, we couldn't expect anything less in the early morning. We arrived at the Femur Head Necrosis Hospital, where they specialize in bone joint treatment through traditional Chinese medicine using acupuncture, herbal medicine and other specialized traditional medicine. This traditional hospital has 200 beds and treats approximately 3,000 patients per year, including South Dakota's very own, Ty Eshenbaum.  Our group made a donation to the hospital before we went to the great wall.

We went to the JuYong Pass section of the Great Wall.  For most of us this was one of the highlights of the trip so far.  Seven of us made it to the highest peak of the wall which totaled 6,906 steps.  The steps are not regular steps, they ranged from 6-18 inches tall, extremely steep and very uneven.  At some points of the wall people had to basically crawl with their hands.  As we climbed the wall the air got much thinner and our legs were weaker but, it was a breath taking view and a great experience for all of us.  It's amazing to think how the wall was made and the amount of labor that was needed to complete the wall.  We also met a group from Kentucky State and a man from Rochester, Minnesota on the journey up the wall. 

After the Great Wall, we went to China Ag University. Each of us received a student from Ag University, at the beginning of the semester, to email back and forth and get to know. It was so cool for us to finally get to see who we had been talking to all semester. The girls' had guy pen pals and the guys' received girl pen pals. They had groups that they got into and introduced each of them individually. It was awesome to see all the different studies and research projects they had been working on. Many of them had hobbies like playing ping pong, basketball, and reading. When we got up and introduced ourselves most of our hobbies included being outdoors, hunting, fishing, and boating. It's a different culture here and especially during introductions, you could tell that.  We then toured their research facilities, which are incredible, and then finished with a banquet, including 17 students from NDSU who were just beginning their China tour.

 We made it!

 

 CAU students

 

 Femur head

 

 Great Wall preparation

 

The Great Wall

May 15 

               Today was our first day in Beijing. We started our morning on the bus learning about traffic laws they have here like – You can only drive on days according to your licenses plate number, if you don’t wear your seatbelt it’s a 200 Yuan fine and 3 point cut to your license (once 12 points have been taken you have to go back to driving school), if you get a DUI it cost you 4500 Yuan (750 U.S. dollars) and you automatically have to go back to driving school.

                Next we went to the Pioneer head quarters here in China and they discussed their business with us. China is the second leading corn producer in the world. A problem they face is counterfeit seed. China has 20% of the world population, but only 9% of the arable land in the world. Since the people do not support genetically modified grain, it limits their hybrids to just 30 with only 1 or 2 actually available. With that said, a bag with 4400 kernels in it is just 9 U.S. dollars and has doubled in the last 3 years here on price. We also lightly touched on the planting season this year and learned that within the next 2 weeks it should be wrapped up.

               Following the info on corn, we jumped right into the soybean side of China by having someone from the United States Soybean Export Council speak to us. China is the largest soybean export market in the U.S. They import 70 million metric tons of it annually (close to US total production), mainly for cooking oil and livestock feed. None of this is used for bio-fuels because they do not have a market for it. China can only produce 14 million metric tons of soybeans a year but help by importing about 24 million metric tons just from the U.S.  China’s land size is similar to the U.S. but the population is very different. They have a lack of natural resources to produce more.

               Following our dinner at the silk market today we went into the market and bartered for items such as silk scarf, luggage, North face jackets, suits, watches and more. There is no set price for the items like in the U.S. so you have to come to an agreement on a price. We all had lots of fun and really enjoyed ourselves bartering for items. Too bad it’s not like that in the US.  It’d be a lot more fun shopping!

               Our last stop today was to the CP group. We were the first group of our kind to take a tour like this and discuss with them their world-wide business based out of Thailand. Their 3 principles of the company are as follows: 1. Benefit the people, 2. Benefit the country, 3. Benefit the company. China has the potential to expand more into raising their own pork and according to Dr. Gary Stoner, and has the potential to sufficiently supply themselves without U.S. imports that only make up less than 1.6 % of their national consumption. This company is the 2^nd leading pork producer in the world behind Smithfield. Tomorrow we are looking forward to going to the Great Wall and meeting our rival school, NDSU, at the China Agricultural College, China’s #1 ag college.

 City lights

 

 CP

 

 DuPont

 

 DuPont Building

 

US Soybean Export Council

May 14, 2013

                        After eating breakfast on our last day in Xi'an we boarded the bus and finished off our tour of the city by going to a local market that specialized in meat wholesale. We also saw many other things there other than meat such as tofu, lard, eggs, and produce including a large selection of mushrooms. The market was extremely busy, crowded and hectic; as there were people everywhere and trying to move mopeds, motorcycles and three-wheeled carts through the streets by just honking their horns to get people to move out of the way. There were a few recognizable wholesale cuts of meat. Of all the things we have seen this far, it was of the most eye opening experiences yet, as it was so much different from what we are used to than seeing our meat prepared and stored. We saw beef, goat, pork, and lamb. There were also chances to buy seafood at the market.  These include: a variety of fish, shrimp, squid, and other unique seafood like eels and frogs.  All the species were far fatter than we were used to seeing, especially the pork loins. The methods that we saw the meat being stored in and hung out in the open were extremely different and shocking as there were no coolers as it was all hung out in the open, as well as the cleaning and lack of sanitizing all surfaces. There were no types of plastic covering over the muscle of the meat or anything. This along with the warm weather drew a fair number of flies and gnats around. They are simply not aware of the strict food safety standards that we are use to in America. For this we can be extremely thankful for all the standards and regulations, producers and all those that help keep the food in the United States safe.

            After the meat market we took the bus to the train station, which is huge and appeared to be fairly new. Upon waiting for the train most of us took advantage and enjoyed some "American food" as there were McDonalds, KFC, Dunkin Donuts, and Baskin Robbins. After getting our fill of some familiar food we boarded the train headed for Beijing. The train took a couple miles to get up to speed, but once it did we were traveling 311 km/hr (roughly 194mph). It is quite the experience to ride a high speed train, as it is very smooth and you are still able to look out and get a great view of the countryside. We traveled through quite a few tunnels under hills and mountains some big and small. From being in the huge cities of Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Xi'an we have never wanted to see the countryside so bad. Outside of city limits, the Chinese landscape is so beautiful. The farmers make sure to use all of the land for harvest as they can, including in between highway beams and ditches where we normally just cut for hay. With one stop in ZhengZhouDong, the trip took about 4 1/2 hours which means we traveled roughly 800 miles.

            After arriving in Beijing, we had a change in schedule and took part in the Peking Duck supper instead of Hot Pot supper. This was a little like a duck taco, only Chinese style. You start with a small "pancake" as they were calling it and dip a couple pieces of sliced duck meat (no bones this time!) in a type of soy sauce along with cucumber and onion pieces, then wrap it together like a taco. It was one of the best meals so far, in our opinion. It was a table full of food including sweet and sour pork, beef with onions and peppers, spicy chicken, and tons of other finger foods. Our tour guide for the rest of the trip is Michelle who gave us a few facts on the way to the hotel: Beijing is home to approx. 20 million people, 10 million of them being natives of the area. There are four seasons, but the people only recognize them as hot and cold seasons and there are also about 70,000 taxis in Beijing and 10,000 of them being illegal.

 Mushrooms

 

Train

May 13

               This morning after having breakfast, we took the bus to a local family's farm.  We were allowed to tour their house, and to our surprise, they had a very modern house with televisions and a computer.  They greeted us with cherries, walnuts, peanuts and tea.  The farm input cost was 10,000 RMB per year (about 1600 USD).  They raised kiwi, peanuts, walnuts, cherries, wheat, corn, and grapes.  The farm was very diverse, but each plot was very small.  They had rest rooms out in the field that they used to sit in when the day got too hot.  After leaving the farm, we went to the Terra Cotta Warrior Museum where they showed us how to make the warriors and lacquer furniture that was coated with 60 layers of lacquer and was fire proof.  We then went to the Terra Cotta Warrior exhibit.  The Terra Cotta Warriors were built in the tomb of the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty.  There are over 8000 warriors and it took 700,000 people 40 years to build the tomb.  After the emperor died, farmers revolted and raided the tomb, stole weapons, and burned the warriors.  The warriors used to be painted but after they were excavated, the colors disappeared very rapidly in a period of less than 2 weeks.  The next place we toured was Shaanxi Shiyang Group Oil and Fat Co. which is the soybean processing plant in Northeast China.  The two main products were soybean meal and soybean oil.  Eighty percent of the soybeans processed at this plant were imported from Brazil, U.S.A, and Argentina.  The soybean meal was bagged in 180 pound bags and was sorted into two protein levels, 43 and 45%.  The soybean oil was bottled into 15 liter jugs.  The company also produced rapeseed oil.  We were given a full tour and it was very much the same as an American soybean processing company.  Michael Sukalski got to meet his “Chinese father, Mr. Wu, chairman of the plant, who he met years ago when a USSEC delegation visited his family’s farm in MN.  Our last stop of the day was Xi'an YinQiao Biological Science and Technology Company which is the largest milk processing plant in Northwest China.  This company makes both powder and liquid milk (including yogurt) in 80 different varieties.  We were allowed to tour both their exhibition hall and their processing plant.  In the exhibition hall, they allowed us to sample some of their products including some of their Ultra High Temperature products that are shelf stable.  The processing plant was very similar to an American milk plant except it was a much smaller scale than our top producers. Tonight we will celebrate Megan DeRouchey 20th birthday.

 Dairy plant

 

 Kiwi farm

 

 Oil

 

 Terra Cotta

 

 Wheat

 

Soy plant

May 12
 

Greetings from China! Today we started out with a lovely two hour ride up to Yangling to start the day off with a Shanxi Shiyang Co. feed processing base. Along the way we were able to see the way locals work in the wheat and other fields. There are so many green houses along the way, housing a variety of crops. The interstate we are on makes us feel like we are around home. At the mill we learned how they researched their feeds as well as animal diseases along with sales and processing methods of their feeds. The corn, wheat, SBM, and canola meal are stored either in 110 lb bags or in huge piles in a large warehouse, and all the mixed feed are stored in bags and all feeds meet U.S. human food safety standards. There are 105 people at each branch of the mill and they are kept immaculately clean.  All the feed leaves the mill in bags, and are loaded by hand onto a wide variety of sizes of trucks. Next up, we visited the Shanxi Kingbull Livestock Development Co Beef Cattle Breeding Center on about 150 mou (approximately 35 acres) The breeding is composed of a traditional yellow breed crossed with a red Angus x Wagu cross. They are slaughtered at 26 months weighing 1,000 lbs with the meat sold for $36 per pound. It is so heavily marbled that there is more fat than red in the meat, and looks like Kobe beef.  They are watered 20% beer and 80% water, and fed wheat straw, wheat bran, and soybean meal. They are housed indoors and crossed ventilated. Close by was the Shanxi Shengfeng Dairy Industry Group. Holstein dairy cows were housed in a free stall barn, and the calf growing and heifer development was onsite. They are milked three times a day and produce 55lbs of milk a day. However, the milking machines are brought to the cows instead of the other way around like we do at home. They are fed a 50% cereal and 50% concentrate diet such as peanut shells, peanut hay, a course cut silage, wheat straw and DDG's with a total of 35% moisture. The cattle are smaller framed than the Holsteins at home. Following, we toured the Shanxi Qingchaun Cattle Industry Group Breeding Center. They are a cross breed of traditional yellow cattle and Black Angus, and all AI'd by Angus semen from Beijing. It is 2000 cows in dry lot under roof with full airflow. Birth weights of calves are only 30-40 kg. They are weaned at 4 months of age, and at 6 months only weigh 200 kg for crossbred calves and 150 kg for purebred calves. There are no breeding seasons, and they calve and breed year round. Calves are kept to feed out and for research. The average cow life span is 8-10 years.

Lunch was a buffet served at the Yileyuan Restaurant at the Northwest A & F University. We were able to choose between a variety of delicious Chinese dishes. Dustin was presented a bowl of long noodles for his birthday, which signifies a long life.

Our last tour was to the Shanxi Besun Group, a completely integrated swine operation that was started in 2001. The breeding is a Duroc crossed with a Seger. They slaughter 300-400 pigs a day in their plant with 10,000 overall last year, and sell the meat in their 300+ meat shops across China. They have 25,000 sows with 4,000-5,000 sows on one farm site. No other pigs outside the operation are slaughtered. An average litter size is 11 piglets with 28 pigs per sow per year.

Everyone is still healthy and having a wonderful time. Tonight we have supper on our own, and last but not least, HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!

 David

 

 Feed

 

 Laura

 

Native yellow cow