Make Edible Cake Paint

Yiwu -> Shanghai, Day 11, 7 July 2010

Upon arrival in Shanghai from Hangzhou, we felt back at home. It was not as strange as the first arrival in Shanghai. In the subway, we got along well and everything worked right away. In the push we are now a bit loose Chinese and therefore we moved efficiently and without someone from the crowd. In the afternoon we visited Swissnex. In the 22nd floor, we were met by Mehmet, a member of Swissnex, in a stylish office. Mehmet gave us a brief introduction about Swissnex and their tasks and visions.

photo: The road to the hostel in Shanghai

Swissnex is a network institution and serves as an interface for making contacts between universities in China and Switzerland. It offers so to speak, a dynamic and interactive platform for better communication between the two actors, China and Switzerland. Their strategy, they divide into three main tasks. 1. PROMOTE: Includes share the knowledge from Switzerland to China, particularly in research, technology, innovation and culture. 2. CONNECT: This should form networks and collaborations between students from both countries to bottom-up initiatives for the future to generate. 3. Facilitate support of a Sino-Swiss cooperation and research with a reduction of geographical and cultural differences.

Photo: Visit of the Berner Group at Swissnex

The main partners are many Swiss universities such as ETH Zurich, EPFL and ECAL. Flavia Schlegel took us further into the various projects and events that have taken place to this day. Flavia Schlegel is Executive Director and is responsible for all Swissnex Swissnex activities in China. Here it is very important to understand the Chinese culture. She emphasizes repeatedly that it is not about going to transfer only our knowledge but rather to exchange knowledge and to unite them into something new and to create creative. China has many different sites and cultures and is very versatile.

Swissnex to the understanding of different actors (between Academic-Academic and Academic and Business) of China and Switzerland to help promote exchanges of students and to provide long-term cooperation.

Miriam Andoni, Leonor Rodriguez

(Photos: Heike Mayer)