Greetings from Shanghai: The semester here at SMU is slowly approaching a conclusion and we will be wrapping up our courses in the coming weeks. The trip here in China has been an unbelievable experience and I cannot believe how brief of a visit it will be. It seems like we climbed off the plane just yesterday but I can ensure you that idle time has been well occupied. We all had time apart from our studies to travel around and see different parts of China. Personally, I visited Chongqing, Beijing, Xi'an, Kunming, and Lijiang while being here. I can certainly speak of China knowledgeably after having the opportunity for these travels. However, there will always be more to see and plenty of reason for us to return to China in the future.In regards to courses, the IMBU students have been working on many different research papers and case studies as part of our final course grades. All of these papers are relevant to the course discussions and we had some leniency in our topic choice. For Port Terminal Development, I have been working on a paper discussing the China's port development as a result of US trade fluctuations. In Chinese Business Law, I'm working on a paper covering the legal process of a foreign individual starting a business in China. I have already finished a paper covering the US tanker industry and the Oil Protection Act of 1990. There have been some great topics coming from the other students as well and I'm certain we will all receive high marks.
