In July 2005, the Association of Rotational Moulders Australasia (ARMA) sponsored an exceptionally educational tour through mainland China, which was attended by 80 delegates representing 9 countries including Australia, New Zealand, Italy, France, India, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, USA and South Africa. The group visited historic landmarks and experienced the developing Chinese rotomolding industry through on-site visits to rotational molding factories in the top industrial and economic regions of Shanghai and Zhuhai.
Factories visited inluded: DeshunContainer Co., Ltd and Cixi Zinfan Rotomolding Co., Ltd in Cixi; Shanghai Cnflon PolymericMaterials Engineering Co.,Ltd. and Shanghai Three Dimension Plastics Products Co, Ltd inShanghai; Dachang Lighting Co., Ltd in Guzhen Town, Zhongshancity, Guangdong; and Polymer Rotomolding Company Limited in Zhuhai. Delegates also visited with the managers of Zjfeelfree Rotomolded Plastic Co., Ltd, located on CiXi NingBo City.
The 5-day ARMA tour began with seeing the Chinese culture in Beijing, where delegates experienced yesteryear China as they walked through the streets of the Forbidden City and stood on Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square, located in the heart of Beijing is an enormous space bordered by China's Parliament, The Chinese Revolutionary Museum, Qianmen (South Gate) and Tiananmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace or home to the Center for The People's Republic of China). Tiananmen Square is the site of Chinese Chairman Mao's mausoleum, and the location where students demonstrated demanding greater democracy for China in 1989. ARMA delegates visited the Great Wall of China to see the only man-made object on earth that can be seen from the moon, and a true phenomenon of human sweat which began construction as early as BC500 and continued through BC215.
The day was highlighted with opposite ends of the spectrum as delegates dined at one of China's more trendy restaurants, Commune by the Great Wall, where the staff wore the Maoist red star in "Armani style" and exhibited Maoist ideology in modern day China. Highlights and experiences of Chinese culture wove throughout the tour by way of traditional food, including a stop at the oldest and most famous Peking Duck house in Beijing. A trip through old Shanghai on bicycle-driven rickshaws will not soon be forgotten as 40 pedicabs rolled through the streets of old Shanghai viewing Beijing hutongs. Delegates then boarded wooden, lantern-lit boats powered by single oarsman and were entertained by lute players and classical Chinese music while touring Shishahai Lake. Delegates were treated to famous Chinese foot massages as a demonstration of the power and economics of Chinese labor. Not to be missed, the group experienced first-hand Chinese artisans at their craft while visiting local pearl, jade and silk factories.
Rototour 2005
China
