Today we had our tour and meeting at China Pharmaceutical University. We started our morning with the key lab opening ceremony on the Xuanwumen Campus. Dr. Gu and Dr. Floriddia exchanged some opening words and each of them gave a presentation on China Pharmaceutical University and University of the Pacific respectively. Listening to Dr. Gu's presentation about China Pharmaceutical University was mind blowing. China Pharmaceutical University was established in 1986 and was incorporated with the Nanjing College of Traditional Chinese Pharmacy. CPU has a lot of school departments which was quite impressive. They have a school of pharmacy, traditional Chinese pharmacy, life science and technology, international pharmaceutical business, high vocational education, and continuing educations. CPU offers research programs in medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutics, pharmacognosy, pharmaceutical analysis, microbiology and biochemical pharmacy, and pharmacology. There are over 14,000 full time students (11,000 undergraduates and >3,000 postgraduates & PhD candidates). CPU's pharmacy program is ranked #1 in China and their Traditional Chinese Pharmacy program is ranked #3. CPU has 3 first class novel drug patents for acehytisine hydrochloride, gatifloxacin, and epristeride.
After the presentation we visited the Key Laboratory for Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics. The walls were filled with posters on drug metabolism research which had fascinating diagrams. The rooms had a lot of chemical equipment such as mass spectrometers, chromatography, etc. We were then taken to the Key Laboratory of Modern Chinese Medicines. This floor looked very similar to the Key Laboratory for Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics. It was impressive to see all of the equipment and technological support that their labs had. Their facilities would be great for pharmaceutical research.
After lunch, we took the bus to China Pharmaceutical University’s Jiangning Campus. The Jiangning campus was a lot larger than the Xuanwumen Campus. Shi started giving us a tour and he asked if anyone wanted to drive his car around. Markham volunteered, so Sam, Jennifer, Clara, and Jeremy hopped in since they had to go to the bathroom. After they found a bathroom, they decided to drive around campus in Shi’s car. They noticed a lot of banners welcoming University of the Pacific were around campus which was quite impressive. They eventually found the bus and started to follow it, but then they lost it. Jeremy called Shi on his cell phone telling him they were the foreigners with his car and they were lost. His response was “Hi, I’m with some foreigners right now. I have to go. Bye” O.O!!!!!!!!!!!!! They eventually found them and there we were introduced to some students from CPU.
After we talked to the students for a little bit they took us to the cafeteria to eat dinner. They were really nice and interested in learning about where we were from and what school is like for us. They even grabbed the food and carried it to the tables for us!
We had about an hour to eat dinner which consisted of a soup with tomatoes, chicken, fish, and rice. The students at CPU prepared a performance for us called a Gala which was the equivalent to us having a Rho Chi talent show. They prepared various performances such as singing, dancing, opera, a skit from the international students, traditional dances, calligraphy demonstration, and various games for us to play. The theme of the Gala was “Hand in Hand” and it started out with a song and dance performance. They had 2 games for volunteers to participate in. One involved doing sit-ups, hula hoops, spinning around, and hitting a gong. The other game involved eating a cake, moving beans from one bowl to another with chop sticks, jump-roping, and spinning around and hitting a gong. Each participant had a different role. For one of the games they wanted a professor to participate. We wanted Dr. Flo to go up and play but he did not want to. We started to chant “Flo, Flo, Flo” and everyone followed. He was finally convinced to go up HAHAHA. Before the Gala we were told that we had to prepare a performance as well. A couple days before we decided to sing “We are the World”. Kin and Chintan prepared a platinum hit rap song to go along with it and everyone loved it! The crowd liked our overall performance which was great.
When the Gala was over, they gave each of us a set of chopsticks. Participants received this little egg keychain. We were all super impressed with all the work they put into the Gala and how great their hospitality was. We had a chance to take pictures with the students. CPU did a great job with everything since we’ve arrived in China. A lot of students from CPU came to the Gala just to see us which made the event memorable. We all wish we could have stayed in Nanjing just to hang out with the CPU students and even shadow them for a day to see what their university experience is like.
Based off of http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/JLim/
