GlobalCom conquering the Great Wall

 Visiting Yingli Green Energy in Baoding

It’s well known that the world is in need of clean energy resources – especially in China industrialization speeds up and is taking its toll to the environment. A lot has been discussed about this especially in the context of the Copenhague Climate Summit – but quite little is known about China’s “Green Players”.

One of them is Yingli Green Energy, Photovoltaic company based in Baoding (near Beijing) and a client of GlobalCom (Germany, Italy, Spain and France) since a couple of months. Yingli follows the concept of vertical integration and has achieved a very strong market position especially in Europe. After working on all those press documents, arranging interviews for the Yingli Management at trade fairs and exchanging many E-Mails with the team at Yingli Green Energy Europe, it was the highest time to visit Yingli Headquarter in Baoding – a city that has moved far ahead to become a center for “Cleantech & Green Energy”.

The perfect occasion for this visit to Baoding was Yingli’s annual Customer Conference 2009. From our network, Claudia Wittwer (GlobalCom Germany), Josep Iglesias (IT Comunicacion – Spain), Valentina Ghigna (Prima Pagina – Italy) and Veronique Wasa (Point Virgule – France) joined the trip, along side with a number of Beijing-based correspondents.

It was a remarkable trip with fascinating insights into one of Chinas “Green Global Players” – and full of surprises. The atmosphere at the conference was very open, we could take pictures at the production facilities, and the Yingli Management was eager to answer all of our questions. Besides learning a lot about the company strategy, visiting the production plant and meeting the Chinese Management, we had the pleasure of staying in a 5* hotel fully powered by solar modules, enjoying fantastic Chinese food (and drinks!), and participating at the daily morning exercise of the Yingli employees (at a temperature of around -5°C). An intriguing idea – especially for all those with low blood pressure in the morning…

For some of us it was the first visit to China, and so we all enjoyed a trip to the Great Wall organized by Yingli, and tried to squeeze in some time for sightseeing and shopping. Even though Beijing has changed tremendously and a new high-rise or shopping center is opening up around the corner every other day, you can still walk around those “hutongs”, the little alleys lined with old traditional houses – amazing how peaceful and quiet this megacity can be, right in the center of town.

But however packed our schedule in Baoding and Beijing was: We took enough time to do the best thing you can do in China (after shopping): enjoy the incredible variety of Chinese food and try the local specialities. Don’t worry if you had too much – a bit of Chinese “baijiu” (“Schnaps”) helps to digest everything and always creates a good atmosphere.

Claudia Wittwer

last modified December 10, 2009