Ji Cheng used to work at the global professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Many finance majors would crave such an opportunity, yet Ji quit his job earlier this year to pursue what he says is a "higher perspective" in the field.

Ji became an MBA student at China's prestigious Tsinghua University. Today he is participating in the Fifth Tsinghua Business Case Competition.

Ji says he and his teammates have worked hard during the past two weeks to prepare for the event. They even went to Qingdao to visit the actual factory their case study involves and collect firsthand data. They often worked until 5 o'clock in the morning while they were there.

But Ji says the whole experience has been worthwhile for him.

As the annual big event of the Economics and Management School of Tsinghua University, the case competition attracts participants from the Chinese mainland and overseas every year.

This year, the teams come from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Chengchi University and Shanghai Jiaotong University.

A team from Taiwan Chengchi University has entered the final round of the competition. The members of the team - Hou Jiyan, Lin Shengyuan, Li Bingjie and Wen Wei—discuss their feelings about taking part in the competition.

"It's great to have the opportunity to exchange views with other students from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. I think the overall capability of students, both in the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, has been enhancing. And such competition helps students from both sides inspire each other and learn from each other."

"The students from the Chinese mainland are really good at collecting data and analyzing it, while we may do better at innovative thinking."

"Students from the Chinese mainland are very eloquent and natural onstage. They do really good presentations."

Gao Jian is Assistant Dean of Tsinghau SEM. This year, he has a special role as chairman of the jury.

He says the students' performance have impressed him.

Gao says business case studies are effective in improving students' overall leadership abilities. Yet, what's most important for him is that they help cultivate their soft skills, and in particular, their ability to think critically.

The team from Shanghai Jiaotong University wins the competition.

Four years after Tsinghua held its first case competition in 2005, the event has become an important platform for business students to compete, and more importantly for them to challenge each other and learn from each other.

For Life in China, this is Tingting.