Last weekend I decided it was time to finally venture out into another part of China. On Friday morning, one of the other interns and I booked a spontaneous train ticket for that evening to Harbin, a large city about 1300km Northeast of Beijing. After rushing to get to the train station after work we set off on our 10 hour overnight journey in one of the sleeper cars. We were fortunate enough to have a room to ourselves and the next thing I knew we were been woken up about 10 minutes out of Harbin. The city is known for a few things: Russian architecture/influences; the annual Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival; and ridiculously freezing winters with icy Siberian winds and an average temperature of -17°C (2°F). Luckily we had at least six layers of clothing and full balaclavas!

Here are some highlights of the trip:

Snow sculptures: This was the biggest one carved out of compacted snow. Surrounding it were dozens of other smaller ones that were part of an international competition.

I then met some new friends inside the snow sculpture park…

Ice Festival: Huge blocks of ice were formed to create a mega ice city lit … Continue reading

Ni Hao from China!

My name is Shane and I have just hit the half-way point in my two month internship program here in the city that feels like the centre of the world right now, Beijing!

Beijing is definitely a change of scenery from home. I am currently on my university summer break, trading sunny Australian beaches for the hustle and bustle of this incredibly fast-paced city. I definitely would not change anything though; I am having the time of my life here!

I am not too sure where the last month has gone though, I haven’t really had time to actually reflect on all the amazing things I have seen and done. I am doing an internship at an online marketing agency and have been fortunate enough to work in their social media department with an amazing team of coworkers. The Chinese are adapting to social media very quickly, if you haven’t heard of weibo, it is essentially the Chinese version of twitter with many different quirks and applications that keep its 300 million users happy each day. Most interns will say that their coworkers keep their weibo open all day, chatting to each other even if they … Continue reading