It seems that I have already garnered a reputation for myself amongst the group of interns in Beijing: I am the one that likes to walk.

“Where have you made it to today, Chris?”

“How are those blisters?”

I cannot help the fact that since arriving in Beijing, my natural remedy for jet lag has been to just start going – to walk and exhaust myself naturally.

Upon waking up at 5 A.M. on my first morning – construction riveting outside my window; cars already blaring horns, trumpeting the procession of endless Beijing traffic – I stared restlessly at my ceiling. I could not lay in bed any longer.

Mind you, I had only gotten a few hours of sleep – but what time was it really? Dinner time the previous day back home in Michigan? The sun never “set” throughout my pan-oceanic flight – my internal clock was naturally completely skewed.

Showered. Shoes on. I was out the door.

Where to? Who knows. Beijing was at my fingertips.

Now, is Beijing a walkable city? In my opinion, yes. The streets are organized systematically in a gridlock, and food carts and convenience stores with rejuvenating snacks and beverages are bountiful.… Continue reading

What an awesome first week it has been in Beijing! I don’t even know where to begin! I arrived in Beijing precisely a week ago and it feels like I’ve already been here for a month! It has been a jam packed week with many new people to meet, amazing food to experience, a new language to learn, sites to see, the need to adapt to the Beijing lifestyle and of course working as an intern in a Chinese company.

The first day was all about assimilating and adapting to the weather, people and culture in Beijing. I was met at the airport by a CRCC coordinator Chicka and Andrew, who escorted the small group of interns I was with to our apartments. Cosy and comfortable, the accommodation is more than you can ask for. In a convenient location, close to a subway stop, supermarket, a handful of restaurants and a shopping mall. A small informal dinner was organised by CRCC at a nearby Japanese restaurant as a meet and greet for all the interns.

The second day was an all day Induction day organised by CRCC which covered various topics including the Chinese business culture, the importance of guanxi … Continue reading

I decided to dedicate this week’s post to one of my ultimate passions in life: Food! Over the course of the month, I’ve been eating most of my meals out (aside from my usual homemade meal consisting of peanut butter sandwiches, crunchy Chinese crackers and plain sip-able yoghurt… the solution for people who are clueless when it comes to cooking). I’m always on the look-out for good-tasting food that won’t break the bank and so far… here is my ‘What You Should Eat in Shanghai’ list:

You just cannot go wrong with KFC’s congee with the 油条 (youtiao) combo during breakfast hours. Get the one that is 8 RMB that has what looks like shredded egg in it. Trust me, I’ve had all four flavours, and this one is the best!

I also like to go to BreadTalk because it’s convenient and consistently good. My other go-to bakery places are Paris Baguette and the newest one on my list: Bon Matin Paris. But I’m sure all the other French bakeries are just as good!

Normally I don’t even eat doughnuts back in Canada because they’re super unhealthy (being deep fried and all) but I just couldn’t resist Mister Donut when … Continue reading

The ‘New York of Asia’, ‘Paris of the East.’ I didn’t think this day would come, but when it did, it happened way too fast! Most interns seemed to have just graduated university or are taking a semester off — and then there are some, the few like me, who have left their old jobs behind to come here for a totally new, life-changing experience.

I’ve only been here for two-and-a-half weeks but it already feels as though I’ve been here for a month or longer. I feel as though I know my way around much better (although I do still get lost occasionally!) and Shanghai is becoming much smaller than it was the first couple of days when I arrived. I have to admit, it took a little while for me to settle in, be comfortable with the dangerous traffic, the inconvenience of having to BYOTP (bring your own toilet paper) everywhere, but you will be able to adjust as long as you stay positive — just give it a bit of time!

I think CRCC Asia did a fantastic job in placing me at my internship. I am part of the PR/Media team for a luxury lifestyle magazine … Continue reading

I cannot believe how quickly the past 17 days have flown by. It only feels like yesterday that we all sat down to the welcome meal and now everyone is flying off home!

Wednesday was our trip to the Great Wall. Rather than going to the extremely touristy Badaling, Andrew from CRCC Asia took us to a more remote section of the Wall, Jiankou. When we got told to bring ‘appropriate footwear,’ I thought my running shoes would suffice. I now wish I’d brought hiking boots. The ‘walk’ to the top of the wall was hard. Seriously! There were times I felt like saying, “Right, you guys go on without me, I’ll meet you by the van.” I also hadn’t realised how high up the wall was, so my fear of heights didn’t exactly do me any favours. However, when we reached the top, my exhaustion and vertigo was rapidly replaced by astonishment and amazement. I was speechless. This section of the wall had been left pretty much untouched and to see this monument in all of its original glory was breathtaking. Spending all those hours up there only felt like minutes, and I truly enjoyed every single second. … Continue reading

Blogs are so incredibly difficult to keep on top of when you’re in Beijing. I literally do not have a spare minute to sit down and open up my computer screen, and I say this in the absolute best way possible.

Our internship began at the beginning of this week. Hannah and I, (whilst everyone else dragged themselves out of bed to start work at 9am) leisurely rolled over to our office at a rather beautiful 2pm, excited to start the day and meet the team. Our supervisors at the Financial Times are so lovely, and the work is quite challenging yet as Hannah and I are working as a team, we are right on top of it. It feels so bizarre to be sitting in an office doing genuine work that the team there is going to use. Our work focuses on translation and making documents and articles sound much more natively English. The two of us seem to be rather useful around the office; all different members or staff keep approaching us asking whether what they’ve got in English sounds right to us. Finally, English Language at GCSE has quasi-paid off.

It was one of our colleague’s birthday … Continue reading

So, after a 4am start, 24 sleepless hours and a lot of airplane coffee, I finally arrived in Beijing. It still seems so crazy that I’m in China. Clichéd, but it does feel like it was just yesterday that I sent off the application to get onto the Study China Programme, and now, just like that, I am in one of the liveliest and vibrant cities in the world.

The journey was hard. I am not going to say it wasn’t, not going to say that I slept the whole way or that it went by fast. I was in a constant state of being uncomfortable, there was, of course, the baby that did not stop crying, and the food was really, really really questionable. Good points included sharing the experience with my lovely roommate Rae, and watching Johnny English 2. That was a funny film.

On arrival, Rae and I were lucky enough to be collected by the big boss man of CRCC Asia, Michael Lee. He was glad that we had brought the beautiful weather, not so glad that he was up at 6am because of our ridiculously early flight (MY BAD). Thus because of the glorious weather, … Continue reading

This week is actually my last week of work, as my boss will be out of the country next week.  It’s a little sad, but the week started off well at least.  On Monday I had lunch with some people from some neighbouring departments.  They took me to a new place to eat which was pretty good.  The next day I went to a place that resembled a pub back in Australia.  What was most notable about this place was the food and the price attached to them.  Usually these types of places had rather pricey food but this place had the same food yet very low prices (in comparison).  Additionally, this place had a decent pool table!  I’ve yet to win against their regulars.  How sad.

Something else that happened in this week was enrolments to my university classes.  I only had one on Tuesday to enroll in which I did successfully.  However, I had five classes in which to enroll in on Thursday in the span of one hour.  It is particularly worrying as enrolment is first in first served, so you have to be quick with clicking.  This was troublesome as the internet I had access to … Continue reading

This week has breezed by.  I found out that it only costs 1.5rmb per minute to call back to Australia.  This compared to 1rmb per international text message, I found it to be of great value.  I’m still not fully accustomed to how mobile plans work here.  You can choose different services to add to your prepaid plan at China Mobile.  Whereas in Australia, you just pick a specific plan that has everything in it.  I suppose the way China Mobile’s plans are set out can have advantages to people who don’t use some services such as internet.  So whatever you want, you just add it to your prepaid plan.  There are also different levels you can add.  If you are someone who doesn’t call much and just wants to use internet, you can have a cheaper plan for calling and texting and get a higher plan for internet.

Work has been good as usual.  Like I said before, it’s a really good work environment.  I do my work without requiring anyone to watch over my shoulder.  The sort of work environment I like.  They didn’t mind that I received a call from a special girl on Valentine’s Day, whom … Continue reading

This week was the start of my internship at one of the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm.  I got rather lucky with my placement as not only do I get to work in a rather nice and fancy building at a large and prestigious company, but I also received a work laptop which I am using to write this blog on.  A very generous act since I am only an intern.

It actually took some time for me to get settled at work.  The first day was a rather short one as there was no laptop available for me to use so I went home early.  I also did not have an access card for the building or the office yet.  The building access card was fixed up by the second day which was really convenient so I didn’t need to get a daily keycard everyday at the Wheelock Square reception desk.  I didn’t get an office keycard that day due to a misunderstanding.  Full time employees have to go through a very formal application to receive a keycard.  An intern like me who is only working there for a month would not have to go through such a … Continue reading