A little trip to Hangzhou...

So last weekend me and some of the other CRCC interns finally went on our first trip and escaped the hustle and bustle of Shanghai.  Whilst we went to another city (Hangzhou is the capital of the Zhejiang Province) this one was much smaller than Shanghai and is known to be one of the most beautiful cities in all of China – particularly due to its infamous West Lake (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and stunning mountainous surroundings. 

After a 3 hour minibus ride we arrived at our hostel in Hangzhou at around 9pm on Friday evening.  Although basic (yes, squatting toilets included which proved interesting to say the least!), the hostel was quaint and surrounded by beautiful views with everything we needed for a weekend stay, in particular a well stocked bar and pool tables! After dropping off our bags in our rooms (girls in one and boys in the other of course :P), we had a chilled night with a selection of yummy local food, beer and shisha.

Salma showing us how to use an eastern toilet!

The next morning we woke up early to explore the infamous Southern banks of West Lake.  It was so beautiful with delicate pagodas and Chinese gardens – it was probably the first time I truly felt like I was in China! What was even funnier was all the attention we received from locals, with several asking for us to be in photos with them! This is not uncommon as for some of them it would have been the first time that they would have seen a westerner in real life. It was so surreal to say the least.

yi, er, san... say cheesseeee!!!

We managed to get a relaxing boat ride across to the island in the middle of the lake which gave way to more spectacular views – everything was so peaceful! Such a change from the daily grind that we have already become accustomed to in Shanghai!!!

 The same view is on the back of the 1RMB note...

After trying on traditional Chinese attire (they were actually more comfortable than you might think!) in front of pagodas of course, (yet more picture taking not only by us but by local Chinese too!) we left West Lake and made our way into the centre of Hangzhou for food.

And what food we had! We were greeted with a feast (I forget how many dishes we had) which finished with these delicious (but greasy) sesame dessert balls known as Jian Dui made of glutinous rice pastry, sesame seeds and black bean paste… ah I could eat one right now!

We then strolled up and down the Ancient Market browsing through all the stalls before climbing up to the top of a pagoda in time to watch the sunset over Hangzhou! Truly breathtaking!

After a dinner of a DIY BBQ which included steak, chicken wings, chicken hearts (yes I did mean to write chicken hearts, and yes I did try them!), fish, a mystery meat and various veg we showed the hostel how it was done with drinking games before heading out and sampling the ‘delights’ of a local Chinese club.

Our last day in Hangzhou started extremely early (not good after a night of beer and dancing!) with a trip to Moganshan Mountain near to Hangzhou.  We had a short hike to a lake where we were hoping to have a swim. But oh no! Just our luck, half the lake had disappeared, so instead of swimming in it, we walked across the muddy lake bed much to the confusion of the local fishermen watching us. 

We then hiked for 3 and half hours to the top of Moganshan with a trusty doggy mascot in tow (yep you read that right guys, I hiked up a mountain…) in time for the boys to watch the rugby final at the lodge there before heading back to Shanghai. With coffee, tea, beer and food it was a good end to a knackering but great weekend!!!

Zai jian!

Marie xox

Work hard, play hard...

Hey guys!

Apologies in advance for the lateness of this post, but the last week has been MANIC! Because of that I have decided to split this up into two posts (plus I can keep you on the edge of your seats hehe).

Work last week was as busy as always with lots of preparations not only for my companies weekly offline events (Wednesday Night Mixer and their Sunday Coffee Meeting) but for their special events over the next few weeks such as ShanghaiExpat’s 3^rd Stampede Karting – Halloween Edition on Friday (still don’t have a costume to wear wah), their Photostory contest and up and coming proposals (sorry I have to keep details under wraps I'm afraid) for their biggest event of the year – their 11^th Anniversary Party that I’m unfortunately going to miss by a couple of days as it’s on Dec 2^nd (I leave Shanghai on Nov 30^th booo).  One of my tasks as their intern is to not only chase and follow up their current sponsors for events, but also to find new potential sponsors.  At first this seemed incredibly daunting (What if I mess it up? What if they never want to sponsor us for an event ever again because of something I said?), but what definitely pleasantly surprised me is how easy it can be to find a general contact number for a company on the internet (lets say Grand Marnier cough cough), and the next thing you know you are talking to its regional manager!  Without a doubt it would be so much harder to do that back home… If you were lucky you would have been able to have left a message with a secretary with little chance of receiving a reply!  Gotta love China for that… J

Last Wednesday night I attended my first SHEX (ShanghaiExpat) Wednesday Night Mixer in the Pudong area (the area with the fancy smancy tall skyscrapers).  This didn’t only include a lot of networking (guan’xi – of which is a very important part not only of business culture but also daily life here in China) but our second beerpong tournament (think we are going to make it a regular event at our weekly mixers)!!! All in all there were a lot of misses, a lot of beer drinking, a lot of cheering and shouting and a whole lotta fun with not only expats taking part but local Chinese too J.  Getting into work the next day was definitely hard for all of us lol…but as the saying goes, people in Shanghai definitely work hard AND play hard! Here are some pics that I took of the event…

Cynthia's (part of the sales team at SHEX) attempt...

Smiles all round...

Flora (my supervisor) celebrating with her team mate...

The winning team with Flora (my supervisor) and Mike (SHEX's editor) who are both in the middle...

As well as work, Mandarin lessons have also been going well (we’ve had 4 now since we’ve arrived, every Tuesday & Thursday), although as they are after work it can be very difficult to maintain concentration! But our teacher is very patient and makes us feel very comfortable despite our mispronunciations.  We have also found 2 good local restaurants in the area, which despite our basic language skills in ordering food has been extremely successful! Out of the two, my favourite has to be Golden Hotpot.  Here you order a range of food along with your choice of hotpot and cook it (boil it) yourself at your table! The two times I’ve gone we have definitely provided entertainment for all the locals inside due to our terrible chopsticks skills (before coming I thought I was pretty good at using chopsticks) but it was all good fun.

Anyway I’d best be off… keep a look out for my next post on my recent Hangzhou trip with my fellow CRCC interns!

Zai jian!

Marie xox

An Intern Abroad...

Ni hao everyone!

Shanghai calling J! So here I am in the midst of the hustle and bustle of China and it’s AMAZING (think the upgrade to business class helped)! In just over a week I have eaten so much random food (some of them I don’t even know what they were, and perhaps wont want to know), tried to act out the word “coat hanger”, been pushed out of the metro at a stop I didn’t even want to get off (think of London at rush hour and triple it!), attended a restaurant opening, gone to a bar on the 87^th floor, and of course, most importantly started my internship.  It’s been a whirlwind to say the least.

Despite only being here for just over 10 days Shanghai already feels like home.  Perhaps it’s the easy metro system that is so similar to the London tube, maybe even because of the high-rise modern buildings that decorate the skyline (see the famous Pudong area above), or even the river that cuts through the city.  It is so cosmopolitan here too and many a time I have forgotten that I am half way across the world rather than sat in a coffee shop or a bar in London.  There are so many beautiful places to explore as well with People’s Square being one of them (although it’s not really what we would call a square like Trafalgar Square but rather a park) and my favourite area without a doubt being its lily pond (see pic below)!  All in all a lot of us interns (there are about 30 of us with the CRCC Asia program) feel settled.

Work is going really well (although think it will take me awhile to get used to the hour commute on the metro consisting of a free-for-all and a LOT of pushing and shoving) with everyone being so nice and welcoming and I’ve already done a lot in just 5 days.  The company I’m working for is ShanghaiExpat – a small company whose main channel is through their website www.shanghaiexpat.com.  Whilst their main revenue comes from advertisements on their site, their main reason for existence is to support the local expat community in Shanghai by giving advice through their forum and planning events – and that’s where I come in!  So far this week I have had to come up with several ideas for possible events that we can put on, help plan their 11^th Anniversary Party in December, ring up sponsors and promote their up and coming events on other expat marketing promotional sites and social networking sites – the 9-6 has been intense but really enjoyable and so different every day!  Who knows what I’ll be doing this week…

Zai jian!

Marie xox

Zài jiàn England!

Apologise for this brief entry BUT after hours of manically packing my life into a 20kg bag (or trying to and failing miserably…hopefully whoever is on the check in desk will take pity on me!) I am finally good to go! So, I guess all that remains to say is…wish me luck!  With only 14 hours and one stopover in Amsterdam I’ll see you on the other side of the world in Shanghai!!!!  I’ll let you know how I get on…

Zai hui

Marie xox