While reading this, you are probably getting ready for your internship in Vietnam and checking everything off on your to-do list. Aside from all the usual important stuff you need for going abroad- your passport, visa, medicine, and clothes, you need to think about what vaccines you might need for Vietnam. This blog is here to save you time and will be a helpful guide for you to get over this last step.
Vaccine – Get ready !This is something you need to consider before starting your adventure in Vietnam, and while vaccines aren’t necessary, you definitely need to speak to your doctor to see what they recommend!
It is recommended that you speak to your General Practitioner at least 6 to 8 weeks before your scheduled flight to discuss any health risks or vaccinations.
It is not necessary to be vaccinated before your arrival in Vietnam, however there are some recommended vaccinations for your stay in Vietnam: Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, Tetanus-Diphtheria and Measles if you do not already have them.
A boy receiving vaccination
Ask Yourself
- What’s the risk of me contracting a vaccine-preventable disease?
- How long am I going for?
- What will I be doing?
- Can I be protected without a vaccine?
What Countries Say
For more information about vaccines, please check the CDC’s website or read some more information here about traveling safely to Vietnam !
Our team is looking forward to meeting you soon in Ho Chi Minh City!
So you’re getting ready for your internship in China, and checking everything off on your to-do list. Aside from all the usual important stuff you need for going abroad- your passport, visa, medicine, clothes… you need to think about what vaccines you might need for China.
This is something you need to consider before starting your adventure in China, and while vaccines aren’t necessary, you definitely need to speak to your doctor to see what they recommend.
It is recommended that you speak to your General Practitioner at least 6 to 8 weeks before your scheduled flight to discuss any health risks or vaccinations.
It is not necessary to be vaccinated before your arrival in China, however there are some recommended vaccinations for your stay in China: Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, Tetanus-Diphtheria and Measles if you do not already have them.
Ask Yourself
- What’s the risk of me contracting a vaccine- preventable disease?
- How long am I going for?
- What will I be doing?
- Can I be protected without a vaccine?
What Countries Say
For more information about vaccines, please check the CDC’s website, or read some information here about travelling safely and healthily in China.
We’re looking forward to welcoming you to China soon!
About to graduate and confused?
May Fourth Square
Nothing is more daunting than the fact you are about to graduate and you have no concrete plans for the future. The questions that arise are; do I carry on with education and do a masters or do I take the plunge into real life by becoming a full time adult and start work as a graduate?? Well, that was my predicament until I came across InternChina. I applied for the marketing & business development position in the Qingdao branch and was offered the 3 months internship (yay!). Interning in China has given me the opportunity to gain great experience whilst figuring out my future plans!
On my arrival, I was picked up from the airport by one of my soon to be colleagues. She was incredibly welcoming and helped me settle in the shared apartment. What I like the most about the apartments in Qingdao is that they are graciously spacious yet have a very cosy vibe to them. My roommates are my fellow colleagues at the IC Qingdao branch, so it was great to be able to meet them outside of the ‘work’ environment. (I did find it rather humorous that each one of us were from a different European country, one Brit, one French and one German… it almost sounds like one of those bar jokes).
You think the coffee is cute? Wait until you come to Qingdao and check out the cafe’s decor, it looked like something out of Harry potter!As I had never been to Qingdao before, my roommates took me out and introduced me to fellow individuals who are part of the InternChina programme but are interning at different companies. As we are all connected through InternChina it was very easy to get along and feel comfortable with one another. Plans for the weekend were discussed and I was thrown into the mix and was able to explore Qingdao with them all!
Ever tried Hotpot? Well this is sort of like that but the non soup version, aka DryPot or as it’s known in China, Malatang!There are really cool cafes, bars and restaurants in China, so regardless of the city you’re in, you will always be able to find somewhere that is to your liking. The food is cheap and cheerful -some meals will cost you max 3 pounds (I can’t find the pound sign on my macbook sigh). Moreover, you can actually find food that is halal and great for vegetarians!
Cool cafe called Essence Trend in Qingdao, owned by one of our work colleagues!Honestly, I have only been here a few days and already I have some ideas on what I wish to do once I get back to the U.K. It also helps to be around people from all over the world as it is a great way to broaden your horizon and learn more. So if you’re currently unsure and undecided, I would wholeheartedly recommend an internship (especially one in China).
To start your own internship adventure in China, apply now!
大家好！
Sooo, after a first plane delayed, a connecting flight missed, an unexpected stop at Hong Kong and a 5 hour delay on my last flight, I finally landed! It’s been three days since I arrived and I’m already in love with Chengdu. But maybe I should introduce myself first… So, my name is Paloma, I’m from Nice, in the south of France, and I’ll be working for three months for InternChina in the Chengdu Office !
With a long standing passion for Chinese culture and language, I recently completed a bachelor degree in international relations and translation in Chinese and English at the Catholic University of Lyon in France.
This passion pushed me last year to take part in a linguistic trip to Shanghai and Suzhou (also known as the oriental Venice) for a month with 5 of my friends. Travelling in those cities was a good opportunity to improve my mandarin as well as discovering more about the culture(and the local clubs ! :D). When I got back to France, my feeling was that I definitely had to discover more about China and more places. Actually, the only thing I had in mind was to go back to this country. I wanted to have a very deep immersion in Chinese culture, and what other better city than Chengdu ? After a month of researching and scanning all the internships websites ; I came across the InternChina one and saw a great opportunity. During my training I always heard about the Sichuan food, with the famous Hot Pot (火锅) or the spicy peanut & chicken (宫保鸡丁), but also about all the wonderful and unique places in the Sichuan province such as Jiuzhaigou, the Emei mountain or the Huang Long valley. It will also be interesting to be where one of China’s greatest poet Du Fu杜甫 realised a huge part of his work. This place is full of treasures that I’m so exited to discover! Apart from that, I’m also going to work, and life in the office is gonna be pretty busy this summer, but the IC team is great and very welcoming since the beginning (Especially Martin, the Chengdu Office marketing intern who waited for me until 4 am the night of my arrival 😉 ). Hopefully, I’ll be doing a master in international marketing in Suzhou next year, and I see this internship as real opportunity to broaden my knowledge in this field. I’m sure I’ll have an amazing time here and I’m looking forward to meet new people!
再见！
This has been my second time spending the Spring Festival in China. And just the same as last time, I was heading to my Chinese friend’s hometown, only this time it was to attend her wedding. When I first came to China I met a very nice Chinese girl in my University, who helped me to settle into China and became a really good friend. Therefore, I was very happy to be able to attend her wedding as we hadn’t seen each other for around a year. I was even so lucky to meet my friend from Belgium, who had also been studying with us at that time. She had extended her travel through China just to be able to attend the wedding. The three of us had a lot to catch up with and it was nice to see each other together again and that we still had such a close bond.
First of all, it is a very unusual thing to get married during Chinese New Year in China, as it is their most important festival for the family and many people would not have time for a wedding. However as my friend’s now husband is from France and he works in another country, they had to get married during a time where he could get off work and would be able to come to China. Although the groom is from France, it was still a very Chinese wedding and the only foreigners were two of his former colleagues, my friend from Belgium and me. We were seated on the main table with the parents and the couple, which is a great honour. This was my first time at a Chinese wedding, so there were a few things very amusing for me.
To me it was more like a show than a ceremony. At first they showed an informational video (which seemed to be taken from a TV documentary) about France and the region where the groom comes from, this was then followed by a picture slide show of his family and friends. Later, they also had a small video of his parents giving their blessings to the couple, which was really nice, considering his family was not able to attend.
The ceremony started with a drumming performance by four girls in red glittery dresses on the stage, which made me feel more in a circus than at a wedding.
Finally the groom marched down the aisle to the Star Wars main theme, which was framed by blue lit angel cherubs. The bride then entered with her father taking her to the middle of the aisle to angel like music. The groom then had to come and fetch her by bowing to the father and kneeling to his beloved. The two of them proceeded to the stage where they stood behind the ‘altar of love’ lighting a candle together and pouring champagne into a pyramid of glasses. After that, they stepped on a small round platform to perform the exchange of the rings. All of this was accompanied by the host talking non-stop and two camera men following their every move.
That’s for the ‘classic’ part, because what followed then was an alternation of singing and dancing performances by the group of girls who changed into a variety of costumes, or the couple being called to the stage for small games. A tradition for Chinese weddings is the groom and bride have to go around every table to toast the people, the couple was involved in so many activities, they were hardly able to sit down and eat of the masses of food that kept coming. And even when they got the chance to sit at the table, the camera men asked them to feed each other or kiss. There were also people coming over to the table to toast again which happened throughout the whole evening. My Belgian friend and me just sat in the middle of all of this and tried to grasp what was going on.
One of the games on stage showed a Chinese wedding custom, the bride had to sit down in a red carriage and the groom and his friend had to carry her through the hall. Traditionally the bride would be carried to her wedding like this by servants in a closed carriage, so she would be shielded from the eyes of the people.
At some point a cook entered the stage with a huge fish on a plate to majestic music. With a magnified voice he stated into the microphone: The fish has arrived! He then received a red envelope from my friend’s mother. Later my friend explained to me, that during the whole meal there had been no fish (which they would usually have during New Year). This fish was only for her family to take home and eat later to bring them luck, especially for the New Year.
Then all of a sudden people started leaving, as the main event seemed to be over. Within 5 minutes the hall was empty and people started cleaning up already. No party until dawn, no dancing, no cake. This wedding left me a little surprised and confused, but it was definitely an interesting experience. I would say it was a Chinese wedding with a touch of western culture. My friend was wearing a white western wedding dress at first, then later changed into a red 旗袍 qípáo, and finally changed into a more comfortable black dress in the end, which I heard is very common for Chinese weddings.
I have never been to another Chinese wedding, so I cannot say in which aspects this one differed from typical Chinese weddings, but it was very special for me and different from anything I experienced before. If you have the chance to attend a wedding here, I am sure you will enjoy it and learn more about Chinese culture.
Want to experience a crazy Chinese wedding party? Then apply now. Come to China and find Chinese friends, who might get married soon 😉
Hi there!
My name is Max Ma. I am a rising sophomore in Vanderbilt University, majoring in Human and Organizational Development. This is my first internship and I hope it will be an unforgettable and meaningful experience.
As for most college students, every summer break is very important and should not be wasted. So, with the hopes to put what I’ve learned in college into practice and to gain some experience, I started my first search for an internship on Google. However, with only a superficial understanding of my major, I was pretty confused about what I would like to do and where I could fit at the beginning. Also, the overwhelming information about internships made me feel lost and frustrated. But fortunately all my efforts paid off when I found InternChina. The name aroused my interest at first sight, and as I learned more about this company, I felt I definitely should give it a shot. I prepared the first CV and cover letter in my life and sent them to InternChina with hope. I got a reply soon after, and, luckily, they offered me a video interview. About two weeks later, I had an interview with Jack Fairhead, the Qingdao office manager. The first impression he left me with was warm and considerate. Through him, I could feel the comfortable and liberal working environment in the company, and with a fairly deep conversation, I got a better view of their business.
When I learned that they were helping westerners with internship opportunities in China and helping them experience and understand Chinese culture, I was like “Dude, that’s exactly what I want to do.” I thought it should be a pretty interesting experience to know how westerners feel about China after they really become part of it, just as Americans are interested to know what I feel about America. Furthermore, as a native Qingdaoer, I’d like to help them get a more real and deeper understanding about my city, and with the experience of having to adjust myself to a different culture, I’d like to try my best to ease their life in China. After weeks of waiting, I was finally accepted by InternChina and got my first internship contract!
As I got to the office on the first day, I was impressed with the hospitality of my colleagues. They were so nice and generous to teach me things. Meanwhile, the diversity in the office strengthened my interest to work here. We had people from England, Germany, France and China. It must be very exciting and valuable to learn how a team with such a huge diversity can work well together, and to actually see how an organization which markets its programs almost solely online, and more important, to be part of it. I really can’t wait to see more, learn more, and do more together with these fabulous guys.
Would you like to meet Max and share internship experiences? Apply now or send us an email for more information.
欢迎光临青岛 – Welcome to Qingdao!
When I told my friends and family in Germany about going to China, their reactions were pretty much all the same: “OMG, why do you want to go there?”. Just a few were actually interested in why I was coming and what I expect from the trip to China. I really want to experience as much as possible to show my friends that it is a great and very diverse country!
My interest for China started at University. At Uni, it is necessary to receive some credits that do not have anything to do with your basic studies, to give you an opportunity to improve your skills in other fields. In my first semester I started taking Chinese out of curiosity and the fact that it gives twice as many points as all the other languages. It was just fun going every week, learning some words which sounded completely new to everything you’ve heard before. I mean have you ever heard someone speaking Chinese? It’s just crazy to listen to!
I finished University in April 2013, majoring in English, French and Economics. Luckily my Masters does not start until October, therefore I had the chance to fill that time with whatever I wanted. I love traveling and getting to know new cultures. In 2006, I spent my first year abroad as a High School student in the United States. This experience opened up the world to me. I met people from all over the globe which gave me an inside view to how diverse and especially how interesting other cultures can be. Once gone abroad you will never settle again. I pretty much counted the days until my next journey. After my school graduation I spent two months in a French host family as an Au-Pair. Sadly in two months you do not really have the possibility to experience a country as much as I thought. During my studies I had the chance to go back to France, so I spent another two semesters abroad.
So there I was in December, pretty much done with my studies and with the urge to go traveling again. I wanted to see something completely different! Something I haven’t experienced before… I thought “hey, you took some Chinese already, you should go to China”. No sooner said than done. I found advertisements for Intern China online and applied for an internship. Luckily they accepted me and now I’m here. Small town girl in an eight-million-inhabitant city! I’ve been here for five days and I’m loving it. Of course I still don’t understand a lot, but the food is awesome, the people are very nice (of any nationality) and my welcome was just so friendly that I’m sure I’m going to have a great time in Qingdao!
Do you also want to discover China and the awesome city of Qingdao with Marina? Apply now for an internship or send us an email for more information.
Some of you may know it (as I’m always repeating it since I’m back, cf.: my first blog), but 4 years ago I came the first time to Qingdao: thanks to Intern China. Now today I would like to take a step back and compare how the city changed, and how it’s different today.
But before a little bit of history. Back in 2009 I was student in a International Trade BTS degree. BTS is a typical French diploma that is quite short (only two years), but the 2 years are really enough, it is a post A-level degree.
To complete my first year, I had to do an eight weeks internship abroad, Yifan and Frank found me a placement and a Chinese host family here in Qingdao.
It was the first time that I went out of Europe, and I was pretty anxious, but when I arrived, the InternChina team did all the best to make me feel like I am at home, and I really enjoyed the experience.
You could see almost everywhere in the city that part of the Beijing’s Olympic games took place in Qingdao – On the busses or taxis with the motto “one world, one dream”or with the logo of the Olympic games.
The former olympic village was still being built to be replaced by the Mall Marina City that we know today and where Intern China Qingdao team often goes for lunch 🙂
Of course there are also more skyscrapers than before, and the best example is with the two pictures below :
As I said before, I lived in a host family. This experience was really nice, it’s a good way to get really immersed in the Chinese culture. The host mother cooked me really good dishes and my host sister always helped me when I was looking for something in the city.
Furthermore, I was living about 5 minutes walk from the commercial street Taidong Lu, with lots of shops and restaurants. I really liked the place because you could go shopping, drink a coffee, etc.
When I came back to France, I had the feeling that my stay in China was too short, with “only” two months here I had the impression that I didn’t see everything. For this reason I decided to come back for my Master’s internship, and I applied for another internship in China – this time in the Intern China office.
Although the city has changed in some kind of way, the daily life is still enjoyable and Qingdao is a wonderful place to live!
Do you want to discover the wonderful city of Qingdao ? Apply directly on our website or send us your application to info@internchina.com