So you are planning to come to China soon and it’s the first time?
If the answer is yes, here are some good tips you should know before you come.
I’m especially writing this for the French BTS Students, firstly because I’m a former one; when I came here the first time I can tell you that I was really surprised since I had different expectations about China.
Secondly because for most of the BTS people, this trip is the first (and certainly not the last) international experience and coming to China is a big challenge for most of them (at least it was for me).
My best advice before you come: buy a guide to China (like Lonely Planet, or Le Guide Michelin and le Routard for French readers). These small guides give you the most precise idea of what China looks like. They contain advice on how to behave in daily situations, with some Chinese vocabulary in it, so you can order food or explain where you want to go to a taxi driver.
I swear by my Michelin guide, it was my best friend when I came the first time and used it countless times.
I also believe you should be prepared for the contrasts here. You can be walking in a rich part of town where people don’t even look at you and you have to pay attention not to be run over by these same people in their big western car. Then if you continue your walk, maybe less than a kilometre away you may arrive at a part of town where not so many foreigners are living, and people are surprised to see a white guy walking around and sometimes even take some pictures with you.
Be also open minded in your everyday life, don’t have a western outlook on things. Otherwise you’re going to be disappointed – adopting a cool and relaxed attitude is the best way to really enjoy your Chinese experience.
You won’t feel lonely in China because you will always have people around you, Intern China teams in Qingdao, Zhuhai and Chengdu will always be here for you if you have any problems or questions about the Chinese way of life, plus there are many other interns who can help you.
That takes me to my next point of advice: Mingle! The best way to integrate into Chinese life is to meet people and create a strong network of friends and acquaintances. There are many foreigners in Qingdao, Zhuhai and Chengdu so it’s likely that what you experience will have been experienced by someone else at some point. So talk, ask questions, exchange thoughts and ideas, and soak it all up!
If you have any questions or concerns before you come to China you can always send me an email at: jonathan.libis@internchina.com.
Do you want to have a really interesting internship experience in China? Please send us your application at info@internchina.com or apply on our website.
After my visit to Jiuzhai Gou National Park a couple of weeks ago, I took the train directly to Chongqing and traveled for about 3.5 hours. The high-speed train takes only 2 hours, but since April 4 is “Tomb Sweeping Day”, many people travel around and I was not able to buy a high speed train ticket.
Chongqing is a large and flourishing mountain city. I stayed for three nights at the home of a friend I met online. She took me for a lot of great local food and gave me a great introduction to the city in only two days.
The first day, after she took me for some local spicy sweet-potato noodles, I took the metro to Ciqikou Old Town. The tea houses in Ciqikou are very famous in Chongqing so I really wanted to experience the tea lifestyle there. I also found that they have many local snacks and some very special street food. Ciqikou is the best place to try local food and buy gifts for friends.
The second day, I went to meet another friend at the touristic center of Chongqing, Jiefangbei. They have lots of shopping malls around and a very famous food street. After a quick lunch with my friend, I went back to my host’s home. That afternoon, her American flatmate drove me around the city on his motorbike and we even went to the peak of Chongqing.
After such a beautiful day, the fun continued: I went to a BBQ party with my friends, at a house located inside a university campus on the peak of the mountain. This is the best place for a night view of the city. I enjoyed the beautiful night view, drank some Shancheng beer and had some great BBQ. I felt like I didn’t want to leave Chongqing!
I have been to many places in China, but I can honestly say Chongqing is one of my favorite cities. I like the street life, always lively, I never saw an empty street. I also like the friendly people, the great food, the relaxing tea culture and the traditional and internationally mixed city. I hope I can go back soon!
Want to learn about the best places to visit in China? Come to Zhuhai for an internship and get first-hand tips and stories from Sunny! Apply now or email us for more information.
An introduction is in order: my name is Dina, and I come from beautiful Canada. I lived there with my two sisters and three stepsiblings for the first eleven years of my life, after which my parents opted to sell our house and everything we owned, pulled us out of school and moved us onto a boat in the Caribbean where we lived for the duration of two years. Although the experience was a little traumatic for the young eleven year old girl I was, those two years were definitely the building blocks of my now love and obsession of travelling. 
We started at the top of the Caribbean and worked our way down, island by island, until we found ourselves in the jungles of Venezuela. We lived there for almost a year, and from there sailed back up the Caribbean islands. I guess my parents decided a new adventure was in order, because suddenly I found myself flying off to the strange and cold land of Denmark, which would be the place I would call home for the next 7 years.
The Danes love to drink, so all we pretty much do back home is party, but I’m happiest when I’m on a beach somewhere with a good book. The hotter the weather, the better. I’m really laid back and like to go with the flow, usually my friends and I just hang out, watch movies or go out to get something to eat. I usually travel a lot during my school vacations; I like to get away as often as I can. I have a lot of family in Egypt that I visit yearly, as well as a house in Florida, and then I try to convince my friends to road-trip around Europe with me whenever I can.
In Denmark I am currently doing a double BA in International Communication and Multimedia – a programme I now wish I had done more research on before I enrolled, as I love the Communications, but what I thought would be an exciting Media degree in Web Design, Graphics and Advertising soon became a realization that I would spend the next four years sorely coding and programming. The amazing thing about my programme is that come fourth semester, all students must complete an internship abroad or study abroad to pass the semester. The school offered to help us get into other European schools, of which I was accepted into the university of Milan on a Communications scholarship, but soon after realized that what they were giving us was an amazing opportunity to go abroad, try something new and crazy, and get real life experience. So I did just that – I ditched the semester in Italy and applied for an internship in the farthest away, most exotic and culturally enriching country I could think of: China.
After a gruelling 25 hours of traveling from Copenhagen to Zurich to Hong Kong, I finally arrived in beautiful Zhuhai. The first thing that hit me was the incredible heat and humidity – having straightened my hair before I left Denmark I could suddenly feel my natural curls spring back to life with that first step off the boat. As I’ve only been in China for about a day and a half, I haven’t seen much, but what I have seen thus far is a beautiful and clean city, with extremely friendly people and exciting things all around. My first day was amazing, the weather was beautiful, blue sky, sun shining, and I got to meet the Zhuhai team and was taken out for a fantastic welcome lunch at a local restaurant just down the street from the office. I was able to go home after lunch and have the rest of the day off, to which I had planned to walk around and get my bearings, however having slept for two hours the night before I went up to the apartment to leave my laptop and instead fell asleep almost instantly. From then I had the pleasure of going to dinner with ten other interns and was able to enjoy my first dinner in China with a room full of enthusiastic and interesting interns with similar life experiences. Although I’ve regularly been to other third world countries before and consider myself a seasoned traveler with all the little tricks, I still have so many things to learn here in China; how to use chopsticks without feeling like a fool, for example. I’m really excited for my future adventure in China.
by Dina
Meet Dina in Zhuhai and share your travelling experiences with her! Send us an email or apply directly through our website! We hope to see you soon!
Hello!
Last Saturday, we had a new InternChina Event I want to tell you about. We invited interns and friends to Jenny’s apartment to learn how to make Dumplings/Jiaozi/饺子. As you might know, Jenny and me learned how to make them a couple of weeks ago (read all about it in this (German) blog), so of course we also wanted to impress our teachers Lizy and Richard with our skills.
We met in the morning at around 12 o’clock in front of Jusco and started our shopping. I think for all the Chinese people it was quite obvious what we were up to and we earned a lot of approving looks and glances. We needed around 1h to do all the shopping and had to carry 8 bunches of jiucai, more than 1Kg of meat, 1L oil, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar and a lot of other stuff home.
Already knowing that preparations take a long time, we started right away. Our original plan was to go shopping early, take a break, do more shopping (drinks and all the stuff we forgot), take another break, then start preparing. In the end it was going shopping around lunch time (my fault, had to sleep in), then go shopping again because we couldn’t carry everything and then start preparing because it was already quite late!
At around 5 o’clock I went outside to pick everyone up (we were a little afraid someone might get lost in Jenny’s living compound) and after everyone had time to admire our preparational work, we started making Jiaozi right away. Lizy and Richard, as well as Amber were really good at explaining different techniques. 🙂
We had only one rule (made by Jenny): If you want to eat much, you also have to make many Jiaozi! (Jack, Leo and Lei Sheng successfully ignored that rule 😉 )
Leo invented a new Snickers-Jiaozi. We are still wondering when they will first appear in Chinese supermarkets. They are definitely going to be a great hit!
After everybody ate their fill, we started to get ready to go out. Qingdaos InterConti was hosting an open Mic night, where chinese comedians (whom we missed) were to perform and one of the local bands.
The evening was definitely a lot of fun and I figuered that we not only have cool interns here in Qingdao, but also interns who are more than talented at making Jiaozi!
You want to join our future activities? Send us an email or apply directly, we are looking forward to meeting you!
Top Picture (from left to right) Daniel Wildt (former intern who now works for DB SCHENKER-logistics), Jamie Bettles (InternChina- manager), Gerhardt Schroder (former German Chancellor), Oliver Trey (former intern- InternChina), Michael Tunbjer (DB SCHENKER-logistics).
In order to solve global energy shortages and increasing environmental pollution, countries around the world have invested large amounts of manpower and resources to actively develop new energy sources. In recent years, the alternative energy industry has been expanding while the technology has become more advanced. This industry is expected to become a new source of economic growth.
Shandong Province as a Chinese coastal economy is facing the dual pressure of accelerated development and the need of improving energy savings. These factors will lead to the imminent development and application of new energy. After several years of promotion, Shandong Province has developed and utilized alternative energies such as wind, biomass, geothermal, and ocean energy. To strengthen international cooperation and to promote industrial development, Shandong Provincial People’s Government and the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs along with eight ministries and commissions will hold the “2010 China (Qingdao) International Forum on New Energy & Sino-German Cooperation Qingdao Summit.”
How was your internship experience with us? You want an internship with us Click Here!
More on the International Forum on New Energy & Sino Click Here!