office times in CNTAC

It have been 2 months full of experiences given the opportunity of working in a total Chinese environment… This entry I mainly want to dedicate to my colleagues in the Corporate Social Responsibility office who had to deal with me every day ;) The CSR team works for a good thing that is new to the industry and even new to China. It’s about treating people, human rights and environmental issues that are focused on and dedicated to being improved. As the first industry adapting this way of thinking it is also the first step of putting forward the country’s development in not only economic perspectives rather than human-oriented perspectives.

Sitting here on my last day in the office and typing these lines reminds me mostly of intense times going along with a lot impressions of culture, language and lifestyle. My colleagues are very kind people that cared for me very well during my stay and I constantly had the feeling of being appreciated and my work being respected. I simply had a blast here!

I hope all of us will keep in touch and I also hope that some day I’ll have the chance to revisit you and your adorable city.

我祝你们好！白白，小麦

上海 | shanghai – better life, better city

In order to revisit some of my former Tongji University colleagues I went to Shanghai for 5 days from 11th to 15th September 2009. I mainly want the facebook-pictures to tell the story in that case, as this time for me was relaxing rather than sight-seeing intense… In general I appreciated this trip to a very special place although it’s getting torn apart at the moment due the upcoming expo 2010. The city seems to prepare exclusively for this extraordinary event and puts all emphasis to it. On Tuesday I had the chance to visit the Urban Planning Museum on Peoples Square. I learned that China is the first ‘developing’ country having the burden and at the same time special honor to host a world exposition.

Shanghai, of course, seems to be the perfectly sophisticated place for it!

A Shanghai Chapter…

司马台长城 | simatai great wall

He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man.

I confidently followed the calling of the probably most famous chairman in human history, and made my way to the simatai part of the great wall (司马台长城). I got up at 6 am this morning in order to get there early. I went to the long distance bus station in Dong Zhi Men (subway line 2 north east) in order to get on the bus 980块 (fast) towards Mi Yun. It’s about 120 km to the north and costs only 15 yuan. Getting off in Mi Yun in order to find some driver taking me to the great wall, I had bad luck as I was the only hiker there.

Downturn: not the best bargaining position at all, as there was nowhere else to go…

But finally I ended up at the spot, where I wanted to go, which was about 70 km more by taxi. And obviously enjoyed it!

a shoe-anecdote…

…for a little more mutual cultural understanding ;) Chinese people usually love to give and receive presents. It goes beyond the obviously famous red envelopes presented at holiday celebrations. The act of “sharing” or enjoying something together in Chinese culture has its roots in history and has been embedded in every day-life for centuries.

Nevertheless there are limitations for what is suitable as a present. I read many behavioral books about China and thought I’m already firm concerning this topic. I learned that it’s a taboo to choose a pair of shoes as present, as for symbolic reasons your paths could apart (as shoes even though being a pair, can stand alone as well). Furthermore it wouldn’t be very clever to give away umbrellas or a clock as gifts. It would decently tell the receiver that her/his time is up, maybe metaphorical standing for the time of mutual friendship or the underlying relationship respectively.

Even though having the apparent knowledge I decided to bring my colleagues a pair of  ODEM® socks to the office without any further thinking of course. About a week after handing those out it suddenly appeared to me… Is it the same measure with socks supposed to be taken, as it is for shoes? Do our paths now apart? Did I make a cultural mistake? Are they completely fed up with me presence right now? I wanted to clarify of course. And, as you can imagine – it was no problem at all and my colleagues were quite thankful for that neat present.

It just made me aware again that our cultural perceptions really often differ.

pictureless, image-rich 5th week

I’m already concluding my 5th week here in Beijing on Saturday evening, because I’m sitting at home with a little cold and feeling to weak to go out…

The week, nevertheless, was packed with nice things, besides work ;) On Monday I was invited for dinner by an officer and his son, as he is leaving for his studies in Guang Zhou and wanted to have a last opportunity to chat. From Tuesday to Thursday I enjoyed a little homeland presence as two colleagues from WU visited Beijing to do some research work  for their thesis and of course, go out a little. So it was mainly Hou Hai, San Li Tun, Gong Ti and Chao Yang Park we had a closer look at. Yesterday actually, in the office I started to feel week and already had a cough. We went to buy some Chinese medicine (中药，Zhong Yao) in order to get rid of this cold.

Even though feeling not that well, I went to have dinner with Mr. Sun and his family, who mainly enabled my stay and the internship here for me. It was a really exclusive and delicious Hot Pot restaurant, but the Bai Jiu (白酒, liquor) probably added up to finally finish me off totally in terms of health.

Right now, I’m already getting better and hope to be sound tomorrow… to eventually turn it into a pictured week still ;)

4th week(end)

A Beijing Story…

beach pictures interlude

punch | drunk

3rd week, belated update

This week (4th) was horrible in terms of Internet bandwidth. Some main data connection lines between Europe and Asia apparently were damaged leading to tremendously over-strained local Internet providers. That’s just to apologize for not having updated duly this time ;) – nevertheless I’ll date back the entry to last Sunday when I arrived back from the “beach-trip” to 南戴河 (Nan Dai He).

As you can tell from the pictures it was big fun and very Chinese of course. It’s just nice for me having the opportunity to experience that kind of team-building office vacation. On Friday, we had the day off in order to being able to prepare for the trip and on top, as my colleagues used to say: “have a lazy sleep”. I confidently followed their advice, of course ;) We took off from Dong Zhi Men Subway Station in the noon time and arrived in Nan Dai He at about 6 pm in the evening. The welcome dinner was quite liquid owing to a few bottles of 白酒 (Bai Jiu, literally meaning “white alcohol”; I’d rather translate it with hard liquor or schnapps). Following that, we strolled to the beach accompanied by the tones of an amplified harmonica, played by one of the bosses, and enjoyed some delicious and fresh seafood.

For the next day I mainly want the pictures to tell the water park story, because I could hardly make up my mind due to seeing sooooooooo many people in one place… it somehow reminded me of Tian’An Men in the Golden Week last year.

Nevertheless, on Sunday we had a good time on the not so crowded beach just in front of our hotel with playing some soccer and yeah, swim in the not so European standard clean sea… it was so polluted. But I don’t want to go into more detail here, as I know Chinese people are partly embarrassed of what they are doing to the environment. The question on the other hand is, how would any other people rich nation handle this sensitive topic? However, I experience a change of mind here in my job concerning environmental and social responsibility issues and can only support that by all means.

2nd week

During my second week in the CSR-office my job mainly was to revise and correct a report of a company that already meets up to the standards required by the Responsible Supply Chain Association. At the moment there aren’t that many people in the office due to vacation or business trips. Usually we are 9 people including me but at peak times last week there were about 3 persons in the office ;)

On Friday I invited a few friends over to my apartment in order to have a little warming-up session before finally going out in the San Li Tun area (Shooters, Komoko) again. Saturday for me was very suitable for a little clothes shopping and having a suit and a few shirts done at the taylor of my trust. In the evening Fan (a guy from work) took Alex (a Swedish guy we happened to meet coincidently) and me to a really nice hot pot restaurant (Dolarshop). Following that we had a few cold beers in Hou Hai, as last weekend. On Sunday I eagerly wanted to do some sight-seeing. Therefore I headed towards the spot I liked most in Beijing when I was here for the first time last year – Tian Tan. It suddenly started to pour so heavily made me not enjoy the special sight that much. That’s why I’m referring to a former entry in the golden week, where I had more luck with the weather and could take better pics.

Beijing (北京) Oct. 08

For me it’s quite nice to see the reminiscence and what a great time we had at our golden-week stay in Oct. 2008.

To conclude, just a little traditional cliché about Chinese habits (some of you China experienced guys may have already stumbled across…): 你吃了吗？(Did you eat already? Have you eaten so far?) is more or less replacing the good old 你好 (ni hao, hello) or 早上好 (good morning) in lunch or breakfast time. It’s rather almost a rhetorical question, puts further emphasis on the eating habits and the importance Chinese people attach to it.

Hou Hai 后海 and sight seeing on the weekend

On Friday I met Ingo and Mengmeng at Hou Hai Lake a scenic spot with a lot of cosy little bars. I know Ingo from Vienna as we started to study Chinese at the same time. He has been here in Beijing for already a year. We even met last year when I came to visit Beijing during the Golden Week. It’s nice to have some locals you can refer to and of course – for going out and get to know the spots you wouldn’t find that easily by yourself. So after that it was San Li Tun Area where we went to party. For me it was a nice impression of Beijing nightlife ;)

On Saturday we met at Ingo’s place first to go out again afterwards – same area as on Friday. What I can tell is that so far nightlife in Beijing in comparison to Shanghai is just different. Here you seem to have less opportunity where to go to. But I may be wrong; it’s just the things I was told by people who as well have the city comparison.

On Saturday I went to see Tian’an Men approaching the square from South by walking through the newly built shopping street Qian Men (前门) that still is a big construction sight. Quite a walk… As soon as I arrived on the square it was already about to start raining so I just rushed home. Unfortunately it wasn’t suitable weather for shooting some nice pics anyways.

And today, Sunday, it was my first sunny day here so I walked for about 5 hours in the “fresh” air to explore the environment surrounding my apartment. Via Workers Stadium (工人体育场) I went to the San Li Tun village a really westernized shopping area. I also had a brief look at the Silk Street Pearl Market, but somehow it was too crowded today so I didn’t feel like staying there long… Well, I hope you all enjoy the impressions I herewith provide ;)

Have a good one, Michael

1st week

My first week was mainly about getting acquainted to the new environment again and managing all those administrative things like registering as resident at the police station, opening a RMB bank account and to internalize important things I’ll need for work. Concerning the job I’m in an office under the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) that entails in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

“In the context of the economic globalization, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not only an ethical or moral issue, but it concerns the corporate concept and philosophy that impacts management and operational aspects of businesses. CSR places an emphasis on the respect and recognition of human values of employees and taking care of their consumers, environment and multi-stakeholders. This practice that goes beyond of the profit-driven approach previously taken as the only business objective is increasingly embraced by international and Chinese enterprises and companies.“ (Source)

It has been quite interesting so far and I’m already curious about the tasks coming up for me tomorrow. I work Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm at the office, which is in the very center of Beijing – one stop before Tian’an Men East Stop that leads right to the enormous square. It takes me about half an hour to get there from my apartment (3 subway stops).

Chao Yang District is – as already mentioned – the biggest district in Beijing with a lot of huge companies located there.

mixed emotions

The main motivation for coming back to China – in this case Beijing – for two months was an internship opportunity at the Chinese National Textile and Apparel Council, a governmental empowered institute consulting the Chinese textile market. Of course my pleasant anticipation is high being involved in an international project again and being able to contribute with my so far gathered knowledge. But now back to the arrival itself, as I will certainly write enough about the company and my tasks there during the next weeks:

I left Austria on the 26^th July 2009 at 8.15pm to arrive in Beijing as scheduled on the 27^th July at 11.50am. I experienced the first mixed emotions rush right after the take off; as I somehow managed to obtain an emergency door seat on this Austrian flight with plenty of foot-space but on the other hand an extremely inconvenient air-flue that couldn’t even be handled with sweaters and blankets. I was just constantly hoping not to get sick to avoid being put under quarantine as soon as I arrive at the capital airport. Right after getting off the plane the facemask equipped doctors where pointing at us with thermal measure devices to get a clue of every passenger’s body temperature owing to fever being one of the main symptoms of swine flu. Gladly I passed without getting quarantined ;). The next mixed emotions came over me as I have the feeling that geographical distance increases missing my girl Kathy exponentially, on a scale from 1 to 10… to let’s say 13 and it’s getting frustrating at certain points! Anyways, we will manage it somehow.

Sliding through the Costumes I was immediately picked up by Madame Cai and her company car driver. I know her from Shanghai and we happened to meet a few times during my internship at Lenzing Fibers Shanghai last year. It’s a really nice lady who is keen on improving my Mandarin (not a disadvantage at all…). She brought me to the rather westernized apartment building in Chaowai Street (Chaoyang District), where I could acquaint a little with the new environment. This district is the largest in Beijing and home for many foreign embassies. Tomorrow I’ll buy a map to get the big picture of it… Tomorrow will also be my first day at work.