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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 26th July 2009 at 8.15pm to arrive in Beijing as scheduled on the 27th 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.
