The Shanghai weather gives an icy first impression

Coming from an Australian heatwave the moment when we first stepped in to Shanghai’s icy winter was a massive shock to the system. 

Luckily the car that drove us from the airport through the ice cold wind was heated. From the warmth of the car my first impressions seemed to be that Shanghai is super flat and whose gray landscape appeared to go on forever.

Much of the first few days in Shanghai seemed to be coming to grips with the cold weather.

But next was our internship induction day which was an orientation to China and its business culture. We learnt all about Guanxi and Mianzi. Every comment here has to be positive and had to “save the face” of the other person. This Chinese way of communicating seemed completely different to the Western tradition of interacting with each other. After this session working in China became even more daunting and a potential minefield for miscommunication and misunderstanding.

At the end of the day we enjoyed a Chinese Banquet which was a great introduction to Chinese food and dining style. There were about 6 to 8 dishes that were on a Lazy Susan that we shared among ourselves.

The weekend was spent exploring Shanghai, including a fair amount of time in the freezing cold. On Saturday we were able to visit a Migrant School for Children which they did dancing and songs in the open air. It was all very cute but it was so cold.

Sunday allowed us to do bit of warm clothes shopping and more sightseeing. We spent a little while in the Yu Gardens which was great. The palace was in typical Chinese style with fine woodwork and stone carvings of dragons and warriors.

After walking to The Bund we sat in the cold waiting for the famous Shanghai skyline to be lit up and after an hour we able to see the views that litter the guide books and postcards.        

Tomorrow we start our internship and I hope it is everything that it is cracked up to be and thatI get to learn something.