I have been in Beijing for close to a month now and am still adjusting to this mammoth city. It’s unlike anywhere I have ever been before. It’s the biggest of concrete jungles and is a fast-paced world of dust and traffic. Skyscraper after skyscraper, Beijing is nothing like Belfast, but one month on and I am starting to get to grips with this China land.
I am living in Beijing for two months to do an internship with an NGO organisation here, organised through CRCC Asia and funded by the British Council. CRCC Asia identify themselves as a global recruitment consultancy firm who offer internships for university students or recent graduates. When applying for an internship with CRCC Asia you are required to choose an industry of your preference – of which I chose NGO, charities & non-profits – and then they will find you a suitable placement in a company within that industry where you should gain valuable skills and experience which you can put to use after your placement. CRCC are great because they do a lot of the work for you in the organisation of the placement, and once here they support interns by holding social and business events so you can make the most of your time in China.
The view from my bedroom window
Through CRCC Asia I have found myself working in the best of companies, which I will describe briefly now but which warrants a full blog post later on. Thirst is an environmental charity based in Beijing which is working hard to educate the next generation of kids in China about the growing water scarcity crisis. They go to schools and different events around China to spread the word about the water crisis and to encourage more people to save water. 783 million people do not currently have access to clean usable water, and by 2025 2 in 3 people will be suffering from water shortages. I am learning a lot about water while I am working here and I am really starting to see the terrifying future which is ahead of us if we don’t start looking after the small amount of water we have left. Many people do not know about this crisis, but Thirst want to change this. Thirst is a young company, started only in 2011, but already are supported by several big names. They are partnered with the World Economic Forum, National Geographic and UNESCO (to name a few), and are educating thousands of school children every month about water. I am loving every minute of my time with Thirst and I truly feel like I am part of a great and meaningful movement as the company prepares to go global.
I have learnt a lot already during my time here and I’m sure I will learn even more in the month ahead. Though this has been one of the busiest times of my life, I have had some time to think about the greater experience of how it has been to be a foreigner in someone else’s country. Of all the places I have been to, I think I feel like more of an outsider here in China than I have in any other country. Communication is one of the biggest challenges and certain everyday processes are done differently. In a restaurant you will order while not knowing what you will get because you can’t read the menu, and business dinners feel like a mountain to climb when you are armed with two chopsticks. There are so many new experiences here that you need to force yourself to dive in if you want to thrive in this new environment.
Being in a city like Beijing and having that outsider complex is a humbling experience. In China there is a population of 1.357 billion people, which is a number I can’t physically comprehend. When I compare this to little Northern Ireland, with its population of 1.8 million, it makes me think of my home as a tiny speck in this big wide world. This feeling of being a dot and an outsider became the inspiration for the quote at the top of this page. “There are no foreign lands, it is the traveller only who is foreign”. Said by Robert Louis Stevenson, it makes me think of the notion of the “foreigner” and how it has seemed to take on a negative meaning back home. To be a “foreigner” is not really seen as a good thing, it implies something so different and hence so dangerous. This is a notion that has become engrained in the mind sets of people and has even been solidified in law. But when you become the foreigner and the outsider yourself, and become vastly outnumbered like a Northern Irish man in China, it makes you think about your own place in the world and it broadens your mind even more. We are all foreigners somewhere.
As always, I’m still travelling, still learning, I’m getting “thirsty” and sometimes hungry too (chopsticks). Beijing is another great experience and I can feel myself changing yet again. I have another month ahead with many more experiences to be had. I’m not sure how I’ve been so lucky!
This blog post first appeared on Jamie’s personal blog: http://ift.tt/1TgdlzX
The post Beijing, Thirst & The Foreigner appeared first on CRCC Asia.
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