CRCC Asia Reviews: Becoming a Shenzhener

The first day of work, i.e. the moment I had been eagerly waiting for since I submitted my CRCC Asia application back in November 2014, was a good one. With my shirt, pencil skirt, handbag all prepped and laid out on my sofa the night before, the day began with a quick photo outside our apartment lobby after which we separated into two groups depending on where our workplace was located. And off we went! Meandering around the streets of Shenzhen, wide eyed and excited/nervous about our internships. We were all taken to our office by a CRCC Asia staff and introduced to our supervisor (and then left to fend for ourselves). As a Structural Engineering and Architecture student at the University of Sheffield, I am interning in an architecture firm by the name of Jaeger & Partner Architects Ltd., a design practice comprised of architects and planners with partner offices in Italy and China. On arrival, I was greeted by the Principal Director of the company who gave me a tour of the office, a brief description of the company, my role, working hours, introduced me to all my co-workers, and then finally handed me over to my supervisor.

My internship kick-started with a briefing about the project I would be working on – an urban redevelopment scheme of an industrial area in Cologne, Germany – and I was told that I would be creating the graphical representations of the site analysis. It was a perfect way for me to practice and develop the software skills I had learnt in university (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and AutoCAD) and to learn about the pre-design considerations that go into a design project. Throughout the course of the week, I got to know my colleagues better and build a good working relationship through lunches and coffees together, and also on one occasion going together to an exhibition of Le Corbusier, a prominent Swiss-French architect from the early 20^th century. I was ecstatic that the office is also a multicultural pot of individuals from all around the world and from all walks of life because I believe you can always learn a lot from talking to different types of people. There were also two summer interns alongside myself, and another intern who had just finished her Part 1 BArch in the UK so I was definitely happy I had some peers my age as well.

After a long week of working 9-6.30s (haven’t had that since secondary school!), an early morning hike up Nanshan Mountain with a few of the interns was literally a breath a fresh air. Waking up at 5 was definitely a struggle but the early rays of sunrise and the excitement of climbing a mountain forced me up. The hike started with mission explain ‘SeaWorld Metro station’ to the taxi driver since we didn’t know what it was in Mandarin, followed by a short walk to the Park entrance. The venue was already filled with local people also out for an early morning walk up the mountain, with even kids faring better than us up the countless number of stairs! The stunning views of Shenzhen that awaited us at the top of the mountain, and the satisfaction of already having accomplished a mountain before many had even started their day was amazing though. Not to mention, the group picture with a group of locals absolutely made all our days.

SR3 As part of the CRCC Asia internship experience we had two events organized for us this week: the Chinese Business Seminar (CBS) on Wednesday and the Community Outreach on Sunday. At CBS, the guest speaker was Harry Wang, the Director of Human Resources at d.light, a global solar energy company delivering affordable solar home and power solutions for 2 billion people without access to reliable energy. Harry talked to us about his career path and the work he does at d.light, with the talk overall focusing on social enterprise across different industries and the importance of entrepreneurship. On the other hand, at the Community Outreach we visited the children of Springfield Studio where we watched the movie ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ and helped them decorate our very own personalized Totoro boxes. Both events were a nice way of getting a different dimension to the CRCC Asia China experience through which I also enjoyed getting the chance to meet some of the older interns.