First Week in Shenzhen

The first week was incredibly overwhelming! Maybe it’s the adjustment from another time zone, the working culture or just the weekend finally catching up to me. In the first week, I’ve spent 3 days travelling to various factories all around the outskirts of Shenzhen with the company’s Quality Control personnel, several factories being up to 2.5 hours away via public transport (That’s more than half your day gone in just travelling alone!) Their working ethic is quite different with some similarities to back home, with the major difference being their “lunch break” from 12 to 1.30pm. Lunch is usually fairly quick but it is also quite customary to take a nap in the remaining time. It was definitely surprising to return to the office with all the lights out and finding colleagues sleeping at their desk, in the board rooms, or even pulling together a few chairs and lying across all of it! They believe this to be a key element to boost productivity (I am not one to complain, I’m finding it be very useful and effective. Will definitely recommend it back home). The Chinese nationals do however work 6 days a week, and alternate with a colleague every second Saturday.

One of the social aspects that is very different from Australia is definitely the driving! It’s like organised chaos here! Everyone seems to drive as they please, where 2 lanes really means 4 lanes, and it’s okay to ‘cut people off’, everyone uses the horn in overtime, where a simple ‘beep beep’ means ‘watch out, I’m coming up behind/excuse me’ while a ‘beeeeeep’ would definitely appear to be ‘what are you doing?!” Surprisingly, I’ve seen very few accidents occur. The scooter/electric bikes however flood the streets as they’re cheap and very convenient for short travels (as well as very fun to ride!) I find myself trying to hailing for a bike at every opportunity I get as it only cost about $2AUD to travel to work (as oppose to the 15 minute walk).

The food doesn’t stray too far from home with the exception that Chinese people seem to love oily food (even if it isn’t deep fried!) but I do love a bit of cheap greasy street food for lunch. Overall, it will definitely take some getting use to, as I’m still trying to settle into a proper routine.

 

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