Shanghai: The City That Never Sleeps

Shanghai is literally the city that never sleeps. In the past few days I’ve been out late and up relatively early, and each and every time the city is bustling along its glossy walkways and crowded roads. Even though I am a not yet 21 years old (6 more days!) and have plenty of travel experience, traveling 20+ hours by myself was daunting. I think everyone should travel abroad to a country where they don’t understand the language. The experience is a unique one- the combination of excitement and panic between getting on your plane, going through customs security check, and looking for people you’ve never met who are supposed to be your guide through an internship you found on the job board at your school. Seeing the CRCC Asia flag among the hundreds of people waiting for their friends, families, and clients, lifted a tremendous anxiety and flashed through all the interviews and emails that landed me in this spot and in Shanghai.

Though it rained on the first day I arrived, Shanghai still provided its awes and wonders to my eyes and mind. The drive to the hotel made me reminisce about my pets, my family, and my life back home. Having been to China last summer, I thought I had a pretty solid grip on Chinese life. The people of Shanghai refer to themselves as “Shanghainese”, which implies they were different from those I had seen in Xi’an and Guangzhou. I quickly learned that Shanghai was home to its very own culture and world that melded between traditional Chinese and the modern West, to create a stunning and magical city.

As with any first day of an internship it is often difficult to find a place within the culture. I found that Chinese firms are not at all what I had expected. I thought that perhaps mine was an outlier, but it has seemed to be the case with many of my group’s internship experiences. I had expected an extremely professionally dressed and busy work ethic, but we have seemed to encountered the opposite of what we had expected. My office in particular is very casually dressed, and it is acceptable to take over an hour as a break, as long as you make up for it the next day with an under an hour break. Though they dress casually, the work ethic is clearly very high.

So far, Shanghai has been a really amazing and exhausting city. There has not really been much time for rest, but I’m not really sure that I want to have any downtime! Shanghai is such a cool city. I am very glad I chose to stay here from two months.

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