50 reasons why I love China

It’s in total 6 months of me living in China & I have gathered these below 50 reasons why I love my stay in china. All the below reasons are based on my experiences that I have encountered living in Shenzhen & Beijing:

1. Getting all the attention in public places for being a foreigner
2. Kids staring at me as If I am an alien
3. Random strangers asking if I am from India with lots of excitement
4. Strangers  Complimenting “You are beautiful”
5. At tourist places young & old people's asking for picture with them – making you feel someone important
   
6. At metro strangers taking pictures of me as If I don’t come from this planet
7. If I was ever lost & asked people for directions…they have walked me down to my destination to assure I don’t get lost.
8. That big smile on the driver's face when I hop in his taxi
9. Connected with our Local police officer on Wechat …now he is just a ping away in case I get into any situation.
10. My team back in office that spoils me & are there to always support me.
11. Joy & fun in learning Chinese
    
12. The eyes which sparkle when I say some words in Chinese to my vegetable vendor
13. Making new friends coming from all over the world & learning more about their culture
    
14. Weekend events -  Workshop,  tech/ startup meetups.
15. Getting to buy electronics from the city which is called the silicon valley for hardware
16. Having the coolest boss who is inspiring as a women leader
17. My Chinese friends who look forward to eat Indian curries cooked by me
18. When people in china talk so rich about Indian culture & bollywood..,making me feel so proud of the land I belong!
19. Making genuine new friends and exploring new places in the city
    
20. Reliable & easy public transportation which give me more time for myself
21. Clean beaches & green parks to cycle around
22. City which believes a lot in recycling & up cycling
23. Money when you donate plastic bottles in this machine
    
24. Wechat – not only for communication but for money transaction & translations
25. mWallet – no worries of losing money or thrift
26.  Korea, Japan, Philippines are now easy and cheap vacation destinations.   
27. Why worry about Google apps not supportive in China when we have apps like Baidu maps, Weibo, WeChat which are way too perfect.
28. Helpful people all around
29. Too many options for vegan restaurants
30. Feeling so safe let it be any time in the day or night.
    
31. Freedom to wear whatever you want – as people around give Zero F***
32. Chinese are amazingly hospitable and more sensitive towards others
33. From the Great Wall of China to Buddhist temples – china surprises me with its rich culture.
34. Diverse Landscape
35. Chinglish – The way Chinese translate single words or full sentences is just too funny
36. The Chinese doctors prescribe herbs for any ailment and it really works
37. Random Silliness
    
38. Street & talent show
39. There is always lot of food, alcohol & fireworks with some breath-talking performance talking place all over china
40. Old couples in evenings practicing dance moves keeping their love alive and making attempts to stay young as they exercise while dancing
    

Cheese Cake, Avocado, Ackee Fruits, Green tea, traditional music of China, sunny Climate, cute chinese kids, sports clubs, English & Chinese corners. 

Having said that I still have lots to explore in Mainland China. At this time, I am great full for all that I experience here in China & cheers for more 50 reasons that I will explore in the coming months.

Rebag: Suitability Design Story

I happened to hear Yi Wang today who is a social enterprise working on sustainability fashion. She is an inspiring woman who has founded Rebag. Here is her story:

What is Rebag?

Rebag is a social enterprise and creative accessories brand which discovers and integrates different elements of fabric, techniques, and accessories across culture and regions.

How do they make Rebag products?

It's through upcycling process which is higher than recycling. The goal is to make current things better than it was before. They not only use used products but also products from access inventory from clothing brands or online stores like Tmall, Allibaba etc.

They re-innovate, re-design to build handbags, phone cases & laptop bags. While in this making journey they engage with social workers, craftsman, designers to promote green life practices & build value added products.

The vision of Rebag?

Yi wants to see rebag become a platform in 5 to 6 years where if you have an old jeans and put this in the rebag the platform can suggest it be redesigned  & produced to be a pillow, bag, purse, pouch, toy etc. A platform for sustainability believers to remake products.

How do they sell?

Online – through their website

Offline – flee markets, clothing fairs, etc

Her advice about building a team?

Hire people who are passionate about your vision

Skilled people who are ready to go through the ups & downs with you in this startup journey

Never compromise when you are trying to hire people as there are talented people out there.

Current business & distribution challenges:

Driving traffic to the website, making the product count as a fashion brand, reaching out to people with the brand vision, figuring out shipping expenses, profit margins and dealing with operational cost.

Current marketing challenges?

Saying the story of the brand, driving traffic to the website. Making people love the products & showcasing it as a fashion accessory.

Her inspirational story:

“We started as clothes refashioning company with jobs of dignity and moved on to become a creative design brand which believes that sharing stories of people and culture behind our accessories products brings inspiration and empowerment.”

She believed that the world needs to embrace sustainability. Thus she started up with Rebag.

Long overdue - let's catch up

Let me see, so much has been happening since my last post, which was about M2M. I can assure you I’m as random as ever. Lets go month by month and pick out the highlights! 

I was very particular about not sharing too much personal stuff on my blog…guess I am becoming more of a private person and trying my best to protect the best things that are happening to me. I have also realised that I am not too found of attention and people talking about me.

In the month of Nov after I left OnePlus India, I learnt a very big career lesson. Its not important for which brand you are working, assure that you have good & inspiring leaders. So to all those who wondered why did I leave the company within a year you got my answer.

I also believe “Most companies fail because of leadership.. Never because of product”.

Since Nov my life has been very adventurous. I was working on a project with Vodafone in Chennai. Loving the people, food, beaches & roads of Chennai. Everything was just close to perfect & that’s when Chennai floods came in. That night the rain never stopped. It was pitch dark and no power throughout the city. I was locked in my flat & luckily my area had no water lock. The morning was a terror. I was hearing the news of what was going on in Chennai and to the death stories. I cant describe the pain the city went through ….nor can I hold back my tears as I go back to those days. I had to leave the city the very next day, but I have this regret that I wasn’t around to do my best for the people & the city.  

So, from my learning - if you ever get a chance to do any community service for people please take up such opportunities.

For new years I along with my sister & dear friends travelled to Belum Caves and Gandikota. After seeing the negative side of nature in Chennai I got to see the beauty of nature.

Traveling is fun & more importantly for me it helps me re-defined my perceptions about things, places & people.

It was my first visit to Kolkata –some how I connected to the place very easily. 

Well life was getting easy, less exciting & challenging. So the crazy part of me wanted to explore how life & career shapes up in Shenzhen. So here I am, blogging from my sweet home, road-facing apartment.

So far it has been an exciting journey. Yes, life is not easy here:

- I don’t have free open Internet to surf Google, FB, Twitter, Youtube & many more sites

- For a vegetarian like me, we have very less options to eat outside.

- Hardly people know to speak English & all the signboards are in Chinese text.

- I use an app to communicate with people here.

- Away from Family & Friends.

I left back a very comfortable life back in India, but guess what I love it all.

Do you wonder what makes me like China? Well my next blog post will have some very interesting stories from the life I am living here. Till than take care & love!