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.

This & That Shenzhen

All that it takes to keep our city clean

Work...Work...Work

Tech Expo

Why do we prefer our phones over real human interaction?

You will find artist all around the town

This is how a veggie like me survives in Shenzhen.

No matter what time it is .... lets work towards staying fit 

Learning the art of eating with Chinese chopsticks

Street Dancers & Hipsters

Highlights: Start-up Your E-Commerce Business in China

This week I happened to attend a Seminar on how to get started with eCommerce in China for foreigners. I have got you some key highlights of the event & some not so good snaps of the keynote, but useful ones :-)

Despite the opportunities that the fast growth of e-commerce presents to Foreign SME’s to access or expand their operations in China Market, there is still a lack of understanding concerning the establishment, development and maintenance of an online business. In this context, the set-up of an e-commerce platform should be tailor-made to attract online shoppers’ appeal, without overlooking China’s online legal and tax framework.

China loves foreign brands, but you need to consider the logistic part of where to import your products & how much tax you are supported to pay to the china government to assure you get the best price into the market & yet make your profit.

Real cases will be used to simulate this journey, from the ideas conception to the execution, as well as the daily back-office operations of running an online shop. This seminar aims at showcasing the tools that a company needs to successfully run an online business. During the seminar direct and practical questions will be presented and covered, such as:

You should ask the right questions before you start you business:

- Are my products or services suitable for online business? 

- What are the steps to take in order to open an online store? 

- Can I open and run an online shop if I only have a representative company?

- What kind of web designs do Chinese customers like?

- How do I promote online?

- How do I handle online transactions and what payment options do I have?
- Will my company be facing double taxation?

- How does it work with invoicing? - Where should I store my stock?

Last not the least - the Proz & Cons of getting started in China market:

Summary:

1. China user base is very big, an interesting market which you can't ignore.

2. Instead of starting your own eCommerce website, use the china market place. Get started with TMall.com

3. Always work with Chinese vendors to get an easy start.Use Chinese marketing tools & langues to reach out to locals.

4. China government rules are very dynamic and are very different. Obey them to survive.

Instagram at Green Room

Me and couple of my friends in Shenzhen planned to visit today Green Room where they were hosting Instagreen Party!

I am writing this post not because we had lots of fun...because I loved the concept how Social element was well integrated in food & beverage space.

So the concept was very simple: Green Room which is a pure vegan restaurant had 3 Fuji Instax Mini's. We were asked to take pictures from the camera and decorate them with Fuji Instax sticker frames, write our name and hang them up on the sky curtain. 

Each person had to take 4 pictures for each category: Food, Drinks, Person, Atmosphere

For this we had to order food & drinks. Once we got it on our table we started taking pictures from the camera. 

As it was the first time I was trying out the camera - we got some bad focused pictures :(

 The winners from each category will WIN 100rmb gift certificate to Green Room and the most voted for photo over all gets to take home a brand new Instax Mini 8! 

At the end we manged to get our hands on Fuji camera & managed to click some cool & amazing pics. I fell in love with the Polaroid concept. 

                                     As the photos started filling the wall the voting started! 

I was amazed to see the kind of creative pictures people had clicked. 

Concept: I never knew that while dinning involving oneself into an activity with a group will be so much fun. Plus Green House not only got new customers, more orders but smartly make their customers fall in love with the food & place. 

This I would call a perfect art of marketing & sales via Gamification 

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!