The company took care of all the organization in advance (flights, visa, hotel bookings, etc.) for me. All I had to do was send a letter of motivation and my CV to our subsidiary in Asia. I was also lucky enough to have been granted a multiple-entry visa for my time in China. This was the only way I was able to enter and leave China as often as I wanted during the three months. For example, I was able to make spontaneous weekend trips to Hong Kong and Macao, two hours away by car.

I also applied for a PROMOS scholarship for my time in Asia, which I later received. Both the application for the scholarship and all subsequent steps were smooth and uncomplicated with the help of the FHDW International Office.

The internship phase abroad was my first longer stay abroad – the first time alone and the first time in Asia. Naturally, I suffered a bit of a culture shock after arriving in China and wished I was back in Germany as soon as possible. However, this feeling disappeared very quickly and it took me less than five days to really feel at home in the country.

It helped me a lot that the product managers from Germany were also on site when I arrived. They travel to Dongguan almost every month and are therefore familiar with the area, so with their help I quickly got to know a lot of new people and all the important places in the city.

In general, I really enjoyed my stay in Dongguan. Even though eight million people are said to live here, I often felt like I was in a “small town”. I always spent my weekends in the so-called “bar area”. The bar area, an area with various bars and restaurants, is primarily a meeting place for all foreigners who either live in China or are here on business. The city really is very international and you have the opportunity to get to know people from different countries and continents. In addition, almost all people (whether Chinese or foreigners) are very friendly and open, so it is usually easy to make contact with people. At the weekends, for example, I would just go to a bar on my own, knowing that I would most likely make friends with other people anyway.

The work in Dongguan was really interesting and instructive every day. I particularly liked the proximity to the product. Of course, in Detmold you always have contact with the shoes, but it’s only ever the finished shoe that you get to see. In China, on the other hand, I had the opportunity to follow almost the entire path of the shoe from the initial idea to the finished sales sample.

The basic course of my internship abroad was very similar to that of my colleague Judith Tappe. In her report, she describes the daily work routine and the different departments at Novi Footwear’s headquarters in Dongguan in detail, which is why I will skip this part. Click here for Judith’s report.

After three weeks in Dongguan, I went to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. And I have to say, Phnom Penh itself was simply not my cup of tea. Too dirty, too crowded, too hot, too extreme a difference between rich and poor. What’s more, there were no pedestrian paths, so you always had to walk on the generally overcrowded streets, which I found quite nerve-wracking.

But from the beginning: I was in Cambodia for a total of two weeks to get to know the entire shoe production process in one of the factories that produces for Wortmann, among others. The time in the factory was really very interesting and the contact with the factory workers was exciting. I was also allowed to make my own shoe and try out all the steps myself, which really helped me with my understanding of shoes.

I have already briefly mentioned above how much I enjoyed Phnom Penh. But I was also lucky that during my second week in Cambodia, the whole country was free from Monday to Wednesday to mark the birthday of a deceased king. This gave me five days, including the weekend, to take a “vacation” in Siem Reap, six hours away. Siem Reap itself is not too big. However, as Cambodia’s landmark and UNESCO World Heritage Site Angkor Wat is only 15 minutes away by tuktuk, many local and foreign tourists flock to the city, especially in the summer months.

Personally, Siem Reap made up for everything I missed in Phnom Penh. On the one hand, the temples around the city were one of the most impressive places I have ever seen in my life. On the other hand, the nightlife there was just crazy and incredibly diverse, as people from different nations came together there in the evening. What’s more, everything there was really incredibly cheap. Whether it was the hotel room, the lunch, the tuktuk rides or the drinks in the bars in the evening.

Whether in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap – I generally noticed two things about Cambodia that I found very pleasant: Firstly, all the people there were really incredibly nice and helpful. Secondly, the majority of the Cambodian population speaks English. Whether in the hotel, in the restaurant or at the hairdresser, you can always get on somehow with English. This was not the case in China. For example, I had to ask a Chinese man from the office to come with me to the hairdresser as a translator, as there really didn’t seem to be any hairdressers in Dongguan (population eight million) who spoke English. The same problem applied to restaurants, so I always had to rely on pictures on the menus. And even in my hotel in China, I stayed at the IBIS Hotel in Dongguan (which is actually an international hotel chain), not one member of staff could actually speak or understand even a bit of English.

My two weeks in Cambodia were followed by five days in Hong Kong. Our office there is relatively small (25 employees) and wasn’t particularly exciting for me personally. Quite the opposite of the city itself. Hong Kong was pure sensory overload for me at first. On the one hand, everything in Hong Kong is basically oversized and on the other hand, almost every place you go is completely overcrowded.

Oh, and anyone coming to Hong Kong should pack enough money beforehand. It’s not without reason that Hong Kong is the city with the highest “density of wealth” in the world. I have really never seen so much wealth in so little space, so much designer clothing, so many expensive cars, so many expensive watches. And everything else in the city is correspondingly expensive.

Nonetheless, Hong Kong is of course worth a visit and is usually simply impressive. I was there twice in total. The first time was five days for work and the second visit was a weekend for a “vacation”. Of course, that’s not enough time to see everything in Hong Kong. But at least you get an impression and can form your own opinion of the city. For me, the city was great as a short vacation and I would always want to come back for a few days/weeks. However, I wouldn’t want to spend an entire practical phase in Hong Kong, as the city is extremely crowded at all times and I think that the very high prices can be really exhausting in the long run.