I organized my visa, international health insurance, flights, accommodation etc. myself and flew to Shanghai a few days before the start of my internship to explore the city. Because I only had to enter the country twice, I was able to enter and leave China a limited number of times during my three-month stay.

I applied for the PROMOS scholarship when I heard about the opportunity to do an internship in Shanghai. The FHDW International Office was very helpful with the application and the next steps for the PROMOS scholarship.

I booked a small, central studio of around 17 square meters in Jing’an in advance for the entire stay via Airbnb. Shanghai is divided by the Huangpu River into the eastern district of Pudong and the western district of Puxi. Puxi is clearly the more international district than Pudong. Puxi includes popular districts such as Jing’an, French Consession and Xintiandi and is where most of the sights can be found.

At the weekends, I not only explored Shanghai, but also the Avatar Mountains in Zhangjiajie, Taiwan and South Korea. There are many museums, parks and nightlife events in Shanghai. In general, transportation in the big cities is excellent during the day. In Shanghai, the metro runs every few minutes, as do buses, although taking the bus is a bit of a challenge as everything is written in Chinese.

There are an incredible number of shopping malls and shopping facilities with national and international brands. I was able to buy food on practically every corner, I often bought fruit and vegetables in the smaller street stores and washed them well (!) before eating them, because the high levels of air pollution and the water, which you shouldn’t drink from the tap, meant that not everything was always clean. The small roadside restaurants are also a good option for eating locally and cheaply. A large portion of dumplings costs 20 yuan (approx. €2.50). If you like Western food better, you hardly have to miss out on anything.

Depending on your own preferences and lifestyle, living in Shanghai can be expensive. Compared to Germany, food is just as expensive, but public transportation in the city is much cheaper. The internet and the SIM card, which you can get by showing your passport, are also very cheap. 20 GB and 300 free minutes for phone calls cost 99 yuan (approx. €12.60) per month. Rent is comparatively very expensive, where the price per square meter in the city centre can quickly reach around €40.

The office in Shanghai was already very helpful and friendly before and especially during my stay and helped me with the visa application, for example, and the office on the 28th floor was relatively small, so I was able to integrate quickly and easily into the team. As soon as I had any questions, I could turn to anyone and my boss and a colleague spoke German. In addition to my internship in marketing, I was given the opportunity to take part in a Chinese language course. Although Shanghai has 24 million inhabitants, many people speak little or no English. I often communicated with my hands and feet, and a nice smile often helped a lot.

I helped with the project to introduce an existing Crossborder brand in Germany. I prepared a brand presentation for the distributor and took care of regulatory processes, among other things. I also looked for a potential distributor for another brand that was also to be launched in China. As most online platforms in China publish the sales volume of products, I also researched another cross-border project for a skincare brand.

In any case, you should download various VPNs to your cell phone, laptop and tablet before you leave, as most social media apps (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) are blocked by the “Great Firewall”. WeChat, the Chinese social media in an app so to speak, and an offline translator are just as important in Shanghai as an offline map app. I applied for a free credit card in advance so that I could withdraw money in China without any problems. If you haven’t been to China before, you have to register with the local police or the hotel usually takes care of the police registration.