Traveling to China – Experiences and Lessons for Life

If you have the opportunity to travel – do it. Travel can be expensive, especially if you fly long distances. One life-hack can be, if your day job allows it, to combine work with travel. If you work in a big company, chances are they have branches worldwide.

Now it’s just a question of setting up a win-win situation for the company and for you. You travel, make considerable efforts but make invaluable life experiences. The company pays your travel and reaps the rewards of your hard work. For an extra bonus life-hack: if you can and already are at the end of the world, do add a vacation on top of your work travel!

You have a dirty mind ;)

This is what I did.

Working in China is a real challenge. Especially in areas where foreigners are not common and English is not well spoken.

On a plus side, Steemit works in China.
You may not know it, but Facebook, Youtube, Gmail etc is completely off the table in China. Unless you are a tech geek and know how to properly set up a VPN connection.

People may be friendly, but you will learn to deal with some real communication challenges if you don’t speak one work of each other’s language. Some apps can help, especially if they work offline. If you have a data plan do get a live-translation app like this one:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.greenleaf.android.translator.enzh.b

In addition, grab WeChat. Everyone in China uses it – and frankly with all its functions I’m surprised not everyone else is on that train.

Other challenges: time zone differences, time of flight and jet lag can be difficult to deal with, if you are not accustomed to traveling. Best is to plan your arrival before a weekend, so that you can recover from your flight.

My travel has taken 30 hours from door to door! This was because of a missed connection flight due to the flight arriving late. Dependent on where you live, you can actually get some money back from the airlines if this happens to you!

The rewards:

Foodstuffs!

Don't worry, there's also beer

• Your horizon broadens
• You see a different view on the world
• You experience a new culture
• You become a pro on eating with chopsticks!
• Food is crazy yummy here. Go out with 3 people, break the table with food and drinks and pay 40$.
• You bring a cool stories and photos home.

This list is not conclusive. To find out all travel can give you, you have to try it yourself.

It’s a bit of a jump out of your comfort zone, but you come back stronger and a more interesting (read sexy) person.

Thanks for reading my first steemit post ever. :)

References:

Post and pictures are original content from myself.