Shanghai Internship Program with CRCC Asia

My internship was for a month in Shanghai with CRCC Asia. As this was my first time traveling on a plane, and going outside of Canada, I was quite nervous. However, the thing that I was dreading the most was when the plane landed in China. At that moment I would be alone in a foreign country, in which I did not know anyone or the language. This is what I dreaded for the weeks leading up to my trip, and when I got to China, after a not stop flight, this is what I found. I was lost, confused, and sick from my flight, and just when I was feeling sad from the fact that there was no family or friends waiting for me at the arrival gate. I saw a CRCC representative waiting for me with her flag and smiling face. She offered me assurance and water, and then took me to me to the other lost interns who just got off their flights too. As we were being driven to our place of residence, we bonded over our mutual concerns, relief and amazement of the city we were being driven past. This set the course for the rest of the weekend, CRCC getting everyone together so we can get to know each other and the beautiful city we were living in.
CRCC afforded me the confidence to go forward with getting to know the other interns and the city. All the interns lived in the same hotel/apartment blocks, we were roommates and neighbours. While the accommodations were not the highest of quality, they were large and conveniently located. These close living situations brought the twenty interns that month tightly together. We did everything together, explored the city, ate at restaurants, enjoyed the vigorous night life, even just buying groceries at TESCOS was a group activity. It was such a great time, with everyday being a new adventure, one made better by the people who I was sharing it with.
Shanghai was such a great city to explore! It is a big city that has such a cheap and convenient public transportation network, in which everything is written, and announced, in both Mandarin and English. This made it easy for me to get around for work and recreation. CRCC made it even easier by giving us a guide book with key phrases, and they also included weekly mandarin lessons to help with the integration into Chinese society.
My work placement was an excellent introduction into my chosen career path, and has led me to further interest in that work. Everyone in my office was friendly, and the work was interesting. I learned a lot and gained valuable experience. Along with my work life, my social life was vastly improved by the other wonderful interns visiting that month.
This internship was one of the best experiences I could imagine for a first time traveler, like myself. Everything is planned and taken care of, and while it is a little pricey, if you are able to afford the fee, it is worth it. This was such a fantastic time, and has made quite an improvement in my ability to stand out amongst the crowd of other graduates. It was the best of times, and I would do it all the same again, but maybe for a little bit longer next time (a month was difficult to get everything in!).

When thinking about my future I felt it's important to have exposure to the real world. In contemporary times, experience in the real world is gaining international exposure and creating great networks. This is something that the CRCC Asia program offers in abundance. A typical day at work involved me contacting CEO's of publicly listed companies to arrange buyout capital. A typical day on the weekend involved partying in Xintiandi in the same clubs as Will.I.Am and with my fellow interns. The social scene in Shanghai is brilliant and there are also plenty of networking opportunities to mix pleasure with business. I would never of had such a good quality experience without CRCC Asia.

It was a really nice experience! I was very lucky to work in a big agency were I've learned a lot a could make new contacts.

Very sad it was a short period of time.

Life in Shanghai was really easy CRCC helped us with everything i can't complain of anything. Sometimes I forgot that i was living in China cause the city is full of expats and is very modern.

Choosing SH to live was the right decision! I saw some interns living in Beijing and it wasn't my style at all very messy and complicated.

Made good friends and had time to think were i wanted to focus my career.

I worked in the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, the executive director said to me it was up to me what I wanted to get involved in so you really have to throw yourself into it and be proactive and get involved in all of their events/projects going on.

I was involved in copy writing for the website for example articles about events, as well as attending and helping to run events and business development.

The office is very small made up mostly of chinese staff who are all nice,and a great way to learn more abotu Chinese culture

I went to lots of events and at first felt a bit out of your comfort zone as business etiquette is very different to ours! lots of job opportunities and networking events where people ram their business cards into your hand and want to see what they can get out of you!

You get out of your internship what you put in so be proactive and engage and everything they do.. lots of post work chamber events which I pretty much went to all of them and got involved in the running of the event

Be approachable and offer help, you'll only get something out of it if you put the effort in.

I participated in the program this July-August and had an absolutely wonderful time! I met fantastic people from all around the world, Shanghai is a beautiful city (the people take a bit of getting used to), my internship was awesome, and the CRCC staff are great. They really try to do everything in their power to make your trip worthwhile. I've read some of the comments here and a lot mention its hit or miss on your placement, and I would say that may be true to a degree but a bigger factor is what you make out of it. If you can show initiative, build a relationship with your boss, and show you can do quality work you will truly get a lot more from the internship than those that just sit at their desk and wait to be given work. The job is what you make it and I know many that loved their jobs and made great connections, I still email with my boss all the time. But by far the best part of the internship is interacting and exploring Shanghai with the other interns. An experience I will never forget!

An internship in China... who would have ever thought about it?? But WE thought & WE got it, WE went, WE worked & WE learnt, WE lived the CULTURE of CHINA.

Being an International Business Management Student, China was the best choice for an internship as China is the fastest growing economy in the world. It is a learning curve for all business students as it relates to the transition of international trade to global trade and serving the entire world as one supermarket, where China is considered the major outsourcing hub.

How to deal with situations where you know no one, nor can you speak in the local language? Shanghai presented us with such situation every day since people rarely speak or understand English and we didn’t Shanghainese or Mandarin either. So the solution was to learn basic Mandarin…..CRCC Asia provided us with the schooling facility where you can learn basic Mandarin and now we can rely on our Mandarin communication if we happen to visit CHINA again.

2 months in China, spent in meeting new people, friends, colleagues, learning business etiquette and Chinese culture and climbing the GREAT WALL of CHINA...…..time just flew…. CRCC Asia made it a visit worth with their excellent hospitality, celebrity accommodation and of course round the clock support for any single thing you ever thought about. CRCC Asia has the best people employed who look after all your needs and they are just a phone call away.

I miss orientation, welcome and leaving drinks parties, banquet, charity events and business seminars.

What a fantastic experience we had!

I took this program during the peak summer seasons with a lot of other people. Even so, people's experiences seemed to fall into 2 firm camps. Some people found their internships fantastic; they loved their companies, had worthwhile work to do and they made fantastic connections. Others had a terrible experience that was a waste of time for everyone involved. Examples of the horror stories I heard: Whole days spent sitting emptily at a desk, bosses seemingly devoid of a heart and who couldn't care less about you, telemarketing for 2 months in English to a population that virtually only speak Chinese.

But I still think this program is worth it because of two things. If you have never been to China, spending 2 months in either Beijing or Shanghai will deepen your understanding of this country and really, really widen your global perspective. Two, if you don't like your internship placement, request a change, immediately! The CRCC support staff are wonderful and personable, and they work really hard to accommodate requests and listen to what exactly it is what you want. Without them my summer could have gone a whole lot worse, and many of the folks who started out with awful internships also took this step and found their second placement much, much better.

most of us are very unsatisfied about the assignment. Most of them are kinda small and even not doing a real business. Most of interns doing nothing at work. However, the life experience is great and living cost are relatively low.