Cultural adjustment - living like Chinese

So I'm on another client site in Beijing, on a hi-tech business park in the middle of nowhere.  I got drafted onto an SAP project due to a shortage of SAP folks and a drive for more business knowledge.  Beijing seemed a great idea until I discovered the hours we are working, and the fact that I'm an hour away from all of the interesting parts of Beijing.  The accent is cool though!

 

The client site is pretty sweet actually.  We have a big space to work on, plenty of desks, wireless internet, and a wireless printer.  Great to have good infrastructure.  Limited telephones though, so my phone bill is going to get quite big me thinks.

 

One of the downsides is... despite this being a new facility, the type that has aesthetic water features outside, there are still only squat toilets.  Great.  Surprising design decision for a modern building if you ask me, but shows me how much I understand.

 

It's a Chinese speaking client, with English language written materials.  A nice gentle segue into Chinese consulting I suppose, although I generally prefer diving into the deep end. 

 

Haha the same applies to the toilets.  Whilst they are squats, they are the cleanest and most sophisticated I have seen.  That they are clean and hence mozzie free, means that the only uncomfortability remaining is the psychological aspect.  With a few months of being up here, I guess I'll get accustomed to it.  Not much choice really!

 

Also good preparation for a real "local local client".

 

Food and accomodation is another issue.  Lunch and dinner are generally taken at the client's canteen.  At under 10 RMB (70p), it's cheap.  I can't say it agrees with me that well though, and it's generally pretty stodgy greasy stuff.  Worst is realising how they wash the chopsticks.  Whilst thankfully they are plastic chopsticks and not wooden, they are thrown into a very large bucket of soapy water.  Not the reassuring regulation high temperature washer that you might hope for, when feeding a canteen of several hundred people.

 

It's almost as SARS doesn't exist.

 

Accomodation really isn't up to my historic standards.  I've been spoilt by the belief that consulting is glamorous, and that we adhere to a high level of accomodation as a minimum standard.  Our accomodation in this local area is somewhat more basic.  4* apparently, but looking at the rooms you wouldn't know it.  And certainly no pool to relax or keep fit in.

 

If I'm going to participate in these 'local local' clients, unless I suddenly get brighter, more specialised or more fluent in Chinese, then I'm going to have to bear through this period, until the big consultancy firms like Capgemini are able to turn a healthy profit, and bump up the expenses policies to retain us.

 

Sure I'm slumming it.  But it's a good experience I think.  I know my grandparents went through times in Asia when they lost their fortunes and had to rebuild themselves up, for example, going from having 4 maids in the house to living in someone's garage and living off selling chicken eggs.  But the UK and this era being very much more stable, it's unlikely that I will go through this experience.

 

Slumming it in Beijing gives me some of this experience - having what one has taken for granted and enjoyed freely, and having little choice but to accept something quite different.  It's an exercise in flexibility, and also in appreciation.

 

That's right, next time you sit on the lav, you think about how lucky you are!