I’m excited to announce that starting today, I will be working for Shanghai Daily as an A1 and general news designer. Shanghai Daily, an English-language newspaper covering China’s largest city, recently underwent a redesign last month.
I’m looking forward to the opportunity, which will really help 2012 kick off to a new start!
New friend
Yesterday I made a special appearance on China Daily’s weekly news show “The Week.” In the short segment, I explore Beijing’s markets and seek out the creepiest Christmas decorations I can find. The segment is based on a Hot Pot column I wrote for China Daily on experiencing Christmas in China.
Embedding China Daily videos isn’t possible, so check out the full clip here.
Happy Holidays!
Cartoon that accompanied the column. I'm not a blonde this time.
My second Hot Pot column for China Daily ran earlier today. As you may recall, I wrote one back in July on awkward experiences sunbathing in China.
Today’s column is on Chinglish shirts — those amazingly hilarious pieces of clothing I’m kind of obsessed with here. In the column I mention a Chinglish shirt shopping extravaganza in Shenzhen; I posted photos of some of those purchases here earlier last year.
For more hilarious misuses of the English language in China, check out my Chinglish photoset on Flickr. Or Engrish.com.
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Taiwan. To commemorate the anniversary, four papers on the mainland ran very similar front pages, which a few bloggers noted on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter. A few of my China Daily colleagues retweeted (reweibo-ed?) it:
Clockwise from top left: Guangming Daily, People's Liberation Army Daily, People's Daily and Economic Daily.
My final day in Yangshuo was perhaps my favorite day of the trip. That morning, I rented a bike from my hotel and explored the entire area on my own.
After waiting for a rainstorm to end, I headed to Yangshuo’s Silver Cave. Through a series of strange events, I found myself in a massive group with about 40 Chinese tourists.
Yours truly at the Li River
Back in July, I visited the small town of Yangshuo in China’s Guangxi province. Despite the fact that Shenzhen is quite close to this popular tourist destination, I never took advantage of it while I was living there. But because Lonely Planet lists it as one of the Top 5 things to do in China, I knew I needed to see it before I leave.
The trip started off nightmarishly. Having traveled a lot to various Chinese cities recently, I foolishly decided to make all of my plans last minute. I didn’t book a hostel until the night before, and it seemed all the popular ones were completely booked. Then, because I packed an hour before I had to leave for the airport and got stuck in traffic, I missed my flight. I was able to book another one, but it took off 5 hours later, cutting off precious time from the three short days I had there.
Today marks my two-year Chinaversary. Some personal stats acquired since August 3, 2009:
Countries visited (not including a trip to the States last Christmas)
Chinese provinces/autonomous regions visited
Chinese cities visited
Times on the Great Wall (with more to come!)
lbs. lost
Pick-pocket attempts (thwarted)
Pick-pocket pocket attempts (successful)
Bike stolen 
Former US President spotted
Chinese proficiency exams studied for (maybe I should get on that…)
Interesting experiences, people met, awkward moments using Mandarin, children seen defecating in the streets
Time flies.
Just last week, my very first interactive narrative was published on China Daily’s website. The story was about an American born Chinese high school student who went to volunteer in a poor village in China’s Sichuan province. He wrote a diary chronicling the first five days of the trip and the story came with over 300 photos! Unfortunately, many of them didn’t make it in the presentation.
The narrative was built in Flash. Check it out here.
I am apparently now a blonde.
A few weeks ago, I submitted a piece for China Daily’s Hot Pot column. It’s a column that runs every few days featuring stories from expats reflecting on their cultural experiences in China.
Well, I’m happy to report it ran in the paper on Thursday! The column is about sunbathing in China, and how you rarely see it happening here. Part of it is because Chinese women prefer their skin to be white, but part of it is also because women’s bathing suits here are so modest. (Exhibit A).
The column even comes with this neat-o illustration of me, which is a sort of dramatic reenactment of my time at the beach in Qingdao last month. But if it were a truly accurate depiction, the men would all be wearing skintight speedos. (True story).
Bridget O'Donnell, 24, is a designer for the Shanghai Daily. She previously worked for the China Daily and graduated from the University of Michigan in 2009. More »
