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!
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).
Huashan
By Day Three of my trip, it seemed like my vacation in Xi’an was turning into a little bit of a disappointment.
I once again woke up early to head to Huashan, or Mount Hua. It is one of the most famous mountains in China and is a two and a half hour train ride from the city.
I headed to the packed Xi’an train station, bought my ticket and was soon on my way towards the mountain.
Terracotting it up in the Ancient Capital.
Last October, I traveled to Xi’an for my National Day break. If you have no idea what this holiday entails, just remember National Day: China :: Independence Day: America. That is, if Independence Day had military tanks and rifles at the parades.
(Sidenote: Because I’m working as a foreigner for a Chinese paper, I stay in Beijing for the actual holiday then travel the week after. I actually enjoy this setup because I end up missing the massive crowds heading in and out of the city during the holidays).
Anyway, Xi’an — located in China’s Shaanxi province — is the ancient capital of China. The major draw of the city is the Terracotta Warriors. In fact, Lonely Planet tells me it is the Number Two thing to see in China. And since I do whatever Lonely Planet tells me to do, it seemed like a good idea.
Way back in September, I visited Shanghai and promised to post pictures on the blog. But I never did. Oops.
Anyway, here are said photos, 10 months later.
Last month, I participated in Startup Weekend in Beijing. Startup Weekend is a worldwide event. The idea behind it is to launch a startup business in 54 hours. The conference attracts project managers, program developers and designers to help launch these startups. At the end of the weekend, the startups are pitched to an audience of investors, and the top two ideas are selected.
The weekend begins with idea pitching. Conference attendees with a business idea are given 90 seconds to pitch it to the entire audience. Once the ideas are pitched, attendees vote for their top three. From there, the top six winners are selected and teams are formed around those six.
Startup Weekend in Beijing was unique because a vast majority of the attendees were Chinese. Because there were few foreigners (i.e. me), they decided to hold the 90 second pitches in Mandarin.
Needless to say, I had some difficulty understanding them. I got the gist of most of the 26 pitches, but my limited industry Mandarin could only get me so far.
I’ve been working on updating the design of my site. Over the next few days I’ll be adjusting the copy and images to fit the new scheme.
For the moment, my portfolio is down. But fear not — the blog is up!
In the meantime, if you come across any site errors shoot me a message.
Dongmen shopping center (Shenzhen), March 2010
Wangfujing Shopping Center (Beijing), July 2010
Ditan Park Temple Fair (Beijing), February 2011
Beijing Metro, June 2011
Shenzhen Bus, March 2010
That same bus, from the outside
Xi'an Train Station, October 2010
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 »