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I just got back from what turned out to be one of the best professional experiences of my life. As you may know, QVC runs television shopping networks in the UK, Germany, Italy, and Japan… and now, we are in a partnership with a network in China, CNR Mall.  I spent two weeks this month in Beijing, conducting “Knowledge Shares” with the Chinese hosts and producers. I spent my days conducting trainings, attending meetings, and holding tape reviews (hosts and producers show you one of their presentations and you give feedback.) It was a lot of work, but ultimately, so exciting and rewarding.

I have a special affection for China. I’ve been there a number of times and my oldest daughter is from Gansu province, in a remote part of the ancient Silk Road.  As a child, it was always my dream to travel and so when I go to Asia, I get as excited as a little kid. It definitely provides the feeling of culture shock that I find so thrilling. However, until this month, I had always gone as a tourist or as a volunteer on a charity trip. The idea of waking up every day and going to work in Beijing, even if it was only for two weeks, seemed beyond cool.

I left for Beijing on January 4^th (my parents’ 50^th anniversary!). Leaving the kids and my husband was very difficult, but I won’t bore you with my mommy guilt and anxiety. Ugh! After a 14-hour flight, I arrived at my hotel Saturday evening. I had been traveling for nearly 24 hours, so I called home, watched some television and went to bed. The next morning, I woke up feeling pretty good. I spent the day walking around Eastern Beijing. I went to a beautiful park called Temple of the Sun, shopped at the famous Silk Market, and spent hours wandering around.

Unfortunately, I arrived during an extremely cold winter in Beijing. The temperature never got above 20 degrees that day, but I had so much fun sightseeing by myself that I didn’t mind the cold that much. I really bundled up. Thankfully, I had on Fleecy Tights and had an app on my phone that lets you make your own walking tour. It worked as a compass, so I walked around all day pointing my phone straight ahead and following a green dot on the screen. I’m sure I didn’t look too much like a tourist. Haha!

The next day, I got up and met a coworker and producer from QVC, Sean, who had just arrived. It was time for work!  We traveled about an hour by car to the studios. As it turns out, everything takes an hour by car in Beijing. It has some of the world’s worst traffic! We spent the first day getting to know our new colleagues and touring the building. 

All of the directors ate lunch with us in a special dining room. They were all so kind and welcoming. However, after that we ate lunch everyday in the employee canteen.  It is like nothing you would ever see in America. It’s a very large, very cold building. In fact, you have to eat wearing your coat. Around the perimeter of the room, there are various stations where you can get all different types of meals, made on the spot from scratch. When you order dumplings, they actually roll out the dough, fill the dumplings with what you want, and then steam them. It was fun to watch a guy pull long noodles by hand everyday. Most of the food was really good.  My favorite was eggs and tomatoes over rice and a cabbage dish with some kind of fried pancake cut into matchsticks.  Full meals only cost around $2.00!

Working with the hosts was such a pleasure. They are a very welcoming group, and I swear, one is more gorgeous than the next! I spent most of the time talking about putting the customer first and selling in a way that is honest. It’s great to be excited about a product, but it’s not OK to make false claims or exaggerate. Because Sean and I had to do all of our training through an interpreter, I sometimes wondered during the first week if they were getting the message. However, the most wonderful thing happened on the second week! At least five times, hosts excitedly told me or showed me how they had just changed that day’s presentations to make them more compatible with QVC standards. They really are trying to serve their customers, they just need a little support and to consider a different perspective. Of course, some of the producers were a little more resistant to change. Currently, they sell each product, no matter what it is, for 40 minutes and take four-minute breaks between products. Sean is still there trying to help them tighten things up a bit.

One of my favorite parts of going to the studio was working with our fantastic interpreters, Karl and Yee. Karl is a young man who spent two years traveling around the US on a Ringling Brother’s circus train, interpreting for 26 Chinese acrobats. He says his room on the train was “smaller than a prison cell” but that he loved it. I asked him what part of the US he liked the most. He says Tampa because the people there were so friendly. I’ve been trying to learn Mandarin off and on for years, so Karl was not only my interpreter, but also acted as an awesome teacher. I learned a lot more of the language in two weeks, thanks to him always patiently answering my questions. No matter how I pronounced something he always said either “It’s OK!” or “Perfect!” Then, he would gently correct me.

On the couple of days we had off, Sean and I packed in a lot of sightseeing. I kept coming up with plans, and he was a good sport and agreed to everything. One Saturday, we went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, took a rickshaw tour of a Hutong neighborhood, went to a traditional tea house, shopped, and walked for miles back to the hotel, through all kinds of tiny, winding streets. The next day, we went about 70 miles northeast of Beijing to Jinshanling, a beautiful section of the Great Wall. We walked for a long time, without seeing any other hikers. It was freezing and snowy, but so worth the trip!  The only not-so-fun part, other than the cold, was the pollution. Beijing was experiencing its worst pollution on record for almost the entire time I was there. In fact, it made international news. It stayed grey everyday and the air smelled and tasted slightly of burning plastic and cigarettes. Not fun. Still, I had an incredible time. 

One funny thing, Keanue Reeves was staying at our hotel. I sat at a table near his twice at breakfast. I didn’t say anything to him, but I would sneak peeks when I could. It seemed so random to see him in Beijing, but apparently he is filming there. After work, Sean and I went to a lot of great dinners with both the Chinese employees and the handful of American QVC workers who are now living there. The food in China can seem strange, but it can also be delicious. We ate so many wonderful meals. One of my favorite entrees was shrimp with asparagus and lilies. It was so good! On my last night in Beijing, I asked Sean to go with me to see the famous Donghuamen Night Market. It’s a place where you can buy everything ready to eat on a stick. I mean everything! Big, black spiders, beetles, starfish, seahorses, scorpions that are still moving, snakes, and silkworm pupa. It was so fun and strange to see. That night, we ate at McDonalds!

When I finally got home, I was so happy to see my family. I can’t tell you how much I missed them and I know they missed me. However, my fears about leaving them turned out to be unfounded. The girls had a great time with my husband. He kept them very busy and they had a lot of fun. Fortunately, Facetime and Skype can make the world seem like a small place. 

I’m very anxious to go back to China  - but next time I am going in a warmer season and taking the family with me! That would be perfect!

- Sandra