Nǐ hǎo! 你好 ( That’s Hello in Mandarin) Last week I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Shanghai, China for CES Asia! I executed the 3 day conference and then I was able to immerse myself into the Chinese culture. It was an AMAZING exprience!

It has always been one of my dreams to be able to travel and make money simotanlously, and God made it all work! #Amen #ThankYouGod

I can write a novel about my experience in Shanghai, I am going to try to keep it as concise as possible! :)

This post will include my travel there/ back, CES Asia, food, culture, going out, and my sightseeing adventures to a temple, Old City, Nanjing Road and many other places.

Let’s get into it!

Traveling

Traveling to Shanghai began with an early commute to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport on Sunday, June 10th 2018.The AIRPORT WAS PACKED. It can get crazy sometimes, but I have never seen the line like that before! I am in the process of setting up my global entry access, so it was no skipping this line. womp womp. I was able to beat the system by signing up for CLEAR. With CLEAR we zoomed through the line, that literally had about 588 people in it.

I got to the gate, called my parents, texted my friends, released the blog, Boom! We are headed to China! I boarded the flight to Vancouver, BC which was about 30 minutes and then we quickly went through Canadian customs. (they are efficient AF).

I grabbed some a few snacks at the store and waited patiently for the next leg to Shanghai.

It was time to board. I was experiencing a perfect blend of anxiety, excitement and gratitude. The anxiety stemmed from the idea of my ADHD ass sitting still on a plane for 15 hours. The excitement that I was headed to Shanghai, China and the gratitude that I was given the opportunity to follow my passion for events and travel.

I boarded the flight got cozy in my seat. I black man walked passed my seat, we did the universal " I see you nod" and gave the each the look like " In case some shit goes down i know you on here too." lol #AfricanAmericanProverb

My backpack was set, I had EVERYTHING (portable chargers, headphones, two books, wipes, toiletries, change of clothes, snacks and two journals that I planned to fill up.)

sidebar- s/o out to the GREATEST EVENT PRODUCER that I know, my mom for getting me ALL THE WAY together for this trip lol. Everything that I didn’t think I needed I did. My team was like “Damn! You, Literally have everything in that backpack!!!”

Before takeoff, I closed my eyes, I prayed and thanked God for this opportunity I shed a “thug tear” and said “Jasmine I’m proud of you. You did it. You are doing it. ” I smiled, took a deep breathe and the plane took off.

In Flight, I had a cup of green tea to relax and snuggled into my seat with my book Molly’s Game. #bookclub.

I read for an hour or so until the food arrived. The food was legit! After the meal, I took a lap around the plane and did some light yoga to get my blood circulating. Stretching felt good, I knew it wasn’t gonna be that bad if I kept moving, keep reading, and kept writing.

When to back my seat and I turned on Black Panther and watched it until I fell asleep.

Air Canada killed the game with the service, the wine, drinks, snacks, and meals were at a consistent flow.

15 hours later we arrived in Shanghai, China. It was the Monday afternoon there. (I’d lost a day, or let my friends tell it I was in the future. hahahaha)

We went through customs in China it was a lot of finger prints and retinal scans. 85% of all the signage was in Mandarin. That was intimidating at first, but I was prepared.

(I printed docs of everything I needed and everywhere I needed to go. I had all the information screenshotted on my phone as well, just in case I lost the paperwork. The internet laws are restricted in China, so I wouldn’t be able to just google things on a whim.)

As my black colleague waited in the final custom line, we experienced some stares and pointing from the small children and native folks. It was as if they had never seen black people before. I wasn’t offended, I did my research and knew that I would be rare in China. I had it in my mind that they were gonna get this #BlackGirlMagic no matter what! My blonde curly fro was popping and continued to smile at them as we continued through the customs process.

All clear! Customs was complete, bags were claimed it was show time in China. We exchanged our USD currency for Renminbi (RMB or CNY) or in Chinese "Ren-min-bi". The basic unit is the yuan. I placed the cash in my fanny pack’ish travel necklace bag, that provided me with easy access to my phones, money and chargers.

Sidebar: I did contiousous checks for my “2 phones and a passport” that was an ongoing slogan throughout the trip.I am notorious for losing things. (my debit card in particular) I was in a different contrty, I had to

Our prearranged car service scooped us from Shanghai Pudong International Airport and took us to our hotel that was about thirty-seven minutes away.

We checked into the lovely Kerry Hotel Shanghai, showered, got settleled and tryied tostay up as long as we could to adjust to CST - China Standard Time which it +15 hours of Seattle’s PST- Pacific Standard Time.

The next day was a “chill day”, we were able to relax and get acclimated before the conference began.

CES Asia

What is CES Asia? CES Asia is tech revolution. It’s a huge ass tech conference with 40,000! It is where you go to experience groundbreaking technology and get in touch with the world’s brightest minds. CES Asia is the place where startups, entrepreneurs, and global brands converge to form game-changing partnerships. I have worked with facilitating events for CES Vegas while in the drone industry, but this was the first time that I activated and executed a booth/ event at CES Asia. This was a BIG ONE on my event production dream list. The full ecosystem of the world’s tech industry was represented on more than 21,000 square meters; from smart cities and artificial intelligence to vehicle technology and the latest in robotics.

The company I work for New Alchemy, provides blockchain technology, ICO advisory, smart contract audits, and token mechanics to the world's most innovative companies.

What is an ICO, bitcoin and what is blockchain technology?

“Bitcoin is a digital currency that is being used increasingly all over the world since its inception in 2009. In the years since many other assets and forms of blockchain technology have been developed.”

We can dive into ICOs and blockchain technology on another post. :)

peep the link to get started now: https://www.coindesk.com/information/

I am an ICO Event Producer, and I assist in the strategizing for our clients to make meaningful connections through major events, conferences and tradeshows.

It is rare that we (African Americans/ women) are represented in technology, let alone blockchain technology.

I have always been drawn to innovative tech spaces. I previously worked in drones, worked on campaigns for NASA and other random ass cool ass things.

CES Asia was my “ Mama, we made it!” moment.

I am black in blockchain. I am black in tech. I am representing for all the black women and men in the technology.

What made this even more interesting was that certain parts of the blockchain technology (ICOs) is illegal in China and my black was there, executing this event, with 0 fucks. My curly fro was poppin and I was sprinkling my black girl magic and spitting that blockchain knowledge at the booth. ( pats self on the back I literally saw 6 black people the entire time I was at CES and in China. (yes I counted.)

Food

OMG. I ate the most bomb Chinese food EVER. But honey, I am good it for a while lol. I literally ate Chinese food for breakfast, lunch, dinner damn near every day.

Breakfast included a spread of good ass fried rice, spring rolls ,fruits, dumplings, steamed buns stuffed with meat, soups, rice porridge, congee and a few American options like eggs, and bacon

Lunch and dinner normally considered a similar spread of fried rice, dim sum, spring rolls, fruits, dumplings, steamed buns, sweet and sour pork or fish, beef and broccoli, and a lot of other shit I have NO IDEA what it was, but it tasted magical.

Tea was served with every meal. Coffee was available but with milk no half and a half. I also noticed that cheese was pretty MIA most of the trip.

One of our clients took us out to dinner one night after the conference and it was sooooo BOMB. I tried to document it on my IG stories for yall, but it was hard, and I still wanted to be present as well. We let the client order all the goodies for us because EVERYTHING was in Mandarin. Food started trickling out, then plates started flying out, we had NO ROOM on the table. It was legit a Chinese Thanksgiving. I ate my little belly full that night. It was such a great experience. It was definitely a highlight of the food experience!

After that night of glutney we need a break from food. I tried to eat lightly, juiced and even went to the gym bright and early the next morning. The next day I was still cool on the Chinese food and ate Mcdonald’s for lunch and pizza for dinner, because pizza is always a good idea!

I never eat mcdonalds, but honey it was sooo good. They gave me a big mac, fries and nuggets with my meal. WTH! It was super good lol. For dinner I was craving pizza so I ordered that from the hotel, then vowed no more American food during my stay in China. I can eat that shit at home.

A Night Out in Shanghai

On the last night of the conference, my coworkers and I decided to head out in the Shanghai streets. We took a taxi to the city and began our night this fly ass rooftop bar called Bar Rouge. Bar Rouge had the best view of the city, the cockails were flowing, and the alternative r&b was grooving. It was definitely my kinda vibe. We sipped champagne, took a few photos and enjoyed each other’s company. Some of my coworkers had calls at 11p Shanghai time/ 8amPST so we had to time our exit from Bar Rouge perfectly for them to take the call and then carry on to the next spot.

After there call ended, we took a cab over to M1NT nightclub. We purchased a section, and a few bottles (WHEW!) and tossed to our completion of the conference. The music was rocking, but when that beat dropped and “ Nice For What” came on it was SUPER LIT. Drake/ Louisana shit in China ayyyeeee!

Longhua Temple

Saturday was set to explore Shanghai! I had done my research and mapped out the stops we’d make to get an authentic experience. The first stop was the Longhua Temple.

I have an affinity for exploring religions, spirituality and what people believe in and/ or find comfort in. Visiting a temple in Shanghai was top on my list of things to do. China is the home of a lot of different types of temples. There are Buddhist temples, Taoist temples, Confucian temples. To the untrained eye, most of these look the same, but not all are created equal. Shanghai’s largest Buddhist temple, Longhua, has a remarkable history.

Longhua Temple & Longhua Pagoda is the oldest, largest and most majestic Buddhist building in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River Delta, which is also one of the best preserved temples in Shanghai. This temple is famous for its old tower, temple fair and evening chimes, collections of various sutras, golden seal, and figures of Buddha from Tang, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The famed Longhua Bell Toll was regarded as one of the "Eight Sceneries of Shanghai".

I was mezmorized by the temple and beautiful budhas. I could have stayed there ALL day. It was so serene and beautiful. Watching the monks glide across the garden, and the natives and tourist praise, pray and bring up their offerings warmed my soul.

Old City & Nanjing road

After the temple we migrated over to an area called “ Old City” it was a unique blend of posh boushie ass resturants, and you walk over to the a side street and it wasn’t as well manicured, and some may say it looked like poverty. At this point I didn’t have a plan, the point was to wander and see what we’ run into. We wandered the streets, stopped for lunch, then wander some more. It was in Old City that I found the CRAWFISH!

The crawfish on the street was the second highlight of the trip! I saw the big ass crawfish pot and the man cooking them and I couldn’t help myself. I started talking to them about the crawfish and told them I was from Louisiana and ironically they were familiar. I passed my phone to my coworker because my instinct was to get in there and taste it. I asked for permission, grabbed the tail, pinched it, sucked the head and then tossed. My coworkers have never experienced this and were in awe that I sucked the heads LOL! It wasn’t bad, I could have eaten a pound of it. Not 8lbs like I did when I was in Baton Rouge or in Houston at my friends' crawfish truck, but for sure a good pound. LOL! I sent the photos to my friends and to my pops, to let them know I had to do it for the culture and for the story!

After the crawfish, we wandered some more, stopped for photos and at random fruit stands for cherries and the best white peach I’ve ever experienced in my life!

We walked over to what looked like the Times Square of China called Nanjing Road. The streets were bustling with people, music and salesmen approached us frequently to purchase knockoff handbags. (we politely declined lol) I bought some beautiful fans and souvenirs for my family and enjoyed the sites.

What I learned about the culture...

The customs and culture of China are significantly different than the customs and culture of the United States. These are just a few observations, that I had to check myself on and realized I was in their county and our cultural norms are different.

The Chinese will sometimes nod as an initial greeting. Handshakes are also popular; wait, however, for your Chinese counterpart to initiate the gesture. They also share their business card when they shake your hand.
Smiling is not as noticeable in China since there is a heavy emphasis on repressing emotion.
Pushing and cutting ahead is common in lineups among Chinese, but they do not appreciate being cut in front of themselves. This was a rough one for me.
Everything was in Mandarin, be sure to download google translator before you arrive. Google is illegal there.
The Internet restrictions were rough, but you can access it via wifi and secured VPN.
They communicate and do EVERYTHING on WeChat, they order food, do business, text, and anything else you can imagine.
They have a unique style, some people are very fashion forward there
The smog is prevalent throughout the entire city, a lot of locals wore masks.
Everyone smokes cigarettes everywhere, This was hard to adjust to, my hair and lungs were filled with it everywhere I went
The water was hard, and my hair was not feeling it at all! I had to do a few deep conditioning masks and use bottled water to revive it. No wash & go’s in China
Most restrooms were traditionally what we are used to in the west, but when I explored in Old City, I had to squat. * see below* I had read about this previously but hadn’t experienced during the trip. On the last day I did and baby, it was a HOT MESS. Smh lol

Journey Home

My heart was full with this opportunity to execute CES Asia and to explore China. It was time to board the flight back to North America. I got my final stares, of being a black woman, and skipping the line as we went to first class. #weflytoofirstclasstoo #boss

On the return, I was a pro, no anxiety, relaxed and calm. I got settled in my seat, set up my pillows, put on my socks, said my prayer and reclined my seat back. I gave the new Jay & Bey the 2nd run. (gotta run it 3 times before I give my opinion on an album… It’s super RAW tho, I am on listen 5 and I’m dissecting lyrics line by line)

I ate my meal, took some melatonin and went to sleep. I was able to sleep 14hrs of the 15hr flight. I wanted to time my sleep to make sure that the jet lag wasn’t too ridiculous. It felt good to be back, in the clean air and back in my bed. I am hella jet lag, and not sure how i was able to produce this blog for yall today lol... I have a quick recovery break, and then I’ll be on the road again! #staytuned!

I am truly grateful for this opportunity to see the world and share my stories with you.

Thanks for reading!

Jasmine Rashae