James Fones of Grandall Legal Group based in Shanghai wrote to Projects Abroad recently to praise the work done by interns. He said, “Working with interns from Project Abroad has been educational for both of us. Each intern in his / her own capacity brought with them superb skills and resources. Even the high school interns were top notch and contributed to our firm. The university and post graduate level interns were qualified to work with any firm in the international community. Project Abroad should be proud of its selection criteria and the results.

Our firm focuses on M & As and IPO’s. In addition, as the Foreign Legal Consultant, I work on funding and start-up companies in need of financial support. The firm’s attorneys are the best China has to offer and are not shy in asking the interns to participate at all levels of business transactions. I have never been let down by an intern. On the contrary, my business client’s enjoy working with the teams and our reputation is enhanced by them. An effort is made to tailor projects for the interns in accordance with their personal education specialty and goals. This allows the interns to grow in the field of their choice. In addition, introduction to Chinese business and social customs is emphasized so the interns may return with knowledge that is immediately useful in their respective countries.”

Well done to all who have undertaken a law internship in China!

To find out more about Law placements in China please click here

We at Projects Abroad would like to wish all of our hard working staff members and current and future volunteers in China a happy and prosperous Chinese New year!

Did you do anything special to celebrate the New Year?

We at Projects Abroad would like to wish all of our hard working staff members and current and future volunteers in China a happy and prosperous Chinese New year!

We welcome the Year of the Pig, which will complete one cycle of the Chinese zodiac which started on Feb. 19, 1996 with the Year of the Rat.

This year is also very auspicious as it is also regarded as the Year of the Golden Pig, or jin zhu, which only occurs once every 60 years. Consequently since it is such an auspicious year China is bracing for a baby boom with parents hoping their children will be blessed with good fortune and wealth. It should be a very busy time for our Medical volunteers working in any Ob-Gyn department this year!

Did you do anything special to celebrate the New Year?

In response to my foreign food question, I received the most feed back about Asian food from my fellow staff members who recalled stories of eating every part of a goat on the Mongolian steppe to eating fried batwings in Indonesia. But the best reply by far was from Sarah, a Programme Advisor and design aficionado at our UK office. Here are her varied culinary memories of China:

Having lived in China for a while, I have a few interesting ‘food’ stories. I was fortunate enough to attend lots of amazing banquets and tried some fantastic food, one of the best things I ate was a special soup made from ‘hairy crab’. These are a certain special type of crab that are found around Shanghai only a couple of months a year. They have a special yellow bit of meat and the soup was made just from this - absolutely delicious!

Now onto the slightly more dubious……

There is a food market in Beijing which has stall after stall selling only various kinds of fried insects on sticks - everything from grasshopper to moth larvae! I didn’t personally try these but I have eaten several weird and wonderful things: several toads and frogs (which actually taste ok - a cross between fish and chicken!), snake (a real delicacy), various internal organs of animals (not sure exactly what!), chicken and goose feet (when you eat these in a restaurant they give everyone a plastic glove and you sit there gnawing at your fried foot then spitting out the bones, never really saw the appeal in it). They seem to try and eat every part of each animal possible, so you want to watch out when you order chicken soup in China, you are likely to find the head, neck and feet floating around in there!

One a had on my plate but couldn’t bring myself to eat was a fish eye, which I helped myself to off a buffet thinking it was just a piece of fish till I turned it over and the eye was staring right at me! I have also had sparrow in a restaurant where you have a small BBQ in the middle of the table and they bring all the food to you and you cook it yourself. There wasn’t much meat on it I have to say!

The best one though is a ‘live prawn’ dish (see the picture above), another Shanghai specialty. The chef takes a glass bowl, half fills it with a dark red wine sauce. Lots of live prawns are then put in and a lid put on. The prawns start off splashing around but then get gradually more and more drunk so become sedated. At this point the lid is taken off and everyone dives in with chopsticks and eats them all whole (spitting out any bits of shell they don’t want to eat). I found this terrifying and did try one but made a real mess of it! Naturally once the prawns feel you grabbing them, they start to wiggle around!!

I was actually a demi- (fish-eating) vegetarian when I went out there but gave up trying to figure out what I did and don’t eat!