It’s 8:00am in Shanghai and Li Yi Xuan is just waking up.
Li Yi Xuan also goes by the English name, Heather.
She’s a 25 year old Chinese woman living in Shanghai
and this is her average day.
Heather lives in this three bedroom apartment in Jing'an
with a Chinese couple and their friend
who must all still be asleep.
Like many Chinese,
she prefers to take a shower in the evening
instead of mornings.
Heather grew up in Beijing
and has been living in Shanghai for just two months.
She studied PR and Political Science at Penn State
before moving back to Beijing for two years
and then deciding to move to Shanghai
after falling in love with the city.
For breakfast she keeps it short and sweet
with a glass of milk.
It's now 8:35am
and time for Heather to unplug her electric scooter
and drive to work.
She lives pretty central in Jing'an district
so her commute to work only takes 25 minutes.
Like many Chinese, Heather commutes by electric scooter
or "E-Bike."
China has roughly
200 million electric scooters on its streets
and with a population of over 24 million
you can expect a lot of bikes on the road during rush hour.
Heather’s office is located in the Former French Concession,
which is arguably Shanghai’s prettiest neighbourhood
with its leafy boulevards full of old buildings,
cozy bars and restaurants.
Two minutes late.
The office itself is inside an old converted lane house,
also known as a Shikumen.
First appearing in the 1860’s
these buildings are known for their
Shanghainese architectural style
that combine Western and Chinese elements.
Unfortunately, as Shanghai expands
and the infrastructure weakens
under the pressure of the growing population,
many older Shikumen have been torn down.
Heather works for a company called Baopals
which is not your average Chinese workplace,
but one that is very fitting for Shanghai.
Baopals is an English language platform
that connects users to products from Chinese shopping sites
such as Taobao and Tmall
with added auto translations and search functionality
for non native shoppers.
Oh hello.
The site has over 52,000 registered users
and has had over 3 million orders placed
over the last 3 years,
that’s a lot of people that can’t read Chinese.
Okay, we will persevere, thank you very much.
Have a good day, bye bye.
Today is November 12th
which is the day after China’s biggest
24-hour online shopping event, Double 11.
Also known as “Singles' Day"
this shopping holiday first started as
an obscure "anti-Valentine's" celebration
for single Chinese in the nineties.
It was then adopted by e-commerce giant, Alibaba
(China's equivalent of Amazon)
in 2009 and it has now transformed into a day when everyone,
regardless of their single status, buys themselves gifts.
This year Alibaba broke yet another record
with more than $38 billion in sales.
For the Baopals team that meant making sure every order
that was made on their site was processed by midnight
so none of their customers missed the sale.
So it goes without saying some of their staff members
might be feeling a little worn out today.
Heather works in business development and marketing
but today it’s all hands on deck
so she is starting her work-day by
joining the customer service team
to answer any shopping related-questions.
Sometimes it's about different sizing charts.
The ones customers use
and also the ones they use on Taobao.
And this one is about do they have this size.
Before lunch, the Baopals founders, Charlie, Jay and Tyler
are holding a meeting to recap the intense past 24 hours.
The three expats first started Baopals in 2016
as a way to make shopping in China easier
and now their goal is to bring Chinese shopping
and Chinese products to the rest of the world.
Every 11.11 has gotten better than the year before.
Not just in terms of our growth
and our website being better
but our teams and our systems being much better as well.
Anybody have any guesses
on what people were buying
or what people were seraching for the most?
iPhones.
Yeah that was the top search!
Finally it’s lunch time
but not everyone can eat at the same time, so
Heather and her co-worker, Ginger are heading out together.
With yesterday being Heather’s day off,
Ginger fills her in on what it was like at work.
When I arrived at 8
we had like, over 60 messages
from people demanding answers.
So...
I spent all morning trying to answer their questions
and
a lot of people were trying to buy expensive items
and being confused about the price.
So there was just a lot of confusion.
Heather and Ginger are eating
at a neighbourhood vegetarian restaurant called Gong De Lin
which is popular for its tofu alternatives to meat dishes.
Fake duck is pretty good.
Okay.
Hello.
We want one of these ducks.
Crispy duck?
Yeah.
Alright.
Crispy duck.
It's good, right?
On the way back to the office,
Heather decides to take a photography detour
to scout out some local trend setters
for the Baopals fashion blog.
Can you look at the lens?
Being a trendy area for young locals this is an easy task
and she even met two Korean sisters.
Oh look!
There goes couriers with lots of deliveries
Fully loaded.
Let's ask Heather what she likes to do on her days off.
I just like to go with the flow, doing different things.
It's really nice to have
like...
a casual hang out at friends places.
Playing good music.
Have a chat and eat food.
Yeah, sounds perfect.
Once back at the office
Heather orders some milk tea for some of her co-workers
before sorting through her photos for the fashion-blog.
The milk tea has arrived!
now Heather is tasked with the activity of
sourcing weird Chinese products
for Baopals’ popular monthly blog,
The Cool, The Cheap and The Crazy.
You can drink water while you wear the mask.
Ew!
To finish off the day
Heather has a meeting with a potential foreign customer
looking to sell her products online
but let’s not get in the way.
Lets just close that door.
After a long day
work at the office is over
but now Heather has to head to another meeting.
Bye bye!
So Heather is known amongst her friends
for her love of African culture,
especially after having visited Kenya
for the first time earlier this year.
Using her skills in marketing and PR,
Heather and her friends aim to organise an event
to help promote African start-ups
to Chinese business communities.
Wrong direction!
Now we're gonna turn around.
After taking a wrong turn she’s finally arrived
at the co-working space for her meeting.
Hi!
Actually you're quite early!
Really, I thought I was late.
Tell you what,
let's just leave them to it with a sweet time-lapse
and just to let you know,
while in Kenya Heather was given the African name,
Makena Akinyi.
Which means “happiness born in the morning.”
So she has three names,
Li Yi Xuan, Heather and Makena Akinyi.
I hope I pronounced them all correctly.
The meeting is over
so Heather and her friend are headed to a local restaurant
to celebrate a productive day.
Heather met her South African friend, Kitso
at one of Shanghai’s many networking events
but they connected further on
China’s social media platform, WeChat.
I can't do winter here, like
I'll die.
WeChat is used for everything in China
from chatting with friends to paying for items
and more and more
it’s where the majority of business is conducted.
In the west I feel like you have to meet someone..
Yeah and then follow up.
Or you can have like a WeChat connection
for a long time and then only meet each other at some point.
The nachos were fast.
Be careful, the plate is pretty hot.
After nachos and cocktails the day is finally at an end.
It is time to go home.
Bye bye, good night.
Okay, now it's time to call a cab.
Because I had a drink
and I don't want to drive a scooter
while I had a drink.
So I'm going to call a DiDi.
Heather is using the Chinese version of DiDi
the ride hailing app.
But there is also an English version available.
Luckily Heather’s electric scooter is foldable
so her DiDi driver can help stow it in the trunk
and we’re off!
This is a good time to mention that
DiDi is the leading ride-hailing app in China
and one of the must-have apps for expats
and foreigners visiting or living in China,
providing hassle free options for getting around the city.
Its 10 past 9 and Heather is finally home.
Up or down?
You can come in, I'm getting out.
Oh you're going out.
Careful.
And look at that,
she’s come home to a treasure of deliveries
she gifted herself for Singles Day.
And that’s it!
I think we’ve bugged Heather enough today
so we will leave her at the door and say goodnight.
Thank you so much for watching episode 1
of An Average Day.
Please let us know what you thought in the comments below.
If you’re in China and looking for a comfortable way
to get around town be sure to use DiDi.
Whether your destination address is in Chinese or English
DiDi English version has you covered!
Goodnight!