On week 9 of my internship, I went on my very first media trip to Zhengzhou, China. It was a 5-day trip around the Henan province, organised by Tigerair. So here’s my experience with my bunch of new friends!
What Is A Media Trip
A media trip or a familiarisation trip is one that invites photographers, bloggers or social media gurus to visit a place and review it. These places are likely to be newly opened resorts or destinations that wishes to have positive publicity.
My Experience Being On A Media Trip
I was having this whirlpool of emotions throughout the trip and everything sped past really quickly (can’t believe it’s over already sigh).
Even before I boarded the plane, I was freaking out so bad. It wasn’t my first time taking a plane alone, nor was it the longest flight I have taken. I was just that jittery passenger on board.
China’s network bans a handful of applications and sites, e.g.Facebook and Google. The only way around it will probably be the VPN application, which bypass China’s internet walls, thereby allowing free surfing. These VPNs can be easily downloaded on Google Playstore or Apple Store in Singapore.
Being so inaccurately certain that whatever I downloaded would work, I stopped at one VPN application. Netfits did work, thankfully… for one day. #murphyslaw The next 4 days were plain desperations to get internet access and another VPN that worked, it never happened.
The whole entire trip was already planned out for us, so all we have to do is go with the flow~ It wasn’t too bad because on pre-planned itineraries, there will already be a time keeper (the guides). She would hurry us when it was getting late, help us re-adjust our schedules when there was not enough time, get really annoyed in the process… We just have to enjoy!
Even meals are already booked and prepared, we just have to eat them! Omnomnom.
Also, the guide provides us with all the information we may need. For instance, she would let us know where we were heading for that day on the bus. In addition to that, all the information, history, things to take note… basically everything important, would be spoonfed to us. As long as we listened to her, there wasn’t really a need for researching on my own!
How Are The People Like On The Trip?
THEY WERE AMAZING.
I made my first friend at the airport, and almost everyone else during the trip! Even though everyone was from different backgrounds: photographers, social media influencers or bloggers, they were extremely friendly and fun to hang out with!
Some of us even hunted for supper together late at night and binged on ice ceam together. They were awesome people that you can joke and play around with, we are still meeting up after the trip(:
Week 9 of internship was simply awesome and I would love to do it all over again. Do hop on a media trip when presented a chance to!
