Connections

China was supposed to be a land of passage. It ended up being the final destination of our trip. We were supposed to spend two-three weeks three. We ended up spending one full month. We had planned to go to Beijing, Shanghai and then all the way to Lhasa. We ended up visiting Beijing and Shanghai as well as very rural areas in Hunan province, multicultural Gansu province, historical Xi’an in Shanxi province, and enchanting Jiangsu province.
If you have followed us so far, you will have expected this post with an attempt of a summary of our Chinese experience in seven questions as we did for Russia and Mongolia. So here we go:

Light bulb - what we have learnt
Ale: China is much more (and much more diverse) than any Chinatown in Europe. And Chinese people do actually eat dogs!
Fra: I learnt a lot. My understanding of the world is wider now, from so many points of view - geographical, photographic, cultural, etc.

Heart - what we have loved
Ale: on the very last day of our journey, our Couchsurfing hosts gave us a mini Chinese language class - that was lovely and so much eye-opening! And I loved walking the inner and then the outer kora around the Labrang monastery. 
Fra: warm water. And feeling welcomed when people offered it to us, or when we found it at the railway station. It’s a simple thing that makes one feel at home. 

Smile - what made us laugh
Ale: at Beijing station, after going through the security controls, Fra was stopped by a police officer for carrying a portable knife in his backpack. We were starting to explain that we carried it for preparing our food, when another police officer offered to us: “Oh but you use it for shaving, right?”...
Fra: ...Of course, I do - it’s exactly for shaving! [last time I shaved was possibly three years ago - check my picture below!]

Pointing finger - what we take away
Ale: the energy of the people - to set up the most exciting new technology-based innovation in Shanghai, to carry on when life is hard, to look after you when you make them the gift of your visit...
Fra: a deeper and more nuanced understanding of ‘communism’ and its various ways of implementation.

Shaking hands - what connections we have made
Ale: a third of the world’s population live in China, right? Well, no doubt, it was the place where we met the largest number of people. They ranged from our hosts on Couchsurfing to social entrepreneurs and innovators like the founders of Rainbow of Hope, Green Initiatives, Feiy, Impact Hub Shanghai, POSUL (in Chinese), to the inspiring members of the Fresh Start Rotary Club, to the full-of-energy youth from Serve for China, to a philosopher of herbal food, a very hospitable and knowledgeable eco-lodge owner. As well as travellers on long, slow trains. Bakers and restaurant owners in Tibet.
Fra: and besides all of these lovely people, a very special person - a young Chinese man who learnt Italian by listening to the Zecchino d’Oro!

Rooted foot - what we had known already and was important to remember
Ale: China is a continent. We heard young volunteers working on rural development projects saying: “We came here, to this new province, and we didn't know the language, the customs, etc. We had to adapt”. It was great, in our travelling, to get the chance to experience China’s largeness, diversity and very long history.
Fra: Asia is the Far East, it's exotic and its extreme - in its distance from our home, in its richness and its vastity. 

Bin - what we’d kick away (didn’t like that much…) 
Ale: the smell of cigarette everywhere all the time - on the trains, on the buses, at the restaurant. Non-stop. It is not only unpleasant for non-smokers like me but also a reason for concern! Smoking cigarettes is really not good :-)
Fra: struggling to use the internet as normal. When we arrived and could not access my Gmail, we were advised to open a new email account. Really?! Luckily,we soon signed up on WeChat!

Does anything resonate with you? Whether you have travelled to China or to somewhere else, whether you had similar or completely different experiences, feel free to use the comment box below or email us :)

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote that it was not easy to put our Transsiberian experience in writing and make a summary of it. Well, it's even less easy to summarise our Transmongolian one! Very dense, very much changing every day. From a Ger* to an apartment on the highest floor in the middle of Ulan Bataar. From chaotic Ulan Bataar to silent Sainshand. From a cafeteria where you can only get rice after they pour huge quantities of a meaty sauce on it, to the BEST vegan food we had on our trip so far at Luna Blanca!
*a Ger is the nomads' traditional house (scroll down for a picture).

Light bulb - what we have learnt
Ale: the role of women of all ages at home and outside. I asked one of our hosts what was his favourite decision-making technique. He said: “Now, I would consult with my wife. When I was a child, I would not ask my Dad. I would always ask my Mom”.
Fra: the role of games, puzzles, sheep ankle bones in Mongolian culture. If you ever pass by Ulan Bataar, do not forget to visit the International Intellectual Museum.

Heart - what we have loved
Ale: the enchanting music that goes along with Buddhist prayers.
Fra: the caves we visited in the Gobi desert. And the desert, more generally.

Smile - what made us laugh
Ale: our adorable host Begz when he told us a traditional Mongolian tale. His mimicking, his gaze and sound effects were so entertaining!
Fra: it was -3*C or less. We were in the middle of the desert visiting the Shambala energy centre. The man who was accompanying us was very lightly dressed. Not even wearing a hat or a pair of gloves; his jacket (not a coat…) was open. In pure Mongolian, he explained to us the procedure to make the most of the energy centre: take off your shoes, lay down, crawl following a circular path and pray. And concluded: “but I won't take my shoes off, it's too cold!”. E figurati noi! (Italian for: "can you really imagine" how cold WE are?!)

Pointing finger - what we take away
Ale: the flexibility of a one-room circular house. Furniture and various objects appear and disappear depending on the function they have to play - eating, sleeping, cooking, studying, playing, etc. The one space changes all the time in the course of a day!
Fra: the Ger architecture, its shape and its interlocking technique.
(If we end up living in a Ger, you’ll know why!)

Shaking hands - what connections we have made
Ale: Begz, his family, his energy. Bookbridge Mongolia - such an inspiring organisation that facilitates social entrepreneurship. Victoria, whom we hope we'll host soon somewhere! Mongolia Train Tickets who helped us with our visa. УРЦ | URTS - from which we received a lovely badge!
Fra: I was asked to design a logo for a new organisation. How exciting is this?

Rooted foot - what we had known already and was important to remember
Ale: modern technology does not need to be in contrast with traditions. Introducing a pre-paid card system to distribute water in Ger district is helpful, respond to a very basic need and improves living standards.
Fra: building one’s house is possible and can be fun!

Bin - what we’d kick away (didn’t like that much…) 
Ale: people constantly kicking each other when walking in the street. I was under the impression to walk across a rugby pitch all the time!
Fra: Ulan Bataar’s traffic jam. The absence of a Ч29 bus stop in the city centre. A sort of arrogance among bus and Land Cruiser divers... :-)

Does anything resonate with you? Whether you have travelled to Mongolia or to somewhere else, whether you had similar or completely different experiences, feel free to use the comment box below or email us :)

Reflections on social impact in Mongolia will come soon… Watch this space!
 

ABCity.org is a nomadic programme. ‘It’s a project and it’s a trip’. We believe that we do not need to be statically in one single place if we want to make local impact. We can do this by travelling, connecting and using diversity as a source of inspiration.

On World Tourism Day, we think that our travelling attitude is something to celebrate!

We also think that it is a great opportunity to share our thoughts around tourism, especially knowing that this year’s focus for this special day is on sustainable tourism and how it can contribute to development. Or to social impact.

1/ Why do we think that travelling is important?

The very first, easy answer is through Omar Khayyam’s words:

"Life is but a journey, to travel is to live twice".

Life is about learning, giving, receiving, exploring, missing and getting opportunities. And so is travelling in an amplified yet condensed way.

2/ Why do we think that tourism can help development and contribute to social impact?

Economic answer: because it creates jobs and represents 10% of gross domestic product worldwide (UN data). And because taking time off helps productivity and increases creativity.

Cultural answer: because it builds bridges, it facilitates exchanges, it reduces distances, it helps deconstructing prejudices and fixed ideas. It shows that things can be done differently in different places; that history, geography and human experience lead to a variety of results… and that’s ok!

Ethical answer: we don’t actually think that any tourism help development and social impact. We need tourism with a purpose… in the same way as we need businesses with a purpose.  

3/ What do we mean by ‘tourism with a purpose’?

We mean travelling in order not to consume but to enrich - your mind, your spirit, your body, the place you visit, the people you meet.

We mean doing good when travelling and we mean GOOD travelling. Similarly to what our friends at GOOD travel social enterprise promote.

If you want to know more about our way to GOOD travelling, watch this space.

In the meantime… we’d love to hear your thoughts on World Tourism Day! Do get in touch :)

21 days ago we completed ‘The Business Activist Entrepreneurs Bootcamp’, a 21-day learning experience that we have very much enjoyed.

Short daily videos followed by useful exercises and accompanied by a funbook.

The aim? Learn how to develop a business idea, secure money to get started and launch!

The hosts? Brandon and Amanda Neely, two business activist entrepreneurs themselves. They that have run a coffee bar for nearly 10 years with the mission to ‘inspire a genuine and local community of people who change the world with their purchasing power, time, and talents’.

Light bulb - what we have learnt

1. We don’t need a huge amount of time to improve our venture day by day... as long as we’ve got a good guide!  

2. Key ingredients for success: a vision, consistency, good prep… and a plan B and C. On this, see also last week’s post in case you’ve missed it!  

3. Oh wow… there are so many more learning learning points. Ok, a good one is that we can all be super-heroes  as long as we know what our super-power is. A simple test can help. 

Heart - what we have loved

4. It was short and to the point. 1 theme a week. Three weeks altogether. No more than 20 minutes a day to spend on videos or exercises.   

5. The exercises. Learning for a purpose.

6. The forum. Great to share thoughts and ideas with other bootcampers and to receive useful insights from the facilitators.

Smile - what made us laugh

7. Diligently spending our lunch break in August with the tablet and the headphones on the landing, just out of our office door :)

8. Some of the comments in the forum space   

9. Talking about consistency with a creative person who hates planning and deadlines!

Pointing finger - what we take away

10. An Instagram page with a consistent picture every Weds… prepping for our trip start!    

11. A revised concept of triple bottom line which is very much in line with ABCity.org’s philosophy - measuring results through money, social impact and fun!     

Shaking hands - what connections we have made

12. The first fans of our Facebook page were participants in the bootcamp!     

13. We discovered the Smart Passive Income podcast and through it... The Bakers!     

14. So much inspiration and good examples from another bootcamper, Sabine @ From Scratch

Rooted foot - what we knew already and was important to remember

15. #small matters. From selling coffee beans to setting up an amazing learning & business activist community :)

16. One thing is to have a story to tell, another thing is to be able to tell it in a way that it’s engaging, inspiring and meaningful for other people

17. There’s need to really understand what customers want, expect and think like.     

Bin - what we’d kick away (didn’t like that much…)

18. Having 2 platforms to share comments and learning - the bootcamp forum and the Facebook page. 1 would have been sufficient or having the 2 talking to each other.

19. A $1,000 worth bonus randomly allocated to a bootcamp participant - mainly because the winner was not super-engaged and we still don’t know what they won!  

20. The impossibility to join the next step… the BUSINESS ACTIVIST BREAKTHROUGH! Mainly due to logistical reasons as ABCity.org will soon be travelling :)

If you’d like to know more about any of the above, leave a comment below!

If you’d like to know more about other learning opportunities that Brandon and Amanda can provide, this is the link for you http://overflowyourpossibility.com/bootcamp.

And if you want to receive regular inspiration pills, sign up for Overflow Your Possibility newsletter or follow Amanda on Twitter.

Quoting Amanda would say: “Keep overflowing”!

Food is one of the 3 areas we are exploring and researching on, along with urban innovation and movement sports.

Why food? Food is something that everybody needs but nearly 800 million people in the world are in hunger and around 1.3 billion tonnes of food go wasted every year.

This means that there is a lot to do about how food is produced, distributed and consumed!

At the Profit with Purpose event we attended last Wednesday at the Business and IP Centre in London, four social enterprises that work with food shared their stories and their advice @HarrySpecters @rubiesinrubble @ChangePlease @TooGoodToGo_UK

Here are some of our thoughts.

4 things to have to set up a business that makes profit with a purpose:

1. A good idea and a strong message to go with it

2. Passion for what you do and why you are doing it

3. A product or a service that you will test, improve, refine and make it love by your customers

4. A supportive network including family members to give you good recipes or smart ideas for a name, your friends to test your products and provide feedback, partners with different expertise, mentors to help you build your skills and have a sounding board, etc.

4 things to remember in the journey to social entrepreneurship

1. Start small, dream big. You can start from your backyard room and dream you’ll become a franchise all across the UK (and beyond) .like

2. Know your customers and your competitors. The market will lead or hinder your growth. Apps like Smaply and Experience Fellow can be really helpful for this.

3. Work step by step. Don’t over-think what you're doing in a way that puts you off. Try, test, fail, learn and make it better. Then move to the next step.

4. Be prepared to work hard but do look after yourself!

4 things we really liked from the four social enterprises

1. Coherence. Prices on Too Good to Go app are capped. This way businesses are discouraged to produce food with the aim to end up in the platform. The aim is to reduce food excess, not to provide another food delivery app.

2. Closing the loop. Rubies in the Rubble collects apples and bananas that would be thrown away each week from Virgin train’s catering service, turns them into jam or ketchup and sells the end product back to the company.

3. Onward-thinking. Please Change provides homeless with training and an opportunity to work as baristas at London living wage - which is already commendable. They also provide housing, a bank account and support to access further employment after their six-month programme.

4. Social Investment. Harry Specters invests 60 per cent of their profit to further the social aims of the business, and to provide social activities and opportunities for personal development for their young employees with Autism.

1 conclusion

Profit with a purpose makes economic and social impact, can go to scale and can be fun :)

How beautiful is this?

If you run a social enterprise that works with food, we'd love to learn from you!

If you run a social enterprise that works with food in Russia, Mongolia, China, Nepal or Myanmar, we'd love to visit you :)

PS: the two bottles that you see in the picture were super kindly offered to us by Julian, Managing Director at Lemonaid Beverages Ltd, another socially-minded business that we had the chance to meet at the event. Thanks, Julian :)