any tips for china?

norm_diploom

My daughter is going to China for 6 months to work as an au pair, and would really appreciate any tips. She wants to take some small gifts for her hosts too, does anyone have any ideas please?
Thanks in advance!

Voyager2002

I never heard of this before... does she speak Chinese? What is she doing about a visa? And a lot depends on which part of China.

Find out if her host or their extended family have babies being fed on powdered milk. Many Chinese people believe that the infant formula on sale in their cities is unsafe (following some well- publicised scandals with tragic results) so parents are particularly keen on getting tins of formula that have been brought directly from a western country.

I suggest that she explores the 'Thorntree' travel forum on the Lonely Planet website.

andrewf75

I would say turning up with baby formula would be extremely odd unless someone specifically asks you. No offence to the above poster but don't do that! Just bring something British, some sweets or biscuits or something and maybe postcards of where you're from or anything traditional really.

blackandwhitebunny

We host Chinese pupils at our school every year. The top things they want to take back are baby milk, chocolate and whiskey. Someone from the staff always gets the supermarket run when they have to explain why they can only buy 2 tins of baby milk and that the adults have to buy the whiskey.
Cadbury's chocolate is very popular, as are jelly sweets.

Voyager2002

andrewf75 wrote: »

I would say turning up with baby formula would be extremely odd unless someone specifically asks you. No offence to the above poster but don't do that! Just bring something British, some sweets or biscuits or something and maybe postcards of where you're from or anything traditional really.

I agree that this is something that she would need to discuss with the host family... However, there is a ready market for infant formula so she or her hosts could probably sell it on for a decent profit, so it would not be exactly the same as turning up with baby powder in most other parts of the world.

norm_diploom

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I never heard of this before... does she speak Chinese? What is she doing about a visa? And a lot depends on which part of China.

Find out if her host or their extended family have babies being fed on powdered milk. Many Chinese people believe that the infant formula on sale in their cities is unsafe (following some well- publicised scandals with tragic results) so parents are particularly keen on getting tins of formula that have been brought directly from a western country.

I suggest that she explores the 'Thorntree' travel forum on the Lonely Planet website.

Thanks, she did hear this about baby milk, but the children she is looking after are a bit older than that. She is learning Mandarin, but nothing beats total immmersion for learning a language!
I will get her to have a look at Thorntree.

norm_diploom

blackandwhitebunny wrote: »

We host Chinese pupils at our school every year. The top things they want to take back are baby milk, chocolate and whiskey. Someone from the staff always gets the supermarket run when they have to explain why they can only buy 2 tins of baby milk and that the adults have to buy the whiskey.
Cadbury's chocolate is very popular, as are jelly sweets.

Thank you, that sounds like a perfect shopping list for her! We will give the baby milk issue some thought too.