My work took me to my beloved Beijing, to the city where my Chinese adventure began ten years ago and to which I have unforgettable memories of the 5 months I spent there. IModel, a modeling agency from Shanghai, with whom I have been working since the very beginning, when they were still located in Beijing under the name Absolut models, before moving to Shanghai and renaming, informed me that they had a job for me that perfectly suited my profile. It was the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition, in short – a car show. The job spanned over 12 days, but it coincided with the Labor Day holiday at the beginning of May, so I had enough days off to confirm the offer.
It was the first time I worked at a car show, and even before the start I was aware that the work could be a bit boring, but in the end it turned out that it was anything but that. Just going to Beijing offered some adrenaline and action. Just at the time of departure, an orange alert was issued for the vast majority of provinces in China due to heavy rainfall and gusty winds. The agent informed me that three of their female models were joining me on the way to Beijing, namely Mila from Russia and Alice and Nayara from Brazil, with whom I then shared an apartment for the entire 12 days, as long as the work lasted. I didn’t know the girls from before and the agreement was to meet in front of a certain gate number of Hongqiao airport, since we all had the same flight. It was a strange set of circumstances that evening that two flights were scheduled for Beijing 20 minutes apart, and even from the same gate. Our flight was scheduled as the second one. I was already in front of the gate, where I was waiting for the flight and the girls, when I got a message that the employee at the checking point had for some unknown reason assigned tickets for the first flight to Beijing to the girls – who came to the airport together and separately from me – so twenty minutes earlier than mine. We didn’t panic and boarded different planes, the girl on the first plane to Beijing and I on the second. Somehow I still haven’t met the girls – they were already on the plane and I was probably in the toilet when they were boarding. The weather forecast held and what followed was one of the most turbulent flights I have ever experienced.
I was relieved when I felt the solid ground of the Beijing airport, but the evening was far from over. The girls were less fortunate than me. Because of the weather conditions, the pilot of their plane decided to make an emergency landing in Qingdao, 600 kilometers away. It was already around eleven in the evening, and work was scheduled to start at nine in the morning. It was already known that the girls would not be there on time, as all flights were canceled for that day later. They slept in a hotel near the airport in Qingdao, and the next day at four in the morning they had to go to the airport again and take the first scheduled flight to Beijing. Surprisingly, in the end, they were only two hours late for the rehearsal, which started at nine o’clock. The evening on that chaotic day was not over for me either. The rented apartment we stayed in was about 40 kilometers from the airport, actually located in another province besides Beijing, Hebei Province. The agent cited the lack of accommodation as the reason for this, while other nearby accommodation, which were still available, did not allow foreigners. The reason was probably also the price, but let’s leave it at that. I ordered a local taxi and drove off. On the way to Hebei, there were such heavy downpours that the driver had to stop at least three times because it was impossible to see even 5 meters in front of him through the front window of the car. Roads were flooded with water over half a meter in some areas. The drive was almost two hours long, and at the destination the driver added his own, when he wanted to charge more than the taxi meter showed. When I got out of the taxi, my feet were completely soaked after just a few steps. I followed the agent’s instructions, found the entrance of the building, took the elevator to the 14th floor, found the correct apartment number and unlocked the apartment with the code. The apartment had all the windows wide open with a strong wind blowing through the apartment, it was cold. When I turned on the lights, I saw moving black dots, but these were not apparitions after a busy day, they were cockroaches that were present practically everywhere in the apartment – in every room, not to mention the kitchen and bathroom. There were really many of them. I chose the smallest of the three rooms that were available. It was almost three in the morning. Before going to bed, to top it all off, the electricity went out, just as I was in the shower. When I was finally in bed I tried not to think about my little black crawling “roommates” and I fell asleep.
The weather soon got nicer and the days passed quickly. The girls were, despite their youth, the oldest was 22 years old, very mature, responsible, talkative and a lot of fun. They were great. We laughed a lot, talked and eventually became good friends. During our stay, there were fewer and fewer cockroaches in the apartment, which may have been helped by the anti-cockroach product that I bought the very next day after arriving. After a couple of days, I didn’t see them in my room anymore. The neighborhood on the edge of Hebei province, where we stayed, was completely different from the Shanghai, we are used to – more traditional, life seems to move slower, the food was even better in my opinion, and the people were more friendly and approachable. I really liked it there. Every day we had to take a taxi early in the morning to the exhibition center in Beijing, 35 kilometers away, and back in the late afternoon. The traffic was a real disaster, so driving in one direction could take up to two hours, especially in the morning. In the direction of Beijing, at the crossing from Hebei to the Beijing region, we were stopped and examined by the police every day at the checkpoint. Every day we were sent to the local police office, where they reviewed all the information and asked questions about where we were going, why we were here, where we were living, and how long we were staying. After a few days, the policemen at all the checkpoints on the various roads leading to Beijing already recognized us, but they still followed the rules every day and stopped us and invited us to the office, which made the journey even longer.
For the first two days, as long as the rehearsal lasted, the work was quite intense, as we had to master the choreography on the stage. The main event then lasted for the remaining 10 days. There were twelve models in total, six foreign and six Chinese models, of which only I and one Chinese were male. Before each of our performances, a four-member band also performed. The exhibition, which was of enormous proportions, featured the latest car models and prototypes from all over the world. The size of the event was also matched by the number of visitors, who filled the exhibition halls in large numbers every day since the opening. Me, as a not-so-big car enthusiast, I didn’t open a single car in the entire twelve days, let alone sit in it. We performed five times a day, every half hour, excluding lunchtime, namely at 11:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30 and 4:30. One show included a musical performance with the band and the song “Go With More” , us walking and dancing on stage and finally taking pictures with the visitors next to the cars. which we represented. It was like that in all 10 days.
The main song, I mentioned above, was played at every show and rehearsal and accompanied by the band jumping up and down to its rhythms and pretending to sing it. After listening to it countless times, the song got stucked in our hearts, probably forever. We all love it! Please, listen to it in the attachment below…
Despite the fact that the work was quite routine, it was a very nice and fun experience for me, especially because of the people I spent time with every day in the exhibition center – agents, models, musicians, hostesses, choreographers, make-up and hair artists, creative directors and, of course, enthusiastic and friendly visitors, with whom we took at least a thousand pictures and selfies. Beijing and Hebei, it was a blast!
