Hi everyone! My first week here in Shenzhen has been an amazing experience! China may be thousands of miles away from Scotland in terms of distance, but in terms of culture - China is a million miles away! It is so completely different here - I love it! It is fascanating.

My first day here was a very easy one, my colleagues Maggie, Dan and Jack came to my apartment to pick me up at around noon - they told me to relax in the morning because I had been so late arriving the night before after the flight delay. A big help with the jet lag! On the second day I had to go to a local hospital to get a medical check - all IBM employees have to go through this here. It was a challenge to say the least, no one spoke any english, no one knew what I was doing there and everyone was very curious as to why there was a 6ft 2 'westerner' in the room. I seem to attract a lot of attention here as the Chinese are very small in stature, I on the other hand am not!

I have had meetings with the managers and I am now clear on the task in hand. In Shenzhen, IBM manufacture their mid-range server, which is the highest selling server IBM have. My role will be looking into how the inventory of parts for this server is monitored and controlled. Basically since records began at IBM in Shenzhen, they have been failing their inventory targets, and they hope I am the guy with the answers...no pressure then eh? I have been shadowing one of the inventory specialists all week and I really have a lot to learn. IBM have a lot of abbreviations they use that are specific to them in terms of their inventory, so I have been trying to learn as many of these as possible to try and gain a good understanding of the overall processes. I certainly have a busy 8 weeks ahead of me and I am looking forward to the challenge!

Chinese people work in a completely different style to what we may be used to back home. They think about things in a completely different way and it shows in all areas of their society. An example I can give is lunchtime at the office - lunch is from 11.30am to 1.30pm and after they have eaten, they will come back to the office, lights go out and they go for a sleep! I couldn't believe it the first time I seen it, a few of my colleagues even have fold out beds they use. To us it seems crazy, can you imagine doing that in the UK? But to the guys here it is normal. they have a completely different way of life and I am loving the experience!

On the social side, it has been fantastic. I bought a Chinese sim card when I got here, and since I got it, my phone has never stopped with the guys at the office texting me to make arrangements for the evenings or the weekends! I've been quite taken aback by this given I have only been here less than a week. Last night, three of the managers took me out to show me around the area that I live in. It was good fun, they taught me all the do's and don'ts so to speak in this area - some invaluable information was exchanged!

For the weekend, the guys in the office had been asking me what I wanted to do, so in the end they suggested I try having a massage here. It was my first massage and it really was amazing! My body feels brand new! Afterwards, one of the guys invited me out to dinner, so with a new found spring in my step, I went off and met up with him.

It's been a great week here, looking forward to the next one!