Beijing’s an urban jungle, and in any jungle we need tools to survive and thrive. As urban jungle dwellers, we’ve managed to blend practicality with style, resulting in the modern bag. Here, form meets function, and what looks stylish and fashionable on the outside contains all our essential survival tools on the inside. Inspired by this, we ask expats each week, “What’s in your bag?” and get insights into which essentials they keep on hand when out and about in the capital city.
My name is Francesca Hanshing Urra. I was born in Chile and I’ve been living in Beijing since 2011, the year I decided to become a business developer in China. I met the love of my life in 2012 at a “Kisses for Charity” event in Beijing, and now he is not only my husband but also my partner-in-cream, helping me with my business endeavor.
My main commercial activity is international trading and professional sourcing. Taking advantage of my sourcing skills, I started searching for raw materials for cosmetic use in China and elsewhere to keep a responsible and healthy skin routine adapted to my busy yet eclectic lifestyle. Velveteen’s Secret Potions 曼君指葳尔汀 (VSP) was conceived in 2014 as handmade skincare, prototyping, and customizing products for body care using 100% active ingredients. In order to keep developing VSP’s business model, in 2020 I opened a showroom called “Sacramentos Wellness Incorporated 至尊绒化工坊” in Dongcheng District, a retail project with the objective of exhibiting, testing and retailing bulk and boutique items, with VSP as our flagship brand getting ready for the Chinese Market.
I bought this bag 2 years ago while we were renovating our store (due to the pandemic, our workers never came back, so we had to take care of the renovations ourselves). This bag is a heavy-duty bag for construction tools, 100% super thick cotton, cargo color. Maybe it’s not the fanciest bag in the market, but it’s very efficient in terms of space, durable and washable They’re also brand-able!
PS: We have them available at our store *wink
I carry the following items:
Passport, keys, silk mask, 3 cellphones (in the picture there’s only 2 because I’m using the third one to take the pictures), bank transaction gadgets, sunglasses, and my “El Menjunjero”.
In the branding process for Velveteen’s Secret Potions, instead of calling the products “cosmetic” or ” body products” I call them “potions and menjunjes” (both trademarked). “menjunjes” (pronounced “menhoonhe”) is a latino word that means “natural ointment or remedy”, so el menjunjunjero is the bag which carries all the menjunjes, which in this case is VSP’s most iconic products.
In my #Menjunjero bag I keep all the small items in tin containers that I’ve reused from lozenge candies.
Want to share your Beijing survival tools with us? Shoot us an email at editor@beijing-kids.com, message our official Jingkids WeChat account (ID: beijing-kids), or leave a comment below!
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Images: Courtesy of Fran Hanshing
