Why I studied in China

There were many reasons to why I decided to study in China. Here they are:

Learning Chinese

Since going to university I was given the opportunity to study Chinese during my business and marketing degree, the lessons were good but I didn’t feel like I was progressing enough, and I was given the opportunity to go and study at BUCT in Beijing in their Comprehensive Chinese Course for a year, and I jumped at the opportunity. And nowadays many universities in China are being recognized globally, and people always make the assumptions about Chinese education and how hard they push their student, and that’s the challenge that I wanted to take.

Were my feelings the same after I came to China?

Yeah definitely, but living with many students from all over the world, not just Chinese students, it opened my eyes indefinitely, from listening to their stories and their reasons to why they had to, not necessarily a choice, they had to come to China to get this education otherwise they wouldn’t have one, due to potential problems or lack of opportunities in their own countries. What better way to learn the language than to be submerged in the language 24/7 with teachers that start to teach only in Chinese after a short period of time. And having to live your life in Chinese. I developed myself an incredible amount.

China itself

I’d always wanted to come to China, whether it was for traveling, studying or working, and my friends had always joked about me living in China during my Chinese study, and honestly I did imagine myself living there one day! It’s an incredible country, and all of the things you hear about it each day aren’t true and you’ll realize the true China once you arrive here, the culture is absolutely out of this world, it’s something that I’ve never experienced before, it’s absolutely incredible.

Were my feelings the same after I came to China?

Yes, but even more amazing. As I met a whole bunch of people, through students, people I met on a day to day basis, or even met randomly in the street or in the canteens, the people here are amazing and extremely welcoming. I thought the culture would be different to mine from living in the UK, but you can’t understand how vibrant and different it is unless you experience it for yourself. I found myself meeting and talking to incredible people from all over the world in China, people with so many stories, and all of the negative things you hear outside of China is complete rubbish, and you need to see this country for yourself.

The food

If you’re anything like me, then you’re obsessed with Chinese food in your home country. And being from the UK we often had Chinese takeaways from our local restaurants no matter where we were, and I just loved it! And seeing various posts, recipes and pictures of ‘proper’ Chinese food, I couldn’t help but drool at the prospect of going to China. Because let’s face it, the Chinese food back at home (for me the UK), can’t be classed as real proper authentic Beijing/Chinese food because it’s pretty much adapted for foreign tastes, unless you head to the local Chinese restaurants that are just for the Chinese. You’ll be eating like a king before you know it…

Were my feelings the same after I came to China?

Definitely, at points I was kind of sick of eating rice with dishes, but that’s the thing about the food here, you can eat literally anything you want, you’ll find restaurants from your own country, the food in china literally does cater for all. And the food here simply can’t be compared to that of the Chinese food in your home country, it just can’t. It’s in a completely different league, the food and diet is completely different (well it is in Beijing！) I got to the point that I was trying everything and anything I could find, and I probably spent barely anything in the process. In the cities, they have restaurants from all over China, from the different provinces, and the food is just incredible, the flavours, the smells even the look of the food makes you hungry as the waiters bring it by your table. And not only that, but the street food is to die for. Many a days me and my friends after playing football would head over to the local BBQ restaurant, grab a few beers and dine eating BBQ with the locals. The only problem was that when I left China to go back to the UK, I just couldn’t eat the Chinese food here, because it just wasn’t as good! During my time in China, I felt like I spent 90% of the time eating, whether it was breakfast from street stalls, or pizza or dumplings at night. Food was always on my menu, and you’ll find that too!

Traveling:

No matter what country you’re from, you’ve probably seen pictures of China, both from their festivals, the great wall, or simply their food. And being someone that always wanted to travel, I wanted to include this into the reasons to why I wanted to study in China.

Were my feelings the same after I came to China?

Didn’t change a bit. I had so many glorious adventures during my time in China, both by myself and with friends, some examples include going to the great wall in the middle of winter, we were literally the only 2 people on the whole of the great wall, and that was an incredible surreal experience! We went to a cat restaurant, where literally everywhere is surrounded by cats, everything from the sofas, to the walls, and there are cats underneath you, on top of you, on your table, in your bag, everywhere. Other amazing things include in Beijing I was able to see the forbidden city many times, Jingshan park, and also the Olympic park etc. And traveling in China is so simple but yet so beneficial for you, it feels so nice to be part of this incredible country and witness with your own eyes the various aspects that help build the culture and the country as a whole. Other places include the various temples around China and no matter what you’re into, from watching sports to meditating in temples, China has it all for you, that’s what I found.

Personal and professional satisfaction

They often say that china is the place to chase opportunities and to develop yourself.

Were my feelings the same after I came to China?

I really honestly agree with this. I feel that in only a year I changed an incredible amount, both professional and personally, I learnt a new language, I changed my thinking of the world and I started to appreciate things in life more, I realized how lucky many people are in this life, and how unlucky some people are too and that we need to be gracious of it. I learnt a lot during my time in China, I learnt many stories from people along my journey, met a huge range of people from local farmers to people who work in the government in China. And this gave me the opportunity to listen and to take in things that they say and learn more about life than what we hear on the news, especially in China.

So even though it’s a scary thing to move to a new country that maybe you don’t speak the language, just go for it, you’ll only regret it if you don’t try. You’ll love the food, the culture, the people, the smells, the sights, the sounds, and most of all you’ll never want to leave!

The Best and Worst thing about living in China

There are so many good things about living in China, it’s often difficult for people to recall their best ever experience from being in the country, whether they’re here for a short time or a long time period, every single day you can experience something completely new with this fantastic culture and country.

I’d say the best thing about living in China is the experiences that you’re going to have, especially with aspects such as the people, food and the sites that you’ll go and see. There are some fantastic places to see in China, some things that will likely take your breath away as you stand in awe of these things right in front of your eyes, like one of my favorite is the 26-metre-tall Buddha in the middle of the Lama Temple or in fact the Great Wall at Badaling, no matter what you see in China it’ll likely take your breath away.

The food, the food is one of the main talking points of everyone here in China, if you’re talking to someone in China the topics will likely be about food, as it’s such an important part of their culture as they have a vast range of dishes, all of which you need to try your best to try (even the strange things!). You’ll never be hungry in China, from breakfast to night, you’ll likely be stuffing your face full of the finest breakfast dishes, dumplings, rice dishes, hot pot and duck, the only problem is that you’ll never want a Chinese takeaway in your own country when you return, because you’ll miss this food too much!

But my favorite thing of China is the people, the people are what make China China. They’re extremely hospitable people, no matter where you are in the country, whether you’re in the middle of a bustling city or wandering around a tiny little village, you’ll probably have a few stares but nothing menacingly, they’re just happy that you’ve come to their country to have a look around. Throughout my whole time in China I’ve never once had a problem with anyone, everyone’s so smiley, helpful and warming to welcome you to the country. I’ve had many random people talk to me on the streets, ask me questions about my life, where I’m from etc. even when I was part of one of those ‘scams’ in China where someone takes you to a local tea shop for some very expensive local tea, I wasn’t even bothered and it was actually a really nice experience, because the woman paid for it, because I was polite to her and she wanted me to enjoy my first experiences in China, she even made sure that I had enough money for the entrance ticket into the Forbidden City and if I needed some help buying it she could do it for me!

Many a time in China I was invited out for dinner by the Chinese, or to various people’s houses to take part within their Spring Festival celebrations, of which I was extremely grateful for. At each point in China, every single Chinese person, whether they can speak your language or not, will try their best to help you, no matter what it’s for. That’s what makes people want to come back time after time.

Going onto what I’d say the ‘worst’ part of China is, I couldn’t even give you something solid, there’s not a lot you can say bad at all, everyone works so hard, everyone’s so welcoming, the food is amazing, the sights are amazing. The only hassle when being in China is the limited access to the internet over here, like accessing Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. but even then, after not using it like a daily routine as you would in your own country, you just get used to using the Chinese version, and you even just realize that you don’t miss any kind of social media at all, and it soon becomes an unnecessary part of your life, of which I deleted most of them as I realized I didn’t miss any of them at all.

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My Funny Experience When I Study in China

Here’s a story from one of our colleagues who studied in China for a year in Beijing, to give you an insight into what his experiences were!

Experiencing true Spring Festivities:

In February when it was absolutely freezing, the world celebrated Spring Festival had come around, and during this time in Beijing around 9 million people had left the city to go back to their hometowns to celebrate the festival with their families. I felt like I was the only person left in Beijing! You can’t imagine the difference in the city, the majority of places were closed, and as it was a kind of winter break, lots of the international students had also gone home, but I decided to stay and see China during this period. Beijing was like a ghost town, most restaurants, shops were kind of half open you could say, they opened for part of the day and also only after the first two days of the festival had passed. Walking the streets in Beijing and being the only person on the whole street was an extremely surreal feeling, there wasn’t even any cars on the road apart from the occasional taxi.

I’d done my research coming up to the Spring Festival, and found that the major parks in Beijing would be open as hosts to Temple Fairs, I wasn’t too sure as to what a Temple Fair was the parks that were considered the best (Like the Lama Temple Park, and Longtan Park) didn’t actually have a temple in them! I’d decided to head to the Lama Temple Park Temple Fair which was considered the biggest and best with one of my African friends who too had never seen or even heard of these festivities before. When we got there we couldn’t believe our eyes, it was like every single person in Beijing had decided to come to this temple fair, and if you’re there yourself you can see why.

It was a completely different feel than anything else I’ve ever experienced in China, everyone was happy, laughing, joking and the smell of cooking BBQ hit you as soon as you got into the park, oh and also the crowds. There were so many people! The festival had a variety of entertainment, like food stalls, arcades, traditional dances, traditional ceremonies (where they carry someone around in a kind of box), music, and they even had a game area which was full to the brim of items that you could win.

We were there for hours, and I’d definitely recommend going yourself, but just prepare some warm clothes and bring enough money for food, as they also have a huge amount of stalls where you can buy gifts that have been brought from around China, and this also includes the food. The food was absolutely amazing! You’ll definitely feel different about China after visiting these fairs and understand how important family and friends time is to the Chinese people. The vibe at the fair is something that I’ll never forget.