Pre-flight
Monday (24/08) was literally my last day at the Tsinghua university campus. It was an emotional day, but the way I spent it was a nice way to wrap up the incredible eight weeks I spent here.
In the morning I went to the local supermarket to buy as many strange dried (for ease of transport) China-specific foods as possible, for example, green tea flavoured Oreos, green tea flavoured bread, green tea, etc.
While having lunch, I stumbled upon someone from my floor in the FIT building. We had a great conversation about my time in China as per usual. He had lived in China for almost eight years so he was completely fluent in Mandarin on a professional level. It made me slightly jealous how he was able to have loud, energetic conversations with locals across the street! We also discussed his research, which was apparently about analysing the genre of different Chinese operas. I was offered to make contributions to and proofread his paper, since it was returned to him after submission with a large number of changes to be made.
Returning back to my dorm, I finally had the chance to meet who would be living in the room next to mine. He was a French-born Chinese student, who was at Tsinghua for the first time. It was a shame that I was only able to meet him on the day that I was due to leave the country, but I told him everything useful that I learnt during my time here and we exchanged WeChats (how else do you describe the process of scanning someone else's WeChat QR code?). I also offered him some green tea.
I spent most of the afternoon packing, and after a few hours I decided I should bring my big camera out one last time to take images of the campus. The weather just happened to be great on this day, with very little pollution to worry about.
Like almost every other time I left my room, I was asked if I could take some pictures with some random girls from the university, "since I was foreign".
In the evening I watched the freshmen who were undergoing their compulsory military training. Speaking to a student who I spotted cruising around on his skateboard, I was told that the training was only compulsory for students originally from mainland China, and not for foreign students. Although this is quite a controversial opinion, I honestly think that making it compulsory for foreigners may actually help to give them a taste of Chinese culture upon arrival to the university. Although one of the procedure's primary purposes is for discipline, the students end up developing strong relationships with others undergoing the training.
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| I stole the guy's skateboard for this picture. |
Departure
After dinner, I realised that after all my interactions in the day, my flight was in four hours and that I had not checked-out or finished packing. Not good.
By some unknown force of nature, I somehow managed to pack everything I needed in my suitcase, breaking my Poundland-purchased scales in the process so I had no idea whether my luggage was within the limit. I checked out, received my deposit, returned my keys, and hopped into a taxi to the Beijing Capital Airport at Terminal 3, arriving with just under two hours before my flight.
While queueing up for the baggage check-in, I met a cool German-born Indian guy who was studying at the Beijing Institute of Technology for a Summer school course in the Mandarin language. We discussed our many difficult experiences during our stay in China, with him having an especially hard time since he was required to renew his X1 visa, but he could only do this in his home country, which was why he was getting this plane to fly back to Germany.
Flight
The journey back was difficult to say the least. I really underestimated the distance between China and the UK and the exhaustion that would result from making the 20+ hour ride. I managed to watch a few films (unfortunately not in first class this time!) and was met by my sister before catching the final bus home in London, which I am of course hugely grateful for.
Reflection
It really was hard for me to leave China, after such a challenging but overall positive experience. I learnt a truly great deal and would happily return to China a second time. I feel that even after two months, I had not integrated as much as I wanted to, but I was nevertheless at a comfortable level with dealing with locals even with my very limited Mandarin.
I feel that for me to return, it must be for the purpose of work, as China is such a strongly competitive and powerful country. Arriving in the country for sightseeing but not contributing in any way with purpose seems like a complete waste of time. Being at the centre of a place like this reinforced the fact that anything that I do in the UK, someone somewhere in China has probably done it already and to a much higher level. Living in the Far East where the sun rises seven hours earlier may have something to do with this! I learnt that this was something even told to students in high school about those living in Western compared to Eastern China.
I now know that in terms of looking at my own progression, it isn't enough to just look at myself and my surrounding country (UK). I need to aim to be competitive on an international rather than domestic level. The Chinese really do struggle hard for success and are simply on another level to the UK from what I saw. China is a superpower as it is rightfully described by many. The experience has also strongly motivated me to study Mandarin in the coming academic year, as I believe it would make the it far more easier to get things done if I were to return to China, and of course due to the overall importance of knowing the language.
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