ICEF Student Dmitry Filippov: My Exchange Trip to China Has Been a Unique Intercultural Experience
Dmitry Filippov, who is in his fourth year of BSc Economics and Finance, was excused from classes in the campus in Pokrovsky Boulevard for a period of three months. The reason was his exchange studies with Shanghai University under the three-month exchange programme between schools in Russia and China. Here’s Dmitry’s impressions and takeaways from his experience of international communication.
About Shanghai University and study programme
This international exchange programme spanned three months and was delivered in Shanghai University, located 30 minutes away from the center of the city known as one of China’s largest. Founded in 1922, Shanghai University is now one of the largest universities in China, its three campuses taking up more than 200 hectares.
Shanghai University offers 12 academic disciplines. Six of its subject areas are listed in the Essential Science Indicators (ESI). This university boasts a huge collection of books: its two libraries contain more than 3 million volumes.
My program of study there was in International Trade. It offered a wide array of courses, with access to those taught by the Faculty of Economics and SILC Business School, the latter holding the AACSB accreditation. The courses that I chose were two – International Trade Policy and Practice, and International Business Management.
The first one, International Trade Policy, was, indeed, similar to the International Economics course taught in ICEF, but not in all respects. While in Shanghai University, in parallel – because I had the access to recordings of the seminars and lectures – I was able to follow my ICEF study programme, doing homework and group projects and presentations required in ICEF. So, I’m going back to ICEF with almost nothing missed.
The instruction was fully in English. I found the courses to be highly informative, with lots of new things to learn. New was also the delivery of classes: in Chinese universities, a class consists of a lecture and a seminar, spanning about 2.5 hours with several breaks. When presenting new material, professors tend to ask questions to stimulate discussion. Course assignments are done almost always in groups, with very little to be done by students on their own.
The size of my group in each course was ten. Most of the people I studied together with were native Chinese students who chose to be taught in English, as well as Russian-speaking students from CIS countries. Some were from Italy, Argentina, and African countries.
From my subjective standpoint, the exchange students from HSE do stand out academically amongst other exchange students in Shanghai University. This could be judged particularly by the quality of presentations they delivered during their course of training there.
Homework was little, compared to how much we get in ICEF. To succeed in a course in Shanghai University, one has to attend all classes, contribute to group discussions, and make presentations. If a student misses 3 or more lectures during the semester, they automatically get a fail. Also, passing a course requires writing a paper on a topic to the student’s choice. The grade for it accounts for the major part of the final grade for the course.
Accommodation
I started to search for places to live in Shanghai one month before going there. It was essential for me to have a place where I could cook for myself. In the end I found a flat near the campus, and, as it turned out later, my decision to rent it was right.
I found accommodation while I was still in Moscow. My friends from school and university – some of them have been to China more than once, and some are still there completing their bachelor’s studies – they prompted some apartment search websites with decent offers. Once in Shanghai, it only took three days to walk through those apartments and make final choice.
With online rental apps and services, finding a place in Shanghai is quite a fast and convenient process. Lease agreements are signed electronically. The app tells you exactly how much electricity and water you’re using right now, allowing you to top up the balance online.
I hadn’t encountered any housing problems throughout my stay in Shanghai. Besides, students are free to seek accommodation from Shanghai University – in single rooms on campus – but their cost is just a little less than that of the off-campus housing.
The wonders of China
China may seem totally weird at first. It, and entire Asia, is a completely different world with its own culture. Those who want to change their perspective should definitely go there.
Food delivery, marketplaces, everything works in a different way. Most of the vehicles are electric, as are the scooters and bicycles, bringing Shanghai’s air quality to much better levels compared to the early 2000s.
The commuter trains, as we know them in Moscow, equate in China to metro trains in terms of speed: nearly all Shanghai’s commuter trains are high-speed, going as fast as 360 km per hour on some intervals.
Another unusual thing is 24-hour self-service stores. To enter them, customers use their smartphones to scan a QR code on the door. After they have picked the products and paid for them using a self-service terminal or the app they used to enter, the door will open for them to leave. There’s no way of getting out of the store with your purchases unpaid.
Travelling in China without speaking Chinese?
Unlike other exchange students, I communicated more with local students, because I speak Chinese. I started learning it in school and continued in my first year in ICEF. To me, the idea of studying in China and building a career involving partnerships with Asian countries sounds promising.
It’s pretty easy to use Chinese in everyday situations, although sometimes I still resorted to translators. If you’re able to speak basic Chinese words and phrases, you are very likely to be understood. The biggest problem is understanding spoken Chinese. The Chinese dialects vary greatly, making it difficult to understand spoken speech.
The majority of people in China don’t speak English well, if at all. Those who do usually work in international hotels, European or American chain restaurants, tourist facilities, and most visited shopping malls.
If you are a tourist in a fairly large city in China, you are unlikely to experience any major difficulty using English, but it’s highly advisable you learn some Chinese for everyday communication.
Power places
The natural wonders of China were what I was keen to explore most, so the first place I went to, at the earliest opportunity, was Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. It inspired filmmaker James Cameron’s vision for that fictional land in Avatar. Amid its stunningly beauty you begin to radiate a whole new energy and feel connection with nature. The Zhangjiajie Mountains reminded me of Lena Pillars in Yakutia. My best memory from that trip is climbing the 999 steps leading to the top of Tianmen, the mountain famous for its Heaven’s Gates and Stairway to Heaven. It’s not an easy climb but it brings you to a truly powerful place at the top – the Buddhist temple that whispers an ineffable feeling of tranquility. Nowhere else have I experienced such genuine quiet. This is a place of power I definitely want to return to.
My second trip was to Anji in Zhejiang Province. The local social networks describe it as “the home of Chinese Altai’. It caught my eye and I decided to go see it for myself. In the riverside glamping I chose as a stopover, I happened to be the first Russian tourist to come in the three years of its existence. They kindly offered me to stay in the cottage instead of the tent I booked.
Anji impressed me with its nature. Its landscape does have resemblance to the Russian forests, as we know them, apart from its bamboo-covered hills. In the evening, each guest was invited to make a bonfire. I couldn’t say ‘no’ to such an offer and we all had fried bread and jacket potatoes for a meal.
Surviving the typhoon
Another strong impression was witnessing Shanghai surviving its strongest typhoon in 75 years, with wind speeds of 120 kph in the city center and nearly 180 kph in the coastal areas. Shanghai is home to the world’s third tallest skyscraper, Shanghai Tower. Its top floor houses a damping system designed to maintain structural stability and prevent the Tower from falling. It was visibly oscillating 1 m to counter the typhoon’s force. In the footage of those twists and turns, it’s incredible how the tower resisted. At other times, the damper is a tourist attraction offering light shows.
Notably, it didn’t take Shanghai long to undo the damage from that raw power. The typhoon had uprooted trees and knocked out power in some of the hardest hit areas of Shanghai, but none of that damage was even visible next morning. If you were to compare the Shanghai on the day before the typhoon with the Shanghai on the day after, you wouldn’t notice any difference.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the management and the international office of ICEF for making this exchange happen and helping me along the way. My exchange trip to China has been a unique intercultural experience. It will definitely benefit my future career.