Ekaterina Kologrivaya: China: Student’s Mobility

I went to China with no grand expectations and plans.

As it says, 无为而无不为, do nothing, because everything has already been done for you. This trip to China supposed to be the third one for me, and, I definitely was looking forward to returning to rice and chili, but I knew that too much hope is not worth it (life can be disappointed, you know). The only planned thing was my curriculum, and I wanted to stick to it. So how was it? We lived in one of the most comfortable, beautiful and culturally rich cities in China, went to Hong Kong, Macau and Guilin, studied at one of the most creative universities in Guangzhou, got an awesome schedule, and were able to visit both language and major courses.

Half of the subjects selected by me, for some classical Chinese reasons, could not be chosen (the teacher was not in the mood, the other went to his province, the third one did not understand how he got into the schedule, and there was no fourth professor, because “four” is unhappy number). But still the program turned out to be extremely useful and interesting, and I was lucky enough to study both the history of Ancient China and modern environmental legislation and policy of PRC.

What was really unexpected is that Cantonese cuisine is sweet, and you cannot find chili in the dishes, the food is not spicy at all, what kind of China is that? Still, I managed to survive…

By the way, the canteens at the University are excellent, I highly recommend eggplants 茄子 and potatoes 土豆 (these are two different dishes) and a double portion of rice, on holidays you can add the garlic “green thing” 青菜.

There is also a stunning library with a cafeteria inside. We held classes there, did homework, slept, read books (which you can safely take and carry around the halls without a library card), all in all, spent most of our evenings there, without any regrets!

Also! There are a lot of bicycles on the territory, and the whole University island is covered with bike paths. I never paid for the bicycle, as you can find an open one, and I was too lazy to register in the app, but the price is really low, so I highly recommend using it.

University, food, interests, bicycles... I hope, that’s enough for you and for me. Ah, yes, the people are super nice and kind, in short, typical southerners, whom I just adore. Many of them, however, “do not really learn, and play games and want to build a business”, but it was important only for the teacher of Chinese foreign trade, and we, personally, have nothing against that.

I’m really grateful for the internship to HSE! And I cannot find better words to describe my feelings, just simple 千秋万岁.