Shanghai Summer School Trip

I was given the incredible opportunity to live and study in China. Whilst I was there the magnitude of this opportunity was not lost on me and I embraced every chance presented to me to make the most out of my time there. 

After 24 hours of travelling we arrived into Shanghai Pudong airport and were met by a number of student ambassadors at Shanghai Maritime University, who were incredibly accommodating and helpful. These ambassadors were honestly some of the kindest people I have ever encountered, and I would later develop strong relationships with each of them. On the journey to the university itself, we were given a program of our month ahead, which seemed absolutely jam-packed! My roommate Megan and I were thrilled for what was to come; we had bonded quickly over the course of our Mandarin classes together and had decided that we would be more than happy to share a room together.

At the opening ceremony we were formally welcomed to the university by the Vice Chancellor. At this ceremony we met a number of other international students who had come from Norway, Denmark, and Germany. That evening, all the international students we were treated to a meal with at a nearby restaurant. Over the course of the meal we got to know the other students who would spend the month with us and became accustomed with the Chinese cuisine. The student ambassadors we were joined by were surprised that we had never tried duck brain and encouraged us to give it a go, which we did cautiously!

The next day we attended our first Mandarin lesson, which I ended up arriving late to having got lost in the huge 48 square kilometre campus! Over the course of the month with our mandarin teacher we found she did not speak much English but nevertheless was a dedicated and effective teacher. In each lesson we found opportunities to enlighten our teacher in English words and phrases whilst she taught us, meaning it was a learning curve for both the students and teacher. In the afternoons we attended lessons that covered Chinese culture as a whole. Some of my favourites were kung fu, traditional painting, Chinese clothing, tea making and marine exploration.

As a part of our studies of Chinese culture we were treated to a few trips while we were there, one included a tour of the city of Shanghai. In shanghai we were given a tour of the French Concession, the World Financial Centre and even got a chance to watch the Shanghai Acrobatic show. On another trip we were taken to Hangzou, this trip was my favourite, here we were took a boat ride on the infamous West Lake and hired bikes to cycle around it.

Before I knew it our time in Shanghai had come to an end and when we left fur our flight all of us students shared an emotional goodbye with the student ambassadors. During my time on the trip I learnt a great deal, not only about China and Chinese culture, but also about myself. The experience I had in Shanghai was one I will never forget; I truly hope to be able to visit China in the future. The trip had such an effect on me that I have volunteered to help when the Shanghai exchange students come to visit Plymouth.