Student Services
Student's Experiences
Scott participated in the Shandong Summer School.
On 31 st July I left England from Heathrow and nearly 30 hours later I arrived in Jinan, my home for the next 4 weeks. We were greeted by our Chinese hosts at the airport who drove us to the accommodation. The next day the other students arrived and we got to know the campus and the city around us. We were each assigned a Chinese buddy who could speak some English and was a student at Shandong University and they were fantastic because they showed us the best places to eat and the best places to go. They were always very helpful and very enthusiastic and were genuinely thrilled to have us there. Whenever we had free time they came over and we all went out together whether it was shopping, to the zoo or to play basketball. In Jinan there aren't many western tourists so the local Chinese don't see many foreigners and they were always excited when we walked into their restaurants and shops.
For the first few days we were enrolled on a programme called 'Shandong International Youth Culture Tour' which was a local government organised event that promoted and showcased China and especially Shandong province to all the international students in Jinan that summer. This included students from India, Bolivia, Germany, South Korea and our group which consisted of English, Spanish, French, Argentinean, South Korean, Japanese and American. Some people had studied some Chinese before but the majority were complete beginners. During this 'Culture Tour' we were treated to elaborate meals and performances by talented young Chinese who demonstrated their art, music and culture in a fantastic show. The highlights were the Kung Fu and acrobatics demonstrations which were unbelievable. Also we were given tours of the local attractions such as Baotu Spring Park and Daming Lake. These are the beautiful parks and natural springs which Jinan is famous for.
After all the events on this tour finished we began our routine of lessons in the mornings and free time in the afternoons and evenings. This was broken up by a series of field trips on the weekends. We shared these trips with a group of about 20 students from Augsburg University in Germany who were participating in a programme similar to ours. This meant our group grew to about 40 people for the trips to Qingdao (famed for it's beaches and beer), Tai Shan (one of the 5 holy mountains in China), Qu Fu (birthplace of Confucius, extremely influential ancient philosopher whose teachings were central to Chinese culture for well over 1000 years) and Zhou Cun (an ancient commercial town with loads of craft shops and plenty to see). Qingdao was host to all the sailing for the Beijing Olympics last year and is a very developed city. It has some beaches and a massive beer factory. Qingdao beer is the most famous in China and everybody knows of it. Tai Shan is a beautiful mountain with steps (1000's) all the way to the top where a small village awaits complete with Buddhist temples and a hotel where we stopped for a buffet lunch before taking the cable car back down again. The climbing was hard work as there were so many steps and the sun was very hot but it was worth it for reaching the top. The views were fantastic and lunch tasted especially good after all that walking. Qu Fu was an ancient town with huge museums dedicated to Confucius' old home and subsequent temple of him and also his family cemetery where all his descendants are buried. Even today many people in Qu Fu are descendants of Confucius.
On one of our spare evenings in Jinan we were taken to see a show which was described as a Beijing Opera with acrobatics. This turned out to be a spellbinding performance of acrobatics and circus style entertainment. The highlight was sixteen girls climbing onto one bicycle which continued circling on the stage. Other acts included plate spinning and hat juggling. It was a really great show and one of the highlights of my trip.
After all these trips and plenty of studying Chinese at Shandong University we went to Beijing to finish the trip with a 3 day tour. This was an eye opener as Beijing is a lot more developed than any other places we had visited. The Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace are in sharp contrast to the skyscrapers and Olympic stadiums which surround them. It is truly a fantastic place. I stayed for an extra 7 days after and got to see a lot more of the city and there are some remarkable things like a 20m tall 4m wide wooden Buddha made from one tree trunk and the parks in Beijing are beautiful. Many provide fantastic views of the ancient city centre. The best things about China are the people and the food. The variety of food on offer in China is unreal. Each City has it's own speciality and the variations are surprising. In Beijing the Peking duck and dumplings were delicious and in Jinan there was a spicy chicken stir fry with peanuts which is served everywhere. As well as this there are a lot of soups and rice dishes and every kind of meat you can think of. I ate goat soup. I wasn't brave enough to eat scorpion or snake in the Beijing snack markets. The Chinese people are ridiculously friendly, they will gladly go out of their way to help you out even if they don't speak English. They love their country and they were desperate to show it off in the best possible way which made for a very interesting trip.
I'm definitely going back to China!