Settling in & Campus Life (Latifa)
你们好! My name is Latifa, I’m 18 years old from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire and am a scholar on the CISS scholarship to Tianjin.
Welcome to the first blog about life in China. This month’s focus is on settling in to life in China. The journey was around 12 hours (10 hour direct flight, 2 hour bus journey from Beijing to Tianjin). We had a 7 hour flight delay, so we spent most of our time taking long walks around the airport, and sleeping!
Moving to China is an adventure like no other. As soon as we stepped onto campus , we were left astonished by the amazing architecture. The mix of modern buildings and traditional Chinese charm was appealing on the eye. It’s a great place to kickstart your university career, but it is a lot to get used to. When we got to Tianjin Normal University, we were immediately greeted with warm smiles from the teachers here. We spent the first few days exploring the campus (which is massive!) and making friends with other 留学生 （international students) and Chinese students. We also had a proficiency test to do on one of our first days here, to sort us into classes representative of our mandarin levels.
The language barrier was made apparent as soon as we were out and about on campus. To be honest, ordering food was really tricky at the start because of my poor mandarin, but patience is key! I would recommend learning basic mandarin before coming so that you can get around easier. We usually go to the second canteen because all of my Chinese friends have told me that it is the best canteen (I agree!). There is such a wide variety of food available on campus, so there’s definitely something that would suit everyone’s palates. We also have a Pizza Hut, kfc, 7/11 and Starbucks on campus!
Another thing that I really love about China is the convenience of everything. You can order everything and anything from mini programs on WeChat or shopping apps such as 拼多多 or 淘宝。 I also love the abundance of bikes everywhere. In China, it’s very common to cycle everywhere. Anyone can rent a bike and it gets charged by the hour. I use Alipay to unlock the bikes, and it usually only costs me 1.5 yuan per ride (roughly 16p).
When it comes to life in Tianjin, the city has so much to offer. Exploring the street food is a must! My favourite so far has to be dumplings or skewers. I could eat them for the rest of my life! Using public transport is quite cheap and efficient. I have taken the metro to Heping Lu (the massive shopping centre), and my ticket was less than a pound! The metro was very clean and seemed like something out of a futuristic movie. Tianjin is massive, with a population of 14 million (almost triple of Scotland’s population). This means that there is so much to explore! My first few weeks in China have been nothing short of amazing, and I can’t wait to see what the next few months will be like!
