Journey of discovery begins

TAIYUAN — When Alansi Mohammed saw the stretching terrain of the Loess Plateau through the porthole again, he was so excited that his heart almost "jumped out".

"It has been three years. I finally made it back to my second hometown," he says.

The Yemeni student is majoring in e-commerce at Shanxi University in Taiyuan city, capital of North China's Shanxi province. He had returned home for winter vacation in January 2020.

China downgraded its management of COVID-19 and facilitated the smooth and orderly cross-border travel of Chinese and foreign nationals in early January. As the new semester approaches, many international students are flocking back to China to restart campus life with excitement and hope.

Data from China's Ministry of Education showed that nearly 500,000 students from 196 countries and regions studied in China in 2018. For the past three years, those who had returned to their home countries had to take classes online to continue their studies.

"After I was informed that I could come back, the school provided meticulous assistance, while the entry procedures were easy, and so the whole trip was smooth," says Alansi Mohammed, who believed China's adjustment of entry-exit policies could greatly promote the resumption of global personnel exchanges.

Although Tran Mai Huong is set to graduate from the International Business School of Zhejiang University in East China's Zhejiang province in June, the Vietnamese student has never been to China. She plans to visit China to prepare for her graduation, and also to learn as much as possible about Chinese customs and culture.

To welcome the large number of returning international students, many universities have started to provide relevant services.

Peking University offered visa agency services during the winter vacation, including visa application acceptance, collecting passports with visas already issued, consulting and answering questions. In addition, the university has announced the enrollment prospectus for the Chinese Language Summer School this year, which is to offer a variety of offline courses.

Surprising changes

Indonesian student Joshua Timothy Solomon came to China to study at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in 2017. He returned to Indonesia before the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020.

During the past three years, he had to take online classes. He was eager to return to campus for offline medical courses.

"Clinical medicine is a very practical major. In addition to theoretical knowledge, practice is of great importance," he says, adding that the new semester is also a good opportunity to meet new friends.

At the same time, he also looks forward to various activities arranged by the university and face-to-face communication with fellow students and teachers, which is incomparable with online courses.

After a long separation, he found the campus seemed more beautiful upon arriving at Sun Yat-sen University.

"When I left in early 2020, there was renovation everywhere, and it was like a large construction site. Most of the renovation work has been completed now, and it looks very clean and tidy," he says.

Besides the campus, the city of Guangzhou has kept developing despite COVID-19. "What impresses me most is that there are now more subway lines in Guangzhou," the Indonesian student says.

Pakistani student Dania Zaman, who studies clinical medicine at Shanxi Medical University, shared the same feeling about the changes in China.

On the afternoon of Lantern Festival on Feb 5, after a trip to China that lasted two days, Zaman could not wait to put down her luggage and rush to downtown Taiyuan to experience the festival.

"It was the first time I had participated in the celebration of the festival. The lantern riddle-solving, lantern shows and other activities made me feel the great importance attached to traditional culture by Chinese people," she says.

It has been just three years, but the changes in Taiyuan surprised the Pakistani student. Zhonglou Street, where Lantern Festival was celebrated, was an ordinary commercial street three years ago. But now, it has been renovated and has become a popular area in the city, with a daily passenger flow of more than 200,000 people at the peak time.

Zaman also noticed that transportation is now more convenient and more environmentally friendly. There are more shuttle buses from campus to downtown, the first subway in Taiyuan has opened, and more new energy vehicles can be seen on the streets.

"Just as I expected, China is still full of vitality and bustle. It seems like I had never left," Zaman says.

Growing appeal

China has made breakthroughs in the fields of 5G communication, new energy, artificial intelligence and other scientific and technological areas over the years. This has been among the key factors behind the country's appeal for international students.

Paula Rodriguez de Viguri Azor, a Spanish student at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, says: "From my perspective, China is at the forefront of computer science development on a global scale. It is the most digitalized country I have ever visited. The sheer scale of its digital infrastructure is astonishing — from the world's largest 5G network to the widespread use of artificial intelligence in top Chinese companies."

Speaking of her future plans after graduation, she says she is determined to work for either a Chinese company or an international corporation with connections to China.

As a major contributor to the global economy, China has great potential for international collaboration and business opportunities with companies from all around the world, she says.

By promoting international exchanges and mutual understanding among different countries, she believes more international friends will fall in love with China as much as she does.

For Alansi Mohammed, who is about to graduate, his primary goal at present is to complete his thesis. More importantly, he hopes to better understand China's e-commerce industry and apply the experience to his future career.

He set up an e-commerce store in Yemen last year to sell Chinese cosmetics. Although the start was difficult, continuous adjustment of the business model and the support of friends and relatives had enabled the small store to achieve a profit after seven months of operation.

However, he is in no hurry to expand the store's sales at this stage. He believes that the most important thing right now is to learn more about the successful model of Chinese e-commerce and to secure a good reputation for his store.

Xinhua