My Impressions of China
07 November, 2014
Khartoum (Sudanow) Journalists Sana'a Al-Tahir and Eshraga Abbas spent a year in China for a Master Degree study funded by the Chinese Government in the framework of the distinguished relations between China and the Sudan. SUDANOW has previously published Eshraga's experience. Impressions by Sana'a are published hereunder for it is interesting:
My knowledge about China began when I was a child as I used to watch with admiration some Sudanese children doing amazing acrobatic movements and knew then that they were trained in China.
China, the remote country mentioned by Mohammad the Prophet (PBUH) when he was urging his followers to seek knowledge even if it was in China.
When I was visiting the capital, Khartoum, at that time I used to see a big beautiful building called the Friendship Hall, which built by the Chinese during the reign of late President Jaafar Nimeiry.
Something else we knew about China when we were children, was that it was very far away populated by thousands of millions of people, all of them short with very small eyes.
Also I remember the comparison we used to do between the Chinese Xinhua news agency service and the Western news agencies from which we take news at the Sudan News Agencies in the 1990s.
Then came the time when markets of the big cities in Sudan were flooded with cheap Chinese commodities of low quality. All this has created a specific image in my mind about China.
Since the beginning of the second millennium, oil and construction Chinese companies began to enter Sudan and at that time I began to have an idea of how good hard workers the Chinese are. The Chinese engineers were always on site, supervising and working with the Sudanese workers who were recruited by the Chinese companies.
In April 2012, the Ministry of Commerce in China organized its annual seminar for press officers from English-Language speaking African countries during April 10-23, with the aim of promoting the Sino-African relations. When they told me I would go to the seminar to represent the Sudan, it seemed a dreadful idea to go to the end of the world but, finally, I decided it would be an interesting adventure.
I set out on my journey from Khartoum airport on April 9 with a stopover at Dubai Airport and from there I took another plane to Beijing. The flight was too long, more than ten hours. . I arrived at Beijing International Airport on the evening of April 11, and the magnitude of the airport caught my eye though I was alone and scared. When I stepped out of the terminal, I saw my name being held up by someone.
All the way from the airport to the hotel I was very surprised at the sight of the very high buildings which were striking, almost broken my neck as I tried to look at these amazing buildings that I saw for the first time in my life.
I spent two weeks in Beijing under the supervision of the Training Center Of the Information Office Of the State Council Of the People's Republic of China which organized the program which I attended along with 15 representatives of the 11 African countries of Sudan, Uganda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Liberia, Ghana, Tanzania, Lesotho and Mauritius.
It was really an amazing experience for me because I was so astonished and overwhelmed by some ancient Places in China like Forbidden City, The Great Wall and other modern places in Beijing and Hunan Province. But the most striking thing I knew was the political, social and economic development of China.
We stayed at the Twenty First Century Hotel where we attended lectures by distinguished Chinese politicians and scholars about everything in China.
But my current experience in China is different from the previous one, because now I came as a student which means longer time and more interaction with ordinary Chinese people.
This time I arrived in Beijing as a master student, I had a scholarship from Chinese Government to study for almost a year. I was the last one to arrive on September 21, 2013 which meant I had to do my admission procedures by myself, and that was my first difficult experience for I had to go to a far place for medical tests, although the university administration gave me the map of the place and asked me to seek help by a Chinese escort but I had no escort because I came late, so I had to make it all by myself. Anyway some of my classmates helped me. From that experience I discovered that people in China didn't understand English, and it was a big barrier to interact with ordinary people.
The most shocking and surprising thing for me was the way the girls wear as I always thought that Chinese women wear tall dresses with bright colors. It never occurred to me that they are so westernized. The girls put on very short dresses, something which was really astonishing for me. But now I think Chinese people like to imitate the Western way of life, for example the girlfriend and boyfriend concept is a Western culture which I never thought I would see in China. This surprised me a lot.
I was also astonished when I saw many tall Chinese with relatively big eyes, it is really interesting to see that some are even as tall as me , because in my country they considered me very tall.
But the most disappointing thing for me was that many ordinary people look at me as if I am an alien being coming from another planet, as if they have never seen a black human being before, some of them changed places if I came near to them. It was really painful at first , but then I started to think that may be because China has been closed for a very long time, that the people had no idea about other places in the world, especially Africa.
But after a while when I started going to the west-gate market and some of the stores near the east-gate, I discovered that those people were really nice and pleasantly tried to help and now I made friends and, with people smiling and greeting me, I began to feel at home.
I always thought that China was an old place with very old buildings and, in some way, I found it like that when the university organized a visit to the Great Wall. Although I visited the place in 2012, it always amazing for me to see such a great place. It reflected the old Chinese culture of closing the gates and remaining unique, they wanted to protect the country with this wall, but I think they also wanted to preserve their identity.
I believe China is different in many aspects of life. It was really difficult for me to eat when I first came here, in 2012 when we stayed in an international hotel where I could find a variety of food. But this time it was hard, the food is very different, bearing in mind that, as a Muslim, and I don’t eat pork, but it would have been easier if the ordinary Chinese people could speak English, so I could just ask and choose the right food. I spent almost two months subsisting on rice because I couldn't venture to order meat until a Sudanese fellow from another University told us about Muslim restaurants. There I met with my tenth surprise when I discovered that the Chinese Muslims could expose their identity because China is a Communist country which considers religion as an opium of the people.
One thing I loved so much is the Chinese music and songs; it is so beautiful and emotional and, as a big fan of TV, I spent very much time watching Chinese song-programs on the TV. It is true I don't understand Chinese but I understand music, especially on CCTV 3 where I used to watch (Sing My Song). It is a competition of signing and I learned that the number one singer of China was among the judges of this competition, he is really a good singer, he sings as if he is worshiping.
I also watched one of the soup operas, on Hunan TV and without understanding the language, I could be able to watch all the series, shouted with them, rejoiced and laughed.
As for CUC and my studies, it's another story, story of the distinguished, knowledgeable and amazing Chinese Professors, I really think that it was the best experience I have ever had in so many years, to have the chance of meeting such incredible people.
I have a mixed feeling now, as the time passes and we have less than two months to go home, I am happy for going back home but I feel it will be a bit hard for me to say good-bye to the nice Chinese people and to amazing China.
I conclude by expressing my full appreciation to the Chinese government, the Communication University of China and the amazing Professors and Administrators of the University.
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MAS/ AS
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