Robert O’Connor
I probably commute about three to four times a term between my hometown, Winchester, and Nottingham. Often, I have to change trains two or three times for one journey, and I consider it something of a miracle if none of these trains are delayed. God forbid a person be cursed to stumble around the labyrinthine nightmare that is Birmingham New Street Station. Yet with every delay I sigh about, a thought always returns to my mind: this would not be happening in China.
Ah, China, where 48,000km of high-speed railway has been built since 2008, in which time Britain has failed to complete a single stretch of HS2.
AS A HISTORY STUDENT WHO HAS STUDIED CHINA, IT WAS SURREAL TO SEE HOW IT HAS EMERGED AS A HIGHLY DEVELOPED TITAN OF TODAY’S WORLD
Despite these misgivings, I do consider myself a patriot, though this notion was challenged somewhat when I got to see the University of Nottingham’s Ningbo Campus (UNNC) in the flesh. This is not out of any bitterness towards my rainy homeland, rather out of sheer awe over the futuristic techno-empire that China has become. As a history student who has studied China, it was surreal to see how the land of Emperors, civil strife and Maoist revolution has emerged as a highly developed titan of today’s world.
I had successfully applied to a programme of student ambassadorship to the Chinese campus, in which eight students (two from each school) were flown out to Ningbo to represent UoN. It all emerged from a QR code flashed before me during a lecture, imploring students to sign up. Overall, the trip took just over a week during the Easter Holidays, but this was an ample amount of time to blow perceptions of reality, society and education out of the water.
The campus itself is smaller than UoN, but no less beautiful in its own way. After a thirteen-hour flight and a ten-hour sleep, I rose at 4am on the second day we were there, just before sunrise, and decided to take a stroll.
THE CAMPUS HAS SOME UNCANNY SIMILARITIES TO UON: NAMELY, A NEAR-EXACT REPLICA OF THE TRENT BUILDING
One striking fact is that I could walk around the campus at 4am without even the vaguest concern over my wellbeing. Ningbo is a thriving metropolis of eight million people and is one of the safest cities in China. People even left their laptops out around the campus, assured that it wasn’t going to go anywhere. I was able to view the luscious greenery, flowery gardens and winding river at my own pace.
The campus has some uncanny similarities to UoN besides its verdant grounds: namely, a near-exact replica of the Trent Building. It also has its own enormous, well-equipped gym and a town-like area with plenty of restaurants and shops. Time seemed to slow down in order for my brain to process everything. That said, it was helpful that there were plenty of signs and translations in English, as it is the mandatory language of the campus. Seeing as my Chinese was limited to ni hao and shi-shi, this was rather useful.
IT FELT LIKE THERE WAS SO MUCH TO SEE IN SO LARGE A PLACE AND SO LITTLE TIME TO DO IT IN
Once my fellow students and trip overseers had awoken, we were in for a week of historical tours, educational insights and dishes which I still can’t name, but would definitely describe as delicious. I took an interesting class on political economy in which, contrary to how an outsider may view China, the teacher espoused the libertarian economics of Friedrich Hayek. We toured around the sciency part of the campus, something of which I know little, but can tell you that lasers, 3D printers and flight simulators are very cool, and of which Ningbo has no shortage. We also got to see much of the city itself: towering neon skyscrapers which reminded me of Skyfall, and cranes as far as the eye can see, which were juxtaposed with millennia-old Confucian temples.
The richness of the city’s heritage had me staring at bridges, rooftops and motorways out of the coach window. It felt like there was so much to see in so large a place and so little time to do it in.
The residents of the campus were a charming mix of Chinese students and internationals, some of whom we came across a few times. One Ecuadorian almost cried upon realising that I could speak Spanish, as, for all the wonders of China, she probably hadn’t heard her native language since being back home. The everyday citizens, despite a general lack of English, were smiley, accommodating, and most of all curious. People were inclined to take pictures of us and even occasionally shout ‘hello!’ in their best English accent.
OUR FINAL DESTINATION WAS SHANGHAI
As faithful students of Nottingham, there was still one thing beyond all the wonders and noodles which nagged at us: getting hammered. Mercifully, there was a club called Catapult relatively nearby, and we were able to get sufficiently sloshed as a group and render the next morning an embarrassing recollection. One of the tour leaders was banging on my door at 8am, as my eyes fought with the baijiu in my liver to get me out of bed.
Our final destination was Shanghai. Ironically, despite looking forward to Shanghai the most, we were collectively more charmed by Ningbo in the end. Shanghai is fantastic, and it feels incredible to walk in one of the world’s great metropolises, but in a similar way to London or New York. Its existence as an international city is incredibly fascinating, but it means that it slightly lacks the authenticity of a city like Ningbo. That did not stop us from going up the famous TV tower and looking down through the stomach-churning transparent floor to the ground 259m below. One of my more stoic friends from the trip, Emma, took no issue in doing press-ups over the drop, as I awkwardly shimmied my way around the metal frames closest to the lift.
I IMPLORE STUDENTS CHECK THEIR ABILITY TO APPLY
Hungover catastrophes aside, part of me feels that one week did not nearly do the campus justice. As an aged man of 22, my time in Nottingham is nearly behind me, but I would implore younger students to check their ability to apply. I did study abroad elsewhere through a scholarship unrelated to UoN, so I can tell you that there truly is no experience more character-defining than being an international student. The strength of having friends all over the world is unmatched, and the person you become by the end is, more often than not, the person you always wished you could be.
Robert O’Connor
Featured image courtesy of Yilei Bao via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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