Working for your dreams in Beijing

China after 35 years of one-child policy

This post was written for my multimedia reporting class in Tsinghua University.

China after 35 years of one-child policy
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Studying in Tsinghua University - a dream come true?

I’ve lived in Beijing for almost two months now and there’s one thing that I am 100% certain – I live in one of the coolest campuses and study in one of the best universities in the world.

Home, Building number 6

Course registration and my final selection

My first days and weeks in Tsinghua were a mess. I cannot even count the times I wanted to hit my head against the wall because of all the paperwork I had to do or because of the stress that the online course registration caused. By the end of the second school week I was already ready to give up because the course registration was about to end and I still didn’t have enough credits.

The problem was that some of the courses I really wanted to take turned out to  be in Chinese, and by that I mean I was the only Western person in the class (or one of the two only ones). Like imagine yourself going to the class called English News Reporting  and it turns out that oops the professor is actually giving his lectures in Chinese and all of his slides are in Chinese. Or you go to this public speaking class and look around and everyone is Chinese and no one even understands English.

Luckily the third school week turned out to be a game changer. By the beginning of my October holidays I actually had all of my courses figured out and the stress was almost gone. This means that I am now left with 11 credits (16,5 ECTS) and five masters courses. And the best part is that I actually like all of them.

-           The Principles of Area Studies (it’s actually more of a Chinese political economy course)

-           Ancient Chinese Thinking of Foreign Policy

-           News Writing and Multi-media Reporting

-           Overview of International Energy and Environmental Governance

-           Chinese

Two of the courses are taught by American and three by Chinese professors and I can honestly say that they are the best among the best. For example, my ancient Chinese thinking professor Yan Xuetong was named as one of the Top 100 public intellectuals in the world by Foreign Policy in 2008.

Studying in Tsinghua is not easy

Studying under the best professors in a top university also means that you need to work twice as hard to get good grades (or to pass the class). For each class you have to finish a massive amount of readings plus hand in home assignments. Compared to the European system where you just go to lectures and pass the final exam it is definitely more difficult, but it is also a lot more effective.

But life is actually a lot easier for the foreign students. The Chinese undergraduate students take at least twice as many credits as I and study three times harder because even though they have already gotten into Tsinghua University, which only accepts 1% of the students, they also have to stand out among the best.  If you want to get into the graduate programs or want to study abroad you must have a killer GPA.

But if you thought it would get easier when you get into a graduate program you are mistaken. My roommate is on her second year of masters and she leaves home before 9AM and returns after 11PM. Most of her days, weekends and even holidays are spent in the lab. The general requirement for her is to spend 40 hours a week in the lab, but since they also have additional homework and projects, the days are a lot longer.

An example of how Chinese people can really sleep everywhere

Outside school activities and the Tsinghua campus

I've always believed that in order to keep yourself healthy, you need to find a balance between physical and mental exercise. Luckily the students in Tsinghua university think like me and therefore there are about a few hundred different student associations here.

Since I am in China, which already seems a bit weird for a lot of people, I decided to do something different this semester and join organizations that I would probably never think about joining back home. Therefore I auditioned for the traditional Chinese dance team and the musical club and got accepted to the latter. Unfortunately I won't be able to do the whole musical since I'll be back in Estonia by then, but I can perform in a show where we will be doing a few numbers from Chicago, Burlesque and some other musicals. Life is an adventure!

But overall, the campus in here is amazing. We have tens of canteens, restaurants, supermarkets, stadiums, parks, a fruit and vegetable market, a gym, swimming hall, concert hall, movie theater, etc. The campus is seven square kilometers and it accommodates about 40 000 students (yes, the campus is bigger than my hometown). The huge amount of students isn't usually a problem, but it is pretty obvious during the breaks between classes when the roads are packed with people on their bikes. Since no one really cares about the rules here, it all looks pretty chaotic (to be honest I am still afraid of dying every time I ride my bike).

But other than the fact that the traffic is crazy, everything is pretty great. Okay, actually there are so many things that are not normal at all and things I could never get used to, but this is what I like about living here. I love that it is not easy - it is a challenge, but at the same time it is so exciting!

The concert hall

One of our libraries

Final note: USNews recently published an article about the top engineering universities in the world and Tsinghua University was number 1 (followed by MIT and Berkeley).
TopUniversities has ranked Tsinghua as the 25th best university in the world.

Tsinghua University campus at night

Yours truly,

Kai 

The streets of China

Walking around in places I've never been and seeing the locals living their everyday lives - this is my favorite part of travelling. 

Especially in China, where nothing is really 'normal' when you look at it from a Western perspective.  You see old people meeting on the streets for some card games, dance lessons, chess or jenga, you see people sleeping on couches or chairs they have put outside of their houses, people selling food that is so unsanitary you might get a food poisoning by just looking at it, children peeing into trash cans, and people who really seem to need the money they get from selling their farm products, but who at the same time own the newest iPhone6. 

Yes, there are so many things in China that are not  normal, but this is what I like about this country. I feel like every day is an adventure and I'm pretty sure I could never get bored here!

Yours truly,

Kai

A 10 hour long data journalism workshop - a nightmare or not?

This post was written for my multimedia reporting class in Tsinghua University. 

Let’s be honest, when I first heard that we are going to have a 10 hour long data journalism workshop in my multimedia reporting class, I wasn’t really stoked about it. What I had in mind, was that we are all going to sit in our computers and look at slides on how to create graphs and tables in Excel. Maybe some of the trainers would even add some correlations and Pivot-tables. Fun right?

The reality was completely different – after 10 hours of learning from the best data journalists in the world I felt so motivated and happy. Because what I didn’t know, is that during these 10 hours they will not only explain me how to be a better journalist but also show me how to bind together four different fields that I am really interested in – international relations/politics, journalism, economy and intelligence analysis. The answer was investigative data journalism.

I learned that being interested in all of these fields could actually make you become a better journalist. I learned that a good journalist shouldn’t only rely on its knowledge on how to collect and present data or rely on its ability to tell good stories. A good journalist is able to bind them all together and create stories that are based on real evidence and data, but which are also personal and make people personally relate to the situation.

In addition to all the things I learned about data journalism, I also got more motivated to concentrate more of my time on learning Chinese, because well, one of the journalists Patrick Boehler spoke fluently 5 languages. I guess I still have some room to improve my skills in that field!

And overall, I have realized I study in one of the coolest universities in the world!

All the best,

Kai

Sneak peek: Golden Week Holidays

This blog post is written for my multimedia reporting class in Tsinghua University, but it will hopefully give you a small glimpse of my golden week trip to Inner Mongolia and Datong.

The Inner Mongolian Grasslands

The Gobi desert

The Gobi Desert
Photo composition: The photo has been taken using the rule of thirds.  Instead of using symmetrical balance I used off-center balancing. The main focus is on the Chinese rice hat and the sand dune on the foreground, but to give an overview of the overall desert landscape I left room to the right side of the picture to give it more depth.

Datong

Hengshan

Yours truly,

Kai 

China through the eyes of an international student: expectations vs reality

This blog post was written for my news and multimedia reporting course in Tsinghua University. Enjoy!

Studying abroad is an amazing opportunity, but it is also a challenge. Especially when you go to a country that is more than 7000 kilometers away and that has a completely different culture from what you’re used to. 

That’s what Karianne Larsen did – she came from Norway to study in Tsinghua University in Beijing for a year and to be honest, it hasn’t all been easy. There are times when all you want to do is kick your head against the wall or take a glass of wine to calm your nerves, but there are also times when everything is so great that you praise yourself for taking this opportunity.

But living in a different culture also means that you see a lot of things that you would never expect to see. You read things before coming here, but when you finally get here you discover that things are really not the way you thought they’d be. That’s why I asked Karianne about the situations where her expectations and the reality didn’t really match up.

1.  Screaming and angry Chinese people

„    "I remember my first bus ride. I was sitting in the bus and there was this Chinese woman sitting behind me and screaming something in Chinese. I turned at her and tried to figure out what’s the matter, but she just kept yelling. It’s pretty frustrating that you really try to understand what they’re saying but can never actually get it and they often sound really angry.“

      2. Cheap Clothes, maybe not?

„    "Everyone has this idea in their heads that everything in China is super cheap and well it is the case with food, but when you go to clothing shops you will definitely be surprised at the prices.“

So if anyone wants to come to China to get cheap clothes, you might want to reconsider your destination.

3. The amount of bureaucracy

      Studying abroad means filling out countless applications and papers and during the first weeks most of your time will be spent on going from one building to another one and filling out papers. „But then when you get used to doing all the paperwork and going from one place to another you suddenly have to do one thing online,“ says Karianne implying to the course registration which all the students in Tsinghua have to do online and which can often cause a lot of stress.

      4. Take-away food in plastic bags

„    "I had seen pictures online before about Chinese take-away food before, but it was still weird to have my first take-away meal from a random plastic bag.“

      5. People really don’t speak English

„    Some people are really good and really try  a lot, but when you get into a taxi where there is again this angry-sounding driver who speaks in a language you don’t understand, this might become an issue. Also when you get lost in the campus on your first day and no-one can understand your cry of help in English.“  

      But that's the thing about coming to live in a different culture - you never know what to expect and that's what makes it exciting. And even though there are times when you sit at the side of the road thinking about how difficult everything is there are also times when you jump out of happiness and do splits at the Great Wall. 

        Yours Truly,

        Kai