Evgenia Mineeva, a 4th-year student of the Bachelor's programme 'Asian and African Studies', talks about her mobility at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU).

My name is Evgenia Mineeva, a 4th-year student of the Bachelor's programme 'Asian and African Studies'. In the autumn semester of the 2023/24 academic year, I went for a mobility programme to China, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) located in Suzhou.

Suzhou is not a very big (by Chinese standards, of course—around 10 million people) but very old city—it is more than 2500 years old. The city preserved a lot of traditional architecture, especially gardens and pagodas. In the historical centre of Suzhou, the houses are located generally along river banks—there are so many of them that Suzhou is called 'Eastern Venice'. Modern Suzhou is being built and developing impressively fast. Apart from the historical centre, it also has a business one which does not yield to Shanghai in its skyscrapers, in my opinion. Suzhou has a very developed metro—so much so that you can use it to reach even Shanghai. However, it would take you a few hours and I've never gone there myself because there is a high-speed train which would take only half an hour. I have to say that the metro in Suzhou is not the most convenient means of transport. Taxi is much faster but also more expensive, especially if you go alone.

I truly liked the host university, its only disadvantage is its location. It is located very far from both the historic centre and train stations, so the road to the university would take twice more than from the same train station to Shanghai. But the university has a very spacious campus or rather two campuses—the Southern and Northern—which are connected by a tunnel under the river. In total, this university has more than ten buildings, two canteens and several cafes where food is very tasty. There is a library which functions as a coworking space almost just like at HSE University but at XJTLU, it occupies ten floors in a separate building. However, finding a spare place in the evening there is quite a difficult task. The university itself cooperates with the University of Liverpool: all the courses except for Chinese and advanced ancient Chinese are taught in English, and many professors are foreigners. For instance, the professor who taught us a Chinese philosophy course was Lithuanian. There were a lot of international students as well—more than anyone else, there were Indonesians and Thais but there were also British, Mexican, German, Italian, Norwegian, Russian and many other people. As I noticed, international students easily get along with each other and travel around the whole of China with people from different countries. Important information for those who want to go on a mobility programme to China: if you have a concentration in 'Society and Culture', XJTLU offers one of the best options because there is a whole educational programme 'China Studies' and many courses on various aspects of Chinese culture—literature, society, philosophy and so on. My credits for almost everything I missed during this semester at HSE University were accepted. In particular, I recommend the course 'China: Society and Development' about social tendencies and problems in China.

XJTLU has separate dormitories for international students and separate for local ones. The cheapest option for foreigners is 'Parfait International'–55 yuans per day. This is where I lived. At 'Parfait International', everyone has their own room with a private bathroom (a toilet, a washbasin and a shower) and a private enclosed balcony. Each section has 4 or 6 of such rooms, and there is a shared kitchen for everyone. In the kitchen, there is a fridge, a cupboard for different utensils and a cooker, besides, it is an induction cooktop, so not every pan or pot fits it–you have to check the marks on the bottom or ask a seller. In my experience, not everyone living in the section usually cooks–others order delivery or buy something from a cafe or 'Night market', a whole street with street food next to the dormitory where by night, all traders gather. Food is very different: from fried chicken and waffles with filling to smelly tofu and grilled grasshoppers. At least, half of the dormitory eats there.

I should say some words about travelling around China. Usually, all exchange students at XJTLU travel during their vacation so as not to miss classes because attendance influences your grade. But one should take into account that October vacations are timed to national holidays. During this time, in such tourist cities as Shanghai or Nanjing, there are so many people that in the streets, policemen stand and regulate this continuous human stream. Another significant detail about travelling in China is that you should book tickets to museums and other sights in advance online, in particular, via WeChat. Tickets to 'Forbidden City' can be sold out as soon as they go on sale. To Tiananmen Square and the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, one cannot buy tickets on the spot at all even if they are available. One can do it only online and only in advance. For me, it was an unpleasant surprise—I managed to get to the Memorial Hall only on the third attempt. Another peculiarity: for paying and booking, Chinese people almost equally use WeChat and Alipay. It is more convenient to book hotels and airplane or train tickets via Alipay as it has an English interface. Tickets to museums are also available here but only if they are chargeable. Booking a free ticket (entrance to some attractions is free of charge but the number of places is limited) via Alipay is impossible, only via WeChat where all the information is in Chinese. The most typical list of places where almost all the students I communicate with went–Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Beijing, Chengdu (a city where you can see pandas), Xi'an (there is the Terracotta Army), Chongqing and Harbin.

For those who want to go on an exchange to China, I'll about different small daily things. The most important and unpleasant thing is that in China, Google does not work. It works but only with a VPN. This means that Google Forms, Google Sheets, Google Maps and Google Translate do not also work. It is quite hard to get a VPN in China. I didn't manage to find a free application, so I had to download a paid one. But my Chinese acquaintances told me that it was easy to get scammed. By the way, YouTube, Wikipedia and Telegram are also available only with a VPN, and VKontakte and Yandex (and other related programmes like Yandex Maps and Yandex Translator) work without it. It is better to download them in advance. Another thing which can be a surprise is that in China, they do not accept cards everywhere. I would even say almost nowhere. The most common payment way which, as I saw, was used everywhere and always—a QR code payment via WeChat or Alipay. You cannot link a Russian card either to WeChat or to Alipay—one has to issue a Chinese one but it would take some time. If you have an X2 visa, not every bank will agree to issue a card. I got it issued by a bank called ICBC. While you are waiting for the card, you'll have to use cash, they accept it quite eagerly. Another important thing is that Suzhou just like the whole south of China, does not have central heating. In winter, the temperature can go down to zero, it was snowing a couple of times, so it is important to take warm clothes with you and wool socks. When the temperature is zero outside and it is almost the same in the dormitory, the air conditioner does not help, you feel it much worse when it is warm inside and freezing outside.

I hope that with this information, your trip to China will be easy and comfortable, and any daily inconveniences won't interfere with either your trip or your studies!

The full RUS version of the feedback is available here: https://spb.hse.ru/iaas/dcssea/news/966489329.html