Semester abroad for a DHBW student - Welcome to China

It was a Wednesday evening in late August. When I boarded the plane at Frankfurt Airport, the sun was already setting. My destination: Guanghzou, China. Despite all the anticipation of my semester abroad in the Middle Kingdom, I was also feeling uneasy at that moment. How would I cope in such a foreign country? Had I prepared myself well enough and were my Chinese language skills sufficient? The next few days would answer all these questions, and there was nothing I could do about it now anyway.

But first I went to Doha, the transfer hub of Qatar Airways. Instead of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, I flew on the Airbus A380, currently the largest passenger aircraft in the world. And there was a good reason for this. It was already clear here that China has no shortage of people. The A380 from Doha was fully occupied. Boarding was hectic and chaotic, which was completely new and unusual. Hardly any passengers paid attention to others. There was pushing and shoving, all with the aim of getting to one's own seat as quickly as possible. When asked, the stewardess assured me with a grin that it was always like this on flights to China. Astonished, I made my way to my seat.

After 9 hours of flying time, the A380 touched down. It was a sunny morning with no clouds. That was true up to an altitude of about 500m. Then the A380 entered a sea of dense haze. This was caused by tiny particles in the air, presumably smog, and the humidity of a sub-tropical climate. I would not see the sun again until days and a heavy shower later. Just a few minutes after leaving the plane, China reminded me of one of its biggest problems: too many people. And this time it was to affect me too.

Even before passport control, our aisle was blocked for no apparent reason and divided into three areas. A front area with about 50 people, a middle area with another 50 people, and a third area for the rest. Unfortunately, I was part of the last area. Every 30 minutes, the front area was opened and people could continue towards passport control. Then it was refilled from the back and closed again. At this point, I had already been traveling for 20 hours. The prospect of another unfathomable wait didn't make me feel particularly good. 2 hours later I was allowed to continue my walk towards passport control. I was hoping for a shorter wait at passport control, only to find that it was completely overcrowded when I got there. And so I spent another 1.5 hours in a queue before I was finally able to enter China. The baggage claim area for my flight had long been closed by this time. There was also no indication of which of the 8 baggage carousels it had been on. I gave myself one attempt to find my suitcase before asking the staff for help and chose the 2nd belt from the right. To my astonishment, my suitcase arrived on exactly the same conveyor belt at that moment. This coincidence put a smile on my face and gave me enough strength not to despair on the first day.

With my suitcase and renewed hope, I made my way to the exit, where my Chinese student "buddy" Wilson had been waiting for me for several hours. We were both glad to be able to leave these hardships behind us and set off in search of a cab to take us to the South Campus. Guangzhou airport is located to the north of the city, the South Campus to the south. And so the route took us right across the city. The whole journey took about two hours. It was a two-hour drive through a sea of skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, on crowded streets where there were no recognizable traffic regulations. The impressions of this first day are hard to put into words. Everything is much bigger, fuller and more chaotic than I have ever experienced in Germany or Europe. I simply couldn't stop being amazed.

It was already dark when we finally reached the campus. Although I hadn't expected anything, I was shocked by the state of the room I found. A single room for four students, "beds" that are nothing more than 3cm thick mattresses on wooden planks and my personal favorite: the "toilet", but everyone just calls it "the hole". Fortunately for me, exchange students enjoy a special status. They only share their room with one other person. With three other roommates, I would have been desperate.

After I had cleared out my suitcase and settled into my room, Wilson picked me up for dinner. We went to a village a few minutes' walk from campus. We had pasta, mussels, meat and vegetables in what was, to say the least, a less than hygienic street restaurant by German standards. However, I hadn't eaten anything since leaving the plane and relied on the experience of my Chinese friend. The dishes tasted great and I ate my fill. It was only the mussels that made me feel queasy. I didn't want to upset my stomach on the first day, but I ate anyway. The food and the company of the open and friendly Chinese felt like a peace offering, the peace offering of a country that seemed so different and hostile on the very first day that it made me doubt my decision to come.

After dinner, we made our way back home to campus, where my "bed" was eagerly waiting for me. I reviewed the day and fell asleep unexpectedly quickly due to the extreme lack of sleep. What followed was the most uncomfortable night of my life and the end of my first day in the Middle Kingdom.