Student spent 35,000 rubles a month during exchange year in China
Nikita Kazakov is a student from Barnaul. He had dreamed of studying in China on an exchange program since enrolling at Altai State University. And his dream came true: Nikita passed a difficult selection process and left for Hangzhou, one of the country«s largest megacities. There he lived for a whole year, immersed himself in the local environment, and even made plans to move there after graduation.
He told NGS22.RU about the impression the locals made on him, whether he managed to find friends, what prices are like in China, and what might surprise Russians on a trip.
Simply fascinated by calligraphy
Nikita«s love for Chinese culture began back in his school days. Then, while participating in history olympiads, he came across an interesting master class from two Altai State University students who promised to show the basics of Chinese calligraphy. Drawing characters with a pen, the young man seriously thought that he could try something completely new, for example, studying the Chinese language.
«Calligraphy is one of the main artistic activities in China, and has been since ancient times. In the past, as locals believed, a noble man was obliged not only to be able to compose poetry beautifully, write texts well, and govern the country competently if, for example, he was an official, but also to practice calligraphy, to master this art. To this day, it is one of my few hobbies directly related to China.»
After school, he enrolled in international regional studies at Altai State University, but from the first year he knew he would have the opportunity to study abroad on an exchange. The selection procedure for this program did not cause Nikita any particular difficulties, although, in order to go to China, he had to prove he was worthy through his grades, attitude to studies, and activity.
One of the main differences in the education systems, he says, is the timeframes. If a bachelor«s degree in China, like in Russia, lasts four years, a master»s degree is a full three years. Moreover, classes run all day, so combining them with work is not possible: students get up at 8 a.m. and study until evening.
«For the Chinese, a strict admissions system is very characteristic. There is very tough competition, so after the 11th grade they take an exam analogous to our Unified State Exam (USE) and based on the results they enter universities. There are special provincial quotas: if you don«t succeed, you either try to enter another university in the same place, or you go to another province — it»s not such a big deal there. In Russia, however, we have a slightly different policy aimed at keeping students in the country«s regional core universities.»
«Russians are a combative nation»
One of the main features of the Chinese, Nikita clarifies, is their reserved nature. Mostly, students move in groups, so it is often quite difficult to befriend them.
«The only thing that can attract them to foreigners is shared interests or the learning process. I made two good friends. One of them is an ethnic Chinese who enrolled in IT technologies. And we met completely by chance: he was conducting a social survey, and I helped him with it, we added each other on «WeChat» — the Chinese analog of VKontakte — and started chatting. We went out to eat together several times — for the Chinese, this is a very important tradition. The second friend became an ethnic Uighur; we met on campus, he asked for help, and a conversation started.»
In China, Nikita had several more surprising acquaintances. For example, he met Chinese female teachers who, back in the USSR, also studied on an exchange in Khabarovsk. Therefore, as soon as the Barnaul student introduced himself, they decided to ask how things are in Russia now, and even spoke a little Russian with him.
Nikita also managed to visit several Chinese villages: on one trip he was invited by a teacher to celebrate the Spring Festival together. There, the Russian communicated with the older generation and realized that they treat Russians with special respect, as they still remember the help the Soviet Union provided to China after the formation of the People«s Republic of China in 1949.
«In China, there is a special term for the Russian people — «zhan-dou min-zu», which means we are a very combative nation. This is clearly influenced by our external features, constant seriousness, but in general, the attitude towards foreigners in China is positive — there are no manifestations of any discrimination.»
Not plastic rice
In total, Nikita visited about ten cities. Special impressions, of course, were left by Beijing, where he managed to spend a full three days, as well as Shanghai, which in its image reminded him of New York.
«I have been to different provinces, as well as Nanjing, which was considered the capital of China back in the 1920s. Large cities are very different from each other both in cultural characteristics and linguistically. You move from Hangzhou to Shanghai, and the dialect immediately changes. The older generation has its own dialect too. In China, there are many spaces that use digital technologies: 3D, artificial intelligence, so museums there are something definitely worth visiting.»
The calling card of the PRC is its developed transport system. Therefore, the first thing that surprised Nikita was the metro. In Hangzhou alone, there were about 10 lines, although construction began only in 2013. By the way, traveling by metro is advantageous; ground transport there is less convenient than in Barnaul, as Nikita clarified.
«In Barnaul, you get on and ride without transfers, you choose a convenient, albeit long, route. There, there are no state-owned companies, but private operators are responsible for transportation in specific districts, so, for example, to get from the university campus to the city center, I would have had to make two transfers.»
Nikita approached expenses pragmatically, so a year of living in China cost him 350,000–400,000 rubles ($3,900–$4,400 at current rates) — this includes free accommodation in a dormitory and paid flight expenses.
«I would say that prices there are not very different from Russian ones. There are products, for example fruits and vegetables, that are much more expensive than in Russia, but nevertheless, all this is compensated by quality. And actually, everything is quite tasty. That is, that old tale that was going around about five years ago, that China has plastic rice, well, it doesn«t correspond to reality at all. There is very strict food control. As for finances, some guys spent half a million rubles in six months, but if you live more economically, then the same 500,000 rubles ($5,600) turns out to be a quite acceptable amount for a year of life. Per month, with my usual measured pace, it came out to 35,000 rubles ($389), which went to visiting some cultural places, museums, and food.»
Tried «phoenix claws»
During his stay in China, Nikita missed Russian cuisine very much, but he consciously decided not to limit himself to familiar food and to try everything that might surprise him in China.
Spicy dishes, which are so loved in the Middle Kingdom, are one of the most difficult aspects of adaptation for foreigners, no matter how long you live there.
«If the menu says the dish is not spicy, it still will be. Many foreigners cannot get used to their food, so they switch to American fast food and mostly eat only that,» explains Nikita.
Our student was lucky: he had been accustomed to spicy food since childhood, which allowed him to try dishes that other tourists usually do not dare to.
«What I liked the most were Chinese dumplings, jiaozi. It«s something like our vareniki. Most often the filling is pork, sometimes with corn. It»s an absolute must-have, they are in any «chifanka», that is, a casual eatery,» recalls Nikita.
The most unusual dish he tried was «phoenix claws»:
«Yes, the name is quite poetic, it sounds beautiful, but in fact these are chicken feet fried in batter. In China, they are very calm about such offal. By the way, boneless meat here is much cheaper than with bones. Fish in China is not cleaned at all — it is also served with bones.»
Now Nikita is completing his studies at Altai State University, but he is actively making plans to move to China in the future, to enroll in the same university where he spent a year, and then continue to settle down in Hangzhou or Shanghai.
