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Home >> China >> Article
Swiss girl’s one-year experience in China
By:Zheng Qian  |  From:english.eastday.com  |  2019-06-14 15:24

Lea Marie Hauswirth is a Swiss student who came to Shanghai last August to participate in the American Field Service (AFS) Intercultural Programs. For her, visiting China fulfilled her greatest dream and has given her memories she will cherish for the rest of her life.

Lea Marie Hauswirth (right) at the airport before leaving for Shanghai [Photo provided by Lea Marie Hauswirth]

She studies in the Shanghai Pudong Foreign Affairs Services School and has been living in a local family’s home for ten months.

The Bund of Shanghai [Photo/Lea Marie Hauswirth]

The Chinese poet Lea studies at the Chinese school [Photo/ Lea Marie Hauswirth]

The calligraphy work produced by Lea [Photo/ Lea Marie Hauswirth]

It is the first time she has lived so far away from her home and also for so long, so she was a little nervous on her departure. However, after arriving the attraction of a new world made her rapidly forget all her fears.

Since her first day in China, Lea realized the wideness of the cultural exchange. Soon after her arrival in Shanghai, she met her host family who were so generously welcoming to her. And, in fact, it was in those first days that she also met all the other exchange students coming from around the world, with whom she later made two cultural trips to Yunnan and Xi’an.

School has been the biggest part of Lea’s exchange in China. There, she has learned the language, made Chinese friends, and experienced the daily life of Chinese students. At the beginning, she couldn’t understand anything in the classes, but after some months’ communication with the locals and her diligent work in studying Chinese, she has been able to follow and take part more and more in the class. This was of course very satisfying and motivating!

Her most impressive and deepest memory was the trip to Beijing and Harbin she made with her host family in the winter holiday. The high-speed train experience from Shanghai to Beijing was especially impressive for her. Places of interest like the Great Wall and Tian'anmen were unforgettable. After a few days, her host family took her to Harbin where she enjoyed Chinese New Year with many of her host family’s relatives. It was a unique experience to live in such a severe winter climate as Harbin, where the lowest temperature reached -30 degrees Celsius. In this frigid environment she enjoyed the amazing ice statues, outside markets and awesome fireworks.

Harbin in the twilight [Photo/ Lea Marie Hauswirth]

Then, by joining a friend who was also travelling to Harbin at that time, she discovered the city in more detail. Since it is close to Russia, they felt that some Russian influence was notable in the architecture, food and other aspects of the city culture. The atmosphere was very different from the one she knew from Shanghai and the history of the Japanese occupation in the city also caught her interest and attracted her to visit the museum Unit 731 twice.

To conclude, for Lea, China has elicited a wide range of emotions: happiness, sadness, worry, hilarity, excitement, contentment and nervousness, which together made the exchange so unforgettable and enriching.

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