Stuart Pearse

University of Western Australia, Australia
Exchange to the Chinese Agriculture University, China

I really enjoyed my time in Beijing. I was living outside the 5th Ring Rd in a less developed part of Beijing where foreigners are still a bit of a novelty. Life was interesting and I forged some strong friendships with Chinese postgraduate students and the other few westerners at CAU. Things were quite difficult at times getting used to the different way of life, culture (both workplace and social) and coping with speaking very little of the local language but that was to be expected. By the time I left I had learnt to speak survival Mandarin and would go out all over the city without even the phrase book. It would have been nice to have had the opportunity to learn more of the language but in between trying to get things sorted there, continuing to write up my PhD thesis, and dealing with various other tasks that fell under my wing I didnt really have the time.

Experimentally I faced a number of interesting and unexpected challenges that delayed the commencement of my experiment, and to cut a long story short eventually I got everything going and growing nicely, but unfortunately due to their poor growth facilities and the weather conditions in Beijing the experiment failed due to factors beyond my control. That a was a shame because a lot of energy went into my work there. A Chinese PhD student will repeat it again under more favourable weather conditions using the equipment and methods I developed and I will co-author a manuscript should it arise.

That aside I spent considerable time correcting English and grammar on a number of manuscripts, and helped out the university by fixing up the English of a promotional book which outlines all of their research groups and activities. That book was distributed at the 15th International Plant Nutrition Colloquium hosted by China Agricultural University, and was designed to help encourage international collaboration. At the same conference I also gave an oral presentation which was very well received, and I have subsequently been offered to be hosted by a research group in Japan on an exciting postdoctoral project. I’m coming to the end of my PhD soon and I am still assessing options but that would certainly be a fantastic opportunity.

Other than that I took in a number of the sights in and around Beijing, possibly the most memorable being a days walk along the Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simitai. I also travelled to Yunnan visiting Kunming and Lijiang to check out some of the culture of the ethnic minorities and some different countryside.

I felt like I got a good feel for Beijing and enjoyed getting to know the culture. Things got quite frustrating at times as I came to grips with how things worked (or didn’t) over there but that was to be expected and was all part of the experience. Though I didn’t gain in terms of data the experience was definitely worthwhile and it put the world into a different perspective. Paradigm shifts are always healthy I think. In some ways I was a little disappointed to leave when I did, I felt like I had done all the hard work of adjusting and then shortly after it was time to leave. I could possibly write a novel on my experiences...

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