Brendan WRIGHT

Student of Deakin University, Australia
Exchange to Shanghai University, China

I flew into Shanghai Pudong Airport in late August 2012. I had never been overseas before and I chose China because I wanted to experience somewhere very different to Australia. I got my wish. I was very nervous as we descended – I was all alone in what I could see from above was a very big city in a very big country. But as soon as the wheels on the plane stopped moving, my nervousness gave way to extreme excitement.

As the taxi I caught from the airport reached the Bund (historic European street) it really hit me – I was in a very different place to home. I spent the first few days before uni in a hostel near the Bund. I spent those days mostly just wandering around the city alone, and what struck me was the disparity that could be found (certainly in comparison to Australia). The Bund is one of the most affluent areas not just in Shanghai but in the entire world. But just a few hundred metres away you can find classic Shanghai style laneway houses and typically grimy Chinese markets selling seafood, chicken feet, frogs, duck necks and so on; that is the China I loved and that is the China really wanted to see.

Lucky for me my university and the dorms there were in a much less affluent area of the city; a much more real China. When I cooked I would buy my vegetables from the market down the road from uni – the vendors loved seeing me because I would often let them sell me whichever items they wanted to (their mushrooms especially were unfamiliar to me). Needless to say I often left with much more than I needed. The food is something I truly miss from China – the street food especially – the glorious street food!

I found the people in China to generally be very pleasant and engaging, and they loved it when I’d attempt to speak mandarin. In my time in China I saw very good, happy people and the harmonious side of China, but I also saw the poor, discontented and the corrupt. In Guilin I met young people who wanted and had plans to help the poor and the disabled. In Shanghai I also met young people who tea scammed me (but I had barely any money…so I sort of scammed the scammers…?). In Shanghai I met members of the Party who only had the best interests of China at heart. In Sanya I also saw police corruption against the commonfolk – which apparently happens all over China.

I saw many sides of China and I still have much more to learn. I had a huge amount of fun there and I not only want to go back sometime – I need to.

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