James TANG

Student of The University of Western Australia, Australia
Exchange to Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

I always look back at my time studying abroad in Hangzhou, China with the fondest of memories. To be honest, I was not expecting much before I left Perth apart from improving my language skills and gaining credit points. Little did I know at the time that it would profoundly shape the experiences in my career and life in the years to come.

Surprisingly, I was only one of two students from my university that chose to study in China in 2007 given its strong economic ties with Australia. This in a way forced me to expand my friendship circles and I became close friends with international students from all around China, Europe, America, Asia and literally around the world. Outside of class and over the weekends we would embark on adventures around China, a cheap train ticket gets you to the other side of the country in the ancient city of Xi’an for the long weekend, or two hours to modern Shanghai! One of the many highlights would be the 3 day hike up Mount Huangshan we organised where the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.

Since then, I have continued learning Mandarin through university and personal pursuits to attain near native level proficiency. After graduating in 2012, I backpacked around Asia, Europe and America visiting all the friends I made while abroad, knowing I had a couch to crash on in each city. Last year I was honoured to be invited as the best man at my friends’ wedding in Belgium who I studied Chinese with.

Throughout my career, I have experienced first hand the importance of the Australia-China business relationship. For example, even during my first job working on a Western Australian iron ore mine site as an engineer, I had the opportunity to use my bilingual abilities to bridge communication barriers with Chinese ore car manufacturers when my company commissioned their products to rail iron ore from the mine to ports. The iron ore shipped to China would then be fed into blast furnaces to produce steel products such as the material used to manufacture iron ore cars!

I am currently based in Beijing, China working at a mining consulting firm. I use my bilingual abilities on a daily basis liaising with Chinese clients and managing projects that involve collaboration with my Chinese colleagues. My time studying in China has given me a global perspective and unique skill sets that provided opportunities to work internationally.

Thanks to the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Awards and their financial support, I was able to experience so much more as a student outside of the classroom. This inspired me to develop my engineering career in a unique direction. I would highly recommend prospective exchange students to study in China as the doors it could open are endless!

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