Choices, Choices... Decisions, Decisions!

As the beginning of the year 2009 draws ever nearer, it's time to face the fact that in 8 to 9 months time I will have go to China (中国) for a whole year to study which is an exciting prospect, but also quite a daunting one... our decisions of which three universities we would most like to go to (in order of preference) must be handed in by the end of January and we will be told our destination at the beginning of March.

Above: a map of China, the 3rd (or diputedly, 4th) largest country in the world and of course, the most populated

Above: Shanghai, one of mainland China's biggest, most populated and definitely most modern and westernized city at night

Long ago I already made up my mind that I would most love to visit Shanghai (上海), before I made up my mind about university and courses. I did so in 2004, along with Beijing (北京) and Hangzhou (杭州) - Beijing had its obvious cultural and historical tourists attractions, although that seemed about it for me, and Hangzhou is known as one of the most beautiful places in China, along with Suzhou (苏州) and Guilin (桂林), but it wasn't bustling like Shanghai. But Shanghai, with its more western and modern feel and look made it reminiscent of Western cities such as London, Paris and New York (although I've never actually been there). This, and the fact that my brother had studied there for six months and my sister-in-law comes from there, further fuelled my desire to go there to study and live.

Above: The Oriental Pearl Tower (东方明珠塔) alongside the Huangpu River (黄埔江) in the Pudong district (浦东) and opposite The Bund (外滩) in Shanghai

Below: Two pics of Fudan University (复旦大学), Shanghai's leading university and ranked one of the top 10 in the country

There are two universities that are part of this year's Residence Abroad programme and they are Fudan University and East China Normal University (华东师范大学). I have decided to put both Fudan and East China Normal as my first and second choices respectively in order to increase my chances of going to Shanghai - the teachers who decide where we go will always try to give us our first choice, if not, we will almost definitely get one of the three that we put down.

Above: Two pics of East China Normal University

Above and below: Pictures of Tsinghua University (清华大学) in Beijing... ranked top in the country! (Which is probably the only the reason why it would stand out as a contender for my 3rd choice)

Beijing always seemed to me to be a great city to visit when in China but I can never really imagine myself living there. The appeal has grown however, since seeing it during the 2008 Olympics (奥林匹克运动会), although only really in the tourism sense. If I don't end up in Beijing, it is definitely a place I'll want to return to and explore more of, seeing the old, ancient and ever-popular sights that I saw last time with my family and the newer, modern sights recently built since then, especially the Olympic stadiums and buildings.

Of course, the appeal of Beijing for most people is, despite it being the country's capital city, it is the only city available on the programme where Mandarin (which can be translated into 汉语, 华语, 中文, 国语 or 中国话), or also quite commonly, Putonghua (普通话) - literally meaning "common speech", is the only dialect spoken. In the other cities, they each have their own dialect, which is usually spoken amongst the locals more so than they speak Mandarin to each other. Except Shanghai, where Shanghainese (上海话) is spoken, the other cities included in the programme are: Zhejiang (浙江) university in Hangzhou (where they speak 杭州话), Nanjing (南京/话), Shandong (山东) university in Jinan (济南/话), Guangzhou (广州) and Hong Kong (香港) where they speak Cantonese (广东话) and Taipei (台北) in Taiwan (台湾) where their Mandarin accent differs slightly to the Mainland and they speak vaious other dialects, mainly a variant of the Hokkien dialect (福健话) known to them as "Taiwanese".

Having spoken to a few people who would rather go to Beijing, their reason usually included their concern for the other cities having different dialects and not being able to understand the locals' accents or learn as much Mandarin or as well as they think they might do Beijing. However, I have faith that, in all the places (except perhaps Hong Kong), Mandarin will be widely spoken and will not be too difficult to understand - maybe even easier to do so than in Beijing, where sometimes even the locals there can have rather strong accents.

Above and below: Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, which is only two hours from Shanghai

Hangzhou has its appeal as one of the contenders for my 3rd choice because it is close to Shanghai, which I could visit regularly if I went to Hangzhou (or vice versa) and is, like I said before, meant to be one of the most beautiful places with some of the best scenic spots in China. It is also, quite unlike Shanghai (which would be a downfall of going there, I admit, but doesn't put me off), much less polluted...

A lot of people I have spoken to have been talking about wanting to go to Beijing, which kinda puts me off wanting to go there too, as there will be a lot of competition for the 15 places in the three Beijing universities, out of the total of 44 available. I have yet to hear from many people wanting to go to many of the other places, although a few have thought about putting either one of the Shanghai universities down - it would be nice for at least one person I know (and like) to come to Shanghai as well if I go there. I had originally wanted to rent a nice appartment out with one or two people if they were going to Shanghai too, although perhaps budgets and the like will not allow me to, but I'm hoping the uni accommodation is still nice (international students live in separate places to the Chinese students)!

Unsuprisingly, Hong Kong and Guangzhou (as last year) do not seem to be a popular choice among other students, with the daunting prospect that in both places, Cantonese is predominantly spoken over Mandarin and in Hong Kong, traditional characters (繁体字) are used instead of simplified (简体字). Although Taiwan seems a quite popular, seeing as it is not part of mainland China and very different to it as well - but with only two places available there and traditional characters also used there, competition would be tough and the learning challenge much greater than in the mainland.

I will keep you updated if and when I make my mind up about my 3rd choice before the Declaration of Intent form has to be handed in... Bye bye (再见/拜拜/88)! :-D