The tenth month

So we've finally reached the tenth month of a ten month scholarship. I can honestly say that I never thought that this month would ever come, that I would spend the rest of my life stuck in my gap year, stumbling through China and slowly understanding a bit more of what people around me are staying.

This month was incredibly busy as I was trying to fit in a few of the last things I wanted to do before I went home. I knew I didn't need to stress though, because I'll be back in China in less than a year.

The start of the month was spent continuing to study for my HSK 4 exam. Luckily, I had enough time to finish the 1200 characters included in HSK 4, with a bit of time to do some past papers as well. I found myself coffee-shop-jumping and even visited Tianjin Library in order to give myself a change of setting when studying.

My HSK went really well and I passed! I was really happy to have passed as the HSK is an internationally recognised qualification. To celebrate, I went for pizza which is a treat for me as it is more expensive than eating Chinese food! We also went for a walk around the area of the pizza restaurant, which is near the train station and is really pretty.

The weekend after my HSK exam I went to Binhai which, although is a part of Tianjin, takes over an hour to get there! We visited Binhai Library which was newly built this year and went viral on the internet. Although it looks impressive in the photos, I actually think Tianjin Library is more impressive! The books at Binhai Library aren't real, but at Tianjin Library they even have newspaper reading rooms.

I also visited Nankai University which is very good university in China located near Tianjin Foreign Studies University. At one of the entrances of the university, there is a statue of Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, and an alumni of Nankai University.

Our final finals came fast and it was time to start studying for exams. I really enjoyed my class as it was really small and we all got on well with the teacher. She even bought us all ice cream one class!

While I was studying for our final exams, it was the Dragon Boat Festival. During the Dragon Boat Festival people eat Zongzi which is a dish made out of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. People also race Dragon Boats but unfortunately, Tianjin didn't have any races.

Then we finished our exams! It felt so strange to be finished our classes as it was quickly sinking in that our time in China was coming to an end. This is my class and our teacher:

I had a week after I finished my exams before I left Tianjin so I saved my money and finally did the things I had spent all year wanting to do!

I went for brunch at Maan Coffee:

I finally went on the Tianjin Eye!

I visited a temple on Ancient Culture Street:

I ate dinner at Super Boom Burger, the burgers there are so big you have to share!

And then I had to start the goodbyes. I had to say goodbye to Like, one of our best friends in Tianjin. It was really sad to have to say goodbye but I know that we'll stay in touch and I’ll see her again soon!

We had our last movie night in our room:

We had a final Scholars dinner at an Italian restaurant. We came in a full circle as when we first came to China we all went to Pizza Hut together for Robin and Owen’s birthday.

To say goodbye to Tree Young, one of our Chinese friends, we went for a photo shoot. She is a photographer and had been asking us to take photos with her all year, so we finally went out to take photos together.

My last week wasn't all goodbyes though. I met a Chinese woman in one of the cafes on campus who invited me to her home. I met her family, spoke Chinese and was promised that I could come back as much as I wanted when I'm back in China! They were a lovely family and so generous to me.

Packing was stressful. I had two bags to go home and I honestly didn't think everything would fit in. However, somehow I managed it! But it did take me until 2am in the morning... It was so strange to see my room like it had been when I first came to China.

I left time for a last drink at Youngs! My favourite drinks shop on campus. They certainly will have less sales once I'm gone.

Walking out the gates of uni for the last time was really hard. I didn't feel as sad as I thought I would because I knew I was staying in China to travel for another week. However, seeing almost half the scholars walk away to get the bus to the airport was really sad.

We took an overnight train from Tianjin to Dandong, which was my first time on a Chinese overnight train! It was very comfortable and I slept quite well. Dandong is a city on the border with North Korea and has a lot of Korean influence. It was a really interesting place to visit. We saw Korean writing on all the signs and often heard Korean being spoken, albeit with a strange accent.

We visited the Broken Bridge which is a bridge across the river to North Korea, but it was bombed by the Americans in the Korean war. After the war, the Chinese rebuilt their side of the bridge but the North Koreans didn't, leaving a half built bridge and lots of evidence of the destruction of the bridge during the war. There was another bridge that was built next to it which is used today. We could see trucks, tourist buses and trains going across it.

We went on a boat tour along the river which runs along the border between China and North Korea. It was really interesting to see part of North Korea. We could see small houses, lots of cyclists and some fishers. Some of the people even waved to us.

We also visited a street that was like Ancient Culture Street in Tianjin.

Our next stop was Dalian, a coastal city and a popular tourist destination. Unfortunately we were very unlucky with the weather and couldn't enjoy the beaches like normal but Dalian was still a very pretty place to visit.

We visited an old Japanese prison which was used when Japan held the Northeastern part of China.

We also visited a theme park!

Xingcheng is another coastal city that we visited. This city is one of the few places in China that kept its city walls. It was very interesting to walk around the ancient city. Although we were unlucky with the weather again, we still went swimming in the sea.

The place we stayed had a kitchen so we made dumplings and french toast!

We had one day in Beijing so we visited the art district. It is a really nice area of Beijing with lots of artist influence. Tourists here really liked to take photos!

For my last meal in China this year we went to a Peking Duck restaurant. It was absolutely delicious.

On 16th July I boarded my flight back to Europe. Saying goodbye was one of the hardest things I've had to do. I just can't wait to get back to China!

Ailsa Brown