Dream in Beijing

My story with China started in 2017. I represented Thailand to participate in the "Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreigners Across the Globe" in Beijing. I was 14 years old at that time. As the youngest candidate, everyone treated me like a younger sister. That was a large, warm family which always touched me since some candidates called me "meimei" (妹妹）and bought me lots of fun toys and delicious snacks. We were rivals on the stage, but being brothers and sisters behind the stage. We went to canteen hands in hands while chatting and laughing loudly. We shared snacks and cokes while study Chinese altogether in a 15 square meters dormitory. Fantastically we often forgot we all are foreigners, just like the lyrics in the song "中国话": "Skins of various colors, hair of various colors, what we say is Chinese, and Chinese words began to become popular. "

During the team competition, I was fortunate to have a strong encirclement with my teammates and we won the third place. This led me to enter a further individual competition successfully and left a deep impression to Jiang Changjian, the chief examiner. When he saw me appeared on the individual competition stage, he joked with the words "the young girl is an old friend". After a fierce individual competition, I beat all the others and became the champion in the Chinese Idiom round. When I finally won the third place in the finals, everyone was clapping, cheering, and celebrating for me. As the friendships forged deeper and deeper, the parting day was getting closer. The night before leaving, 108 contestants kept talking, crying and laughing in the lobby. We stayed up all night, some were playing the guitar, and others humming along, slowly shifting from a cheerful song to a sad minor. For the last song, we sang Chengdu (成都), everyone was in tears and hugged each other. It was a sad night, because we knew once say good-bye, we might never see each other again in this life.

In the same year, I was awarded the title of "Thai-China Tourism Ambassador" by the National Tourism Administration of Thailand. I asked myself what I can do to be worthy of this title. The events of the Chinese competition are gradually blurred in my memory. Even though I have forgotten everyone's name for a long time, I still have a great impression of "Beijing". Especially what the judge, Professor Zhao Dongmei, said to me: "Wan Qing, I hope that one day you can attend the university in Beijing. There are some of the best known universities in the world." with her encouragement I have made up my mind to go to China when I grow up. From then on I worked very hard to achieve my dream. Last month, I was successfully admitted to Tsinghua University. Although there were many obstacles on the road of learning Chinese, becoming a Tsinghua student is the highest award for me. Five years ago, I set my goal to study economic and management in China. Today, It's not an unrealistic dream anymore. My next five-year plan is working harder to be a better version of myself. I may continue to achieve a master degree, to serve my country, to deserve my title and make due contributions to the friendship between Thailand and China.

My name is Allison. I am from "smiling country", Thailand. I spent my childhood in Shenyang — a beautiful city which I could play with the snow in winter. I continued my middle and high school back in Thailand in an international school. I have been interacted with different people and various cultures in recently years, I finally realize that I like Chinese culture the most. 5,000 years of history made China an amazing country. I love the Chinese poem from Tang dynasty to mythical novel in Qing dynasty. Being the fourth largest country in the world, traditional cultures are different in every area. I love to travel to different cities in China and was fascinating to see how people interact with me. The love toward China and its culture made me actively participate in plenty competition. Until now, I have joined more than 50 competitions in total, most of them are related to China, and I know that my future will be in China.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.