Understanding China (from an international student's perspective)

What is your first impression in your mind when you heard about China! The way you see China and me is totally different. At that time to understand China or to know about China I had to depend on international media. Media is the mirror of society, but in recent days we can see that media has an effect on international politics, blindly we cannot believe those so-called media or what they are saying. To understand a place, we have to go to that place physically to see the real story of that place and experience the real situation of the area.

I have been in China for more than four years. As a foreign student's China, my purpose of studying here is not about learning professional knowledge, but also understand Chinese culture, Chinese people, and overall understanding of China. In the past four years, I went to several parts of China. Every time I go to a place in China, my main purpose is to understand the rural areas of that place and the living standards of the people. I believe that the countryside is the most basic part of a country's structure, If the countryside people live with happiness then the whole country also has happiness.

Recently I went to Jiangxi and visited three villages there. I talked with the local people to know their living standards, their careers, and the development of the local area in recent years. The thought of rural people is so simple, they are not as complex as people who live in modern cities. They think simple, what they say and do is also simple. What I found from the visit of those villages is, in recent years, the living standards of the people have been improved. They lead happy and healthy life. From different aspects, the development of the local area is also outstanding.

In recent years China gained great achievement in China's poverty alleviation project. In human history, China's poverty alleviation is one of the most successful and remarkable ones. I also had the opportunity to visit some poverty alleviated areas in China in recent days. When I went to Jiangxi, I visited some poverty alleviation villages. I found that poverty alleviation has brought great changes in the lives of the local people. The government has built new houses for the locals, developed new working facilities for them as a result, the annual income of the local people has increased by more than 10 times. Overall, the Chinese authority has done a good job for these villages, and this development of each village in China is the reflection of the development of the whole country.

In the past four years, I have lived in two different cities in China. Since I came to China, Tianjin is my first city to live in. After a year of living in Tianjin, I feel that in this developed and cleaned city, they have European influence in the structure of the whole city. Tianjin is a very nice place and the people are very friendly. As Tianjin is my first city in China, the good time I spent there, will always have a special place in my mind. After a year in Tianjin, I came to Beijing. The capital of China also the center of Chinese politics, economy, and culture. Beijing is one of the most developed cities in the world. In several aspects, I feel like the buildings, roads and transport facilities of Beijing is better than most of the developed cities in the world. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, these four cities are the center of China's economic and cultural development. You may not believe what I said, but every single word I said here is true. If you still have confusion, you must have to come to China and experience it by yourself.

In recent years, China has also made remarkable progress in the development of science and technology. The future world will be controlled by artificial intelligence. China aims to lead the world in the development of artificial intelligence by 2030. In recent years, the development of AI in various aspects in China indicates that China has a good future in AI. China has been increasing its research in various aspects. Recently, China has surpassed the United States in publishing research papers and has gained the first position by the number of publications in the world. The next revolution of the world is the revolution of artificial intelligence. In this revolution, it can be estimated that China will stand in the front line of the world.

From a poor and backward country, China has become the second-largest economy in the world. It is not a one-day effort nor is it the achievement of a group of people because the whole country has worked together that's why China has achieved this great achievement. China's 2008 Olympics and 2022 Winter Olympics are the reflections of China's strength, power, and development in several aspects. Since the reform and opening up in 1978, China's development is a surprise to the whole world. The rapid development of China's economy is also a myth to the whole world.

China has one saying, "Seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times (百闻不如一见)", which is the best way to learn a country or a region. After coming to China, I have a new understanding of China which is totally different than before coming to China. In the end, I should say that, if you want to understand the real China, you have to come to China. When you will go to several parts of China and see China from your own eyes then you will know the real China and understand China in a better way.

I am Mahedi Hassan Sunny from Bangladesh currently studying my undergraduate at Yuanpei College in Peking University.

During my four years of studying experiences in China, I have experienced a great in China and through my lens and this article, I shared my experience and my views to understand China in a better way.

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