[Ghana] Demuyakor Sylvester, Shandong Normal University
When I was a kid, I loved watching a TV series called Journey to the West. As a naughty boy then, an episode was all it took to see a well-behaved me as long as my mom mentioned the Monkey King. I determinedly chose Chinese as my major when I went to college so that I could learn China’s language and culture. And since then, albeit residing in so distant Ghana, everything concerning China has always triggered a sparkle inside my heart.
The internet is never short on news about China’s bullet-trains development speed and the ever-changing manufacturing industry. Thanks to the 2016 Confucius Institute Scholarship, I finally got the opportunity to go to China and experience the thunder-like high-speed railway by myself.
As I feared for the flood of homesickness that could plague me, I waved my farewell to relatives and friends in my hometown, embarking on my journey to China. After the twenty-four-hour flight, I arrived at the hometown of Confucius and started my overseas studies at Shandong Normal University.
Soon after, I got the chance to experience the high-speed railway that had been mentioned countless times on the news. Just as the saying goes, a sight is better than a thousand words, I got the real sense of how fast China’s high-speed railway can be! I also tried China’s traditional low-speed railway last winter when I went to Wuhan for a trip.
However, I had never thought that its speed would really be as slow as what its name meant until I was aboard. Its poor conditions, tortoise-like speed, hard-sleeper berths, narrow aisles and humble and crowded space, all but tortured me. At night, as the train went slowly, I sat in the darkness, looking at those sleeping people, and yet saw peacefulness and satisfaction on their faces.
This year living in Jinan city, the safety of the country has left the deepest impression on me. One day, I got out for fun with my friends until midnight. And on my way to the dormitory, I received a call from my mom. When she found that I was still out alone, she was so nervous and said: “Are you safe to walk alone when it is so late? Go back quickly!” I reassured her, “Mom, China is the safest country in the world…” And that is no exaggeration. We, international students, can walk freely in China at any time. Sometimes I even wondered that the reason we are able to do so lies in the moral standards of Chinese people or it could be strict police vigilance. Whatever the main contributor, China is a particularly safe place.
Apart from its good public security, in Jinan I was also deeply moved by my Chinese friends’ and teachers’ hospitality, which made me feel at home. They always say something like, “Demuyakor Sylvester, let me treat you someday” or “Demuyakor Sylvester, feel free to ask me if you have any questions.” These are not just empty promises because they really act as they said. Could it be because they are mainly influenced by Confucianism? Just as Confucius said, “Is it not a pleasure to meet friends coming from afar?” The virtue of “helpfulness” that teachers taught us existed in my everyday life in China.
For many people, China’s Belt and Road Initiative is just an economic and social project, but for me, it is an emblem of China’s hospitality rather than a project. If you think about it, you will find that the initiative is not to benefit China alone, but to provide countries and regions along the routes with the fertile soil for future development. Only a friend, like China, that really values friendship would propose this.
Althouth my mere one-year student exchange is coming to end, my observation and thinking will continue. In Journey to the West, the Monkey King accompanied his master Xuanzang on a journey to retrieve Buddhist sutras from India and ultimately succeeded after get through eighty-one obstacles.
My journey to the east has also reaped results. Through personal experience, I recognize that it is the diligence of the Chinese people that enables China to realize dramatic changes and achieve extraordinary economic growth in such a short period. In addition, what I saw and heard in China convinced me that nothing in the world is difficult for the one whose mind is set upon it. Inspired by this Chinese spirit, I would like to try my best to make our common world a better place to live in.
The story is from "My Beautiful Encounter with China" Essay Competition organized by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchanges (CSCSE).
