Louwrens attended a summer school at Tsinghua University in China; here is his story.
Pre – departure:
As students from Construction Management and Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, we were granted an opportunity to attend a construction engineering summer school at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The department of Construction Management and Engineering sponsored us with the registration fee and accommodation for the summer school and we also applied for extra funding at the international office of Stellenbosch University. Tsinghua University accepted our application and sent us a letter of confirmation to attend the summer school from 2 June 2014 until 10 June 2014.
The application for visa was not a troublesome procedure, but all the documents required for visa application were to be in order before applying. The documents that were required includes; your ID document, your valid passport, letter of confirmation from Tsinghua University, proof or payment of the course as well as your plane ticket and also were you will be staying during your visit. The Chinese embassy is for visa applications are located in Cape Town, near Kirstenbosch. I would recommend before applying for the visa to make sure of their office hours because they are only open a certain number of hours per day, and are very strict on these business hours.
Before we headed over to China we estimated that if we exchange some of their currency here in South Africa we would save a fair amount of money. Drawing money with a visa card or master card in China is very expensive and this could be avoided if you exchange a certain amount of money in South Africa. I went to Bidvest in Stellenbosch to exchange some Chinese Yuan for our visit. This should also be done a few days before departing because Bidvest has to place the order form Cape Town and they can only deliver the money the following day. Exchanging some money in South Africa saved us a fair amount of money and it is also good to have some of their currency on you when arriving in China.
You can also use any master card or visa card to draw money at their ATM’s in China. It was found that if you draw an amount of money, your bank (FNB, ABSA, Standard Bank etc.) will charge you a service fee between R40 – R50 for every time you draw money at an ATM in China. I would recommend that you don’t draw money that often, but rather draw large amounts of money at a time. We did however encounter some problems with paying with our cards at certain international franchises including KFC, Burger King and McDonald’s because they only accept Chinese banking cards.
I would recommend exchanging as much money as possible in South Africa, because the banking costs are very expensive and this can save you a lot of money. Keep the money you exchanged in a safe place in your luggage at the hotel and only carry a certain amount of money on you, depending on what you’re planning for the day.
Experience at summer school:
The summer school we attended at Tsinghua University started at the 2nd of June 2014 and we were able to register the morning before the school started. The summer school included various topics associated with construction management and engineering. The programme consisted of two lectures per day, one from 9:50 to 12:15 and the second one from 13:30 until 16:00. Between classes there was a lunch break, were all the students had lunch in the university’s cafeteria. The summer school was attended by various international students, including students from Nigeria, Uruguay, America, China, Hong Kong, Singapore etc.
The lecturers that presented the classes were also various international doctors or professors from universities all over the world. The countries where these lecturers come from include Australia, America, Russia, China, Hong Kong and England. All the lecturers had very good knowledge and expertise on the topics that they presented in the class. These lecturers are some of the world’s leading experts in the field of civil and construction engineering. The topics that were discussed during the lectures includes, Public Private Partnerships (PPP), Risk Management, types of construction contracts, construction contract bidding and case studies on various construction projects completed in China and other parts of Asia.
During my post-graduate studies at the University of Stellenbosch, we also covered similar topics that were discussed during the summer school at Tsinghua University. This helped me to better understand some of the topics that were discussed and also gain valuable knowledge on how these topics are addressed in some of the other international countries. The lecturers also asked all the students to hand in a summary of all the lectures at the end of the summer school, this also allowed me to pay attention to all the lectures and learn something new every day. The summer school also included two city tours, where we visited the Beijing National museum and the Temple of Heaven. This did not contribute to the academic learning of the summer school, but was very interesting.
During my stay in Beijing we also had the opportunity to visit various tourist attractions. The attractions that we visited included;
- The National Olympic park (Bird’s nest), which was used for the track and Olympic events in 2008, and also the Olympic swimming pool called the bubble. Both these structures are famous civil engineering structures which included fascinating design and construction techniques. These attractions are very beautiful at night when they turn on the lights and would suggest this as a must see for future students.
- We also got the chance to make use of the very impressive subway system of Beijing. This subway is very easy to make use of and you can basically reach any place in Beijing with this subway system. I had the chance to do some touring and we visited the various famous tourist attractions including the summer palace, the famous CCTV building, the National opera house and Tiananmen Square.
- We also visited the Great Wall of China which is situated about 60km outside Beijing. This historical icon was fascinating to visit, although we only went to Badaling, one of the restored parts of the wall; it was an amazing site to visit and was a remarkable feeling to be able to walk on one of the world’s greatest wonders.
The Chinese culture and language was a challenging experience and at first we took a while to get to know how things work and what to do, but after that we adapted well and even made some Chinese friends that attended the summer school with us. We also learned a few basic Chinese words to help us get around and buy food, it was however mostly a mission to try and get Chinese people to understand English.
Return after summer school:
The language in China was a big concern, because only a few people understand English or have a limited vocabulary. I also found that if you make Chinese friends which understand English, they can help you get around and interpret the local people that do not understand or speak English. We mostly made use of the subway system as transport to get around in Beijing. This was by far the cheapest and most effective way of transport in the city and is very easy to understand.
The summer school gave me a very good understanding and perspective of the Chinese construction industry. The Chinese construction industry is one of the largest in the world and definitely one of the leaders in terms of innovation. It was astonishing to see the kind of structures they are able to build in a relative short time span. Their ability to build large structures, infrastructure and railways are impressive and South Africa can definitely learn and adopt some of their skills to improve our construction industry.
A big concern that I noticed while I was in Beijing is the amount of pollution that is present. This is a result of large factories that produce masses of steel and other products. China is implementing technologies to develop more green engineering, but this should be addressed more seriously because it does not only affect them, but the whole world.
Following a great visit in China, and experiencing the different cultures and people that we encountered, I was very glad to be back at home in South Africa, because after all there is no place like home. Visiting China was an experience that I will always remember and be thankful for, I learned a lot and was able to see various tourist attractions that I always wanted to visit. I would also like to thank Stellenbosch University and the International office for sponsoring me and allowing me to visit China and attend the summer school at Tsinghua University.