Tanzania Chinese Learning Student expressed his experience about China
CHINA IN MY EYES – CHINESE SUMMER CAMP 2017
The theme of this report is ‘China in My Eyes’. In this report I did my best level to describe my multiple dimension experience in China including what I saw, heard, learnt and felt of China’s traditional culture, philosophy, scenery, social customs, modern elements, and the inspiration and benefit I got from the trip to China.
BY Costantine Kulwa Paschal
Looking back at history, although I was not born yet, China established diplomatic relations with
Tanganyika and
Zanzibar on December 9, 1961, and December 11, 1963, respectively. When Tanganyika and Zanzibar were united and became Tanzania on April 26, 1964, it was natural for China to extend its diplomatic relations with Tanzania. In 1970 the Chinese took over from the Canadians as the major supplier of military assistance to Tanzania, both in terms of equipment and training for the army, navy, and air force. From the outset of bilateral relations, China has assisted Tanzania with a variety of generous economic aid programs. The most notable early aid project was the
TAZARA Railway built from 1970 to 1975. A total fund of 988 million Yuan was provided along with labors and technical assistance. A total of 1,860 km railway was constructed and became an advantage to Tanzania in economy by connecting Tanzania and
Zambia. The landlocked railway helped to transport cargos from Dar es Salaam port to Zambia. Not only that but also I always remember in 2011, the Chinese government assisted the construction of Benjamin Mkapa Olympic Stadium, namely the
National Stadium.
I started learning Chinese language and culture when I was in the last year (2016) of my degree studies at University of Dar es Salaam, people were shocked to see me learning Chinese language and they asked “what motivated you to learn Chinese language?”, this was my answer and it will remain to be my answer forever, “I was motivated to learn Chinese language because Chinese language is the most useful language by today’s global marketplace and China is the 2nd largest economic country in the World. China has the fast growing economy, technological advancement and the global ranking education institutes”, so I believed that learning Chinese language in this competitive era is inevitable. Being a student of Chinese language was an advantage to my life and it was like a dream comes true because I was selected to be one of the twenty members of the Chinese summer campers 2017 to visit China for twenty days from 31st July to 20th August.
On the departure day 30th July 2017, we arrived at Mwalimu Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) Dar es Salaam ready for safari. Around 14:30hrs we boarded to fly to Shanghai via Dubai by using Emirates flight. After five hours we landed at Dubai Airport and stayed there for three hours while waiting for connection to another Emirates flight which fly from Dubai to Shanghai, this flight was very big and very beautiful; inside my heart I said “for sure China deserves to be China”.
As the flight neared Shanghai, I was very curious to see Shanghai, the biggest city in China. As I was sighting the city via the flight window I was instantly awestruck by its beauty and splendor. I was very happy to see with my vivid eyes the Chinese ancient-style buildings, pagodas and numerous modern sky scrapers. At evening around 16:00Hrs we landed at Shanghai Pudong Airport, dumb-founded with admiration at its achievements.
