My name is Martin and in China people call me MADING. I’m a 22 years old French student coming from the University of Sciences and Technologies in Lille. I’m in China until October in order to learn Mandarin.

By coming to Harbin, I didn’t made the wrong choice for my project. People in this city are known to speak a really pure Mandarin. Moreover, Harbin is a really interesting town, with a lot of places to visit, and a lot of activities to do. Concerning Harbin Institute of Technologies, I’ve to say that I’m deeply impressed. From our first step out of the airport, we received a warm welcoming, and we have been taken in charge with a lot of professionalism. Even more, the campus is very wide and well deserved with sport facilities, shops when you can find whatever a student need, and a really easy access to the town.

Chinese students are extremely kind persons, and making exchange class (French or English class for Chinese class) with them is really nice and useful, as we use the languages discussing about cultural sides. Moreover it’s a good opportunity to visit the different places of the city.

My major is International Trade so that I think it is really important for me to master Mandarin, and even more to get on Chinese culture. Chinese people are really kind and welcoming persons, for that I feel very happy to do an internship in Harbin today.

After graduating for master degree in France, my next step will be to go back China one more year, in order to get closer from Chinese culture. I really expect one day to have the chance to find a job based on making relationship stronger between China and France.

My name is Raphaelle Martin. The Chinese name I was given by my teachers here at HIT is Zhen Boya.

I am a fifth year student at Lille 1 University of Technology (France); I've come to Harbin with a group of 7 other French students in order to take a 4 months Chinese course at HIT. Our major in France is international trade, especially with Asian countries, and more specifically China and Japan; that's why we have been studying Asian culture and trade this year, as well as Chinese or Japanese language, 8 hours a week. For me, I have chosen to learn Chinese mostly because I really like the culture of this country. We are the first students from Lille 1 University who have come to HIT within the frame of this partnership between our two universities.

HIT made us very welcome. I find that the reception and accommodation of foreign students is very well organized, as well as the campus itself. Everything is made very convenient for the students here (canteens, supermarket inside the campus, mealcard, copyshop, libraries, etc.). I was really amazed how big the campus is; it really looks like a small town.

As regards the city, we haven't visited much yet, but I was quite surprised to see how big and modern the city is (in comparison to French cities!), even though I had read about this town before. There are also more things to visit than I expected (Taiyangdao park, botanical garden, Jilese temple, etc).

We have also been very well received by the students here in HIT; some students of our group are making an exchange with Chinese students (we teach them French, and they help us with our Chinese). It was quite surprising to see that there are so many Chinese students interested in going to France to study our language.

To conclude, I am very satisfied with my stay at HIT; I really hope the partnership between our two universities will last and develop.

(And of course, I also do hope my Chinese will improve very fast !)

To be continued.