Life in Xi'an

Arriving from Thailand to Shaanxi Normal University in China's Xi'an city, I was welcomed by freezing weather. At about 6-7 Celsius, the weather is totally different from Thailand.

A driver from the university picked me up at the airport. On the way, I was surprised by the scenes outside my window and I wondered whether this was really the Xi'an I'd learned about from my Chinese friends. There were fields and small mud brick cottages and no big buildings. It was very different from Shanghai and Guanzhou where I had visited before. I pushed the curiosity from my mind and started to practice my Chinese by asking the driver about the city.

The driver told me that the weather in Xi'an city is quite terrible. It's so extreme: temperatures fall to minus Celsius in winter while it's blazing high temperatures in summer.

But when we arrived at downtown Xi'an, I came to another world. There are many shopping centres like Centrepoint and Siam Square in Thailand, and many Korean restaurants because most foreign students here are from Korea.

I had to check into the university's hotel for one day before moving into a dormitory because I arrived on a Sunday, which is a day off. The hotel is located inside the university campus. (I guess all universities in China must have their own hotel.) Some rooms are available for foreign students and others for visitors or tourists. Many tourists know that the room rate at the university hotel is cheaper than a normal hotel rate. So that's why they choose to stay in the university hotel.

The next day I had to meet a lecturer to talk about my classes and dormitory. That's how my life in Xi'an began.

To be continued …

By Ananas

Special to The Nation