Experiences of a TiU-student in China

For some students, The Netherlands are just too small. Mart Swinkels is one of them. After an exchange semester in Beijing, he decided to stay in China. Now, he is doing his graduation internship in China as well.

Every morning Mart (25) opens his curtains, he sees smog. “The air pollution is definitely a reason not to stay in China in the end,” he says via Skype. “I really enjoy my time here, but I want to see more of the world and the problems with the air here are pretty bad.” Despite this, his stay in China has been a great experience for him.

Mart is in the process of finishing his master Supply Chain Management. He still had to finish his thesis and do an internship when he decided he wanted to go abroad before he was done studying. He chose to go to Beijing. “I had classes with Chinese people and exchange students. It was a mix of cultures and ages and that was pretty instructive in itself.” In Beijing, he lived on campus and mostly hung out with the other internationals. After his studies, he wasn’t done with China just yet and he wanted to do his graduation internship in the orient as well.

Mart moved more than 2000 kilometers south to Shunde, a little south of Guangzhou. Compared to the people in Beijing, the residents of Shunde are more surprised by seeing a foreigner in their midst. He works for a company that produces stainless steel water taps. At the company he works in, two out of 250 people are foreign and 8 of them speak acceptable English. “The culture is different and since China is a fast-growing economy, it will be valuable to have this knowledge in my future career.”

His world has expanded from his experience. He plans to come back to Europe in June, and he is looking for a job in several European countries. “I’ve learned how to survive in a country where I don’t speak the language and in a foreign culture. I’ll take that back home with me.”