My Study Tour to “Shopping Paradise”
Time:2012-03-09 10:16:20 Clicks:
— In Memory of 2012 AIA Academic & Cultural Exchange Tour
09 IA5 LIU Dan
It was Jan.12, 2012, the first day on our trip to Hong Kong and also my birthday. The present I gave myself is my first flight in the beautiful blue sky and a wonderful study tour to my dream city.
We are told to be picked up at Shenzhen Bao’an Airport. So we departed from home or school. My friend and I have booked the passenger ticket previously online at a bargain price.
When our plane flew into the air, I can’t help feeling excited and feel that it has been there waiting for us for so long. And I whispered to myself,“Hong Kong, I’m coming.”
We arrived a little bit late at the lunch time. Coming out of the airport, we saw a lady holding a paper with our names written in traditional Chinese. We waved, and she smiled. She guided us to a restaurant, where we saw Mr.Peng for the first time. He is thin and small which is beyond my imagination. But just as is says “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, we were deeply impressed by Mr. Peng’s easy-going manner, humorous personality and wealthy learning after the dinner talk.
When we finally reached Hong Kong, seeing the breath-taking modern buildings, being around by huge green trees and beautiful mountains, all the hardship during the trip was forgotten. And I felt adapted to the surroundings and was delighted with the friendliness between people.
Environment
To my most astonishment, Hong Kong is a mountainous area. Almost the whole city is sited in mountains. Each building has its own style. And every square meter of land is so precious, I’ve even seen a building with the first three floors being parking place. And that is why there are so many complicated flyovers. Can you imagine a college whose classrooms, offices and student refectory were in one tall building? That is exactly where we study in.
Like other modern cities, Hong Kong is very clean and tidy. You can seldom see a tiny dust. Most trees alongside the main roads are big banyan trees, which two adults hardly can encircle.
People
As to the native citizen in Hong Kong, I can’t help recalling a story that Mr. Peng told us. It is a story between an English man and a foreigner. The foreigner once asked the English man:“Why are English people so offish?” “You just saw the surface of it.” Answered the English man,“We are offish in order to respect others, we don’t want too much warmth to embarrass others. But if you come for help, we’re always ready and friendly.” What reveals can also be used to describe Hong Kong people.
Hong Kong people are so tolerated. When you are walking around people, no matter what you wear, how you look or how oddly you behave, people passing by will never stop and look at you as if they had not noticed. However, if you came to anyone for help, they will always stop their festinate gait and listen to you with patience and sincerity.
I can still remember the warm-hearted people I met, the kind manager of the student refectory who sincerely provided us with kinds of information about tour in Hong Kong, the woman editor of Wenhui Daily who was full of enthusiasm about her job, the unacquainted lady in the bus who paid for me when seeing me in embarrassment, etc.
Vivid memories are still fresh in my head. Although I can’t guarantee that I remember their face for long, the kindness and warmth they showed to me will be embedded in my character, becoming part of my soul.
Study
As this is a study tour, we took two courses in the West Kowloon Reclamation Campus of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. One is Financial Accounting and another is Financial Management, both of which were taught in English. We had a lot of discussions in classes, and were encouraged to do varieties of team work. We also have other two lectures, one about the difference between IFRS and CAS which reminded me to keep up with the international trend of accounting knowledge, and the other about the taxation of Hong Kong which helped us to learn that Hong Kong is both shopping heaven and a tax heaven. The professors are all extraordinary people in their areas, who attract us deeply not only with their wealthy learning but also with their elegant manners.
Besides the courses we take, the study surroundings and atmosphere in the universities of Hong Kong deserve to be mentioned.
Take one library of the University of Hong Kong as an example. It is a gorgeous modern building with about 7 floors. There are kinds of English books, Chinese books in traditional or simple Chinese, newspapers from different newspaper offices of different country, CDs and DVDs, many self-service printers for students and teachers, and even videocassette tapes and machines that I don’t even know how to operate. You can take your own computer or use one of the computers there. The school is considerate enough to set up many self-study rooms and team-discussion rooms with a TV set, a computer, a DVD machine, a table and several chairs in each room. No matter what you want, study alone quietly or have a heated discussion with teammates, you can always find the right place .Each student can borrow 60 books once and each for 180 days. I can’t imagine anything you cannot find in such a place. Even if you want a good rest after a hard day of studying, you can go to the small park hidden in the back of the second floor to enjoy the green mountain and fresh air.
What else deeply impressed me is students’ strong appetite for study. A cute girl there tried to learn Chinese well, so she accompanied us everywhere and never missed any chance to talk with us to practice her pronunciation, occasionally asking us to correct. Thus she made a big progress during our stay in Hong Kong.
I have to stop here even though there is more to say. The elegant old building where Sun Yat-sen has lived in, the shining glass window of the modern building under the sun, the different people with colorful dresses and the green mountains surrounded by the endless beautiful blue sea, so much to be remembered but will possibly be forgotten long after. However, the tolerance, confidence and respect of the city will forever affect me, becoming part of my soul.
