New Student Registration for International Students
▲ Zhu Shanlu, Chairman of the Peking University Council, and international students take a selfie together
▲ Lin Jianhua, President of Peking University, talks with Jean-Francois Maurice of Quebec and Darcy Moore of Australia
For more than one thousand young adults, one of their life’s biggest transitions will happen this week as they take part in Peking University’s (PKU) new student registration. The two-day registration, held on September 2nd and 3rd, 2016, saw more than one thousand international students arrive at the New Sun Student Center to join the PKU family. The new students were guided through the registration procedure with the help of their seniors who volunteered for the two days. Students applied for their visas, signed up for shopping trips, received their housing arrangements, and accomplished much more. As students waited for their turns in line, we spoke to a few of them to find out more about their thoughts on their new home:
Mariia-Aleksandra Biianova (Russia)
Mariia, a recipient of a Confucius Institute Scholarship, was here on a one-year exchange to the Faculty of Chinese as a Second Language. Having studied in Zhejiang University previously, she said that she had waited a year to come back to China and was extremely excited to start her new academic life and that it was an honor to be a student at PKU.
▲ Mariia-Aleksandra Biianova is on the right
Altynay Sovet (Kazakhstan)
“Peking University is well-known internationally, and I’m glad that my admission to PKU has made my dad happy,” said Altynay. “Everyone in PKU has been so helpful thus far and I feel really welcomed here.” She is ready to make new Chinese friends and is excited about how the new friendships will bring about new experiences and adventures.
Everyone in PKU has been so helpful thus far, and I feel really welcomed here.
▲ Altynay Sovet
Patricia Lock Toy Lai (Madagascar)
One of PKU's international student body’s newest addition is a happy bride from Madagascar. Patricia shares her “China love story” by relating how she and her husband met and got married in China. It was truly a love story without borders. A piece of advice to other new students: “Get a bike. It’s really helpful!”
Get a bike. It’s really helpful!
▲ Patricia Lock Toy Lai
Thaddeus Caspar Boyd Jahn (Germany)
Thaddeus is confident that he will be able to keep up with his studies at PKU, even though he hasn't studied in China before. He also looks forward to the knowledge PKU’s professors can offer, “It will be interesting to hear Chinese approaches to international relations.”
It will be interesting to hear Chinese approaches to international relations.
▲ Thaddeus Caspar Boyd Jahn
Asking for directions in China is a very difficult thing to do because not that many people speak English here. But the beautiful thing about learning Chinese is that after two months you’re able to do that. It gets easier and easier as time passes, life in China as a foreigner that is.
▲ Joris Teer
Joanico da Silva (Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste)
While most spoke about PKU’s impressive campus, Joanico was just glad that the food at PKU is tasty. “The food in the shí táng (canteen) tastes great,” said Joanico. He is among the first batch of students to study at the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development at Peking University (ISSCAD), a newly established institute that aims to promote development of and cooperation between developing countries through the sharing of knowledge and experience.
The food in the shí táng (canteen) tastes great.
▲ Joanico da Silva meeting with Zhu Shanlu, Chairman of the Peking University Council
Special Thanks to the Volunteers
The volunteers for the new student registration came from all over the world, and they had many reasons for helping. When asked about their reasons and motives to have signed up to help, Jian Xiaoxiang, an international student from Korea, said that for him, volunteering is a way to enrich one’s capabilities that cannot be obtained from textbooks.
Another international student volunteer said that because she was once a new student herself, and having seen the helpfulness of the volunteers who had assisted her with her registration back then, she felt that it is now her turn to help others.
Thank you, volunteers!
Written by Tan Yi Qian & Zhao Zhujun
