My China Experience(in chronological order):

Hardly, on the second day of my arrival, I became friends with a North Korean guy
who lived on the same floor of my dormitory. Now, being on an alien territory for the
first time in my life, it came as a pleasant surprise for me. Now, language was an
obvious barrier for us, luckily for me, he knew a bit of English and we spoke and me
and one of my friend were invited for a Laser Tag event in the nearby area. The fact
that we were barely settled and we still had a long way to come to terms with life in
China, we went for this exciting opportunity. Moreover, it has been always a dream
for me to study in a Foreign land and mingle with the local crowd. So, this was the
perfect opportunity and I grabbed it with both hands and went for the event. The next
6 years were spent in so much fun and excitement. The entire event had around
people, mostly Chinese and North Korean, and we were received whole heartedly.
Such was their amicableness towards us that even the language barrier was not
sufficient to prevent us from communicating with other and we had one of the best
moments of our life. That was the moment, I felt an uncanny knack that the China trip
would be a fascinating experience for me.
As we were in a new city altogether, with breathtaking infrastructure and hustle-
bustle, naturally it invoked an insatiable thirst in me to explore the very nook and
corners of the city. I took a friend along with me and we took a bus and dropped
down to a nearby market. It was a traditional market and we saw beautiful Chinese
handicrafts and tasted the all famous Chinese cuisine. After enjoying, we had to make
our way and alas! We forgot the way back, we were stranded in the middle of
nowhere! We kept looking for a mode of transport to catch up but couldn’t find any.
Fortunately, we came across a lady who knew English in bits and pieces, she was
going her own way but she changed her way and we walked about a mile or so and
the girl picked up a taxi for us and gave the driver the appropriate directions for our
hostel. This was such a heart-warming gesture for us that it inculcated a sense of
gratitude and respect.
We played a full fledged Cricket match with the nearby University on Football
ground and it was a huge hit with the masses. A plethora of Chinese people gathered
up to watch the match and they even cheered throughout the match. It was mind
boggling to see the residents of Sporting powerhouse paying tribute to an unknown
sport for them. This was one of the instances when we made a plenty of more friends,
many of whom are still in touch today too.
I interned in ZTE Communications, Shenzhen and this was, by far the greatest
learning experience for me. From renting an apartment to attending the diversified
batch of the ZTE University consisting of people of different nationalities from across
the globe, I had a helluva time during this period. It was a juxtaposition of various
cultural paradigms during our training session and it helped me to garner different
cultural traits of different nationalities. Even the workers in the ZTE HQ factory were
extremely amicable with us and they managed to spare time for us in their tight
schedule, trying their level best to make us understand the nuances of the whole
process in basic English. That was a commendable effort from their end and I saw the
“hard” working Chinese nationals using all their might to cover up the production
scales.
By the end of the internship module, I had made many a friends. But alas! Then came
the time to bid farewell to the people. I am basically very bad at goodbyes, hence I
decided to “just” go without much ado. But, I was grossly wronged, when out of the
blue, I received farewell gifts from my team. It was so touching and emotional
considering the quality time spent by me during the internship. More, than the normal
“Guanxi”, it was a much stronger bond, a relationship which I still cherish and hope
to be the same host when any of my former colleagues plan to visit India in the
nearby future. After all this is what cultural immersion a.k.a. humanity is all about.