Shanghai vs Beijing - advice needed

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Long time reader here and need some urgent advice from CC parents. </p>

<p>I am an undergrad and have a choice between two programs this summer, one in Shanghai and another in Tianjin each lasting 3-4 weeks. I need advice on which to choose. The one in Shanghai is a very well organised program at the Shanghai school of international business and economics; there we will take part in a variety of chinese language and cultural classes, as well as some business lecturers and site visits and fun activities outside of class. The one in Tianjin has chinese and confucius classes each morning, and then there is supposed to be a research component in the afternoon where each student gets paired up with a professor for the 4 weeks and do a research project in the area you are interested in. I am majoring in economics, however we just heard that the research project is a bit of a fluke for non STEM students in that there won’t be any sort of formal arrangement or research topics assigned to you. If you want to do research, you have to come up with topics beforehand and then once you arrive in China, you can then pitch it to whoever is supervising you and see if they can help provide you resources so that you can do your essentially own research. From hearing past students’ experiences, the majority of them did not know this before (because it wasn’t communicated to them beforehand from the organizers) and ended up doing basically nothing for the 4 weeks. </p>

<p>I am at a loss. The main reason i was leaning towards Tianjin is that it is close to Beijing which is a city I would really love to explore AND i thought i would get some research/work experience, but it seems that part, which is suppose to be the core part of the program, is really nothing substantial and not organised well at all. I also just found out that though the train from Tianjin to Beijing station is 30 minutes, the entire trip will be at least two hours from where we will be staying in Tianjin to city centre in Beijing, so it is not very easy to do day trips or go very often to Beijing. </p>

<p>I am pretty adventurous, love travelling and exploring interesting places, and would like to learn more about the people and chinese culture and history which is a big reason for applying to these programs in the first place. Another reason i was leaning towards Tianjin is because it will be unlike any place i’ve been or lived before, and won’t just be another huge cosmopolitan city which i love, but won’t challenge me as much. Yet i’ve heard some pretty bland things about Tianjin which worries me whether i will enjoy it at all. </p>

<p>What would you advise your kid to choose? Go with Tianjin and risk a high chance of not learning much if at all or Shanghai where the program is very organised and tailored for foreigners and you know exactly what will take place? The cost of both is heavily subsidized and cost about the same. </p>

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<p>If you don’t speak or write Mandarin, then I doubt the Tianjin one will generate much actual work. But that’s a guess and based on tangential experiences, meaning unlike yours except at a point (or two). </p>

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<p>Can’t you extend your trip and spend a chunk of time in Beijing after the program? Taking the train between the two would be interesting regardless. Learning is the point of these programs, and is a once in a lifetime chance. Hanging out in a nice place is fine (assuming that Tianjin is nice, but it will certainly be sweltering, and may be another faceless rebuilt new city), but what do you really get out of it? </p>

<p>Yes, Beijing is fascinating, but so is Shanghai. I don’t know Tianjin, but have been to Beijing and Shanghai. There is a great deal of cutting edge architecture in Shanghai, but there are also old neighborhoods where life is far different than what you’d see in a western city. Plus, the day trips, or weekend trips to nearby cities like Suzhou, and Hangzhou can be glimpses into smaller cities with an interesting history. </p>

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<p>I’d add that any city in China is unlike anywhere in the US. Period. And there are many interesting and beautiful places close to Shanghai, like West Lake in Hangzhou. I just realized you would be in Tianjin - which I still think of Tientsin. Given the short amount of time in China, I wouldn’t think much about taking trips. Tianjin itself has a lot of history. (E.g., look up the history of Jews there.) </p>