Beijing, Hangzhou, Nanjing or Wuhan

[Piaa]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm from Turkey and I would like to study abroad. My family gave me 2 optinons, Germany or China. They think Germany is more logical but my heart is with China all the way. I've been in different European countries and they look similar to me. I think China is very unique.(culture, language,tradition, places)

 

I would like to study International Marketing in English (Bachelor) Here are my optinons.

 

Hangzhou

Zhejiang University of Science and Technology or  Zhejiang Gongshang University

Beijing

 

Beijing Technology and Business University

Nanjing

Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Wuhan

Wuhan University

I look forward to hear your advices about universities. I know the universities in Nanjinag and Wuhan is world class, have a good ranking. Nanjing looks cooler than Wuhan. Wuhan seems little bit boring to me. For Beijing , I'm really afraid of pollution. I try to eat healthy all the time so it might not be a good option for me , Also Beijing is an international city so I would probably speak English all the time , We will be taking Chinese lessons from university but I don't think I would practice my Chinese as much as I would do in a smaller city. However, the city is amazing and there are a lot of opportunities for work and it is recognized.

I'm pretty impressed with Hangzhou, it looks so amazing. But it is a smaller city and universities are not recognized as much as others. As far as I know they have different accent Although I will learn Mandarin at school , local people will speak with their accent/language. I'm pretty confused about this. 

 

I love cities but I would rather to live in smaller town so Hangzhou might be a good option yet they would have less job opportunities.

 

What would you suggest? I really don't know someone who is studying in China and I've found this web site and I'm so happy. I hope you can help me about my decision.

 

* Sorry about my grammer mistakes.

[Divato]

http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/

According to this website, You should be also worried about the pollution of all of them while the AQI of them are as worse as Beijing in last two days. So, don't bother if you really want to study in China.

Despite Beijing is an international city, I don't think you can speak English all the time。

Besides, Hangzhou is not a small city. Actually, It is a first-tier city in China and Zhejiang University is the top 3 university in China.

But if you compare Hangzhou with Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, it's just not as big as they are.

[Piaa]

Thank you so much, I didn't know that. This is so insane .  

What do you do when the weather is unhealthy?  Do people just stay at home?

I'm really suprised about this because I only see Beijing on the news which is about air pollution. 

[neverending]

Divato - Zhejiang University is a top university, but Piaa wasn't referring to that one - ZUST and ZJGSU aren't nearly as good. As it stands, Wuhan is the most reputable university listed.

 

Piaa, I can't comment on the living conditions at each of those universities, but for what it's worth, I would check the graduate employment rate of these or other universities, and pick the option that is going to make you the most employable. Whatever your plans now, in 4 years it might be hard to find a good job with only an internationally unranked Chinese university on your resume - even in China itself. That might not sound important now, but believe me, it will be. It's important to have fun at university, but you also have the rest of your life to plan for.

[anonymoose]

From the educational perspective, I'd say definitely go to Germany. I don't have experience of German universities, but I assume they are similar to those in the UK, and they are much better than Chinese universities. If you really want to go to China, see if you can apply to a course that has an exchange year in China or something, or do your undergrad first in Germany and then go to China for a masters.

 

I did undergrad and graduate degrees in the UK, and did another undergraduate degree in China. I understand that life in China would be much more interesting for you than in Germany, but from the university life and academic perspectives, I think China just wouldn't even come close to Germany. As the previous poster mentioned, you should consider how your degree will affect your career plans. Whenever comparisons between Chinese and Western degrees come up on this forum, people always mention the international recognition of various universities. Whilst this is a consideration, I also believe that you can learn much more from a Western degree, which will also impact your marketablility and competency when looking for a job.

[tysond]

You only see Beijing on the news because Beijing is the capital city of China, and the media have journalists stationed in Beijing to cover the government stuff, so on a slow news day with high pollution they write another story on "Beijing's Pollution Still A Problem".   Then they find a picture of someone wearing a mask (despite the fact that at most 1% of people are wearing N95 masks, but they have lots of photos to choose from) and write "Beijingers are forced to wear masks to survive" and post the story.  Of all the people I know here, to my knowledge, none of them even own a mask - I've certainly never seen my friends wearing one.  

 

On a very high pollution day - you stay inside, just like if it was raining (rain is rare in Beijing anyway).  On anything up to 400 most people still go outside, but 400+ it's a bit darker and 500+ people generally stay home if they can (you know, if they don't have a job or children to take to school or stuff to do that day, otherwise they have no choice and still go do stuff).  Around 150-250 people sometimes limit their physical activities (like don't go jogging that day).    

 

On the speaking English.... you are planning to study for a degree in English.  You'll be surrounded by English speaking students.  This is why you will be using English all the time, not because of city choice.  In Beijing you have loads of opportunity (indeed need) to speak Chinese, and if you are lazy you can fail to learn in any city.  I met a girl a few weeks ago who after 18 months working in Wuhan did not know how to ask for a bill or even say thank you.

[roddy]

I'd really listen to Anonymoose. Your job prospects will be much stronger with a degree from Germany. Maybe look at the possibility of minoring in Chinese, or even spending a year in China during your degree, or self-studying Chinese. 

 

If you were talking about something that China can claim to be good at - Chinese medicine, maths, manufacturing - I might think differently, but International Marketing? In China? In English? 

[Ruben von Zwack]

For Germany, you may consider the TU München, it' an excellent university as far as I know. A friend of mine just began a masters' programme at TUM in international marketing. And, this is something new they offer, she applied for some language training and exchange program with China. I think that way she gets the best of both worlds.

 

I agree with everything that has been said on pollution, it's just everywhere. I thought Beijing was rather nice, and, no, it's not full of foreigners, and you won't get by with English normally.

[gato]

Go to Germany if you don't have an undergrad degree yet. You can study in China after you finished your undergrad in Germany. Or even during your studies on an exchange program.

Universities in mainland China, for reasons discussed in other threads (try a search), are in a terrible state, educationally speaking right now.