Why

[randall_flagg]

I recently applied for a scholarship to go to China for a year (or two?) to study. In my application, I stated that I wanted to go to Qingdao’s Ocean University. I just learned that I have been invited for the final round of interviews. Now, I know for a fact that I will be asked why I chose to go to Qingdao (while everyone else wants to go to Beijing or Shanghai). Well, the real reason is simple: the air! I mean of course I could live in Beijing for a year, but I go running lmost on a daily basis and I would just hate to have to inhale all the exhaust fumes that you find in many of China’s bigger cities. So the natural choice for me was Qingdao – where the air is oh so clean and everything is ever so peachy…. Now, I can’t very well tell the commission that will be interviewing me shortly that I chose Qingdao so that I can run…. I need academic reasons to go to Qingdao.

Can you come up with any?

Thanks.

[xcode]

You can probably say the following

1) I can learn Mandarin more efficiently in Qindao than in Beijing as there are less foreigners in Qindao. How true is this ?

2) I would like to learn a particular sub culture or certain ethnics in Qindao ( do your research) as Beijing is a big city whereby concentration of a particular ethnic is almost non existant.

Hope this helps

[skylee]

The city's trees 雪松 are also very nice.

IMVHO, if it is the real reason, it could be a good reason if it is well-presented.

[adrianlondon]

Agree. If I was interviewing someone and they said, basically, "I chose your city because it's clean and unpolluted, unlike xxxx", I'd accept it as a valid reason. And a compliment (assuming I didn't actually live in xxxx and had just travelled for the day to do the interview!)

[Laura]

I think the air quality is a very good reason to choose places like Qindao or Kunming over Beijing. I spent only a few days in Beijing, at different times of the year, and to be honest i cannot imagine living there for longer than a week. The weather is pretty horrible, but i could put up with it if it wasn't for the smog. My health is more important than getting the right accent!