In my first
post I want to introduce you to the place where I spent the last few weeks and
where I will be spending my next 2 months. The place is called Zhuhai and it is located in the South of China. You may wonder why I chose this city…
Before I
resume university this fall, I decided to do an internship abroad. I have never
been to the Asian part of the world and I thought this is the opportunity. The organization I’m here with is InternChina and they offer
internships in 4 different places in China. I decided to go to Zhuhai, because it is in the South of
China (which means warm weather), close to the beach – this is the one thing
that I’m missing in my home country, Switzerland – and it is not as large as other
Chinese cities. I don’t want to be too overwhelmed.
Zhuhai is
part of the Guangdong province and together with the other cities of the
province, Hong Kong and Macau, they form the Pearl River Delta. The region has
experienced a major economic development during the past decade and offers
great opportunities for global investment and trade. The area has several
Special Economic Zones that make trade between China and the world easier.
A bridge is also being built from Zhuhai to Hong Kong that will further
connect the two cities and Macau. It is supposed to be done by this summer.
Among the
Chinese, Zhuhai is also called the ˈcity for loversˈ or the ˈcity of a hundred
islandsˈ. I’m definitely planning on visiting a few of them. The boardwalk
along the sea is known as the ˈLovers’ Roadˈ. You can actually see many couples
strolling along the sea, whereas I prefer to go running there.
Zhuhai is a popular tourism destination, especially for Chinese people. There are several sightseeing spots that I will show you during the next weeks. The Fisher Girls Statue is the town’s landmark. You will hear more about it soon.
In general, it is a very green and clean city and the population is not as dense as in other Chinese cities. Currently, it has about 1, 5 million inhabitants. Zhuhai is in the subtropical zone, so humidity is high all year round, but in spring it is the worst. I already got a taste of it and I do not like it very much, because everything is moist and you can only see a couple of meters. It feels like being in the middle of a jungle. The indigenous language is Cantonese but now the main language is Mandarin. English is still not very common.
Zhuhai is also the gateway to Macau, the former Portuguese colony and the Las Vegas of Asia. Chinese people love every kind of game, so it does not surprize that Macau actually makes more money than Las Vegas. Macau has been a popular tourism place for years, also because foreigners don’t need a visa to visit it and when China was still closed for tourism, people could travel to Macau and get a glimpse of the Chinese culture.
