In this article, I will share my experience of being welcomed as an African student in China, where I pursued a Master’s degree in Journalism and Communication in New Media at the Communication University of China.<\/p>\n
In 2019, I received an educational opportunity from the Chinese embassy in Somalia to study in China. This opportunity opened my eyes to many things and taught me valuable lessons.<\/p>\n
Before departing from Mogadishu, I was apprehensive due to negative messages from some media about China’s treatment of other communities. However, my experience was quite different. On my flight to Beijing, I was impressed by the kindness of a Chinese citizen who sat next to me. He greeted me with a smile and we had a pleasant conversation throughout the flight.<\/p>\n
Upon arriving in Beijing, I was welcomed by friendly people at the university and around the city. The university emphasized cultural exchange and organized trips to different regions of the country, where I witnessed the warm hospitality of the Chinese people.<\/p>\n
Before the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan in late December 2019, I was invited to an event to reward employees of a perfume company. My friend from Yemen and I were well received and even invited to another event, which was unfortunately canceled due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, my experience in China was overwhelmingly positive.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, the warm welcome and hospitality I received from the Chinese people and their government dispelled any negative messages I had heard from some media before my trip. I now have a fondness for China and its open-minded people, who showed great kindness towards African students like myself. Their attitude was better than what I have experienced in some countries, and I would love to visit China again in the future.<\/p>\n
By: Abdirahman Abdullahi Kanava – Editor-in-chief of Somali National News Agency (SONNA)<\/p>\n
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In this article, I will share my experience of being welcomed as an African student in China, where I pursued a Master’s degree in Journalism and Communication in New Media at the Communication University of China. In 2019, I received an educational opportunity from the Chinese embassy in Somalia to study in China. This opportunity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":418828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-418823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-articles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418829,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418823\/revisions\/418829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}