My Study Experiences at Peking University by Geoff Chen

Geoff Chen is a kiwi student from Christchurch currently pursuing a Master of International Business degree at School of Economics, Peking University. In the following article, he is sharing his study experiences as an international student at Peking University in the past year. 

My name is Geoff Chen, a kiwi student from Christchurch currently pursuing a Master of International Business degree at School of Economics, Peking University. I graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 2016 and started my postgraduate study at Peking University in 2019. In this article, I will be talking about my overall study experiences at Peking University in the past year. If you are a kiwi student interested in studying in China in the future, I hope this summary of my personal experience and thoughts will give you a sneak peek of what it is like to study in China.

Unlike most of the other international students here who were taking English-taught courses, all my courses were taught entirely in Chinese. Hence language was a significant challenge when I first started. Being able to read and write academically in Chinese were critical to succeed in my courses. In terms of teaching and learning style, I found lots of similarities between my undergraduate and postgraduate studies, such as interactive teaching, group projects and in-class discussion. The study workload was no doubt intense, yet still manageable. I had received a tremendous amount of help and support from lecturers, tutors and classmates when I struggled, especially at the beginning of the programme.

The Master of International Business programme offers many field research and company visit opportunities. I had the chance to visit Xiong’an District in Hebei Province, Yantai City in Shandong Province and Huangshi City in Hubei Province during the fall semester last year. These visits allowed me to gain an in-depth understanding of the Chinese economy in different areas by seeing some of the most significant economic developments with my own eyes and interacting with the local entrepreneurs.

Visiting Jerei, an oil extraction equipment manufacturer in Yantai City

Learning about the Lithium industry from the CEO of RT Advance Materials in Huangshi City

One of the most memorable experiences would be my participation in writing and publishing a book as a class project for my Introduction to International Business class last year. We spent four months to research and investigate thoroughly into chocolate, from ancient mythology to modern international chocolate brands. Our book A Brief History of Chocolate was completed in December last year and published six months later by Tsinghua University Press.

A Brief History of Chocolate

Apart from studying, the campus living experience in China is quite different from New Zealand. Most students live on campus, and you rarely find any students flatting outside of campus. There are supermarkets, lots of cafes and restaurants, barbershops, banks and even a police station on campus, which makes the campus area a fully functional suburb-like community.

While studying in China, one of my priorities was to stay connected with New Zealand. Through connecting with Professor Liu from the New Zealand Centre at Peking University, I had the chance to meet with some of the visiting scholars from New Zealand. I planned to have my internship at the New Zealand Centre during the spring semester, but it later got cancelled due to the unfortunate corona-virus outbreak.

Lunch meeting with Will Shannon and Sherry Chen from the University of Canterbury, 
And Haolun Xu, a Massey University alumnus

During the spring semester, I had to stay home and were not able to go back to campus until August because of the corona-virus outbreak. Luckily, Peking University quickly switched to online teaching, which minimised the impacts on our studies. 

Overall, it is my honour and one of the most valuable experiences in life to study at Peking University. With access to the best academic resources in China and a strong alumni network, Peking University has indeed widened my horizons and opened new worlds of opportunities for my future career.

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