Results of the Summer School in Harbin for MPEI students

From June 30 to July 26, 2024, 13 MPEI students were trained at the Summer School of Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin.

Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) was founded in 1920 as a Russian-Chinese school to train specialists in railway transport. Engineers were trained in two areas: "Railway Construction" and "Electrical Machines, Mechanical Engineering". Currently HIT is one of the leading national Universities in China. HIT offers a wide range of programmes in engineering, technology, materials science, information technology and other related fields. About 25,000 students and about 7,000 teachers study and work there.

Every year, Harbin Institute of Technology organizes a language summer internship for students from all over the world. The internship is a Chinese language class that takes place on weekdays from 8:30 to 12:00 a.m. The length of apprenticeship is 4 weeks, and at the end of the last week the participants will take an exam and they receive personal certificates confirming the successful completion of the programme.   

MPEI has been co-operating with Harbin Institute of Technology since the 1950s. The university museum houses the MPEI banner presented to HIT on the 90th University anniversary.

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This year Harbin Institute of Technology hosted 13 MPEI students from the following institutes: Institute of Humanities and Applied Sciences, Institute of Energy Efficiency and Hydrogen Technologies, Institute of Information Technologies and Computer Science, Institute of Electrical Power Engineering, Institute of Electrical Engineering and Electrification and Institute of Thermal and Nuclear Power Engineering; eight of them are also students of the MPEI Centre for International Educational Programmes (CIEP). In total, more than 400 students from more than 20 countries took part in the programme.

In the first days, the participants of each school were given the University tour and the study programme was presented in detail. The eventful programme included lectures by Chinese professors, practical training, the Chinese language and culture studies. During their month in Harbin, students visited all the major beauties of the city: the Dragon Tower, the high street - the local Arbat, Sunny Island Park, Harbin embankment, the Temple Complex, the HIT Museum and a host of other things.

Anastasia Loginova, one of the HIT Summer School participants, an active person from the MPEI Student Media Centre, described her impressions of participation in the Summer School on her weblog in Russian: https://vk.com/video-214477362_456239254.

Darya Machulina, a CIEP student from the Institute of Information Technologies and Computer Science who studied under the Bachelor's programme said: "For me it was the first experience of Summer School abroad and the first trip to China in my life. To be honest, Harbin turned out to be completely different from what I imagined it could be - due to its relative newness and some (Russian) aspects of its origin, there is almost no traditional Chinese vibe in it. But this absolutely does not detract from its charm. It is a huge metropolis, noisy and buzzing, yet retaining islands of calm and tranquility. Gardens, entertainment parks, sightseeing attractions - there are activities for a month-long summer programme to suit any taste, and two days before you leave you'll find out that "we haven't been there and here, but also here". Well, that's a good reason to come again.

About the University itself and studying Chinese: there are three campuses on the University's territory. The first two are small towns indeed, where you don't even have to go outside. Everything is at your fingertips here: canteens, supermarket, sports centre, library and, of course, the academic buildings themselves. The journey from the dormitory room to the classroom takes about 15 minutes at a leisurely, sleepy pace.

Our subgroup was taught by the Laoshi teacher, Ren Feiye. She left only the most favourable impressions: firstly, she spoke English fluently. Secondly, it was easy and pleasant to communicate with her and to learn from her. She really wanted to teach us - so in addition to studying the textbook, we acted out everyday situations with each other and even learnt how to bargain. In the afternoon classes on Chinese culture, Ren laoshi presented her culture to us in such a way that we really got into it, became interested in it, and fell in love with it. We studied the history of China, peculiarities of tea ceremonies, drew hieroglyphs with special long Maobi calligraphy brushes, learnt a couple of kung fu techniques. It was very sad to part with our wonderful Ren laoshi, but at the same time I was very happy to have such a wonderful teacher and mentor in my life.

All the way around, the emotions from this academic month are positive. This is an experience that will bring a lot of interesting impressions and enlarge your scope, and will definitely not be superfluous. Shorten the story, let's all go to China!"

At the end of the training, the Summer School participants received certificates of successful passing the final exam and the completed course.