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Indonesia-China Youth Exchange Program 2018: An Incredible Journey to Boost Countries’ Harmony
By: Dony Cahyono
By: Dony Cahyono
It was such a great pleasure and honor for the chance to visit China on behalf of Indonesia-China Youth Exchange Program 2018. I remembered one hadith, seek for knowledge even to China, this experience will remain insightful, fruitful, and of course, wonderful. Writing this writing, here is how my wonderful journey began.
First thing first, on the first day of 2018 I wrote in my diary that this year I targeted to partake and win any academic essay competition before graduated from university. Then, in the middle of January, I read a broadcasted message from one of my English debate fellows, Afi Ramadhan (I thanked him) about the information of national essay competition entitled Write to China 2018 presented by Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI). This competition required the young writers to portray bilateral relation between Indonesia and China, and the 20 best essay writers would have a free trip to China. Of course, I was so passionate to conquer this contest. Then, I decided to write about flourishing China’s digital media that benefited Indonesia in which two weeks expended to get it done. Finally and fortunately, I won one of the twenty winner seats.
From this program, I met other great writers from different cities and universities: Dinda, Lupi, Rini, Salsa, Muthia, Esta, Teresa, Adey, Kiki, Rizky, Shelia, Elli, kak Afi, Iyes, bang Rangga, Denis, Rangga, Azam, and Angelo. We went to China specifically to Fujian Province for a week to visit four awesome cities of this province; Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Sanming, and Fuzhou. I was firstly impressed by the beautiful sceneries of Xiamen City with its refreshing air facing the coastal area. During the trip in Xiamen, we really enjoyed the first activity, welcoming reception.
It was the time when we met our new best friends from China who would accompany us during the seven-day-trip there. We were divided into five groups, and I belonged to Sanming University group with Esta, Kiki, Iyes, and Muthia. It was also such a sheer pleasure to introduce ourselves in front of local province leaders during the exceedingly delicious dinner.
Moreover, we also visited Zhangzhou, Sanming, and Fuzhou city with some tiring-but-exciting schedules like visiting to government offices, universities, youth community and start-ups, companies and of course the historical and cultural sites. We were also thankful since we got a very good hospitality; stayed at five-star hotels, had many delicious meals, met new families from both Indonesia and China, learned the language and culture, had a chance to perform Indonesia’s cultural show, experienced China’s fast train, visited several amazing tourist sites, got some gifts from local leaders, and so on.
Through this people-to-people exchange program, I learned so many things during this trip. Firstly, I was so amazed with the visited universities where they require a high standard in teaching their students, not only the facilities, but also the students’ activities are also adorable. Chinese people see education as an investment for the better future not only for themselves, but also for their country as well.
Secondly, China is also likely to become technology powerhouse due to its improvements in technology. This country set some goals to become an innovative nation in the next 15 years, as figured in the 2006-2020 National Medium and Long Program for Science and Technology (MLP). In addition, China has made advances in the area of high-tech industrial sectors. It was truly proven when we visited some technology companies during this trip. I was amazed with the innovations they make such as Li-fi to replace Wi-fi, Light-aid botanical garden for infertile land, computerized table and mirror, smart wardrobe, high tech scientific media, and so forth. This fact demonstrates how China seriously advances the technology to succeed its mission.
In addition to this part, interestingly, Chinese people also highly appreciate any local digital media product spreading in the whole country. Although some ‘West products’ are banned, Chinese creative investors created another sophisticated and high-featured applications to assist people’s activity. I saw from my Chinese friends that they installed various applications on their phone, and all of them are local products; creative photo and video app, social media, shopping app, clothing, news app, games, health app, and many more which are all performed in Chinese language. In other words, those apps are amazingly helpful for Chinese people and they also embrace the belief to always be proud using these local products; another lesson I can adapt in my life.
It was the time when we met our new best friends from China who would accompany us during the seven-day-trip there. We were divided into five groups, and I belonged to Sanming University group with Esta, Kiki, Iyes, and Muthia. It was also such a sheer pleasure to introduce ourselves in front of local province leaders during the exceedingly delicious dinner.
Moreover, we also visited Zhangzhou, Sanming, and Fuzhou city with some tiring-but-exciting schedules like visiting to government offices, universities, youth community and start-ups, companies and of course the historical and cultural sites. We were also thankful since we got a very good hospitality; stayed at five-star hotels, had many delicious meals, met new families from both Indonesia and China, learned the language and culture, had a chance to perform Indonesia’s cultural show, experienced China’s fast train, visited several amazing tourist sites, got some gifts from local leaders, and so on.
Through this people-to-people exchange program, I learned so many things during this trip. Firstly, I was so amazed with the visited universities where they require a high standard in teaching their students, not only the facilities, but also the students’ activities are also adorable. Chinese people see education as an investment for the better future not only for themselves, but also for their country as well.
Secondly, China is also likely to become technology powerhouse due to its improvements in technology. This country set some goals to become an innovative nation in the next 15 years, as figured in the 2006-2020 National Medium and Long Program for Science and Technology (MLP). In addition, China has made advances in the area of high-tech industrial sectors. It was truly proven when we visited some technology companies during this trip. I was amazed with the innovations they make such as Li-fi to replace Wi-fi, Light-aid botanical garden for infertile land, computerized table and mirror, smart wardrobe, high tech scientific media, and so forth. This fact demonstrates how China seriously advances the technology to succeed its mission.
In addition to this part, interestingly, Chinese people also highly appreciate any local digital media product spreading in the whole country. Although some ‘West products’ are banned, Chinese creative investors created another sophisticated and high-featured applications to assist people’s activity. I saw from my Chinese friends that they installed various applications on their phone, and all of them are local products; creative photo and video app, social media, shopping app, clothing, news app, games, health app, and many more which are all performed in Chinese language. In other words, those apps are amazingly helpful for Chinese people and they also embrace the belief to always be proud using these local products; another lesson I can adapt in my life.
Next, from this program I also realized that Chinese people have a good appetite in eating their food. I really enjoyed some of Chinese delicious meals and my favorites were duck soup, fried noodle, fried mushroom, and various kinds of vegetables. For Indonesian people, especially for foodie person like me, Chinese food will remain unforgettable. One thing to note is Chinese people are eager to consume healthy food. They cook various vegetables, eat less calories foods, drink warm water and tea, addicted to fruits, and so forth.
For me, it is such awesome thing, some people are foodie but they keep considering their health. In addition, using chopstick was also new interesting experience for me since Indonesian people, in general, are not accustomed to use chopstick therefore it was such a challenge for me. Another impressive thing about Chinese table manner was how the people serve the foods; they use round spinning table with various foods so that everyone can easily enjoy them. One more thing, from the time we spent during the dinners and lunches, Chinese people esteem happiness in togetherness as an important thing.
For me, it is such awesome thing, some people are foodie but they keep considering their health. In addition, using chopstick was also new interesting experience for me since Indonesian people, in general, are not accustomed to use chopstick therefore it was such a challenge for me. Another impressive thing about Chinese table manner was how the people serve the foods; they use round spinning table with various foods so that everyone can easily enjoy them. One more thing, from the time we spent during the dinners and lunches, Chinese people esteem happiness in togetherness as an important thing.
In brief, a week spend in China was very exciting in which we enhanced our understandings about China and Chinese as well, met new families and relatives, and broaden our knowledge about Chinese people, culture, education, technology, economy, politics, ideology, and so on. It will always be noteworthy as what Mr. Dino Patti Djalal (Founder of FPCI) once said “Nationalism is arguably 50% we understand and love our country, and the remaining 50% is we embrace internationalism”. More interestingly, after spending a week in China, we continued our wonderful journey in Indonesia.
During our a-week-trip in Indonesia, we also learned and experienced anything about this lovely country. It was such a privilege for me to visit Bandung to discover some historical and cultural sites just like Asia Africa Museum and Angklung Mang Udjo, my first ever experience to know better about local cultures and heritages of Indonesia. The next days, we visited some places in Jakarta including Monas, had leadership talk with Mr. Dino Patti Djalal, visited presidential staff office, visited Indonesian start-up companies such as Bukalapak and Traveloka, had an academic dialogue about Indonesia-China relation at Universitas Indonesia, visited Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, experienced traffic jam, morning calls, tight schedule and hot weather in Jakarta, and many other great moments.
From this visit, I learned many important things about life in Jakarta in which in the same time, I could tell my Chinese fellows anything about those places for the sake of giving the best hospitality and making a very good impression about Indonesia to them.
From this visit, I learned many important things about life in Jakarta in which in the same time, I could tell my Chinese fellows anything about those places for the sake of giving the best hospitality and making a very good impression about Indonesia to them.
The next days, we also headed to Semarang and enjoyed our visit to Semarang City Government, Sam Poo Kong Temple, Lawang Sewu, and some other places that we have never been there before. We also headed to Yogyakarta to have an insightful dialog about Indonesia-China relations at Universitas Gadjahmada and Universitas Muhammadiyyah Yogyakarta, shopping time at Malioboro street, visit to Prambanan Temple and enjoy the incredible Ramayana Ballet Show. Of course, it was the best moment I have experienced to comprehend and discover more things about Indonesia.
In the last day, we headed to Makassar in which we visited Universitas Hasanuddin to have interactive talk about Indonesia-China foreign policy, visited amazing Ramang-ramang, and finally ended up the whole trip with farewell party.
In the last day, we headed to Makassar in which we visited Universitas Hasanuddin to have interactive talk about Indonesia-China foreign policy, visited amazing Ramang-ramang, and finally ended up the whole trip with farewell party.
To sum up, I was and will always be beyond thankful for this great chance of Indonesia-China Youth Exchange Program 2018. It will always be one of the best memories in life. Last but not least, I also would like to extend my gratitude to FPCI, Embassy of The People’s Republic of China, Fujian Province, the committees, the hosts of each place we visited in Indonesia and China, my Chinese and Indonesian friends, the influencers, the journalists, and everyone who involved in this noteworthy program. Once again, thank you very much.
