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Gratitude

A Letter of Thanks

To the people who made this journey unforgettable.

Dear friends at the Guangzhou College of Commerce,

We came to Guangzhou in June as a group of Bournemouth University students, knowing very little: the name of a study camp we had practiced saying, a fortnight on the calendar, and a forecast of southern heat. We left, sixteen days later, changed. Thank you for that.

From the opening ceremony to the very last certificate, the International College built a fortnight that felt effortless, which we know means you worked hardest of all. You turned lectures into conversations and rooms into workshops. You put brushes in our hands for calligraphy, walked us through Tai Chi one slow breath at a time, and let us dip cloth into indigo until our fingers were blue. You showed us Beidou among the stars, small robots on the floor, a live-stream studio, and the smart screens of CVTE. Every day had been thought about before we arrived.

The student volunteers gave us something rarer than any itinerary: their time, hour after hour, and their patience with our clumsy Mandarin. Our teachers and the workshop masters shared crafts that are centuries old as if there were nothing they would rather do. And studying beside classmates from China and from Dongseo University in Korea, we learned that a shared goal and a little mutual respect can carry a team across any language.

What do we carry home? A new respect for slow mornings and fast friendships. A few characters we can still write from memory. The understanding that the Greater Bay Area is not a line on a map but a place that is building the future in plain sight. And a strange, standing homesickness for a city that was never, technically, our home.

Now it is our turn. Our doors in Bournemouth are open, and we have already started arguing about what to cook for you first, though nothing we make will survive comparison with what you fed us. Come. Bring your curiosity for our corner of the world the way we brought ours for yours.

Thank you, Guangzhou College of Commerce, for the welcome, the patience, and the laughter. Thank you to the Turing Scheme and to everyone at Bournemouth who made it possible. Thank you, Guangzhou. We will be back.

With all our gratitude,

The Bournemouth University cohort

With gratitude to

  • The International College of GCC, its faculty and staff

    You planned sixteen days that felt like a gift and never once let it show how much work that took. Every class, every visit, every quietly solved problem: we noticed, and we are grateful.

  • The student volunteers

    You gave us your afternoons and evenings, your best restaurant tips, and endless patience with our questions. You turned a study camp into a friendship.

  • Our teachers and workshop masters

    Calligraphy, Tai Chi, indigo dyeing, negotiation, robotics, design: you handed each of them to us with such warmth. We were beginners, and you made us feel like apprentices.

  • Dr. Danni Liang and the Bournemouth team

    Thank you for building this bridge to Guangzhou, and to the Turing Scheme for making the crossing possible. You gave us a summer we will talk about for years.

  • Our classmates from China and Korea

    From group presentations to late-night dumplings, you made a room of strangers feel like a team. Different languages, shared goals, real friends.

  • The city of Guangzhou

    Thank you for the river and the heat, the early tea and the late lights, and for making us feel welcome in a place so much older and wiser than we are. We will be back.