Happy Costa Rican discovers China is 'very magical'

For Costa Ricans in Central America, UIBE scholar Felipe Mora's compatriots, China may not be the first-choice destination for higher education, given their motherland's proximity to the fabled United States, but Mora would not settle for anything else. He even disregarded his father's advice and decided he would pursue his master's as well in China.

Mora believes it's always better to choose a path less trodden. He prefers to be off the beaten tracks.

Since he grew up and received early education in both Costa Rica and the US, he is fluent in both Spanish and English. Now, he is determined to master Chinese as well, even as he pursues excellence in both academic areas and pastimes like travel and slacklining (more about that in a bit).

Unlike most of his peers, Mora, now 25, gave up the opportunity to finish his higher education in the US in 2018. Instead, he decided to come to China for further studies.

"Going to the US for college is a good option, but learning a third language will give me more value as a person. And for me, China means more than the language itself, because when you study the language, you study the culture as well," he said.

Mora further said he developed an interest in China through movies when he was a kid. Yet, he couldn't even say "Hello" in Chinese when he landed in China. He mispronounced "xiexie" ("thank you" in Mandarin) as "qieqie" at a restaurant.

"I remember how people were laughing at that time. Then I promised myself that no matter how long it will take to learn this language, I'm going to speak it as fluently as a native Chinese does. That has been my goal ever since."

Soon, language was no longer an obstacle for Mora. A quick learner and hardworking student, he finished the precollege language courses in 2019. He is now in the fourth year of a bachelor's degree in international trade at the University of International Business and Economics or UIBE in Beijing.

Mora said he has been particularly fascinated with the ancient Chinese architecture. Layers of bricks impeccably laid on top of each other always catch his attention.

He holds places like the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace close to his heart. "They take me back in time and make me imagine how they used to be," he said.

He recalled that China has not been a popular destination for education among his compatriots given the geographical distance. The Pacific Ocean separates the two land masses. Some of them, he said, think China is so far away they may never visit it even once in their lifetime.

"They envy me for having the courage to choose to study and live in a country that is so unfamiliar and they are very curious about China," he said.

"They ask me so many questions. How are the people? Are the girls beautiful? When I show them pictures, they think that's amazing and they get really interested in China."

But the going has not always been smooth. On occasion, he said he found himself dispelling some myths, wrong beliefs and ill-conceived notions about China.

"Imagine you never tried chocolate. Then you'll not know whether it's delicious or not even when other people tell you what chocolate tastes like. A lot of people who have never traveled to China just hear secondhand information about the country, but it's wrong most of the time," he said.

Many young people in Western countries lack in-depth understanding of the richness of Chinese culture and history. They simply see the country as an economic powerhouse, which is a bit of an overgeneralization, even reductionist, he said.

On the other hand, many of the older generation still think China is an underdeveloped country; they don't seem to realize how the country has dramatically developed over the past 30 years. That's because "people like our grandparents never had the chance to interact with many foreigners their whole life".

Mora went on: "But now in my lifetime, I've seen people from Africa, I know people from Europe and I interact with Chinese. This changes me and it changes them as well. Living in a time of globalization, I think it's very important to learn about each other. That's the main reason why I came to China."

Mora is enthusiastic about traveling around China. He has been to quite a few Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Harbin in Heilongjiang province, as well as Hong Kong and Macao.

Just three months after he came to Beijing, he had started to go out with friends and picked up enough confidence to flag down a cab in Mandarin. In 2019, he went to Tai'an in Shandong province and climbed for more than four hours to the top of Tai Mountain to savor the sight of a spectacular sunset.

Now Mora is planning to explore more places across the country with his hobby of slacklining, an outdoor activity of balancing on a webbing between two fixed points high in the air. At first sight, people may confuse it with tightrope walking.

He fell in love with the activity during COVID-19 and the longest distance that he has walked so far was 1 kilometer by walking back and forth on a 500-meter-long line.

In October, Mora went to Taizhou, Zhejiang province, with his new Chinese friends who also engage in this niche activity, to attend a global highline challenge that attracted nearly 100 professional slackliners from different countries.

Mora said he loves Chinese people for their warmth. At his slacklining performances in China, "they always cheer me saying 'Jiayou' ('Come on' in Chinese) and want to take pictures afterward. It's cool and I love it."

He is acutely observant. "China and Costa Rica share a lot of similarities, such as the enthusiasm of people, but language and distance separate us a little bit. Once we overcome these obstacles, we will find that we are more similar than what we think."

Mora has applied for master's programs in several Chinese universities to continue his business school education. He wants to focus on trade, especially e-commerce.

"I've always liked business and I think the world needs more bridges and fewer walls," he said, adding he will probably set up a startup to champion cooperation between China and Latin America once he completes his education.

Mora said his father wanted him to pursue a master's in a different country. "I want to focus on China. It's a very magical place and I'm happy here."

mojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn