Tsinghua student dreams of army life

By Meng Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-10 09:32

A Tsinghua University student who spent two years in the army says she cannot wait to return to the military, despite her elite educational training.

Jia Na, 23, a third-year journalism and broadcasting student, decided to take time out from her studies two years ago.

She has now returned to campus life, but said she wants to study defense studies.

"For me, it was just a personal choice, I wanted to experience something different and gave myself some time to figure out what I wanted to do in the future," Jia told METRO on Tuesday.

As a student at Tsinghua, the best technical university in China, Jia's choice of a two-year army service was unusual. She said she didn't tell anyone until she knew she had been accepted.

"My father passed away when I was young, so I was raised to be an independent person by my mother," she said.

Tsinghua student dreams of army life

Jia said that during her first three months she followed a grueling and repetitive schedule of exercise, cleaning and studying.

"I was blamed by my superior officer every single day because I couldn't figure out how to fold my quilt into a rectangle in a short time," she said.

She also had to make friends among the other younger recruits.

"I was surrounded by high school graduates. I was fine with that because I wanted to learn. But other people may not have thought that way," Jia said.

For the past 18 months, Jia was trained to send telegrams and can now type 89 words a minute with an accuracy rate of 100 percent.

"I just don't think the knowledge I have now is enough, so I hope to learn more before I finish my bachelor degree," Jia said.

Asked about her choice of being a defense student, Jia replied that she now knows what she wants to do with her life.

Being a defense student is a one-way journey and means she will focus her life on the military.

Meanwhile, the list of young recruits who have been accepted in to the People's Liberation Army was released on Tuesday.

The Haidian district organized a farewell party for the new recruits on Tuesday.

Haidian district recruited about 200 people this year and about 50 percent are college students. They began to leave Beijing for different army locations Wednesday.