FOR some people, their knowledge of China is restricted to the fact it’s got a slightly more impressive version of Hadrian’s Wall running through it.

It’s not exactly a common holiday destination and, as such, is shrouded in mystery for many, with only the odd television documentary and a healthy dose of stereotyping to go off.

However, one Tynedale student has recently returned from an entire year in the Far East.

Ellen Cook (21) studies French and Chinese at Newcastle University, but got the opportunity to spend a year studying at the Beijing Language and Culture University in the country’s capital.

Ellen, whose family live near Shotley Bridge, first studied languages at Hexham’s Queen Elizabeth High School, but it wasn’t until it came to picking a degree that she decided to study Chinese, a notoriously difficult language.

But with China on the rise economically, coupled with its massive population, the demand for Chinese speakers is increasing.

Ellen said: “I studied French and Italian at A-level, I’ve always enjoyed languages and I was quite good at them.

“I guess I wanted to study a new one at university, and I was looking at languages that would be useful, and ones that not everybody speaks, like Arabic, Russian, and Chinese.

“Chinese is really useful for business, so I took a leap of faith. It was hard, but it was my favourite subject at Newcastle – everyone was rubbish, so you never felt left behind!”

By the time her year in China came around, Ellen had two years of learning Chinese through university under her belt – but found that there was a lot of learning still to do.

She continued: “Before I went to China, I thought I could speak Chinese, and then I got there and I couldn’t at all. I was appalling!

“The taxi driver who picked us up from the airport was asking where we needed to go and for the phone number of where we were staying, and my friend and I just didn’t have a clue.

“When you’re over there, you have to speak it all the time. You have four hours a day of intensive study and you’re just bombarded by Chinese.

“With Chinese people, there’s no concept of ‘this person doesn’t speak Chinese, I’ll speak a bit slower’, they just repeat it at you; it’s sink or swim.”

While Ellen was in China as part of her degree course, she had enough time off from university to explore the country and see some of the world-famous sights it has to offer.

Chinese holidays, such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chinese New Year, proved perfect opportunities to see other parts of the country; from spectacular mountain ranges and iconic wildlife to some of the most impressive man-made structures in the world.

“For the Mid-Autumn Festival we got a week off, so me and some friends went to Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing,” Ellen continued.

“Then we got about a month and a half off for Chinese New Year, so I did a whistle-stop tour of China.

“I went to the Avatar mountains, they’re really called the Zhangjiajie mountains, but they were in the film, and they’re amazing – although we got attacked by a monkey when we were there.

“It was baring its teeth at us and an old women who was sweeping her step had to bang on the floor to scare it away.

“I went to Chengdu to see the pandas - that was cool - and then my parents came over at Easter for two weeks and we went to see the Terracotta Army in Xi’an.

“I actually went to the Great Wall three times, once on an organised trip, once on a trek with my parents – that was amazing because the wall hadn’t been restored, and we were the only people there – and the third time we camped there.

“It was hard work – there were these massive bees all over, and we were walking uphill for miles in the heat with no shade.

“When we finally got to the top, it started to rain.

“We only had these little pop-up tents which weren’t waterproof, and my friend’s tent flooded, so we had to share a tent and a sleeping bag.

“But in the morning, we watched the sunrise over the wall and it was all worth it.”

Ellen also managed to visit a number of other countries in South-East Asia, taking in Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore in the space of just a few weeks.

She added: “It was so good, but I had literally no money left at the end, it wiped me out. It was worth it though.”

Of course, the cultural differences between Britain and China are vast, and anyone visiting will find the country something of a culture shock – particularly if they don’t speak the language.

Unlike visiting European countries, it can be very difficult to pick up any Chinese phrases if you don’t know the language, and the fact that the alphabet is completely different makes signs incomprehensible to Westerners.

In rural areas in particular, there’s virtually no English at all for tourists to fall back on.

However, Ellen found that the people of China went out of their way to make her and her fellow students feel at home – that is, when they weren’t trying to include her in their family photos.

“The people are so nice,” Ellen explained. “Because you’re so far away from home, people are so willing to help if you’re lost or anything, they don’t want anything in return. You do feel a bit alien almost – you obviously look different, but that’s not the issue.

“If you go to some of the big tourist sites, people want to take photos with you.

“We got asked for a photo and we went to take their phone, but they said ‘no, with you!’

“You’re just smiling with these random people and it would make their day.

“People push their kids towards you; one little boy even cried because he was being shoved towards these people who didn’t even look like him.”

The country has clearly made an impression on Ellen – her current plan is to return to China to live there, once she’s finished her degree.

The Chinese government is keen to attract more foreign students, and as such has a number of scholarship programmes.

In addition, living costs in China are still comparatively low, while an expat can earn a good living teaching English.

Ellen finished: “I don’t really know what I’ll do once I’m finished studying.

“I just want to live over there, so just wherever will have me. I want to be fluent and I’m not going to be after uni.

“I don’t just want to speak Chinese now and then, I want to speak it all the time.”