Name: Renatto Aguilar
Country of Origin：Ecuador
Occupation: Trader
Years in China: 7
Renatto and his sister at the Great Wall when she visited China
How did your journey in China begin?
Back home I was working for a Chinese company, since then I started getting close to China. I decided to get my master’s degree in Xiamen after hearing some recommendations from my former colleagues. It has been a wild ride since the very beginning, there was a misunderstanding between me and the university and I received my admission notification just 2 weeks away from my deadline to arrive to the registration day. In 2 weeks I had to resign, do some paperwork, look for flights, and more. Since I didn’t have time for a proper preparation I found some bumps on the road. When I arrived to Xiamen I was relying on some apps like Google maps to move around in China, I mapped the city and marked the places I needed to go, including hotels and the university. Back then I had no clue about the restrictions on some apps so I could not move around as I planned and I had my family worried because I could not contact them. Without even knowing how to say hello in Mandarin I was alone in China trying to communicate with locals using Pleco and with some Chinese-English paper signs that I prepared myself. I was not admitted in the hostel that I booked because foreigners were not allowed (I came on a student budget, without scholarship so I booked a nice bed and breakfast kind of place), I struggled to find a new accommodation in the middle of the night, and later to arrive to the university; one issue right after another. Things started to get smoother after I managed to arrive to the university.
Renatto and his friends celebrating his graduation from Xiamen University in 2016.
What do you like most about your city (Xiamen or others) and China as a whole?
Xiamen is a nice, tropical, super green place to live in. It has an interesting mix of hills, parks, lakes, coast line, track, etc. No matter where in the city, you will be just few minutes away of a nice place to have a walk, rest, chill. There are coffee shops everywhere and the weather is nice, a windy summer with a mild winter.
What fascinated you the most about living in China?
What I like the most about China is how safe it is, no matter the time of the day, or the place. Having the freedom to walk anywhere anytime for me is priceless. It is so easy and convenient to move around, to buy things, to order food, to pay, etc. And also, I have to mention that China’s railway and subway system blows my mind.
Renatto in Xiamen in 2021
A little background on his country.
Ecuador is known for its location right in the middle of the world, there are other countries laying on the Equatorial line, but Ecuador is the highest among the others that is why it gets this distinct characteristic. In Quito you will be in one of the highest capitals in the world and you can step in the north and south hemisphere at the same time. Another interesting place about Ecuador is the Galapagos Islands, the same place that inspired Darwin to create the theory of the evolution.
The Galapagos Islands.
Picture source: https://www.galapagosislands.com/
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