Chinese New Year in the Most Picturesque Place in China

It was January 2020. I had been looking forward to that moment for a long time—studying hard and saving up for my first experience at a language school abroad. When I finally landed in Guangzhou, I was jumping for joy. But that feeling didn’t last long, as I quickly realized I couldn’t speak Mandarin at all, despite having studied it for almost two years. All the signs were in Chinese, and no one around me spoke English, so I had to rely on playing charades to explain myself. Somehow, I managed to buy train tickets and travel from the airport to the train station and from Guangzhou to Yangshuo with a stopover in Foshanxi.

I woke up in my dorm room the next morning, looked out the window, and saw a marvelous view of Yangshuo—a cozy little town in Guangxi, a province in the south of China. I was going to spend the next month there taking language classes at Omeida Chinese Academy and volunteering as an English teacher for Chinese students.

There’s a Chinese saying: ‘Guilin’s scenery is the best in the world, and Yangshuo’s scenery is the best in Guilin.’ (Guilin is the biggest closest city to Yangshuo.) I haven’t been to many places in China, but I can easily imagine that this is true. So, I was blessed to be in such a special place.

Initially, I was supposed to share my dorm room with a Chinese student who was learning English at Omeida, to ensure complete immersion in the language environment. However, all the Chinese students had left for the winter break, so I ended up living there alone. My dorm was about a five-minute walk from the school, and the route took me through authentic Chinese streets with local shops and restaurants, making for a pleasant stroll.

My dorm room

My classes ran in the morning. I had 3 hours of Chinese every day, Monday through Friday (a Standard course), in a small group with 2 students from Australia and Turkey and a teacher who was a native speaker of Chinese. Before arriving in China, I had a video call with one of the school’s teachers to assess my language level and determine which class I should be placed in.

Omeida Chinese Academy

Besides taking classes, I also took on the role of an educator, teaching one-hour afternoon English conversation lessons five days a week to Chinese students who were attending Omeida to study English. This volunteer program helped me save money on my trip to China, as it covered my accommodation and 2 delicious meals a day at Omeida. Since I was there during the holidays, my students were school kids, whereas at other times of the year they are usually adults. The kids were very sweet and eager to learn. I was genuinely surprised by their discipline, respect for their teachers, and their dedication. It was a true pleasure speaking with them and telling them more about my country.

I also participated in daily extracurricular activities such as Chinese Calligraphy, cooking, Kung Fu, Tai Chi, tea-making, paper cutting, playing sports games, competitions, Thursday social nights, and class dinners where I met other students who came from all over the world. Some of the students took a gap semester or the whole year and came to Omeida to study the language and explore the Chinese culture for the whole time. Every student also had a Chinese buddy with whom they could do a language exchange outside of classes.

The school offered weekend sightseeing tours and outings, but, unfortunately, I didn’t get to experience those.

However, I was very lucky to be there during the Chinese New Year celebrations, which vary in date each year according to the Lunar calendar. That year, it fell at the end of January.

The school teachers gave us a lecture on the origins and traditions of the holiday, including the Chinese zodiac, and organized various workshops where we made traditional New Year decorations together for the school. We also went to a fancy Chinese restaurant and enjoyed a delicious holiday dinner with the whole school on New Year’s Eve. Afterward, we watched the fireworks, lit sparklers, and returned to school to watch a traditional Chinese New Year’s show on TV. It was a truly memorable night!

One thing you should know about Chinese New Year is that it can feel like a war zone—extremely loud due to countless firecrackers and fireworks going off at the same time. The louder, the better! I truly felt like it was the start of the World War III. The tradition of setting off firecrackers originated from a legend about a mythical beast called Nian, who was believed to terrorize villages and eat people during the New Year. Villagers discovered that Nian was afraid of loud noises, fire, and the color red (this is why the Chinese also hang red decorations on the walls). So, making lots of noise was supposed to scare the monster away and ensure a safe and prosperous year.

Unfortunately, that tradition didn’t help that year. My Chinese journey didn’t last long. COVID hit, and shortly after the New Year’s celebration, I had to return to my home country after just 10 days in this beautiful place. I was devastated—I had dreamed about my trip to China for so long and had invested so much time and money in it—but I had to accept reality. Everything was shutting down—stores, cafés, and restaurants—and the once lively Yangshuo quickly turned into a ghost town.

Although Omeida offered to let us stay in the dorms and continue with online classes, I didn’t feel it was the right choice for me. I hadn’t come to China to be stuck indoors—I wanted to make the most of my journey and explore the country as much as possible. So, the only right decision for me was to return home. Luckily, the school refunded me for the remaining classes, which I’m really grateful for.

I spent my last day in Guilin and then traveled back to Guangzhou to catch my flight to Moscow. Before leaving, I promised myself that I would come back to Yangshuo and Omeida in the summer. If only I knew that the situation with COVID would only get worse…

Now it’s July 2025, and the borders are open again. As I write these lines and reflect on that journey, I feel truly heartbroken. But who knows? Maybe one day I’ll get a chance to be back to this magical place.

I felt like I learned more in the 10 days I spent in Yangshuo than I had in the two years of studying the language on my own beforehand. (Although I did have Chinese classmates back in college in Russia who inspired me to start learning this difficult language and helped me practice it.) So, if I were to recommend a place to study in China, it would definitely be Omeida Chinese Academy.