Building bridges for the future
Study in a city known for its walls. People visiting my city are surprised by its spectacular walls, especially when the setting sun is silhouetted against golden, glowing stripes. The old, cracked bricks were covered with lichen, and the walls were weather-guarded, standing for centuries.
Our ancestors liked building walls. They built city walls in Beijing, Xi'an, Nanjing, and many other cities, and built the Great Wall, meandering through the country. They built walls to defend against enemies and demons. This tradition continues to this day: we still have many parks and schools isolated from the public.
Walls have long been one of the most natural things in the world for me.
But when I hiked to the eastern suburbs of the city, my opinion changed. My classmates and I are walking with some foreign students. As we walked out of the city, we found ourselves surrounded by tall trees that formed a large canopy above our heads. Suddenly a foreign student asked me, "Where is the entrance to Dongjiao?"
I replied that we are already in the eastern suburbs. He seemed startled, "I thought you Chinese have all the walls." His words caused heated debate. On the one hand, he compared our walled city to a "prison", and I insist that the eastern suburbs are one of many places in China without walls.
There was no winner in that debate, but I did learn a lot from this student. For example, he told me that some major universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge, were not surrounded by walls. I must admit that China does have many walls, and as our country develops, we must carefully observe them and determine whether they are tangible or intangible. We will keep some of the walls, but dismantle those that are holding us back.
Let me give another example.
A year ago, when I was writing my semester thesis, I needed a book on business law and found one in the law school library. However, the librarian coldly rejected my request for a book and said, "You can't borrow this book, you are not a student here." In the end, I had to pay 200 yuan for one. At the same time, copies of the law school collected dust on the shelves.
At the beginning of this semester, I heard that my university has begun to consider unifying its libraries and linking them with libraries of other universities, so my experience will not be repeated. Obstacles will be replaced by bridges. The inter-library loan system will enable us to access books from any library. As globalization and China's integration into the world, I believe many invisible walls will be demolished. I know that globalization is a controversial issue, and it is difficult to say whether it is good or bad. But one thing is certain: it draws our attention to China's visible and invisible walls and forces us to study their role in the modern world.
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