Someone you know has left or is planning to leave. 1,000 Ways to Japa speaks to real people and explores the endless reasons and paths they take to japa.
Gift Ujunwa is a computer science student in China who left Nigeria in September 2024, after a visa rejection nearly made her give up on studying abroad. In this interview, she explains how a YouTube video led her to China, how her scholarship works, what she spent it on, the documents she used, and what life is really like there.
Where are you based now, and when did you leave Nigeria?
I left Nigeria in September 2024, and I currently live in Taizhou City, China.
Have you always wanted to study abroad?
Always. Since primary school! I come from an average home, so I felt like people who travel abroad needed a whole lot of money, and it felt impossible. But I knew God was going to do it, even though you still have to work towards it. Even when everything wasn’t working out, my mom just knew I wasn’t meant to go to a Nigerian university, so she told me to keep focusing on what I’d wanted from when I was small.
Okay, so what were you doing before you left?
I graduated from secondary school in 2020. Like many people, I wanted the US, the UK or Canada, because that’s where most of my friends were going. I completed a diploma course in public relations and took the IELTS, TOEFL, and SAT. I applied to schools in the US, the UK, and Canada and was admitted to different schools. Then one of the countries rejected my visa.
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Wait, did you ever try Nigerian universities?
I did. I wrote JAMB twice. The first time, I was admitted to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) for mechatronics engineering, but I forfeited it because I already had admissions to those three countries, and my agent assured me the visa would work out. It backfired, and by the time I realised, the post-UTME writing window had passed. The second time, I wrote JAMB while preparing for SAT and TOEFL again; I passed and applied to the University of Lagos (Unilag) because it was closer to home. But right before my post-UTME, the plan to travel abroad got the green light again, so I dropped it and focused entirely on that. It didn’t work out again, and I was actually planning to write JAMB a third time when the idea of going to China came up.
Oof! How did China even come into the picture?
I think it was Canada that rejected my visa, and most of my money wasn’t refunded. You know how much we spend trying to travel out. I was shattered, and honestly, I had given up. Then I was scrolling through YouTube and saw a lady studying in China talking about how easy it is to get in. I got interested.
My mom had actually suggested Asia before that, but my mind was totally on the US, UK and Canada, so I didn’t buy it. I’d never thought about Asia at all. If someone had asked me whether I wanted to study in China, I’d have asked, “Do they even study there? Do international students go there?” I just thought it was a business country. But I started doing my research, then messaged the lady from the video to tell her what I was going through and how I got rejected. She told me China has many admission opportunities and scholarships. I’m not someone who jumps into things without research. I always want at least 70% knowledge, even if I’m going to use an agent.
How did your parents react?
My mom said Asia wasn’t a bad idea, but when I told her it was China, she began to worry in the usual way that African parents do; She asked “How well can we trust this person you saw to guide you?” But for me, this was my last result. If it didn’t work out, I wasn’t going to try again.
My dad didn’t know. After the whole European thing fell through, he took the travel talk off the table.
During my research, I also found out that international students aren’t legally allowed to work in China, which would have been a red flag for him. So I couldn’t even tell him China was an option. I focused on my mom, and she assisted and encouraged me throughout the whole process.
Love that for you! So how did you choose your course and school?
I wasn’t even picky about the course. At that point, it was anything to take me out of Nigeria. But I wanted something easy, because studying in Asia is already difficult due to the food and the language; even though my course is taught in English, the teachers’ accents are hard to follow. I didn’t want a difficult course on top of all that. I’m a science student, so computer science was cool.
I told my agent the courses I was open to, including computer science, and she applied to computer science at about three schools. I got pre-admission letters, narrowed it down to two, and picked the one with a full freshman scholarship and the chance to apply for a continuous scholarship from my second year. Then I paid a deposit to the school and secured my admission. I’d rather not share the name of the school, though. It’s not like they pay me for adverts.
What made China beat the US and UK for you?
The scholarships in the other countries weren’t very good. Here, my tuition and accommodation would be free, and from my second year, if my academic performance was okay, I could apply for a continuous scholarship and even get paid monthly like other students. The exchange rate also helped. If my mom is sending me ₦100,000 for the US, UK or Canada, it’s not even up to $100. China’s rate was ₦208, so what my parents send from home still sustains me for a long time.
Okay, let’s talk money. What did you actually pay to apply?
I worked with an agent, and everything was in one package: her service charge, the application fee, documents I didn’t have, and the whole visa process. You pay 50% upfront before she starts anything, and then the remaining 50% after you get your pre-admission letter and you’re okay with it. I won’t call out her price because it changes with time. The application fee is usually around 400-800 RMB, depending on the school and its location.
After receiving the pre-admission letter, I paid the following deposits at the school: medical insurance, residence permit (visa extension), and room deposit. Those four things cost me about 3,000 RMB. After that, I got my admission letter.
Wow, which documents did you submit, and how long did it take?
Everything was online. I submitted my passport, medical report, police character certificate, admission letter, JW201 (the visa application form), birth certificates, and a few other things.
Some of the documents needed authentication and legalisation by the embassy in Nigeria. For example, the Ministry of Education authenticates your WAEC results, and your police character certificate has to be legalised. It’s not impossible, and it’s actually very easy.
I didn’t have to do an interview at all, which was unlike my experience in Canada, the US, and the UK. I used an agent, but I did a lot of the work too because I like following up on whatever someone is doing for me.
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Was the agent the lady from YouTube?
Yes, she was! Shout-out to her. She’s been in this for the longest time and was very professional, so there were no mistakes on my end or hers.
Do you really need an agent to apply to Chinese universities?
If you’re coming to Asia, yes. It’s very stressful to apply on your own. A lot of these schools don’t put all their information, or even their scholarship opportunities, on their website, and most of them give scholarship slots to agents. It’s easier to get in through an agent, and the websites can be in Chinese, so you’d need a translator to navigate them.
Okay, tell me everything about this scholarship. How does it work?
I can only speak for my school, because every school’s scholarship is different. China has the CSC scholarship, which is awarded by the government. It’s very competitive, and you need some level of Chinese to get it. Mine is a university merit-based scholarship.
You come in with a freshman scholarship that covers your tuition and accommodation. In your second year, they evaluate your first-year performance: your CGPA, your certificates, competitions you’ve won, your contribution to the school and your attendance rate. You must have about 96% attendance, because China takes attendance really seriously, and it affects your visa extension, since we renew our visas every year. You also must not have received a punishment letter or violated any rule or law in China.
If you qualify, you pay about 8,000 RMB to apply for the continuous scholarship, which has four categories. Type A goes to about 5% of the class; you get free tuition, free accommodation and a stipend of 10000 RMB for the entire year, and your 8,000 RMB gets refunded to you.
Type B receives free tuition, free accommodation, and a stipend of about 2,800 RMB per year, with 4,000 RMB refunded to you.
Type C gets free tuition and accommodation, and they refund 2,000 of the 8,000 you paid. Type D gets no refund of the 8,000.
That’s so helpful. What did you pack for China?
I’d been watching packing videos since I was preparing to move to the US, the UK, and Canada. For China, many people say not to bring clothes because you can buy them there. Bring food, your traditional foodstuffs, because it’s an entirely different continent. It’s not like Europe, where things are similar. The food and culture are totally different. So I mostly packed foodstuffs. I also made a video about it on my YouTube channel.
Okay, first week in China. What shocked you?
The first thing was how coordinated and safe everything was. I landed in Beijing very late, left my boxes outside the train station at midnight, went in to buy a ticket, and came back to find them untouched. In Nigeria, someone would have carried that box. You can leave your phone outside and come back to find it.
Second was the black celebrity lifestyle. People were fascinated by my hairstyle and my skin colour and wanted to take pictures with me, with or without permission. Some are curious about your culture, and some are trying to mock you for your complexion, so you have to learn to tell the difference. I didn’t know that at first, so I thought everybody loved me and gave that energy back!
Then the food. I couldn’t find anything edible in my first week. Thankfully, I had my agent in China, so I ate at her place for the first few days. There’s also the spitting culture. Chinese people spit everywhere and anywhere, and I find that disgusting. Also, pit toilets are almost everywhere, so you have to get used to them.
Did you have to learn Chinese?
No, that’s the one thing many people ask me. I tried learning a few basic greetings on Duolingo, but they weren’t very useful when I came. There’s a translation app, and people who work in places where you might need help also have one because they’re expecting foreigners. It’s not compulsory to learn Chinese to apply or to study here.
Aww, did you find a community there?
Easily. People think there aren’t lots of Africans in China, but there are plenty. There’s nowhere you go that you won’t meet Nigerians. Sometimes it feels like home! The only thing you don’t have is your country’s food.
What do you not love about living there?
Honestly, I don’t have many things I hate. But the visa renewal every year is one. In the US, you get your visa for the four years of your study, but here we renew every year, so what if I mess up academically next year? It affects my visa, and any little mistake can get you sent back.
I also don’t like that students can’t work, even on a scholarship. You submit a bank statement showing you can fund yourself, but you still just assume that studying abroad means you can work, like in the US.
There’s some racism here. I haven’t experienced much of it firsthand, but I have friends who have, and we can’t really speak about it because our voices are monitored.
Is it expensive? How are you funding life there?
My city is not very big, so it’s not as expensive as Shanghai or Beijing. If you’re coming to study in China, have a sponsor or a financial backbone back home, because you cannot work here. You can only do things like run a business, import and export, or work as a study agent. That’s why they ask for proof of funds, even if you’re on scholarship.
I’m an overseas communication officer for my school, so sometimes I attend government events and get paid. It doesn’t happen every time. I also work as an agent helping students come to China, and I create content.
Oh wow, can you stay in China after you graduate?
That’s another downside. There’s no permanent residence and no green card, even if you marry a Chinese person. You have to keep renewing your visa every year, and you need a reason to be here: studying or working. For a work permit, you need a company that’s willing to hire you, or you register your own business, and then you keep renewing. Registering a business costs about 20,000 RMB.
If your visa expires, you have to leave or extend it before it does, because you’ll be fined about 500 RMB per day for an illegal stay. So when I finish, I’m either furthering my education, staying to have something that keeps me here, or going back home.
Do you miss Nigeria?
Of course. I’m Nigerian! I miss the food, the culture, my family, and travelling home for Christmas because I’m an Igbo girl. I don’t have many friends in Nigeria, but I miss the few I have.
I also miss the lifestyle, even entering public transport and hearing the conductors. If I could come back for two days, not even a week, I’d eat, see my family, pack enough food and return to China. Nigeria isn’t safe, and from what I’m seeing on social media, it’s even scarier to want to go back.
If someone wanted to follow your exact route, what would you tell them?
China has changed some of its education system since I came. For undergraduates, scholarships are now harder to get because you need to write an exam called the China Scholastic Competency Assessment (CSCA). If you don’t want to write it, you can go through a foundation program, which is always paid and has no scholarships. You pay for a one-year foundation program that teaches you what you need for the exam, and then you write it here before you can apply. Master’s students don’t need to write this exam.
Schools are also getting stricter with how many students they admit and who gets scholarships. My school no longer gives the kind of scholarship it gave in my time, because they realised many students were unserious, and the school is held responsible for whatever happens to an international student, including being fined if one fails a course. So I’d advise a very good O-level result, and for a master’s, a bachelor’s degree with a very good result.
My one piece of advice is to have money and someone you can rely on for financial help. Aside from that, you’re welcome to come, because it’s a very good place to study. Not everything is about the US, UK, and Canada. I realised that when I came here.
Now the good stuff. What do you love most about living in China?
Safety, number one. I’ve never felt this safe in Nigeria. You can go out at any time. I also love the academic system because it makes students serious, especially with the attendance rule. It’s made me learn to study on my own, because most of the time I don’t understand what I’m taught in class.
China is also very clean, and your conscience won’t let you throw things on the floor as I would in Nigeria. The technology is great, and we can order almost anything online, including fresh food and appliances, and it comes to your location without anyone taking your property.
The dorm is standard and very conducive to learning, compared to the one I stayed in at my best friend’s school in Nigeria. And the teachers are nice, although some of them might be a little bit racist, but they don’t let it affect your studies.
Okay, final question. On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your life in China right now?
Eight. Maybe 8.5! A solid 8.5. I’m not stressed like I’d be in Nigeria, panicking about meeting up with a lecturer who doesn’t like me. The lifestyle is smooth, and there’s no peer pressure. You could wear one shoe for a whole month, and nobody would ask. You don’t need a car, or even a bicycle, because there are public bikes you can scan, pay a little, and ride. The cost of living isn’t high, and if I got the chance to come back after my studies, I would. And if I had more money than I do now, it would be an 11 out of 10. So, have money, and you’ll enjoy your life.
