People are born in different places of the world with different races, religious beliefs, traditions, lifestyles and ambitions. Everybody has an aim, which is the inner desire of human. Sometimes our dreams are expensive and in parallel some of them are very simple. "Live Your Values, Pursue Your Dreams, and Follow Your Passions" is my favorite rule to follow to have the best future life we could possibly have.

I am Thiri Thon Thon Htun from Myanmar. I am currently pursuing my Master’s degree at Hohai University specialized in Hydraulic Structure Energy. On 12 September 2018, I arrived at Hohai University and started my new chapter of life in China. WHY I CAME TO CHINA to continue my master degree? The first reason is that people have to move on their career life and step out from comfort zone. The second reason is that China is a great country which is developing its economic, political power, technologies and many other aspects day by day. Thirdly, I personally think that China is close to my hometown with similar culture and tradition. Even my neighbor in my hometown is a Chinese and we share all of our tradition and culture together. The last reason is that I used to work with Chinese developers and I like to work and communicate with Chinese people. For all of the reasons above, I believe that study in China will provide me with a good and safe environment to improve my study. 

When I first entered the campus of Hohai University, I felt like I woke up from my dream and met the future.world. I got impressed a lot by watching through huge library, classroom buildings, neat and tidy compound and landscape, football pitch, sport activity places and stadium. The favorite place is our international students' dormitory in two 32-story buildings, and school canteen where we can choose a variety of hygienic and delicious food in different styles and taste. After I arrived in China, everything I had known before are quite different from reality. The cities look perfectly modern and safe with well-equipped infrastructures and roadways surrounded by big trees. The banking system like WeChat pay and Alipay surprised me. Moreover, I found e-government system in China is really effective and systematic in management. 

The development of one country is always related with energy demand. Therefore, energy sufficiency becomes vital in all developing countries. There are several types of energy generation, among which hydropower is a clean energy source widely used throughout the world and most of the countries are implementing numerous hydropower plants. For this reason, I chose Hydraulic Structure Engineering as my major in order to study the safe construction of Dam and related hydraulic structures. I studied finite element method for hydraulic structure, fluid mechanics, engineering plasticity, seepage analysis and controlling engineering and environmental hydraulic as the main major subjects. Under the guideline of all teachers from Hohai University, I finished all my major and required courses within one year. The required credit points of my academic year are 28 credits and I finished with 34 credits within one year.

My supervisor Zhang Hanyun (Chinese name “张汉云”) has been helping  me with my research plan since the beginning of my new semester. Since the first day I met her, she has given me warm atmosphere of student life and illuminating what our future study would be and what we must do to continue our thesis with several ways. My study plan for research topic includes 1) Natural vibration characteristic of the dam-foundation reservoir in which dam will study without any loads to get natural frequencies and mode shapes, 2) The dynamic water pressure of the gravity dam based on potential-based element, which will includes dam with different loads taking out to examine the dynamic characteristic and 3) The seismic performance of the gravity dam based on IDA (incremental dynamic analysis) , in this content dynamic behavior of dam is performed by time history analysis and will select the appropriate ground motions to give excitation under foundation and then will study the dam performance by analyzing incremental dynamic analysis. As a summary ADINA software aims to simulate the structural analysis of hydraulic structure.

Since I came to China, I have participated in various volunteer activities both on campus and off campus. The very first experience was the 2018 International Mountaineering Festival at Nanjing . I had a chance there to wear Chinese traditional dress and take part in a lot of mountain activities. Furthermore, I participated in all kind volunteer activities for Qingdao Road Community on behalf of the international students at Hohai University and was awarded the volunteer certificate for active cooperation in volunteerism. Again, in September 2019 I participated in  the Mid-Autumn Festival celebration with local people and primary school students to make moon cake by ourselves and it was amazingly delicious. In addition, I have done a lot of volunteer activities in my university regarding registration and graduation of students, summer culture exchanges and research forums. 

Moreover, I was involved in questionnaire survey on Water Education Status in the Lancang-Mekong Countries—Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam especially in the area of flood and drought mitigation and management under climate change. I was involved in conducting surveys from local people to help them realize the idea of "Shared Water, Shared Future" of the Mekong countries. I actively participated in all kinds of activities to get close contact with local people as is shown in my activities photos. 

Besides the participation in activities and events, I also gave a presentation in The China - ASEAN Youth Talents Exchange Program on Water Resources and Experiencing Water Conservacncy in China from November 23 to 25, 2018 in Nanjing, Tianjin and Bejing. I presented a speech on behalf the students from the Mekong countries studing at Hohai University. Furthermore, I got a chance to participate in the training program on Flood Control and Drought Relief Technology in Wuhan as a participant of my country. After the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic I took the responsibility for collecting information about students that were apart from China and informed them with every important notice through every platform.

Last but not least, there are many chances of one’s life but the critical thing is how to grab the chance effectively. As for me, studying in China is one of my dream and it is my first time away from home and I earned a lot of experiences during my stay. I had opportunities to learn how the life of people from other countries is and I felt like how safe it is to live in China. This is my story of staying in China. I would express my heartfelt gratitude to the Chinese Government for giving us a change to study here and showing us the world where we haven't seen before in our life with warm help.

Qingdao Road Community’s fun fairs

2018 International Mountaineering Festival at Nanjing

Study life speech in Youth Exchange Program, Beijing

2019, Mid-Autumn Festival

2019, Culture Festival

Support China Short Film, 2020