My life as a journalist in China

Erik Nilsson

Erik Nilsson来自美国，其中文名字为聂子瑞。他的足迹遍布中国，全国两会、奥运会、汶川和玉树的地震现场……他以一个外国人的独特视角见证着中国的惊天巨变。聂子瑞希望用自己的报道改变世界对中国的看法，他有一个小小的“中国梦”，就是“一辈子能够留在中国”。

海词积累

1.shadow v.跟随……实地学习（或参观）

2.boardroom n.董事会会议室

3.cleft-palate n.腭裂

4.underprivileged adj.贫困的；在社会中处于弱势的；底层的

5.transparent adj.透明的

After 10 years as a journalist in China,I recall the weird and wonderful experiences this vast,extraordinary land has to offer.

I arrived to “do my year in China” a decade ago. I never left. That's because the country has so much to offer.And there's so much that foreigners can contribute to its development.

I'm shadowing the head of the United Nations in China as he tours Jiangsu Province's wetlands.

I'm sleeping among giant beetles（甲虫）on the floor of a school in one of Anhui's poorest mountainside communities.

I'm in a cave with a monk. I'm with a boardroom with a Fortune 500 CEO. I'm listening to heroin（海洛因）addicts in Sichuan's Emeishan.

There are opportunities to get involved beyond work.

Colleagues and I started a volunteer group in Wenchuan in 2008. This inspired me to found another team in Yushu's quake zone five years ago.

Over the past half-decade,we've delivered clothes,food,medicine,computers and the like to Yushu's nomadic（游牧的）schools.

Last summer,we brought a girl from the deserted highlands to Beijing for a cleft-palate surgery. This summer, we brought a boy to Qinghai's Xining for ear surgery.

We also fully fund underprivileged university students' education. (In exchange,they volunteer to teach in isolated schools on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.)A highlight of my time is—a decade after arriving in the country—this year winning the China Government Friendship Award,the country's“highest honour for foreign experts who've made contributions to China's social and economic development”.

I was especially moved when Premier Li Keqiang said,when meeting us,that a 33-yearold winner indicates China's modernisation offers careers attractive to young overseas professionals and shows“new hope”for China's international cooperation.

I'm delighted government bodies,such as the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs,are advancing reforms to open up foreigntalent recruitment（招聘）,as Mr Li highlighted while meeting award winners during this year's National Day celebrations.These include“creating a fair and transparent work environment for foreign talents,respecting the market and rule of law”.

I'm eager for China to adopt new greencard procedures and reforms to health care for expats（侨民）and—as a father of two kids born in Beijing—their families,plus schooling for expat children.

Sometimes,I take our tykes （小淘气）on my lap and tell them about adventures I've had in China.

I'll perhaps someday do the same with their children. Maybe here. Maybe they'll also be raised in China.I'd hope so.

Grandpa will have many stories about our times in the country.Ten years into China,I'm not planning to do another year.I'm hoping for ten more.At least，there are many stories left to tell,and to live.

Critical Thinking

Why does the journalist Erik Nilsson love China so much in your view?