Tai’an and Canberra: My Two Homes

Tai’an, Shandong is my hometown, and right now I am studying in Canberra, Australia. This page is a short, honest comparison of the two places — what is genuinely different about them, side by side.

~ Two homes, one me ~

An Ancient Mountain City vs. a Planned Modern Capital

Tai’an grew up around Mount Tai, a mountain with thousands of years of religious and imperial history behind it, so the city’s identity is bound up with something ancient.

Canberra is close to the opposite: it is a purpose-built national capital, planned out as a city in the twentieth century rather than growing gradually around a natural landmark.

Living somewhere shaped by a sacred mountain and living in a deliberately designed capital city are simply two different kinds of “home town.”

Scale and Pace

Tai’an is a good-sized Chinese prefecture-level city, with all the density and street life that comes with that.

Canberra, by contrast, is known for being spread out, quiet, and heavily car-and-bike friendly, with a lot of green space between suburbs. Moving from one to the other is a genuine change in pace, not just in scenery.

Student Life

Canberra is home to a large student population thanks to its universities, and a lot of daily life in the city runs on a semester-shaped rhythm.

That is a different kind of place to be a student than a hometown you grew up in rather than moved to for study.

A Couple of Memories

When I was little, on clear weekends you could see Mount Tai from far away. In the evening, just before the sun went down, the outline of the mountain was very sharp — as if it had always been standing there quietly, watching over the city.

In spring the air near my home was always a little cool, and you only had to look up to see the mountain. To me it was never a special sight. It was just there — the most ordinary part of the view.

When I first arrived in Canberra, the thing that surprised me most was how quiet it is. Compared with Tai’an there are very few people on the street, and you almost never hear a car horn.

The shops close early.

The buses do not come often.

And I see kangaroos.

Why Both Matter to Me

Tai’an is where I am from, and Canberra is where I am building the next part of my life as a student.

This page, and this whole site really, is my small way of keeping a link back to Tai’an while I am here.