Photo and article by: Lan Tiankai

Read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles. It is time to see the outside world after having learnt from books for more than ten years.

Thanks to the platform established by China-EU Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy at Huazhong University of Science & Technology (ICARE) and help of many teachers and students, I got the opportunity to have a four-month internship in France. The opportunity does not come easily and I was very happy with it. In May 2017, I embarked on my journey to Paris.

If I had to choose a word to describe Paris, I would definitely pick the word "romantic". When walking on the streets of Paris, you can feel the atmosphere of art everywhere, the intoxicating Eiffel Tower in the evening, the waltz under the lights and happy couples who were taking wedding photos at roadside. The maximum ample thing here is romance.

When I first arrived in Paris, I couldn’t help but hurry to visit many famous attractions like a tourist, such as Louvre, Seine River and Avenue des Champs Elysees. Paris has too many unseen landscapes and is filled with endless romance and we were filled with insatiable curiosity and it is worth taking more time to feel it.

Of course, my main purpose of the trip to Paris is for internship, and I had to focus on studying. My internship was in Centre des Materiaux of MINES Paristech and about simulation and optimization of a new generation of solid-state fuel cell. The topic is novel and my supervisor and his Ph.D students were very friendly. The fulfilling work during my internship made me energetic.

After introducing my internship, I would like to introduce my life in France. I studied hard during the working days and travelled all around during the holidays. I spent all of my money to enjoy the beauty of European continent. This constituted an indispensable experience of my life. The lurid sunset in Saint-Malo, the blazing lights throughout the night in Bordeaux, the solitary sail in Marseilles and the thousands of miles of ices on Swiss Jungti'au Region as well as the cows and sheep on grassland at the foot of Swiss Jungti'au Region.......There are too many amazing sceneries and too many stories waiting for me to explore.

I gained a lot from the four-month internship. Novel and rich internship brightens my resume and colorful and romantic travelling nurtured my spirit. This short four-month internship is enough to make people full of desire for beauty of the world. Thanks to ICARE and every person who accompanied and helped me!

With gratitude, let us continue to step forward to welcome more beautiful things!