Miriam Donohoe meets students queuing outside the Irish embassy in Beijing to find out why thousands of young Chinese are coming to Ireland.
Early on a Tuesday morning, a group of Chinese students queue in the freezing cold outside the Irish embassy in Beijing. Huddled together to keep warm, they talked about Ireland and their hopes to secure study visas to allow them attend English-language schools in Dublin.
But the students also speak in hushed tones about the tragedy that made headlines in Chinese newspapers - the murder in Dublin last week of Zhao Liu Tao, a 29-year-old student. Last March, Ireland also made the news in China when two 19-year-old students, Feng Yue and Liu Qing, were strangled and burnt in their Dublin inner-city apartment. A Chinese national is in custody in Dublin awaiting trial for their murder.
All three victims came from Shenyang in the province of Liaoning in north-east China, a city of seven million people that has little in common with the Irish capital.
Compared with the bustling, prosperous European capital that Dublin has become, Shenyang is a grey metropolis in the economic doldrums. Once the jewel in the crown of China's industrial sector, it is now home to tens of thousands of people laid off from crumbling state enterprises.
There was some respite for the city last autumn when thousands of soccer fans converged to see the four games which helped China to qualify for its first World Cup finals. But the traffic is mostly the other way and Shenyang is a city that many of its young people want to leave.
The majority of applications for study visas to Ireland come from Shenyang and other job-starved cities in Liaoning province. The large exodus has helped Ireland to become one of the most popular English-language training destinations for Chinese students. Near the Wulihe soccer stadium in the centre of Shenyang, you can't miss a big, blue banner hanging across the front of the Heng Ge Lai education agency. It reads: "We will help you realise your dream to study abroad. Call in to see us".
The agency is one of dozens in Liaoning province which places thousands of Chinese students in English-language colleges in northern Europe and the US. It was through this agency that the murdered student Liu Qing arranged to learn English in Ireland.
The Dalian Heaven Science and Technology Centre is one of the biggest education agencies in China, with branches in seven cities in Liaoning and one in Beijing. They arranged for 5,000 Chinese students to go to Ireland last year - 70 per cent studied English and the rest took third-level courses.
"Ireland has a reputation for its high standard of English and it also provides a good environment for students to study in," says senior consultant, Xu Ji Kin. "It is the preferred location for most students who come to us." A student who enrolls in an English language college in Dublin for six months pays a hefty price, especially if they go through an agency. The Dalian Heaven Science and Technology Centre charges €7,000 for six-months in Ireland. This covers the cost of the course, the agent's commission, flights and the first month's accommodation. The company also looks after applying for the visa. The fee does not include living expenses. For students who enroll for a full year of study, the cost is €9,500.
For the first four weeks, the students are placed with a family and after that must find their own accommodation "Usually a group get together to rent a house," says Xu.
According to Xu, as part of the visa application process, students have to provide the Irish embassy with bank account details showing they have enough money to survive during their time in Ireland. No amount is stipulated by the embassy, but students tell me that, apart from the fee to an agent, they produce bank accounts with as much as $10,000 to prove they can fund their stay.
Two students tell me the money was begged and borrowed from relatives to lodge into a bank account, but is withdrawn and returned once the visa is obtained. Another student received a contribution from all his relatives to make up $8,000. "I will give it back once I get the visa and will bring $1,000 with me to Dublin. Once I get there I will have to get a job but I am told part-time work is plentiful in Dublin." Xu says the agency has no responsibility for the students once they arrive and get settled in Dublin. "How they fund their stay after that is not our business," she adds.
The agency received several phone calls from concerned parents following last week's murder, she says. "We reassured them that Ireland is still a very safe place for their sons and daughters to go to study English. I don't think this will affect our business. Nobody has withdrawn their application or changed their plan as a result."
Students account for the bulk of visa applications to go to Ireland. Of the 9,192 applications made to the Irish embassy in 2000, 7,753 were from students - and 5,236 of these were granted visas. Numbers are rising. Last year, the embassy received 13,500 visa applications, 11,500 from students. More than half of those applications are still being processed. The turnaround time for processing study visas is very slow. More than a year ago, it took two months, but because of the increase in applications, it is now taking eight months to process applications.
Embassy staff are stretched to the limit, but help is on the way. A lease has recently been signed on an office in Beijing to accommodate a new visa unit, which is expected to open in early summer. Students arrive at the embassy from 6.30 a.m. every day to queue for their visas. Tuesday morning is no different.
Zihe Zang (20) is studying computer Science in Griffith College in Dublin and first went to Ireland two years ago where he initially took an English course at the American College. He is back in Shenyang on holidays, and was at the embassy to get a visa application form for his friend .
"I was very shocked to hear about the murder of the student, but not surprised," Zangsays. "Life is getting tough and tougher for Chinese in Dublin. My friends complain more and more about being taunted by young Irish kids because they are Chinese. It is becoming more and more uncomfortable to be there."
Zang, who is sharing a house with three others in the north inner-city, says the English-language schools are cramming too many Chinese into classes. "They are getting a lot of money and don't care about the student's welfare."
He says most young students, himself included, spend a lot of time in an amusement arcade in O'Connell Street, and he claims that Chinese gangs from Hong Kong and Fujian province in southern China extort money from vulnerable Chinese. "Chinese love to gamble and they see it as a quick way of making money. I gamble there, but I have friends and no one touches me. But I see other Chinese who part with some of their winnings to these Chinese gangs."
Zang also claims students who lose money on the machines borrow from Chinese gangs, and end up paying back loans with huge interest. "They get caught up in a vicious circle. Often they gamble more to try and win to pay back what they owe."
He has two years before finishing his course, but says he would prefer to finish his studies in another European country, possibly Britain. His family was very concerned when they read about the murder. "Three Chinese from my city have been murdered in the last year. That is too much." Li Ning (18), also from Shenyang, is hoping to go to Dublin in August to study English. "Many of my friends are there already and they tell me Ireland is a very good place," he says.
One of his friends phoned him to tell him of the murder. "It is terrible but it is only one case. It would not put me off."
LI NING is not working through an agent as he said they take too much commission. "I am paying 3,500 RMB (about €4,000) for six months' language training. It is coming from my family's savings. That is all the money we have but my family feel it is a good investment in my future." He plans to stay with friends when he arrives in Dublin and will work to keep himself, even though that is illegal. "All my friends there do it. They tell me there is no shortage of work in bars and shops."
Zhang Jian is from the Dalian agency and is waiting outside the embassy to collect his visa. He first applied seven months ago and is hoping for good news. "I was very angry to hear about the murder. I always heard Ireland was a safe country. Often my friends in Dublin ring and tell me they are getting a bad time from Irish people. But I will still go and see how I get on."
The first anniversary of the death of the young Chinese couple, Feng Yue and Liu Qing, is approaching. Liu Quing's uncle, Song Shoutian, says this is a particularly sad time for the family, with the Chinese New Year Festival coming up in February. "Last year, we had Liu Qing home in Shenyang for the celebrations from Dublin. This year she is gone. The Irish Government has a duty to compensate us and the family of the latest victims for what has happened.
"We have heard nothing from the police authorities in Ireland for months about our case.
"Do the Irish people care at all?"