Besides the academic curriculum, international students pursuing higher education degrees at the Shanghai Maritime University are also offered a window into Chinese culture to help them fit into the local environment and understand how China is developing.

Classes on Chinese history, calligraphy, dragon boat racing, soccer and tai chi are just a few of the many options that international students can choose from during the academic year.

According to the university, about 800 students from 97 countries, including Britain, the United States and Ghana, were enrolled in culture-related classes last year.

Dragon boat classes have always attracted many international students, says Liu Tao, a teacher at SMU.

"Foreign students usually have advantages in strength, which makes them potentially skilled dragon boat racers," Liu says, adding that the dragon boat team has won many national and local dragon boat races for foreign students in colleges and universities since 2012.

Benjamin Baffoe, a doctoral student in logistics engineering and management at SMU, says: "It is a great privilege to come to China and have the chance to learn about dragon boating, something that I used to see when I was a child."

Baffoe adds that his first experience with boat races was in his hometown, Fosu Lagoon, where there was an annual Bakatue ceremony and boat race held in late August or September that is like the dragon boat festival.

Having learned the sport for six years in China, Baffoe says he is now a more disciplined individual with a sterner resolve - "That's what life is about: Never giving up and always trying."

As an experienced dragon boater, Baffoe has been assigned as a team leader on several occasions.

"It trains my leadership skills too. Rowers come from different countries, but on a boat, I need to encourage them to speak and learn one language, and to paddle and win as one," he says.

Tai chi also ranks as one of the most popular sports among international students at SMU.

Xu Haifeng, a teacher at SMU, says: "For international students, understanding the culture behind the sport is more difficult than practice."

David Bobadilla of Chile, however, already has a keen understanding of Chinese culture through his study of kung fu for 11 years.

"I'm interested in the culture and language of kung fu, both the internal and external styles and movements," says Bobadilla, who is pursuing a bachelor's degree in international economics and trade at SMU.

"There is difference in the practice between the two - tai chi is more for internal development and kung fu is more of an external sport, but their concept is the same. Some people may think tai chi movements are slow and it is just about moving the hands, but these movements are practical techniques which one can apply to an opponent."

Chinese poetry classes have also left some foreign students like Shreya Pandey from Nepal impressed.

During the New Year's party for foreign students at SMU in November, Pandey even recited Man Jiang Hong (The Whole River Red), a Chinese lyrical poem written by Yue Fei, a legendary Song Dynasty (960-1279) general.

"The preparation for the performance helped me to learn about Yue Fei's story as well as the history, language, and culture of China. I love to learn various types of poems," says Pandey, who is majoring in electrical engineering.