Tracy Cui, like many international students, faced a multitude of challenges when she uprooted from mainland China to study in Canberra.
Ms Cui, who helps promote the city to other foreign students through the ACT government's international student ambassador program, was at the National Multicultural Festival yesterday.
There are roughly 10,000 international students in the ACT and a large number of them joined the crowds at the festival.
Minister for Multicultural Affairs Joy Burch's office confirmed a record 260,000 people had attended over the three days.
About 30,000 sauntered along City Walk and through Garema Place, for the festival's final day, picking from food stalls and enjoying performances, including those tied to the Chinese New Year.
Ms Burch said the strong crowds showed the festival was continuing to go ''from strength to strength''.
''Everybody is just so happy to be part of it, and already today there is such a good strong feeling about coming together and celebrating,'' she said. ''I think what makes this such a success is that we come here to celebrate all of Canberra, and people come here and they seek out different heritage, different foods, different songs, and they just stand in front of it and go 'this is fantastic'.''
Ms Cui said she was not daunted by the strangeness of Western culture, nor by being more than 8000km away from her home of Xi'an, famed for China's magnificent Terracotta Army, for the first time.
There was just one element of Australian culture Ms Cui struggled with as she began a three-year geography masters. ''The Australian accent, that was the only thing I think,'' she laughed. ''At the very beginning, I'd always have to say, 'Sorry, could you repeat that'.''
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