Over the winter break, thirteen other university students and I traveled throughout China with Professor Shibin Sheng and Professor Monica Yang (from the Business School). We studied international marketing and cross-cultural management, and visited Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macau in order to learn more about Chinese culture and the businesses that operate on the other side of the world.
During our trip, we had the opportunity to meet representatives from companies and universities, bargained in markets, and visited historical and modern locations. We learned a great deal about Chinese culture, business, cuisine, and traditions, and we also had a lot of fun! We explored China’s rich history as we visited some of its famous wonders like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, the Summer Palace, Chinese gardens, Buddhist temples, and many more incredible places. But we were also reminded of China’s new economic future every time we visited sites like the Shanghai World Financial Center (4th tallest building in the world). We made a great deal of friends and we all became very close after spending such an incredible experience together.
Traveling to China helped open my eyes to the outside world and allowed me to challenge my assumptions as I personally met and talked with many native Chinese people. One of these people was a boy named Erick Huang. I met Erick on my plane ride from Beijing to Shanghai. He spoke little English but he was intrigued with the language and still communicated with me very well. We talked the entire plane ride about his favorite movie - The Green Mile - and his love for basketball - particularly the Rockets. Erick and I exchanged e-mail addresses and I still often receive messages from him. He is like my pen pal in China and I think this small friendship is actually pretty significant. China and the United States have both positive and negative feelings towards each other, according to the news and magazine articles that we read every day, and these types of relationships can make a great difference in facilitating positive relations between people and countries.
Erick showed me great kindness in the two hours we spent traveling together and still does through our conversations online, but he is only one of the people I met on this trip and hopefully had a positive impact on. Traveling abroad is a wonderful experience and gives one the opportunity to truly become a globally engaged citizen diplomat. This trip was the best experience of my life so far and I would recommend it to anyone. You do NOT need to be a business major to go on this trip, and you do NOT need to be a professional ambassador to be a citizen diplomat! I loved my trip to China and I truly cannot wait to go back!