This summer, I had the privilege of traveling to Shanghai and Beijing China with Dr Yao. Through all of our travels, I can say, this has been one of the best experiences of my life. Going into the program, I was not quite sure of what to expect. As an American citizen, you hear a lot of rumors about China, and what it’s actually like living there. For me, I did not listen to heavily to any rumors that I may have heard, and went into the trip openminded and open attitude about the country.
When I first arrived in Shanghai, I was shocked and amazed about how many people were there. Even in the airport, there was a tremendous amount of people walking through. Being tall and African American, I caused a lot of attention in the airport, when I first arrived. From here on, I knew that I would probably cause attention everywhere we visited.
Our first full day of the study, we went inside the city of Shanghai. Driving in, we were seeing a bunch of skyscraper buildings. Our professor and tour guide, mentioned to us that those were actually apartments, and explained how expensive apartments are in China. It was interesting to me, to find out that most people in China live in apartment buildings. All of these buildings were forty to fifty stories high, some even higher than that. As we reached deeper and deeper into the city, we noticed more and more apartment buildings. Soon, by time you looked around, everywhere they had skyscrapers all around you.
Our group spent four days staying in Shanghai, visiting museums, touring the city, and seeing some historical parts of Shanghai. There was two moments during our time in Shanghai, that has really stayed with me after this trip. Our first day in the city, we visited an area called the bund. Here is where you can the business area of Shanghai across the water, and all of the historical english buildings. This area is humongous, and you can walk down the water, viewing both sides of the city. Right here, was when I had a little taste of how big Shanghai actually was. After visiting the bund, I thought I knew how large the city was, but after we visited the Oriental Pearl Broadcasting and TV Tower of Shanghai, I really was able to view the whole city. Visiting here, we went to the top of the building, and had a three-sixty view of the whole city. As you walked around, everywhere you looked was skyscrapers. You could only see buildings, as far as the horizon went. It was incredible to view this, and definitely some that was mind boggling.
After our four days in Shanghai, we traveled to Beijing by the high-speed train. We were going to be in Beijing for the same amount of days as Shanghai, and doing similar activities. The city of Beijing is not as big as Shanghai. There was not skyscrapers everywhere you looked, and the air pollution was bad some days. One of my favorite parts of being in Beijing, was visiting the Great Wall of China. Everyone always says to visit this monumental area, and our group had the opportunity to do so. When you see the wall from a distance, it did not look so big and high in the area. After we began to climb the wall, and get higher and higher into the mountain, you began to realize how high in the air you were. Taking a moment to realize how big and strong this wall was, made me think about how long and difficult it must have been to actually build this.
Another great memory that has stayed with my from Beijing, was visiting the students of the Beijing University, and talking with them about their lives. It was interesting to sit down with five master students of the university, and ask them all types of different questions. Some questions our group asked the students was: what did they know about American students, what were their plans after graduation, what did they like to do outside of school, and how long have they been speaking English? Learning all this
information about them, while they also asked us questions, was interesting the hear and fun to interact with.
Overall, my trip to China has definitely change my whole life. As mentioned before, I was unsure of what to expect from the trip. Today, I can tell you a lot of information about the two cities that I have visited, and give recommendations on places to visit and certain foods to try. For anyone who is considering studying in China, I would definitely recommend to take the opportunity.