Today was our last day in China before heading back home. My day started off in the best way possible, which was having juicy dumplings for breakfast. They are by far the best dumplings I’ve ever had. We took our exam and then headed off to meet new students coming to Penn State. Just like the college and the high school, it was nice talking to Chinese students about what life is like for us and for them. After talking to them and sharing our experiences in college, we got to reflect on our time here in China. This program was an amazing adventure
and a great learning experience. One of my favorite parts of this program was being on the bus and looking out at the other cars and how crazy they are. The stereotype of the Chinese being bad drivers might seem to be true, but it’s not that they’re bad drivers, it’s that they have a different style of driving. The first day in Beijing I saw the traffic and thought that we were going to see lots of car crashes. But over the entire program, I only saw one major incident
and three or so minor fender benders. It wasn’t any different than the amount of car accidents in the US. The Chinese just have their own style of driving, which might be more reckless than what we’re used to, but it gets the same job done. Seeing the engineering feats in China was unbelievable. Seeing the cruise ship go through the Three Gorges Dam project and knowing I was inside of one of the greatest engineering projects in the world was incredible. This program was an amazing experience and I recommend it to anyone wishing to study abroad.

Today we traveled to Suzhou in a high speed train. It was a cool experience and I’m glad we got to go on both a high speed train and a sleeper train. The sleeper trains were more fun since we only had a half hour on the high speed train, but both were pretty neat. We then had lunch and visited a beautiful garden. After the garden we took a boat tour on a man made canal. It’s named the Great Canal and stretches all the way from Beijing to Hangzhou. Then we got
to the best part of the day which was going to the 100th floor of the Shanghai Financial Center and got to see the city all lit up. I’ve been to the Empire State Building, but I thought seeing Shanghai was a lot cooler than seeing New York. We watched a video about comparing the construction of New York, Shanghai, and Tokyo side by side over the years. Shanghai was nothing while New York and Tokyo were being built. But then over the last 30 years, Shanghai has erupted with tall buildings and is continuing to grow. All of China is constantly undergoing new changes and additions. Everywhere we go, we see construction sites and plans for more buildings and apartment complexes. It was awesome to the Shanghai nightlife from 100 floors up.

Today we got to go to Xinli’s niece’s wedding which was an incredible experience. It was a great way to see the culture and how it differs from American weddings. The outfits were very traditional and instead of the flower girl laying down flower pedals, a young boy and girl threw candy into the crowd. That’s something I think American weddings should adopt. Instead of a DJ
or a band playing there were some performances, including one by Penn State’s own: Jack Terndrup. I got pictures with the bride and it was really nice getting to talk to her and her husband. We talked to them about the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western style weddings. We also talked about the symbolism in the clothes worn and the bride told me that I dressed excellently.

Today we started the day with lunch on Old Street. While having table dinners is nice, I think it’s more fun to go out and experience ordering food for yourself. I’ve found that the meals I enjoy most are the ones where we are off on our own and get to try whatever we want. After lunch we visited Xinli’s hometown and met his family. After being in Beijing and other big cities in China, it was cool to see the rural areas. It felt like a completely different country. The dinner provided by Xinli’s mother was fantastic. My favorite dish was the bamboo shoots. It was a great experience being able to have a meal in an old Chinese house and the night was capped off with firework.

Our second day of exploring China started off with a long bus ride out to the Great Wall and to kill time some interesting stories were told. I’m pretty sure Xinli would like for those stories to stay off this blog. The Great Wall was absolutely incredible. Climbing all those stairs to get to the top of the peak was a challenge. It certainly didn’t help that the stairs were uneven. One stair would be two inches from the other and the next would be a foot. I’m still sore a day and a half later, but looking out at the view and writing my initials on the wall made the hike worth it. When I got back down to the bottom of the wall, I befriended a cat. So clearly that was the highlight of my day. Not the wall, or the Bird’s Nest, or Silk Street, or any of the other amazing things we did that day, but befriending a cat and naming him Dave.