These past three and a half weeks went by so quickly. It feels like yesterday that I was arriving in Beijing with 40 strangers. Each day was so different from the next and so filled with new and exciting activities. Because of Xinli’s endless connections with CEO’s and other people all around China we were able to experience Chinese culture in a way unlike any other American tourist can get. Between private fancy dinners, an authentic Chinese wedding, and a dinner in a small rural village this program allowed 40 students to be completely immersed in Chinese culture while making amazing friends.

I have learned way more during this program than I ever thought possible, about engineering, myself, and the world. We visited some of the world’s most outstanding engineering projects, old and new. I also learned that to always be open to new things whether it be trying weird, unidentifiable food or traveling to a foreign country for a month. I would recommend this program to anyone in a heartbeat; it is truly a once in a lifetime experience.

My favorite city of the ten we’ve visited in China has to be Shanghai. It’s breath taking architecture along with vibrant culture make it one of the most amazing cities I’ve ever been to. What makes the city even more remarkable is how recently and quickly it became what it was today. Fifteen years ago, Shanghai’s skyline would not be identifiable to what it is today.

To me this is a good representation of the rapid growth you see all over China. In every city we went to there were countless, giant apartment buildings and other skyscrapers under construction; China is already a huge country and it’s growing everyday. Shanghai’s more laid back and touristy nature along with the amazing dumplings we ate there make it a city I would definitely want to visit again later in life and see how much it’s grown.

Expectation:

As a regular at Panda Express, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into food-wise coming to China. I was expecting General Tso’s chicken, Chow Mein, and a lot of egg rolls. All American-Chinese food is pretty mild and doused in soy sauce—this is not the case for real Chinese food.

Reality:

Real Chinese food was a pleasant surprise. The meals eaten as a group consist of endless dishes, each one better than the next. They bring out way more food than could ever be consumed and each dish is vastly different from the others. Almost every meal is served with either rice or noodles; they eat way more meat and vegetables than people do in the US. Each city that we visited had very unique dishes, for example in Dalian we ate mostly seafood and Xian had a lot of noodles. All of the restaurants we ate at had really good food but some of my favorite things were from the little hole in the wall places or the street vendors. Real Chinese food is extremely different than American Chinese food but in a good way, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to eat at Panda Express again.

Hard Sleeper Train

Today we took a hard sleeper train to Yichang. After the luxurious soft sleeper, my expectations were high. It was a long 14 hours. Six people are crammed into a small, open compartment, with probably around 100 people on a car. At the beginning it was pleasant: everyone was happy, walking around, and socializing. But as the hours passed everyone became more restless. Little kids were running around crying and it started to smell really bad. So far we’ve been traveling via very nice buses, planes, and the most expensive type of train around China but the hard sleepers are a more affordable type of transportation so we were with more average citizens.Although it wasn’t the most enjoyable 14 hours of my life, it was really cool to see how more average Chinese people travel, also because everything was open I was able to interact with some of the people.

          American’s are trained their whole lives to fear communism. I never really gave into this conception until the day I was leaving for china and I found out that essentially every website I use is blocked by the government. And when my plane landed in Beijing there was a government announcement that everyone would be subjected to heat sensors and drug-sniffing dogs I started to get really nervous.

Even after only a few days in China I realized that these fears were not justified. Other than picture of Chairman Mao hanging in Tiananmen Square, there’s no evidence that Chinese government is any different than the United States’. People here seem to have every freedom, if not more, than Americans do. The day-to-day lives of Chinese citizens seems to be no different than the average American’s; they go to work, try to have a good life, and provide for their families. I’m excited to go home and tell everyone that Chinese people aren’t oppressed by their government at all and it isn’t a place to be scared of.