Deciding to go on a study abroad to China was a decision that I was very hesitant to make. I knew that I wanted to go because it was going to put me outside of my comfort zone but that was also just as scary to me. Looking back, I am so grateful that I made the decision to go on this trip. It helped to broaden my perspective in probably every aspect of my life. I gained new friends, found new food that I liked, visited extremely beautiful places and found a country that I would one hundred percent go back and visit.
Before going on the trip I was most worried about two things, the culture shock that was going to happen and the food. There is definitely a culture shock when you first get to Beijing because of the language barrier. I honestly don?t know that I ever fully got used to it but you definitely find ways to work around it. After awhile I think we finally got used to it and we?re just able to enjoy the culture for how great it is. I was also worried about the food just because I wasn?t sure what it was going to be like and if I was going to like eating it all the time. I was so wrong because I quickly found that I loved all the food. Much of it is so much different than food we can get in the US and so much better that I imagined. The flavors in all the food that we had was just insane and the amount of food that we would get at every restaurants was surprising. So to sum that up, I loved the food way more than I thought I was.
My favorite part of the whole trip was getting to experience the culture of China. You can go to cities in the US and see skyscrapers and beautiful sky lines. Don?t get me wrong I loved Shanghai so much and without a doubt would go back but getting to experience the culture in Beijing is something that I wouldn?t trade. Their culture and architecture is unlike anything that I had experienced before and it was such a beautiful thing to witness. The temples that we visited were stunning and the forbidden city was a sight that I would recommend everyone to go see. I would definitely go back China just to go and see these places again. I also can?t forget about the Great Wall, to be able visit a historical landmark that we?ve all learned about and that has played such an important part in history was incredible.
I didn?t expect to enjoy the company visits as much as I did. I loved that they were all about different topics, so we got to learn about what it was like to do business in China but from various industries. Hanenergy was hands down my favorite company visit, it was interesting to learn about solar energy from a company who is pushing the boundaries of what that means. It was exciting to visit their company and I know that they will continue to do great things regarding solar panel technology and the environment.
There are so many reasons to go on this trip and this was just a few of mine but the list would go on and on. I had high expectations of it and the actual trip was better than I could?ve even imagined. I will definitely be going back to China in the future.
-Phoebe Pina