China: A Look Back

As the eldest student on the Destination China adventure, I didn’t anticipate the trip would have the significant impact on me that it did.  Sure, I expected to see and experience many things--new food, new culture, architecture, history.  I didn’t realize that I’d feel so differently about my perspective on China.  In fact to me, the bottom line of this adventure and course has been that most Americans don’t see China for what it really is--a growing, vibrant and historic country with interesting people and places that is definitely finding its way in the new world. 

I fear China is underappreciated.  Far too many Americans see it as backward, communist supressed-nation with a Great Wall and slow economy.  Indeed, there is a Great Wall and communist leaders still rule, but there is little evidence of that regime to a visitor.  The economy is definitely not slow and the people are not as backward or slow as many might think.  China may be considered a developing nation and economy, but it is finding its way quickly. 

Like most of us on the trip, we were anxious to return to Illinois to our families and friends and more familiar food and faces.  However, I think we’d also agree China has a great many stories to tell to the world.  During our two week visit, we saw just a tiny part of this gigantic, heavily populated country.  Parts of all of us wanted to stay in Shanghai and Beijing to explore the big cities more, to meet more people, to tell more stories. 

Three places I visited had a great impact on me:  The Bund in Shanghai and its magnificent view of the Pudong district; the Great Wall of course; and journalstically, the NBC News Bureau in Beijing. 

Busy producers and researchers at the NBC News bureau in Beijing, China