"I have been to about a dozen cities all over China. Shanghai stands out as a center of cultural mixing and technological showcase. My co-workers and classmates were all from different cities and countries, speaking familiar and unfamiliar languages. I learned so much from interacting with these people, and this amount of diversity seems almost impossible in many of the places I've stayed in the United States."

"Very frequently our cohort would travel to new parts of China on weekends, and this experience became a shining part of my study abroad experience. Shanghai, and China overall, is so convenient with its public transportation. The friends and the memories I made there will be continue to haunt the rest of my life (but in a good way)."

"You can study a culture as much as you want, but you can't even begin to experience it until you put in some effort and step out of your own shoes. This also means acknowledging that you can't just step into someone else's shoes and understand their life and culture. I did not realize how much I did not know about China until I got to China—about its culture, language, dialects, national diversity, and politics. So much of this I had no real conception of until I came here."