Texas Tech University

Aerin S. blog

June 5th, 2019
Leaving Lubbock to drive to Dallas at 9:30 pm may not have been the smartest decision to make as we kicked off our travel to Beijing, but somehow, we survived it. Grace, Jayli and I all managed to stay awake and talking all the way up until the moment we stepped on our plane around 5 am. As we embarked on the journey, I couldn't help but think about how surreal the thought we would be on the other side of the world in less than 24 hours was. We had a layover in Toronto before we eventually made it to Beijing on May 16th.

Walking out of the airport in Beijing was the most unique experience I have ever had. While this may seem odd, and for the most part everything looked similar to what is in the United States, the architecture that I could see was abstract and nothing that I was used to. During our time in Beijing, we were so excited to see everything that we did far more there than in any other city. My two favorite parts were Tiananmen Square and The Great Wall of China. You can see in the pictures each of us took that our experiences were some of the most breathtaking ones we had yet to have. Going to each city after that was a little difficult because I love history and the history in the other cities could not compare to Beijing.

Next on our trip we hopped on a bullet train and traveled to Tianjin. Although we stayed here for the shortest amount of time, we did some cool things! We got to sit down and talk with students from Nankai University and I believe that was one of the most eye-opening experiences I have ever had in my life. The miscommunication and misconceptions between our countries were so heavy and none of us had known or truly realize until we all met each other.

Going to Shanghai was the most exciting trip because it is one of the most recognizable cities in China and we had all heard so many things about it. In Shanghai we went to the second tallest building in the entire world which was a unique thing for each of us to experience. We also got to go to the Agricultural Trade Office to discuss agriculture in China.

To wrap up the trip we headed to Hong Kong (my personal favorite overall). Hong Kong was more than I would have ever expected and while we weren't there long, we were there long enough to fall in love with it. The best experience in Hong Kong was spending my last day with Grace and Jayli at Repulse Bay. We ate lunch, had cups of hot tea, and got to mess around in the ocean for a few hours while we killed time until we headed home.

This study abroad trip was the most eye-opening and culturally educating experience I have had in my entire life and I cannot wait to one day hopefully return to China to dive even deeper into the history and culture.

Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics

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    Texas Tech University, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics
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    806.742.2821