Elizabethtown College May term students check off Great Wall of China from their to-do list. Kyle Manbeck is center, sitting down.
Gabrielle English was returning home when she traveled to China last month as part of an Elizabethtown College May term trip. Though she was born halfway around the world, she was adopted to the United States and had never gone ‘home’ until a few weeks ago. The Class of 2017 psychology major said the trip didn’t directly apply to her major, but it certainly was important to her personal and psychological wellbeing.
“Being an adopted child, I have always had a fascination of children returning to their hometown and finding their parents,” English said. “… It would be quite impossible to find my parents, but I felt some connection with China some points of the trip.”
The May term excursion, sponsored by an Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program grant, has taken place for several years, but recent funding makes it more appealing said Dr. David Kenley, director of the College’s Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking.
I’ve gained friendships around the globe, learned more about myself and how people are all the same, no matter where your passport is from.”
Though none are Chinese majors, the 10 trip participants—rising sophomores, juniors and seniors—all had Chinese language classes at Elizabethtown. Their travels earned them history or business credits. The history side of the trip focused on the Terracotta Warriors, Tiananmen Square and Shanghai Museum; business sites included a Volkswagen plant, an Asian condiments factory and Armstrong.
“Armstrong was a local connection to our economy,” Kenley said of the Lancaster County-based ceiling and floor tile company. “The plant on Spooky Nook is no longer functioning; it is now in China and part of their economy.” The students also connected with the parents of a graduate who live and work in China and with Edna Vhou, a 2010 alumna, who is employed by Ford Motor Foundation. “She had only been in China for about six weeks after living and working in Australia, France, Italy and Russia,” said Kenley.
The May term group started its travels May 20; they arrived back to the States June 6. “We were there for the 25th-anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests,” Kenley said, noting how the students witnessed, firsthand, how the Chinese government filters information. “It was highly guarded,” Kenley said of the historic site.
Gabrielle English strikes a pose with her birth country in the background.
One trip highlight was a visit to Xi’an, a 2,200-year-old walled city, where half of the students rented bikes and rode the wall. The group also climbed Mount Hua, one of the five sacred mountains of China. “We climbed for six hours,” said English, who, next to returning to her home country, counted the climb as a favorite part of her trip. “It was located in the more rural countryside, so we were not distracted by all the tall buildings and chaos of the city. Instead we were taken away by the beautiful scenery and peacefulness …”
English has been to Ireland, England and Bermuda, but never to an Asian country. “It was so interesting to see the reactions the Chinese had when they saw foreigners, because some of them have never seen an American in their whole life.”
This was a return trip for Britta Schwab, a Class of 2015 business major. In addition to Shanghai and Xi’an, the group also visited Beijing, which Schwab had toured last year. “China offers incredible opportunities to learn about business, both on the large scale, with visits to major companies, and on the small scale, interacting with street vendors and small business owners.”
Schwab who also has been to Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany and Bangladesh, said there’s a lot of history in China that provides learning at a different level. “I think it makes a lot of sense for U.S. students to go see exactly how China impacts our economy,” she said. “You can see that hands-on during a trip like this.”
Schwab reconnected with grad students she’d met on last year’s trip. “One of the highlights was being able to join a student and their parents for dinner in their home,” she said. “That meal was my first ‘homemade, in China meal’. It was awesome, and a memory I will never forget.”
Dining in China also was an eye-opening experience for trip participant Kyle Manbeck ’16. “Meals eaten in restaurants in China are very communal,” he said. “Everything is placed in the center of the table and everyone takes as much as they would like.” Manbeck also took notice of the friendly manner of the Chinese noting that they go out of their way to talk to foreigners. “They will try their hardest to speak to you in English, even if it’s only a few words,” he said.
Manbeck participated in the trip because he’d heard other students talk about past experiences. “My major is International Business,” he said. “I took the ‘Doing Business in China’ portion of the (May) course, and it applies to my major because we were able to visit businesses in China and were able to see how they are managed and run, and were able to compare to how it is done in the United States.”
The diversity of the cities, each showing unique culture, was surprising to the students. “Shanghai was very modern and busy, like New York, while Xi’an was much more laid-back and more historical” Manbeck said. “Beijing was a combination of the two and was modern but historical at the same time.”
Manbeck, Schwab and English all express interest in returning to China. English would visit the countryside since this trip the major cities, she said. “My dream trip would be to head to the orphanage that I was adopted from and visit where I was born.”
Schwab already is planning a solo trip in the fall to prepare for overseas study at a later time. “I would not have considered studying abroad in China if it wasn’t for the short-term study aboard program,” she said. “I’ve gained friendships around the globe, learned more about myself and how people are all the same, no matter where your passport is from.”