Chapter President Heads to China
Jun 25, 2012
This year, the engineering school at Bucknell organized a summer school trip to the country of China. The trip was called Engineering 290: Engineering in a Global and Societal Perspective. I was one of the lucky few that were able to go on this 22 day trip into the heart of Asia.
Our grand tour of the country took us to the major cities of Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu, and Chongqing. These 7 different cities came in many different sizes with lots of different people. In the cities of Shanghai and Beijing, it was common for the Chinese citizens to have seen Americans before. However, in the others, we were not only constantly harassed, but some people were so bold as to ask to take our pictures. It was certainly different from what we experience on a daily basis in the United States.
The trip took us to all of the major Chinese cultural attractions including Tiananmen Square, The Great Wall, and Terra Cotta Warriors to name only a few. However, the main reason for being in China was to experience the engineering taking place in a Globalized world. This included numerous visitations to American companies such as HP, IBM, AECOM and GE, who do business in Asia. During these visits, we got to not only learn about the company as a whole but also experience some of the engineering taking place. In addition to visiting these companies, we were also able to see many engineering marvels that have been built throughout the country of China. Yang Shan deepwater seaport, Three Gorges Damn, and the High speed rail network were only a few of the engineering wonders seen on the trip.
Another PLT brother, Yifan Ge ‘14, met up with our group in the city of Nanjing to travel with us on the trip. He and I were able to experience some of the night life throughout the country, including numerous bars. Luckily he is a Chinese citizen, otherwise ordering a beer would have been extremely difficult.
While visiting South East University in China, I spoke with a Chinese citizen who called himself Jerry. Jerry was a rather Americanized citizen who had a very positive view of western culture, and particularly the United States. In fact, Jerry was planning on coming to the US after his graduation in pursuit of the American dream. On several occasions during our discussion, he openly spoke against the Chinese government and what they do with regards to censorship. Jerry’s view of the United States made me realize that although we grew up half a world apart, we were very similar.
My trip to China was certainly an experience to remember. Not only was I able to experience all of the cultural wonders of the east, but I was able to gain class credit doing it.