“In Changing Face of Beijing, a Look at the New China.” “Soaring visions Reflect Vigor and Intellectual Ferment."
So proclaims the front page of the New York Times (7/13/08), and nobody is more aware of these changes than Curry math professor Tracy Wang, a native of Beijing.
Prof. Wang has just returned from leading Curry’s second student-faculty China trip in three years. After a year of planning, the 2008 China Trip is over, but the participants all have wonderful memories of a really spectacular journey. The group shared experiences of historic China at the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, The Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, and the terra cotta warriors in Xian. They took boat rides on the Huangpu River and the lake in Hangzhou. But they also saw the China of the twenty-first century, going to the top of one of the tallest buildings in the world and riding the maglev train, the fastest train in the world and the only commercial train like it!
The trip was also a serious learning experience. Accompanied by Nursing faculty members Linda Tenofsky and Linda Caldwell, Curry students visited hospitals in Beijing and Shanghai, where they toured facilities and met nurses and patients. “Compare and contrast” was now a life experience, not just an essay question.
Of course, the travelers ate all kinds of interesting foods (and learned to appreciate some of their old favorites at home). And all their new designer bags and watches will provide a constant reminder of the trip of a lifetime!