Another one of the more irreplaceable experiences we have in China as students is the amount of cultural exchange we get to participate in. While The Beijing Center organizes plenty of culture-based events, from tourist activities to arts workshops, there’s something about engaging with other people our own age in cultural exchange that’s really special. I could visit as many museums, arts districts, and tourist sites as I wanted, but I’d still never learn as much as I do from talking to other university students about their daily lives and experiences. Recently, I had two opportunities to engage in such experiences: Minzu University’s International Chinese Language Day and a group meeting for Stories Without Borders, a Minzu University organization that focuses on exchange between international students and Chinese students.
For the International Chinese Language Day, the main attraction was the performances. Each course level of Chinese language students at Minzu University of China worked to put together a performance that focused on Chinese language and culture. My class sang a song in Chinese, as did a few other classes. Other classes recited Chinese poetry, played instruments, and one class even performed a dragon dance with a puppet. It was a chance to express our appreciation for not only the language we’re learning, but also for its culture. Chinese students and some Minzu faculty also set up booths exploring various parts of Chinese culture. They showcased some games, a few traditional styles of clothing, traditional instruments, crafts like fan painting, and even a game that involved guessing which ancient Chinese characters/hanzi corresponded to modern ones. It was a great chance to learn about culture, yes, but it was an even better chance to interact with the Chinese students here. Language students tend to be pretty isolated from the main Chinese student body, so preplanned chances to do some exchange with them is always appreciated and always interesting.
One of our more regular chances, however, is the previously mentioned Stories Without Borders. The group meets weekly, and every week they discuss something new between cultures of international students and Chinese students. The one I attended recently was very on-brand for me, and was based around everyone’s cultural foods. I opted to bring some various American snacks to share since it’s pretty hard to find American food in Beijing, and American food culture is so diverse. Other students brought things like Japanese sushi and miso soup, Kazakhstani samsa, Korean fried chicken and beer, French pastries, and of course, a large selection of Chinese snacks to sample. We also played a game where we were blindfolded and handed common ingredients used in Chinese cooking and had to guess them without looking.
We also got a detailed explanation of the ways the ingredients (ranging from things like potatoes and eggs to specific types of Chinese spices) are used in Chinese cuisine and got to talk about whether our culture uses them. After that, we had an extended group conversation about food and cooking in our respective cultures—whether or not we cook, how we do it, what we make, and how it’s similar or different from other countries’ cultural food. The food was delicious (I can now personally recommend eggplant miso as the best kind, if anyone reading this ever wants to sample any type beyond the usual tofu-and-seaweed combination), but the best part was the chatting. Less formal events really give us a chance to connect with each other as students and as people, and I definitely left the event with more friends and knowledge than I came in with. As mentioned earlier, I think events like these are far more valuable than any type of more “touristy” event, because they let us engage with the real people and real culture of China on a more personal level than anything else we could do. Culturally, there’s nothing out there that could ever replace a good chat and sharing some food or a good time with your friends.
By Jane Turner, Spring 2026
Another one of the more irreplaceable experiences we have in China as students is the amount of cultural exchange we get to participate in. While The Beijing Center organizes plenty of culture-based events, from tourist activities to arts workshops, there’s something about engaging with other people our own age in cultural exchange that’s really special.
Over this past weekend, some of our students enrolled at Minzu University of China took their annual Spring Outing – this year, to Gubei Water Town. Situated about a 2-hour drive northeast of Beijing, the April weather made it absolutely perfect to explore for a spring outing. It surrounds various canals and offshoots of Yuanyang lake.
If you ever want to get a taste of Old Beijing, by far one of the best ways is to visit the hutongs. They’ve conceptually been around all the way since the 1200s, and in their most modern forms exist as protected alleyways and streets surrounded by old traditional houses and neighborhoods in the heart of Beijing and are recognized in China to be an important part of cultural heritage in the city.
My name is Jane Turner, and I’m a student from America- a second-year at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. Although I’m studying in the middle of America, I come from the very south, from a state called Louisiana.