From November to December 2018, ChinaContact, TBC’s short-term program team, hosted a group of eight students and faculty from Javeriana Cali University for their “China Immersion 2018” program. During their 21 days in China, the group traveled Beijing, Xi’an, and Shanghai, learning about the different customs in different parts of China, witnessing the beautiful scenery of early winter, and immersing themselves in Chinese culture. To help them better make sense of all the things they saw, ChinaContact helped organize lectures about Chinese history, politics, economics, and business, taught by distinguished local and international professors.
At the same time, ChinaContact also organized group site visits to different companies and enterprises to help the students and faculty gain first-hand knowledge on how to do business in China, including site visits to Coca-Cola Beijing, PRIME Flowers, the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, and the Colombia embassy in Beijing and consulate in Shanghai.
The group was also invited to attend TBC’s 20th Anniversary Thanksgiving Gala dinner, through which they learned more about the history and culture of The Beijing Center.
Interested in a similar cultural immersion trip in China? ChinaContact will support your group’s goals with tailor-made programs year-round. Find out more at thebeijingcenter.org/chinacontact.
This is the first American edition of Anderson’s fascinating account of Britain’s first diplomatic mission to China in 1792. By the end of the eighteenth century the East India Company had been trading with Chinese merchants for two hundred years, but in a strictly limited way.
At the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment, as the 18th century drew to a close, the Western world was eager for knowledge—driven by a philosophical movement that championed reason and science. King Louis XV of France asked for the advice of his trusted Minister of State, Henri Bertin, about how to reform the spirit of the nation, after giving it some thought, Bertin famously responded, “Sire, to inoculate the French with the Chinese spirit.”