From March 28 to April 5, faculty and students from Loyola Marymount University (LMU) traveled to Beijing and Xi’an as part of a ChinaContact study tour organized by The Beijing Center (TBC). The program, a component of LMU’s Chinese curriculum Global Immersion experience, sought to bring language learning beyond the classroom and into direct engagement with Chinese culture and society.
The students on the program came from a wide range of Chinese-language backgrounds. Some had been introduced to Chinese at a young age, while others had grown up in immersion-school environments. Despite their different experiences, all shared a common goal: gaining a deeper understanding of China through firsthand experience.
One of the program’s most memorable activities introduced students to Beijing Engraved Porcelain, a traditional art form that combines calligraphy, painting, and carving. Under the guidance of Ms. Zhou Xiaoming, a municipal-level representative inheritor of the Beijing Engraved Porcelain Technique, students used diamond-tipped tools to engrave their Chinese names onto porcelain zodiac horses.
The activity offered more than a lesson in craftsmanship. For Ms. Zhou, porcelain is also a way of telling a larger story. She hopes to tell the story of China through china—using porcelain as a lens into the country’s history, culture, and identity. Students responded with creativity of their own: one student whose surname was Lin (林), meaning “forest,” engraved layered trees onto the porcelain surface, blending personal symbolism with elements of Chinese aesthetics.
The program’s exploration of Chinese culture extended beyond workshops and into some of Beijing’s most iconic historical sites. At the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City, students encountered traditional Chinese architecture, garden design, and imperial history not as textbook concepts, but as lived environments. Several students were especially intrigued by Hanfu, traditional Chinese clothing, after spotting visitors dressed in Hanfu at the Forbidden City and striking up conversations about its cultural significance.
That curiosity continued in Xi’an, where students visited a Hanfu experience center and went through the full process of styling and dress themselves. Later, walking through the Tang Dynasty Ever-Bright City (Datang Bu Ye Cheng) dressed in Hanfu and surrounded by lights, music, and crowds, they experienced a different way of connecting with China’s historical imagination.
Xi’an also opened a window onto China’s long history of intercultural and religious exchange. At the Xi’an Beilin Museum, students stood before the famous Nestorian Stele, which documents the spread of Christianity in Tang dynasty China. Through guided explanations, they learned about early exchanges between China and the Christian world more than a thousand years ago, gaining a deeper appreciation for the longstanding global dimensions of Chinese history.
Beyond historical and cultural learning, the trip offered students firsthand encounters with contemporary China. They cycled along the Xi’an City Wall, hiked the Great Wall, traveled by high-speed rail across the North China Plain, and interacted with local communities throughout the journey. These experiences helped ground their understanding of modern China in everyday observation and lived experience.
Although the program lasted just over a week, many students described a significant increase in confidence in using Chinese for communication. Several expressed hopes of returning to China in the future—to study, volunteer, or continue exploring the country’s society and culture more deeply.
For these LMU students, the ChinaContact program was more than a study tour. It became an opportunity to connect language learning with lived experience and to build a more nuanced understanding of China through direct encounter.
For the first time for one of these blogs, I’m taking on a new challenge: exploring without the involvement of The Beijing Center! This past weekend, I took the chance to take a pre-finals breath of fresh air and vacation for the first time in China, to the city of Tianjin.
I’ve written about my cultural exchange experiences in Beijing and at Minzu University before, but recently, I added something new to my roster: introducing my own culture to others.
If there’s any historical landmark related to China someone remembers learning about as a young child, odds are it’s the Great Wall of China. I have distinct memories of sitting in my third-grade social studies class, learning about this ancient marvel of engineering that was large it could be seen from space.
Beijing’s Temple of Heaven may be one of, if not, the most iconic tourist sites in Beijing. Constructed starting back in 1406, around the same time as the Forbidden City and the other respective temples of the Sun, Earth and Moon.