In the last several decades, China has arisen as a major global power, gaining influence around the world. The ascent of China onto the world economic and political stage has incited fear, and suspicion for many, myself included at times.

In my time as a high school student, I have taken the opportunity to take Chinese language classes. Last year I learned that the Chinese government provides backing for foreign students to come to China through an organization called the Confucius Institute.

The Confucius Institute is part of the Department of Ministry in the government in Beijing. I was first reluctant to go, however, my curiosity took over my fears, and I decided to take the trip. My stay in China was paid for entirely by the Chinese government except transportation there.

Before I was able to see China for myself, I endured 17 hours of flying, going to Chicago, Newark, then to Beijing. My trip began in Beijing for about two days where I was able to visit the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, and the Forbidden City. To me, these all represent architectural wonders, ancient structures that are grand and immense. It was just plain amazing to try to comprehend the amount of work that was done to build them.

After my brief stop in Beijing, I journeyed then to the Xuzhou, a small city by Chinese standards—just a couple million people. Xuzhou is where the bulk of my stay was. Here I attended a middle school every day with Chinese language and cultural instruction. Some of my classes were tea appreciation, pottery, tai chi, calligraphy, and paper-cutting.

The middle school I attended consisted of two main buildings, each five stories high. The school had more than 3000 students. It made me feel like CHS was a small school by comparison. I was surprised to see the amount of technology that the school had. There were two projectors in most classrooms with a chalkboard and also a computer room.

One of my favorite places in Xuzhou was the city park just across from my hotel. But just crossing the street to get to it was an ordeal in itself. Crosswalks are virtually non-existent or simply not regarded by the local drivers, so most of the time, I found myself advancing across the street, one lane at time—hoping and that some a speeding car or motorbike would not be unfortunate enough to hit my chest.

The park was one of the places where I felt that I gained the most in learning about Chinese culture. Every morning and night I was able to see firsthand tai chi classes and dance classes—mostly attended by the elderly. Actually, one night I decided to try to attempt to follow the dance moves being led by the dance instructor. After a couple of moments of joining them in the back, the whole class was eyeing me, and I found myself being led to the front, so I could be next to the instructor. I really got to love the people while I was there.

I was surprised at the number of manual laborers who work in the parks, some even doing the daily job of taking gum off benches. Perhaps this results from the large labor force that China has currently has. It is hard to imagine in America, people who would daily clean the benches.

One of the most memorable experiences I had while in China was getting sick. On the day before I had visited Confucius’ home and temple. It had been a hot day and I decided with most of my group to get some cheap ice-cream off the street, about 15 cents. The following day I experienced stomach pain and several different complications. I decided to stay in the hotel and hopefully rest off whatever my sickness. I did sleep a little, but found myself no better. As my trip was being funded by the Chinese government, my sickness was reported from the provincial government all the way to the government in Beijing. I was told from Beijing that they wanted me to go to the hospital. I visited the hospital and found that I had food poisoning. I received a couple of shots, and then had an IV for about an hour.

When I got home, I learned that I had been infected with salmonella.

The hospital experience was interesting, as there was no air conditioning, most of the doctors were in their mid twenties, and smoking was allowed by the patients, even while they were in bed. The culture and environment at the hospital was very different than one would experience in China.

I am grateful for my experience in China as it showed me how America is so unique and special, in how so much liberty and freedom is given to its citizens. I saw firsthand the contradictions of supposed freedom given in China.

In the time while visiting Tiananmen Square I asked my tour guide a question about Deng Xiaoping, a leader in China that helped push for the opening of China to the world. My tour guide had on the bus seemed somewhat open in the concern of Mao Zedong’s policies that led to the destruction of many historical sites. Now we were in public she answered my question by saying that there were spies here and that we needed to be careful in what we said.

On another occasion, I was talking with a recent college graduate who had just majored in English. The discussion started with racism in China, but turned to the place of religion in Chinese lives. All of a sudden after just a couple moments, she told me that we should not be talking about such things.

Censorship does indeed exist in China. Although as an American, my freedoms are not unlimited, I generally do not have to worry about the regulation of my liberties every time I speak or act. My Chinese guides spoke very carefully.

I love America. I also came to love China on my trip there. The culture is incredibly deep and the people truly care about other people. Although I cannot say that I agree always with China, for example in their imprisonment of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, but I feel that I understand China better and am more accepting of its rise.

I plea that with economic growth will come an expansion of liberty and freedom for the Chinese people. Hopefully, as nations work together, prosperity can be shared for all people, but inalienable freedoms also can become more universal.

Prosperity is of limited value when people do not have a common enjoyment of the inalienable rights of freedom. I myself will cherish and guard my freedoms. I earnestly wish that all peoples of the earth might to free to enjoy the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit happiness.