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Name: Ezra Hill, Class of 2018
Major: Marketing and sport management
Study abroad program: College of Business Administration China Short Term Trip over spring break 2017

This study tour, which consisted of 10 days in China traveling to Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, made a huge impact on my life and exceeded my expectations by a mile. 

In Beijing, the majority of locals didn’t speak English, but I still gathered an everyday sense of life while traveling through places like Hutong. In Beijing, we also traveled to many different sites, including Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, National Opera House and my personal favorite the Great Wall. In addition, we visited a number of different business as well, such as Google and ThruDesign, as well as a Beijing University. It was amazing to interact with locals and hear how business and education is run in China's capital.

Traveling to Shenzhen was a major change. It’s such a new city that it feels like no one is originally from there. The number of business located in the city gave me a sense of China's growth and future. Because Shenzhen is the technology capital of China, it was necessary to visit many companies, such as Horn Audio and Huawei. 

At night Shenzhen reminded me of Las Vegas or Los Angeles; lights stayed on and people roamed the streets. I was even able to DJ at a local lounge. We also visited the Chinese Folk Culture Village and I was greeted by hundreds of local students for pictures and high fives. 

Traveling to Hong Kong was a complete change due to the fact that Hong Kong is an SAR, or special administrative region, of China. The city enjoys a high degree of autonomy and a rapid pace of economic growth. Most people spoke English and the number of tourists surprised me. Hong Kong was the highlight of the trip for me. 

Overall, this trip was an amazing experience and I would recommend anyone to go abroad or to attend a study tour. The amount of information you encounter is breathtaking and the feel of getting to know someone else’s culture by first-hand experience is marvelous. There’s a whole world out there and you can only witness it by going and experiencing it, so go out and do it. I’m so happy I attended this study tour and this will most definitely not be my last.