One Week Diary: A Chronicle of a Week in China

When a group of Holy Cross students travels to China during spring break, they’ll encounter a major makeover of Beijing’s physical infrastructure — streets, buildings, green space — and find the city in the midst of a campaign to encourage residents to be more polite. With one year before the country’s capital hosts the Olympic Games, there’s a lot of work to be done.

For the third consecutive year, the students will visit China during a 10-day study trip. Claudia Ross, professor of Chinese, and Baozhang He, visiting assistant professor of Chinese, will serve as guides. The group departs on March 2 and returns on March 11. As in the last two years, they will visit Beijing, but instead of going to Shanghai, they will tour Chengdu (Sichuan Province).

Through it all, the eleven students — Laura Beglane ’10, Samuel Cordova ’07, Ashley Codianni ’07, Victoria Godel ’07, Colby Kane ’10, Alexandra Mersereau ’10, Elizabeth Spellman ’10, Renata Tuttle ’08, Amy Urquhart ’07, Brendan Webb ’07, Ryan Wiik ’09 — will chronicle their adventures.

This year’s study trip dovetails with a sharp increase in students nationwide interested in studying the Chinese language, and the enormous influence of the country in the international marketplace.

Enrollment in Chinese classes at Holy Cross has increased substantially over the past few years. In the fall of 2004, 19 students were enrolled in the elementary class, in the fall of 2005 there were 38, and this past fall there were 47. Seven of the students taking part in the trip are currently studying Chinese as part of their course work.

Perhaps another reason is because China is an immeasurably interesting place.

“Both years there were students on the trip who told us that it was the best experience they had ever had in their life,” says Ross.

Related Information:

* China Study Tour Blog 2007