An American graduate student from the prestigious Harvard University has been inspired to return to China after making an eye-opening recent trip to the country, and now hopes to further his study of the language, explore smaller cities, and deepen his overall understanding during a longer-term stay in China.
Erik Rasmussen, a graduate from Harvard Business School's Class of 2024, joined over 100 classmates in a whirlwind tour across several Chinese cities back in May. Prior to the trip, Rasmussen had studied Chinese for around six months and said he is now already planning to come back to China in September to study in more detail now that he has graduated.
Reflecting on his first visit to China, Rasmussen said it was the country's urban development that made the first deep impression on him.
"Obviously people can assume a lot of things about places that they've never been before. It's really great for Americans to see China I think. Seeing China for the first time was really beautiful. I was amazed at how built up some of the cities are. Going to Shanghai, going to Beijing, seeing the skyscrapers, seeing how much apartment buildings are being built up. There's incredible development in the country," he said.
The graduate also expressed his admiration for China's rapid technological advancements, including its new energy vehicles, high-speed rail network, and even other unexpected discoveries such as the use of robots.
"We went in a BYD and NIO and some other electric vehicles that were really interesting, so it was cool to see the Chinese vehicles. It's also with the NIO cars, they have the NOMI, which is like a little robot that's built into the interface -- super cool to see that. And then we saw some of the robots in the hotel that like bring towels and bring things to the room and those are super cool as well. The robots are very cute, the bullet trains that are so impressive and it was really cool to get to experience those firsthand," said Rasmussen.
During their trip, The Harvard students visited the metropolises of Beijing and Shanghai, as well as the historic Xi'an City in northwest China's Shaanxi Province and the popular Chengdu City in southwest China's Sichuan Province, where Rasmussen said he was deeply captivated by the ancient culture and beautiful scenery.
He admitted he fell in love with Chinese culture, so much so that he is now planning his immediate future in China, where he hopes to make more friends, travel to new places, and gain deeper insights into life in the country.
"For me, I'm planning to live in China in the fall. I got more excited about what it would be like to live there for a few months. I think I want to see some of the smaller cities. I don't know what which ones yet, I'm hoping to make friends that I'll go back to their hometowns. But I think I've seen the big cities, but it would be nice to see the tier two, tier three cities. I think some of the smaller cities would be interesting to explore," said Rasmussen.
Harvard graduate student inspired to return to China after eye-opening short stay
