WHY CHINA? My name is Christian Teran. I had started my first year of college at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, and by all means Loras is a wonderful school and Dubuque is a great little town; though I felt this urge to get out and experience something I never thought I could do. I was the first in my family to attend university and that was part of the reason as to why I had this feeling of wanting to make my time at university worthwhile. I wanted to take advantage of the opportunities I had in front of me, and studying abroad was one of them. It did not take long for me to be convinced that Loyola University’s The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies program was the one calling my name. China itself just seemed like the perfect place due to the fact that it was a country in a distinctive part of the world which had never once crossed my mind. Once I found out about this opportunity of studying in China, the rest is history.

LIVING IN BEIJING I ended up going to Beijing as a nineteen-year-old sophomore in college, and my time living in the capital city of China cannot be defined or explained in any other way. It was purely one of the happiest times of my life. I woke up every single day looking forward to what other adventure I was going to find myself in. The most important dynamic, as to why China is such an astounding place, is because of the Chinese people themselves. Paradoxically, many who have visited China would disagree with me by saying something along the lines of “how can you say that, the Chinese are so rude!” Well no, that is not quite the case; they simply have a different way of carrying themselves around in public places. Trust me—if you ever have the opportunity to befriend a Chinese citizen, I can assure you that for the most part they will treat you better than any friend you have ever had. The capital city is known as one of the most economically and politically influential countries on a global scale; and living there was an amazing experience, especially being a double-major in Politics and International Studies with a minor in Economics. Though not only did I learn a whole lot about international relations, politics, and economics; I also learned more about life in that one year than I had in the past 18 years of my life altogether.