U.S. students from Muscatine High School have returned home taking not just souvenirs but also a newfound appreciation for China and a deeper appreciation for cultural exchange and the power of friendship to bridge divides.
From April 16 to 24, 32 Muscatine students paid an exchange visit to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hebei Province.
The group tour took place after Chinese President Xi Jinping unveild his plan in San Francisco last year -- to invite a total of 50,000 young people from the U.S. for visits and exchanges in China over the following five years.
Among the group was Luca Berrone, a familiar face in this exchange program, who found himself once again scaling the historic Badaling Great Wall.
For Berrone, a board member of Iowa Sister States, an NGO, it's his third time to visit the intangible hertiage.
In 1985, Xi, then secretary of the Communist Party of China Zhengding county committee in Hebei, led a five-person delegation to Iowa for a two-week visit.
Berrone helped arrange the schedule for the delegation, and he said he was the first person that Xi met during the Iowa trip.
He also mentioned that the history of friendship between the state of Iowa and Hebei Province has spanned over 40 years, and the Muscatine High School and Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School have been sister schools for more than a decade.
"I witnessed President Xi's originial invitation in San Francico personally, I think it's a wonderful initiative, because I think we need better relationship, we need better understanding of each other particularly in this time with many conflicts surfacing. As we get along, I think it's a win-win situation for everybody," he said.
For many students, climbing the Badaling Great Wall was a highlight.
Joseph Mckneely, a student wearing a hat with Chinese characters "Chang Cheng", or Great Wall, said that it's a gift from her elder sister who visited China earlier in 2016.
He who has never been to the Great Wall is not a true man, as a Chinese proverb goes. Mckneely proudly displayed a souvenir -- a watch adorned with the Chinese characters for "Great Wall," declaring it the proof for one of his dreams come true.
"(I would say to my sister) 'I got to go to the Great Wall, and I got to go to a different section than you did! Yes, I've become a 'true man'. In the future, this memory will live in my mind as walking the same steps of both U.S. and Chinese presidents, and experiencing history of this wonderful country that is China. So in the future, if I become someone like a president or part of government, I can say that I've walked the Great Wall, and I can help build the relationship between the U.S. and China," said Mckneely.
The exchange didn't end with the physical journey; students eagerly shared their experiences on social media, becoming ambassadors of friendship.
Principal of Muscatine High School Ryan Castle stressed his school's commitment to reciprocating the goodwill, hinting at plans to host Chinese students in the United States.
"Now with President Xi's saying in November inviting students in the U.S., it is starting to ramp that friendship back up. Political differences shouldn't separate us as a people. I hope that we reciprocate, and we need to build that connection between China and the U.S.," he said.
As farewells were exchanged, students showcased their mementos, eager to carry the memories of China back home.
"It was really green and I love that, just all of that life that you see," said a student.
"Everybody has been very welcoming. It's so different that we actually experience it firsthand," said another student.
"I think it's really beautiful here, it's really clean, a lot cleanier than big cities in America. I will go back home with this information and let people know how it was in China," said another student.
"I think I definitely want to come back, every opportunity I can take. I want to keep studying Chinese and hopefully I'd become fluent. Maybe (I'll) even go abroad to China to study radiology, so that would open up a lot of opportunities I think," said a student.
US students scale Great Wall, keep friendship going
