In the beginning of March, InternChina had the pleasure of hosting 19 students from the German University “HS Heilbronn”. Since I started my internship at InternChina in Chengdu in the beginning of February, I was still involved in some of the planning and organization of this Group Trip. Therefore, I was even more excited to meet all of the students in person and have a great time with them. Finally, the day of their arrival came and we were waiting at the airport to give them a warm welcome.

The welcome was really exciting (some of the guys literally entitled me as a Whooo girl – sorry again guys, I could not hold my excitement :D) and we had a great welcome breakfast and orientation with all of them in one of the most coziest cafés in Chengdu. After the breakfast, finally all of the Chinese host families arrived and picked up their new family member :). Everybody was really excited and nervous at the same time, but the host families gave each of them a really lovely welcome and made them feel very comfortable.

The next days were full of great and exciting activities in Chengdu. Starting with the daily Chinese classes in our partner language school in Chengdu. The students made great improvements and even presented some of their Chinese skills in the end which was so much fun :). Furthermore, we visited plenty of companies in Chengdu to give the students an authentic insight into the Chinese business environment. It was great to find out more about the differences in business between Western and Chinese culture and being able to ask as many questions as we wanted (Again, a massive thank you to all of the interesting companies in Chengdu)!

And of course there were a lot of fun activities to enjoy the Chinese culture and get a deeper understanding of the life in China. The Group participated at a Chinese painting and Dumpling making class which was a lot of fun. We went on a weekend trip to Mount Emei and climbed up 50,000 stairs within two days (hope this still goes under fun activities :)) and stayed at a Temple in the middle of nowhere. This was such an unforgettable experience for all of us. We never had such a feeling of happiness when we arrived at the Golden Summit of Emei Shan. And of course visiting the Research Panda Base in Chengdu was a great highlight for many of the students.

I believe that this was an amazing time and that is was more than just a two week group program in China – It was amazing to meet all of you :). Thanks again to all of the students who made those two weeks really unforgettable :). It was great to have you and we hope that we can welcome many of you in Chengdu soon again!

– Jula