Ordinary folk

Professor Liu Shijuan, a Chinese teacher at IUP, invited the students to take part in the tour program as she knows most of them through Chinese-language or cultural courses at the university. "Most of them are interested in learning Chinese," Liu said.

As IUP and BFSU had been working on cooperation on postgraduate programs, they had the idea of inviting undergraduate US students to come to China and experience the country in person.

Participants had to meet certain conditions, such as having a passport, being able to afford the flight tickets, and a willingness to explore China.

The students, with an average age of 20, are all from "ordinary families" in small cities and some of them had never been on a plane before, Liu said.

"Unlike Chinese parents who may be more supportive in funding their children for exchange programs overseas, many of these American students had to earn their own plane tickets through part-time jobs," she said.

The majority of them found a job near the university. "Most of them had little idea of China — a country far away from their homes," Liu said.

Some of the students flew more than 24 hours to get to Beijing, and one of them only obtained her travel visa on the morning she left.

Monday said she was excited about the trip from Beijing to Hangzhou as it was her first time traveling on a high-speed train.

"I thought it was really convenient because you don't have to pay as much as the airplane. We kept looking at the map and said it was this far from Beijing. We were so amazed by how fast we got there," Monday said.

During their visit to Xiaomi, some of the students said that a Xiaomi SU7, the company's first electric car, which was on display, was the most amazing vehicle they'd ever seen.

Walton kept asking questions about charging the car, but the software engineering student was especially impressed by its striking color. "When I was told the color was scientifically taken from the ocean, I thought I would really like to buy it," Walton said.

A similar vehicle would sell for over $150,000 in the US, while it costs only about 290,000 yuan ($40,000) in China, he added.

Computer science student Kenneth Au said he was curious about how China had been able to shift to an electric vehicle system while its infrastructure still supported fuel vehicles.

"It seems like China can fully convert to a whole electric car system, much better than any American system," Au said.

The cheaper prices of advanced electronic products such as smartphones and laptops also drew the US students' attention.

However, it was the ancient architecture in the Forbidden City and how it fits in with Beijing's modern landscape that got the visiting students most excited.

"As a young country, we don't have ancient structures in the US. It's amazing that one emperor lived in a place literally the size of a city," Walton said.

Kayla Kristchil, who has traveled to Europe, was impressed by the combination of the modern and ancient in Beijing.

She took a picture in the Forbidden City, with the palace in the foreground and skyscrapers in the background.

Bianco was impressed by the architecture and Chinese people's appreciation of history.

"The Summer Palace is really beautiful and the Great Wall is crazy to see in person. It's hard to believe how it was built. The people really appreciate the country's history and where they came from," she said.