Over my two weeks in China, I got to live with a Chinese host family and see how a family in Shanghai goes about their day-to-day lives, admire the meticulous costumes and harmonic prose of the performers in the Beijing opera, see one of the Seven Wonders of the World and climb the Great Wall of China, walk where emperors once did in the Forbidden City, gawk at the fascinating contrast between Shanghai’s soaring skyscrapers and traditional hutongs, admire the architecture and fengshui of the Classical Gardens of Suzhou, try my hand at calligrAphy, and master the art of holding chopsticks, to name a few of the highlights of the trip.