For American youth, China passes vibe test

Romello Jones has checked of Beijing's iconic landmarks, but also explored the city on two wheels, slipping through the capital's winding streets like a local with his "brother".

Most first-time visitors leave China with souvenirs. Jones returned with friendships.

He first traveled to China with his school in 2024. The Tacoma teenager from Washington state returned the following year, this time traveling to China on his own.

"Just explore the culture, see my friends that I met the first time I went on the trip," he said.

Ray-Ban aviators shaded his eyes. A naturally curly afro framed his face, a gold chain rested on his chest, and a pair of Air Jordans was carefully shined. He had his streetwear culture blended into his look, but sometimes he also wore a panda T-shirt, which hinted that beneath the confident style was a young traveler deeply engaged with the country and its people.

"There is that boundary; we made it work," he said.

Jones visited iconic landmarks like the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall, but it was the quieter moments that stayed with him. Early one morning, he stumbled upon a group of elderly residents practicing tai chi or just stretching in a neighborhood park.

"I just put myself out there and joined them," he said. "Their lives are so different, but at the same time, so much the same."

He described China as "futuristic", yet the country's modern skyline never made it feel distant. Instead, it became a place he would eventually call a "second home".

Rather than staying in a hotel, Jones lived with a friend's family for two weeks. They cooked meals together, shared household chores and went about daily life side by side. By the end of the trip, he no longer felt like a visitor.

"Coming into their home and living with them for two weeks, they were so welcoming," he said. "Just being able to live my life alongside theirs is something that's going to stick with me forever."

Today, Jones still keeps in touch with his friends in China through WeChat. They still message him, even if it's 2 am because of the time difference. Together they explored the city, played basketball and shared everyday moments. Jones, who can dunk, said basketball "definitely" became a universal language.

"It was an amazing experience," he said. "I could bring my culture, and they could bring theirs, and we mixed them together. We got along so well."

Stories like Jones' reflect a broader movement of young Americans seeking deeper connections with China.

In November 2023, during his trip to the APEC meeting in San Francisco, Chinese President Xi Jinping invited 50,000 American students to visit China on exchange programs over five years.

By May 2026, China has hosted more than 50,000 young Americans for exchanges and study visits, hitting the five-year target two years ahead of schedule.

The US young visitors, from the country's 50 states, reached across China's 31 provincial-level regions.

They participated in activities as diverse as learning languages, summer and winter camps, sports competitions and academic studies for credits or degrees.

Most were not just trips to China, but also included in-depth exchanges. Through the experience of going to China with a class and building personal connections, the youth became friends through the same interests.

From classroom lessons to family bonds

For 18-year-old Lily Rabb, the journey began with a love of the Chinese language.

Her Chinese teacher, Ji Xiang, often told students that the best way to understand a culture was to experience it firsthand.

"This trip meant a lot to me," said Rabb, a graduate of the Intercultural Montessori Language School in Chicago who has studied Chinese for 10 years. "Before going, China was something I only knew from textbooks. But once I arrived, it became real. I could see it, hear it and feel it."

As she walked through China, using her Chinese to bargain at small neighborhood shops, Rabb found herself connecting with strangers in everyday moments. But it was the friendship she built with Chinese students her own age that left the deepest impression. Those relationships became a bridge between two cities across the continent, connecting them not only by distance but also by shared experiences and memories.

Last Thanksgiving, Rabb's family hosted two exchange students from Hangzhou, China. What began as a traditional American holiday meal — sharing turkey, pumpkin pie and stories about Thanksgiving — soon developed into a lasting friendship, she said.

The following summer, Rabb traveled to Hangzhou and stayed with the families of those same students. Immersed in their daily lives, she experienced local traditions, sampled home-cooked meals and was welcomed with a level of warmth that left a lasting impression.

"What touched me the most was how much care they showed," Rabb said. "They made me feel like I truly belonged, like I was part of their family."

When the students returned to Chicago in July, the reunion felt very different. The progression was built over time.

"We sat around the table together just like before," Rabb said. "But this time, everything felt different. We were no longer just hosts and guests. We had become real friends. Honestly, it felt more like family."

Friendship beyond language

Jade Melendres of California, who studies business economics at the University of California, Davis with minors in accounting and Chinese, spent part of her last summer as an intern at Jiangnan University in Wuxi.

Almost always wearing a wide smile, Melendres documented every moment of her experience. Her phone became a visual diary of her time in China, filled with selfies alongside new friends, videos capturing everyday life, afternoons wandering through museums, and late-night karaoke sessions that stretched well past midnight.

But for Melendres, the most meaningful moments were often the simplest ones: sharing meals with classmates, walking through the city after class, laughing over cultural differences and discovering how much she had in common with people she had only recently met, she said.

Despite the language barrier, she said communication never felt difficult.

"Even if we were speaking broken Chinese or broken English, it didn't matter," she said. "You don't need language to communicate or have fun with each other."

As the days passed, unfamiliar faces became close friends. The experience showed her that connection did not always depend on perfect words, but on curiosity, openness and a willingness to understand each other.

To Melendres, those friendships defined the journey.

"That's the epitome of youth," she said. "Going out into the world at such a young age, making all these different connections."

Sports and brotherhood

For Michael Torres, a PhD student at the University of Florida, sports became the bridge that carried his connection with China beyond a single exchange trip.

Today, he regularly plays soccer with Chinese international students at the University of Florida. Through a WeChat group created for students who share a passion for sports, Torres has continued his friendship with different groups of Chinese students across the states.

Those relationships began when Torres joined a delegation from the University of Wyoming that visited the Shanghai University of Sport for an exchange program. During his time in Shanghai, he explored the city with his squad.

"We went out, explored the city together, and it just made everything much better," he said.

The memories from that trip remain vivid. The photos and videos he captured during his stay now take up roughly 10 gigabytes of storage on his phone, preserving moments that extended far beyond a classroom exchange.

For Torres, the experience showed that connections between young people can continue long after they return home.

"It's up to us, the younger generation, to continue the connection, bettering and advocating for each other," he said.

Even after moving from Wyoming to Florida, Torres carries a visible reminder of those bonds. Sometimes he wears the Shanghai University of Sport uniform, with a Chinese flag displayed on the chest. When classmates ask where the clothing came from, he says:

"Shanghai, China. You can only buy it there."

Education beyond textbooks

Scott Bower experienced cultural exchange from both sides of the classroom. A Harvard graduate and educator, he arrived in China not only as a visitor, but also as someone naturally curious about how people learn from one another.

"Travel is such a powerful form of education and allows people to really open their minds further and have curiosity about what is out there," he said.

During the trip, Bower and a group of fellow educators got dressed in traditional costumes and laughed as they imagined themselves as ancient emperors and officials. Jumping, posing for photos and trying something completely unfamiliar, they felt the joy of experiencing a new culture firsthand.

But even in those moments of fun, the Boston educator in Bower never disappeared.

As the group of Harvard graduate students walked through massive Tian'anmen Square, a young boy's mother noticed the visitors and encouraged her son to practice English with them. The boy stepped forward and began a simple conversation.

Eight graduate students from Harvard's education school gathered around the seven-year-old, asking him questions, listening carefully to his answers and encouraging him to share his thoughts.

"Here's eight graduate students from the education school at Harvard, and we were all just kind of circling around this one random seven-year-old kid, genuinely trying to encourage him, talk with him and listen carefully to what he wanted to talk about," Bower recalled.

The encounter showed that education does not only happen inside classrooms or through textbooks. Sometimes, it happens in unexpected places, between people who may have never met before.

"The education itself really just comes down to the person in front of you," he said. "It's a life-to-life kind of connection."

That, he believes, is what "people-to-people exchange" is — not a simple visit but discovering that meaningful connections often begin with a single conversation.

mingmeili@chinadailyusa.com