Hi, my name is Emily Xu or 徐一苇. I was part of the 9-member group of ABCs (American born Chinese) sent to Shennongjia, China, to teach. We taught at a boarding school for two weeks with a 5-day vacation...

Our first evening at the school was uneventful. We missed the scheduled dinner, so the school cooks prepared extra food for us that we could not eat by ourselves. We then spent the entire rest of the time in...

We had two groups that met up in Shanghai and Beijing, before departing as a whole to Yichang. At Yichang, we met with the other group and embarked on the 5-hour drive to the school. The drive was enveloped...

My name is Austin Yao, 姚奕洋, and I was one of the 9 students who took part in the “1000 Mile Initiative”. In this editorial, I will be constructing my narrative and opinions about the adventure, as well as...

Scenery When we had first driven those 4 hours to Shennongjia (from the airport), I remember literally waking up to huge mountains around me. It was absolutely unreal, it was as if I had been carried to a completely...

Teaching Experience At the end of the day, we had a group meeting discussing how everyone’s first classes went. Elizabeth and I talked about the successes of our lessons, as well as areas for improvement. These group meetings occurred...

First Time Teaching Class Our first class began the day after our arrival, and I still remember the slight nervousness I had towards how the students would react to us. This included thoughts of: would they be judging our...

Making Friends We had our first meal at the school separated from the students, but we got to join them in the main cafeteria for breakfast the next day. Over this period of time, we received many curious glances,...

First Impressions I remember the first day when we arrived, the first thing I noticed was the electric red letters printed in front of the school, and they read: “热烈欢迎美国北卡高中生来我校支教”. After reading this sign, I thought Oh this is...

We finished teaching on June 26th. Now, we are writing reflective essays and are working on a video to promote this initiative.