I was lucky enough to go to my ancestor's stomping grounds (I am Chinese afterall, not just 'Azzsian,') in January 2000 with a group of students from St. Olaf College in Minnesota. Our group of 15 was led by our notrious Professor Xun, Economics is her forte. We studied economic development in China, post Deng Xiaoping.

In the end we had a qausi-road rules/real world bonding experience that not only taught about us market reforms, but taught us how to use chopsticks, what Chinese 'massages' really were, and how to scare Chinese scholol children - a rendition of "Um Ya Ya" is a nice way.

Not knowing any of the Olies before I left, and not knowing our professor was nerve-racking (for about two-minutes) All I knew was they knew how to handle cold weather. Naturally, I had a great time there and learned a lot, all the while discovering 'modern' China with some of the coolest people I've could have met - all good friends and happy times (albeit it was damn cold!)

Enjoy the pictures!