My Experience at China

An unexpected opportunity to represent India as a delegate to China knocked my

door (my mail box) on 10th June evening. The first reaction seeing this mail form
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports was Wow, am I really selected out of 1.3
billion people to represent India as a Youth delegate to China? The next big thing for
me was, Its my first foreign trip, and it starts bang on from China and would cover
4 places there!
The delegation was split into 2 groups of 100 members each and IIM Raipur had a
total of 17 representatives which accounted for 8.5%, thats something to take a
pride for the institute and its students. The objective of the trip was to understand
the cultural difference between the two countries and in some way help improve the
bilateral ties between the nations. In addition to this we also had an exciting thing in
place for us i.e. sight-seeing.

The journey began with a warm welcome by Indian embassy in Beijing. Though Beijing stay was
short and packed, it gave us a glimpse of the Chinese culture and history through magnificent
architecture of one of the Seven Wonders of the World The Great Wall of China and the The
Forbidden City. The Great Wall was more grandiose than imagined.
The troupe then moved to Chengdu- known for its Panda base. The first day in
Chengdu was a combination of cultural exposure and a peek into the ancient
history of Chinese civilization. The visit to Panda base highlights the importance
to preserve these rare species. This was followed by mesmerizing art, culture
and tradition of China at different museums and attending lectures at various
universities.
The third city on the list was Guilin-a prefecture level city that has long been renowned for
its scenery of karst topography and is one of China's most popular tourist destinations. Situated on
the west bank of the Li River, Guilin is home of multiple prestigious universities and technology
park.
During the two day stay in Guilin, we visited multiple location that gave the glimpse of
entrepreneurial spirit amongst the youths.
Last and for sure the most memorable part of the visit was in Guangzhou. The trip started with a
bullet train ride from Guilin to Guangzhou covering approximately 500 km in 2 hours. The view of
sky scrapper buildings, night life, awesome street shopping and a lot more were the limelight here
and the trip ended with a night cruise along Li River.
Overall, to conclude the overall experience was highly enriching and culturally
stimulating as it provided deep insights about our Asian Counterpart. Also, this
gave me an opportunity to build new relations, new friends, broader and clearer understanding about
China and a lot more.
This trip to China will be cherished throughout my life and will be very close to
my heart forever. Whenever I recall this trip, I take pride in saying that I
represented India as a Youth Delegate to China.

Thanks to Ministry for organizing such mutually beneficial inter-nation

Youth Exchanges.