Stanford Students Gain Firsthand Insights into China’s Economy, Culture, and Global Role
Stanford Students Gain Firsthand Insights into China’s Economy, Culture, and Global Role
Led by Stanford faculty members, 20 Stanford students traveled across China engaging in academic exchanges, site visits to leading companies and institutions, and rich cultural experiences to gain a deeper understanding of the country’s economy, culture, and international relations.
In June 2025, twenty Stanford undergraduate and graduate students traveled across China on a two-week immersive program designed to deepen their understanding of the country’s economy, culture, and international relations. Led by Stanford faculty members, the program took students to eight cities across three regions in China—Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Yiwu, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing—combining academic exchanges, site visits to leading companies and institutions, and rich cultural experiences.
The itinerary included more than a dozen in-depth site visits, giving students direct exposure to the technological, manufacturing, and financial sectors that shape China’s economy. Highlights included factory tours of OPPO and XPeng electric vehicle plant; conversations with senior executives at Tencent, Alibaba, ByteDance, and Goldman Sachs; as well as a discussion with Hong Kong’s finance under secretary. Students toured the world-famous electronics markets in Shenzhen and trade markets in Yiwu, where they spoke directly with small business owners, gaining insight into the entrepreneurial networks that fuel global supply chains. One of the program’s most impactful experiences came in Beijing, where participants visited the U.S. Embassy for a conversation with diplomatic officers about U.S.–China relations.
Garry Piepenbrock, an economics and political science student, said that “seeing the variety of companies in China” was his favorite part of the program. He added, “there are a lot of big tech firms that we've had the privilege to visit, but also some of my favorite visits were the smaller manufacturers that had really interesting human stories behind them. The people working there and also the people running them. It's a difficult business. It's very competitive. And seeing that side of the Chinese economy was really cool.”
Throughout the program AI emerged as a hot topic and focal area for China’s technological and economic advancement goals. Zane Sabbagh, a computer science and symbolic systems student, shared his insights on AI development in China, “given China's lag in the AI race, their model is to let one Chinese company win by open sourcing a lot of their models and then hosting other companies' models on their platform. So for example, Tencent’s chatbot and Alibaba chatbot both host DeepSeek’s models on their own app, which is super weird because ChatGPT would never host Anthropic or xAI on its own native iPhone app. That’s something I found super interesting.”
Students also had the opportunity to compare their own academic experience through visits to multiple academic institutions in China. At the University of Hong Kong, students participated in a lecture given by Professor Zhiwu Chen on understanding Hong Kong’s history. At Peking University, students engaged with Vice Dean Li-An Zhou who gave a brief introduction on China’s economy. In addition to university exchanges, students also visited a migrant school in Beijing where they learned about the education system and connected with the young migrant students. Nazli Dakad, an earth systems student, reflected on the program and shared that, “one of my favorite parts of the trip was the migrant school. I thought that was super eye opening and contrasting to the tech focus that we've had, because it gave me a little more insight into the education system in China.”
Throughout the program students had the opportunity to engage with locals in various settings, from top executives, to factory workers, to locals out and about conducting their daily routines. Students also met with Stanford alumni based in China and learned about their career trajectories after graduation. Several students shared that building connections with people in China has been a highlight for them. Biology major Eva Shen shared, “being Chinese I feel like I've been very disconnected from China in the US, so being able to talk to all these people here [in Chinese] has been the best part for me…getting to hear their perspective, and actually getting to know them as people, has been my favorite part. When we did our interviews in the market back in Shenzhen, and we got to talk to older ladies, they reminded me of my own grandma.”
Cultural immersion was also woven throughout the journey. Students tried their hand at traditional arts such as paper cutting, brush calligraphy, and tea pan-frying; dressed in historical attire for an opera performance in Yiwu and a palace banquet in Hangzhou; and learned crafts like umbrella-making and handmade paper production. These activities provided a tangible connection to China’s long cultural heritage alongside its modern economic dynamism.
By the end of the program, participants had gained a multifaceted perspective on China—its economic drivers, its cultural traditions, and its evolving role on the world stage. “This program was about more than just observation—it was about engagement,” said SCCEI Co-director Hongbin Li. “Our students came away with firsthand experiences and conversations that will shape how they think about China for years to come.”
Discover more on our program page including student reflection videos, program photos, and more.
