As my first year being with Queen’s Global China Connection (QGCC) is coming close to an end, our team, along with other students, went on another trip to NYC this weekend. I was extremely excited for all the plans I made! While the happy memories from last year’s trip flashed back to most of the executive members, others were super excited about exploring New York. We arrived at our hotel located in Midtown Manhattan on Friday afternoon.
Out of the 23 students on the trip, 4 are exchange students from England, Australia and China, and 3 are from Western University (also known as University of Western Ontario). The team spread out to see Broadway shows, NBA games, visiting Times Square, Toys R’Us and the Museum of Modern Arts, discovering hidden Italian restaurants, and finishing the first night in NYC with a fun gathering in the hotel room. As a big Broadway fan, it is in my habit to go watch a show every time I am in New York. The dancing and singing, also getting to take a picture with one of the actresses, at the show “Mamma Mia!” definitely made the night memorable-despite the fact that I was almost late due to the heavy traffic in NYC.
Early Saturday morning, 15 of us bussed to New Haven for Global China Connection World Fair held at Yale University. The theme of this year’s fair is “China Unfolding—Linking the Past to the Present”, with delegates and alumni from major universities such as Cornell University, Yale University, New York University, Harvard University, and University of Pennsylvania. I was so amazed by the new Yale School of Management building when we arrived: it was a magnificent, modern building mostly built with glass!
Speakers of the conference included:
Jennifer Wen Ma: Member on the core creative team for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games
Joel D. Backaler: Author of “China Goes West: Everything You Need to Know about Chinese Companies Global”
Stephen Roach: Formerly the chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia
Savio S. Chan and Michael Zakkour: Authors of “China Super Consumers- What One Billion Customers want and How to Sell it to them”
Young entrepreneurs, such as James Lu Morrissey, Eric Glyman, and other industry leaders, such as Michael Liao (Managing Partner of Greater China Capital Markets) and Yi Lu (CEO of ICBC Financial Services LLC.)
I learned a lot about China’s role on the world stage by listening to the speakers, it really expanded my horizon and motivated me to dig deeper and to learn more about my country. Then the delegates were taken on a campus tour. While our friends from Yale showed the delegates around campus, I left the group to meet up with a primary school friend -who I have not seen or talked to in 10 years. With him being my personal tour guide, I had the privilege to go for a complete campus tour – and also his fraternity house, which was very interesting! The traditional-styled buildings, along with the falling snowflakes from the sky and being in a conversation with an old friend made it the best campus tour I have ever had!
When we got back to NYC, the team went out to try different local food, such as the famous “The Halal Guys” and the “New York Pizza Suprema”. Following the fame of “The Halal Guys”, I tried their mix chicken and lamb rice for the first time- and absolutely loved it! I would recommend everyone to try it when they are in NYC! However, be very careful with their hot sauce, it was very spicy! My night ended with a visit to the Grand Central Station. It was fun for me to see because it was where “Serena” was first seen in the show “Gossip Girl” (I also went to Central Park during previous trips to check out the Bethesda Fountain-where Blair and Serena met each other in lots of episodes, Central Park is also the place where Nate kissed Blair! Also, I went to the stairs of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Blair’s clique of friends hanged out all the time.)
Sunday was a free day for all of us. Luckily, New York surprised us with a lot of sunshine and a beautiful day at 14 degrees. Everyone was so excited to see the sun and went to check out Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty, Columbia University and Ellis Island. Some also shopped on 5th avenue and more local food were exploded in the city. I went for a brunch with a friend from high school in China. He surprised me by taking me to “The View” restaurant on the 47th floor of the New York Marriott Marquis! It was nice enough to catch up with an old friend, not mentioning about the great food and the amazing view of the city from our table! We also went to check out the famous dessert place “Lady M Confections”-I finally got to try it! With no doubt, the Signature Mille Crepes, the Checkers, and the Green Tea Mille Crepes were ALL absolutely delicious! I would definitely recommend everyone to try!
Pheewwwww…That was a lot of typing! Anyways, I planned my fourth time in NYC to be a trip of exploration, discovery and reunion. This trip allowed me to successfully discover the food, the people, the culture and also the energy in New York. It also allowed me to discover the huge potential my home country has on the world stage. What is more, nothing can be better than catching up with old friends in a foreign country. Those two old friends were definitely my highlights of the trip. Just like the Chinese saying we have: “Fate brings people together no matter how far apart they may be.”