The past weekend was without doubt one of the best weekends I’ve had since I came to China in January. I was able to see the beautiful Shenzhen metropolis and hang out with two great Wabash guys from the class of 2014.

As you might recall from my previous notes, during my trip to Hong Kong in April I met up with Jack Yuan’14. During our meeting, Jack invited me to visit Shenzhen, his hometown. We further discussed this idea when I returned to Shanghai and with Jack’s invaluable help I quickly finalized all the travel arrangements. I left on Thursday evening and spent three days in Shenzhen. I found this city to be extremely interesting. Just thirty years ago, Shenzhen was a small fishing village. However, in the 1980s Deng Xiaoping designated it to be the first Special Economic Zone in China. This establishment proved to be very successful and Shenzhen started developing at a very fast pace. Today it is one of the most prosperous cities in China and an important player in shaping future relations with Hong Kong. Shenzhen, however, has a lot more to offer than its interesting history. I fell in love with its energizing tropical weather and a great amount of green space. The ability to travel to Hong Kong in less than two hours also makes Shenzhen a great city to live in.

More important than the places I visited though were the people I spent time with last weekend. I had a chance to get to know Jack a lot better. Now I’m really sure that he is a person with whom I will be spending a lot of time during my senior year at Wabash. Apart from Jack, I also had the chance to hang out with Songying Fan’14. I corresponded with Songying since January, but on Friday I was finally able to meet him in person. He is a really great guy who will bring a very unique perspective to our campus. Songying has a lot more life and work experience than an average college freshman. As a consequence, he really appreciates the opportunity of gaining education again and is ready to work very hard at Wabash.

I will tell you everything when we meet at Wabash in August, but I cannot find the words to describe how hospitable Jack and Fan were to me during my weekend in Shenzhen. Never before in my life have I experienced so much hospitality from people who are not members of my family.

When you have a minute, please welcome Songying and Jack to our college. Both of them are really excited to become part of our community. You can contact Jack at jackyuan1017@gmail.com and Songying at fsy2014@163.com.