They were expecting armed guards and intimidated peasants, but the Savannah State University students who spent the summer studying in China found a modern, sophisticated country filled with warm and friendly people.
"I thought because it was a Communist country there would be army men searching us, no laughing or joking," said Pamela Daniels. "But when I got there it was the exact opposite. ... I felt like I was at home -- except with Chinese people."
Nine Savannah State students spent a month experiencing Chinese culture at Capital Normal University in Beijing. Eight undergraduate students studied comparative history and criminal justice and one graduate student did independent study on Chinese urban populations.
The trip was part of a Savannah State initiative designed to initiate and promote international exchange programs. It was funded by Federal Title III grants and the State Board of Regents.
There was only one Chinese speaker in the summer study group -- George Hong, SSU history professor and director of the Asia/Pacific Initiative. But after some initial confusion, when English-speaking parents flooded the Chinese-speaking hotel switchboard operator with calls, the students got along well on their own.
"Body language is an international language," Hong said.
And the Chinese people seemed to hang on everything Daniels' body was saying to them.
The Chinese respected their cultural differences and found Daniels' complexion and full-figured frame particularly beautiful, the students said.
"I had people following me -- running after me. They were calling me big Buddah," Daniels said. "It really bothered me until I found out it was a good thing -- a respectful thing."
She had crowds of Chinese people telling her she was beautiful and asking to take pictures with her. One time in a public square she was rushed by so many enamoured people, armed guards had to break up the crowd.
She was the center of attention at the night clubs, where she gave her new-found admirers lessons on how to do the electric slide.
"She danced with every guy in the club," said sophomore Alicia Bailey.
Sophomore Darnell Blackshear is a Savannah native who had never traveled out of the country before. But through the study-abroad program he got a chance to see performances at the Peking Opera, to visit the Great Wall of China and Tiananman Square. He and the others even had the opportunity to observe a trial at the Haidian District Court, spend the day in the home of a traditional Chinese family and visit a Chinese farm and a nursing home to gain greater insight into contemporary society.
"Going out and seeing the sites made it all seem more real. It was not like getting it out of a textbook," said Gloria Strachan, a sophomore. "Now I work much harder and push myself. We learned history from a new perspective. We understand the Chinese way more."
The students said they developed a greater respect for their educational opportunities during the trip. During their academic sessions they worked with Chinese professors and two professors from Savannah State.
"It was different teaching them in China," Hong said. "The students were more serious there, they argued more and always related the issues we were discussing to their experiences in China."
In China education is a privilege, not a right. Students are given a national exam after high school. Their grades determine if they will become laborers or go on to higher education.
Only 0.1 percent of the kids in China go to college, according to Hong.
"They knew their textbooks step by step -- verbatim," Daniels said.
Savannah State is trying to increase its marketability by creating student and faculty exchange and study-abroad opportunities. Officials are also working to set up exchange partnerships with colleges in Ghana and the Caribbean.
A delegation of faculty and students went to Africa last year and again this summer to strengthen relationships with African educators and political leaders. So far one African student, Nana Anna Yankah, is studying at SSU. The first Chinese exchange professor is expected to begin at SSU in the spring semester and the African study-abroad program should begin next summer.
The China trip marked the first time Savannah State has offered foreign study opportunities and the first time any Historically Black College has established an exchange program with a Chinese university.
But to the students the trip was about more than pioneering opportunities for institutional growth and prestige.
Strachan and others enrolled in Chinese language courses this semester at SSU because of the experience and William D. Frazier, a graduate student majoring in urban studies, has decided to do his master's thesis on urban Chinese populations.
"It was a life-changing event for me," Frazier said.
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