Local Students Get First Hand Look At China’s Economy

Three local students in an international study program recently returned from China, where they got an up-close look at the country’s burgeoning economy and compared notes with their Chinese counterparts.

Mauricio Rios Rodriquez, James Ramsey and Jose Romero — all of whom received a masters in accounting from Cal State San Bernardino in Palm Desert in June — visited historical sites, met with corporate officers to learn about doing business in China, and compared U.S. and Chinese business education by visiting with students and faculty at universities in Taiwan, Shanghai and Beijing.

The students kept a blog to document the experience. “I studied Chinese nearly 10 years ago and I was looking forward to an opportunity to visit China for the first time,” Ramsey said. “I’ve always had an interest in the Far East, and it was an incredible experience to be introduced to a culture where the United States was going to have the most competition from.”

They visited the Jiang Kai Shek Memorial and the Taipei 101 building in Taiwan; the Volkswagen manufacturing plant and the Shanghai Museum in Shanghai; and the Great Wall of China, Beijing University, Ming Tombs, Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, the Wandong Medical Equipment Company and the China-Beijing Equity Exchange in Beijing. “It was affordable and it is always interesting learning new cultures,” Rios Rodriguez said.