What does the rise of China look like from close up? This January winter break, six SAIS students traveled to the Middle Kingdom to find out. For three weeks, they met with journalists, academics, business professionals, U.S. embassy officials and SAIS alumni, gaining valuable insights into the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Second-year Conflict Management Program student Joseph Bubman and second-year International Development Program student Bradley Lyon drafted the trip proposal. In the context of the "Year of China" at SAIS, the administration agreed to support the project by drawing from a special internship fund.

The students arrived in Beijing as snowfall blanketed the capital city. Together, they ventured across town to the Friendship Store, for many years the only shop selling foreign goods. "There's no need for this place anymore," noted Washington Post foreign correspondent Edward Cody in an interview with the students. "Look around. No one comes here. It's just bored salesladies standing by musty display cases. China is totally different now."

To learn how much things have changed, the students conducted two dozen interviews. Meetings were arranged by Professors Pieter Bottelier, David M. Lampton, Eliza Patterson and James Riedel; by Meghan Houlihan N'06, alumni and program coordinator at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies Washington Office; and through the students' own efforts to tap alumni and professional networks. Interviewees included Melinda Liu of Newsweek, Zhang Tuosheng of the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies and Edward Smith N'97, director of the Beijing Consulting Group.

A central theme of the project was China's role in international trade, but interview topics included media restrictions, the Falun Gong movement and the 2008 Olympics. Most interviewees shared the enthusiasm of Leonard Liu, founder of software firm Augmentum: "The China wave has only begun. I'm not sure where it will end, but I want to be in position to ride it." Chinese and foreigners alike, however, expressed concern over dwindling water tables, poisoned rivers and choking smog.

"Our interviews indicated the complexity and unpredictabilty of China's rise, in large part due to maverick behavior on the part of local officials," said Andrew Duff, a second-year Strategic Studies Program student. "Our Chinese sources also voiced some unexpected opinions, such as one businessman who said he was sick of constant Chinese harping over Japan's misdeeds." But students were also struck by the degree to which their Chinese contacts viewed Taiwan as the indisputable territory of the PRC.

This was the first visit to China for most of the students. All study Mandarin at SAIS and attended language classes while in Beijing. "I learned a lot, taking four hours of lessons every day—but the real test came in directing cabbies to distant Erlizhuang, our neighborhood," said Brendan Schreiber, a first-year student in the Strategic Studies Program. For Bubman, the experience was one of total immersion, as he was "housed, fed and introduced to a young lady for possible marriage" by a local retired couple.

Zhao Xiaoping N'02 organized a SAIS happy hour, where former Student Government Association vice president Gary Sharkey '06 told the group about the tight job market. "It seems as if good Mandarin is not enough in today’s China," said Duff. "The SAIS alums that we met, both Chinese and foreign, have done an impressive job landing great positions in Beijing and Shanghai. It's a good network to be part of."

Other participants were Cynthia Mar, a second-year Conflict Management Program student, and Eleanor Sohnen, a first-year Latin American Studies Program student. The group is writing a report for submission to SAIS administrators and has chronicled its experience on a blog: www.saisinbeijing.wordpress.com.

With funding from the Starr Foundation, 16 Latin American Studies Program students will make a one-week trip to China over the March spring break.