One summer morning this past summer, Xindi Sun ’18, wakes up in her Wilmette house, grabs her luggage and rushes to the airport. She soon arrives and boards the plane on her way to Shanghai, China.

About 15 hours later, she arrives to her destination, determined to get to her home where she grew up. She can’t wait to see her family again, who she hasn’t seen in one year.  Xindi’s family lives in the northern part of Shanghai, where the air feels fresh and clean.

Xindi knows that the southern areas of Shanghai have more rivers, bigger cities and warmer weather because of pollution. Although Shanghai has many polluted areas, its northern parts are relatively unpolluted.

Once she arrives at her house and settles in, she eats and talks with her family. Then, she visits her favorite spot to hangout: the downtown area, located in the center of the city. She describes downtown as, big and decorative. While touring the very hot city, she visits a few shops. Then, she gets a rush of excitement as she heads toward the food court to have some lunch.

Every time she visits China, the food has always been her obsession. A little while later, she enters church. While living in Shanghai for a little more that 10 years, she is pretty familiar with the church. As she expects, she does not notice too many people present. From her insight, she mentions that only “a small percentage” of people go to church, due to the small impact Christianity has on the Chinese culture.

According to chinatravelguide, “185 million people follow Buddhism as their religion, whereas only 33 million have faith in Christianity and believe in the existence of God. Another 12 million Chinese practice Taoism.”

During her stay, Xindi hangs out with old friends or takes SAT/ACT courses with them. As her trip comes to an end, she says her goodbyes and soon heads back to the airport. As she begins her flight back to Chicago, she thinks about how the way of life in Shanghai is easier than life in Chicago. For instance, it’s easier to get around in Shanghai: The subway stations are only about 2 minutes by foot. Shanghai is also much less crowded than most areas in Chicago. She also notices a lot more people in China than in Chicago seem to be rushing to get to work, on a regular basis.

What she takes away from this experience is to “study harder.” Her mom is always telling her to study and take advantage of her junior year. This is mostly due to the culture in China, because they enforce studying a great deal.

Xindi says, “Most students in grade school have already started studying for the ACT. Almost every weekend, the study sessions are booked.”

Finally, Xindi misses the food the most. It has always been her obsession.