This is it. The final day of our 14 day expedition of this country. It is a bittersweet feeling knowing that we are going home but I am taking home with me many souvenirs and experiences that I will never forget. We started the day by going to Yu Gardens, a beautiful ancient (1577) Chinese garden with a long history. After going through some narrow streets, we arrived through the main entrance and it was beautiful! Something that hit me while going through this garden is that this is the last time I am going to see ancient Chinese architecture in person for a while. So I took in the scenery and took some really nice pictures. Another thing I noticed were the little details in the ceiling and floor which showed how much time and effort the builders put into this experiment. All of the details add so much meaning to every building and it was cool to see that they wanted each building to mean something different.

After taking a tour of Yu Garden, we were able to explore the surrounding area. This was the most interesting part of the day for me. It was funny to be able to walk into a Starbucks and order a blueberry muffin while inside an ancient Chinese structure remade to become a Starbucks. The streets were narrow but in a plot twist, there were no cars on these streets. Unlike Xi’an, where motorbikes went down narrow, cobblestone roads inches away from clipping pedestrians. The most exciting part of this adventure, for me, was when we found this action figure store. As a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the nerd part of me was freaking out at all of the different Marvel action figures they had. These were not just any old action figures, they were large and had many details, looked like they were meant for collectors. Of course, since it was for collectors, the prices were way to high for me to purchase one to bring home. But I was able to snag a priceless picture of Groot dressed as different Avengers. It was cool to see that even though China and the U.S. are two different worlds, we are still entertained by the same thing. It just shows how much power the entertainment industry in the U.S. has on the world.

After our adventures, we went back to the hotel where we had free time to pack up our stuff and get ready to present our business idea! This was exciting for me because I was ready to see what the other groups had to offer for this country. The experiences we had together was the driving factor for these business ideas, so it was very interesting to see how the same experiences impacted each group because there were differences in ideas. After this we had our last dinner, which was sad but we were able to have some laughs and enjoy our last day together. Although this group was only together for two weeks and a few Saturday lectures, I feel as if I have made really good friends and I am glad to have shared experiences with everyone on this trip!