China Through a Photographer’s Lens

By Kristin Terry

I wanted to visit China ever since I was little, to see the Great Wall and the pandas and experience the culture that so many of my friends were apart of.

I started learning Mandarin Chinese in high school, and once again felt the desire to visit China, to immerse myself in the culture, and to learn more about the world around me.

This past summer, one of my good friends invited me to travel with her to China to visit her grandparents in Guangzhou, as well as several other cities around China including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Xi’An.

China is a vast and diverse country: from the Great Wall in Beijing, the pandas in Chengdu, the lit-up night city markets in Xi’An to the towering skyscrapers in Shanghai.

Each one of these cities we visited held something special, and showed us a new part of the culture and history that we hadn’t seen before.

I will forever be grateful to be a part of such an enriching experience and to have the opportunity to immerse myself within the culture in ways I wouldn’t have been able to do on any other trip.