We’ll be back tomorrow from the U.S. to let you know about the last day of the trip.

Wednesday was the much-awaited day of (relative) freedom in Shanghai, without any planned activities after lunch. But the day began early with a 7:30 breakfast with Shanghai-based Yale alums, at which a professor and two students discussed their experience on the trip so far. History of art professor Sandy Isenstadt mused on the connections that »

The agenda was a visit to a village outside Xi’an, and the question of the day seemed to be: Would this village show us the true quality of life in rural China? From the beginning of the trip, it has been obvious that the trip is taking place under the auspices of the Chinese government. »

So you’ll have to forgive me if I gush a bit in this post — our main activity today was a visit to the Terracotta Soldiers, which I’ve wanted to ever since I first read about them in about the fifth grade. An estimated 8,000 clay horses and warriors — each of which has a »

Friday brought the Yale 100 delegates face-to-face with ongoing reforms to the Chinese education system, which are beginning to transform Chinese universities along American lines. At a speech to the Yale delegation Friday morning, Vice Minister of Education Zhang Xinsheng outlined the “great change” underway in Chinese higher education. Vice Minister of Education Zhang Xinsheng, »