Each year, more than a dozen Ford School graduate students travel to China to study the nation’s policy environment. During their trip, they meet with a cross-section of leaders in the policy community and experience the nation’s history and evolution firsthand. They also visit with graduate students of public policy and public administration—students who are enrolled in some of China’s leading public service training programs.
The 2016 trip, under the direction of Ford School Professors Ann Lin and John Ciorciari, took students to Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing.
Along the way, Ford School students blogged about their experiences, with stories about being Chinese in China, high speed rail, the Great Wall, public policy on the other side, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, never to be forgotten, filling in the gaps, on foot in three Chinese cities, getting the lay of the land, government-run NGOs, the duality of Shanghai, promoting financial literacy, Beijing’s 798 arts district, finding my way in urban China, the Beijing LGBT Center, urban planning in China and the U.S., the U.S. consulate, policy schools in China, encountering the state, a Chinese hotpot, a stepping stone to quality education, and more.
Read the full student blog, “U-M Ford School in China,” or read about the Ford School’s U.S.-China policy course and trip.