China is far away from the United States and, because of the long distance and history, these two countries are completely different. I am a Chinese exchange student, and I think that this difference between locations is incredibly interesting.

First, let’s talk about education. The government in China forces children to attend primary schools and middle schools. In America, students spend 12 years studying, divided into three periods: primary school, middle school and high school. Many people comment that the worst thing about Chinese education system is paying too much attention on the final examination, as this examination can change a student’s life. I admit that is a negative point, but Chinese people are used to this way of judging a person’s level, as it is recorded in history. Chinese students develop in every subject, such as mathematics, Chinese, English, chemistry, physics, biology, geography, and Chinese history. These classes are taken every semester during high school.

Diet is also much different in America than it is in China. Compared to American food, Chinese food has more variety. For formal occasions, the cold dish is the first course, followed by a main dish and a sort of staple food, which is dependent on the venue (usually a bowl of rice or noodle), and lastly is a fruit dish or dessert.

But I prefer common daily Chinese foods more than those precious ingredients served in the formal occasions, because different people may add different elements in a same dish, daily Chinese foods for me taste more like home, they are cooked by simple and common ingredients, using different ways like stir fry, stem, fry, stew, etc. So it is very hard for a Chinese to get used to diets from other countries, and it is where the homesick come from. Although there’s China town all over the world, the foods served in town is kind of different between the original ones, they add more seasons so that the western people can get used of it. Chinese are really healthy and they get different nutrition from every meal during a day. I can’t judge which one is healthier Chinese food or American food, but no matter how healthy the food is people should still combined eating and sporting together. And something I have to emphasize is: Chinese do NOT eat dogs.

Transportation can be really different too. Chinese can’t learn to drive until they are 18, this may avoid some accident or provide some unconvinced. So teenagers like me, often use public transportations or parents drive us to the destination. We have subways lines and bus lines all around the city, because Chinese love to live with people inside the city center, so everything is actually really convenient in the city. Let’s make Beijing as an example, if I want to hang out with my friends, we have to go to the nearest subway station for subway and transferred to the final spot. This might be extremely complicated, but basically it’s an eco friendly way for life. You might notice that pollution (PM 2.5) is really serious in Beijing, actually it’s only serious during winter, so in order to reduce the PM 2.5, government in Beijing not only close down factories that surrounded Beijing but also increase the number of subway and bus lines. This is a really positive thing for teenagers and old people, these are two huge number of people that can’t drive in Beijing. For traveling to another province, high speed rail way and flights are the first choices. High speed rail way can be really efficient, the highest speed can reach to 250 kilometers per hour. High speed rail way tickets are usually cheaper to the plan tickets, so high speed rail way is becoming to be the first choice of long distance travel for Chinese.

Free time activities can be really various for Chinese, people in every age will always get somewhere to go. Still take Beijing as an example, there are hundreds of shopping Malls inside the city, parks are everywhere, places of interest, museums, walking streets,amusement parks, theme exhibitions, etc. Since Chinese like to spend their spend time with people, you can go anywhere with your families or friends. But Chinese seldom do sports, I mean we are actually an healthy country but people do not have habits to do sports, but Americans seemed to like sports, hiking, jogging, playing tennis, playing basketball, playing American football, etc. People begin to seat in the room all day for work or study nowadays, this can cause many health issues. Instead of browsing through your phone all day at home, go out for sports, is healthier and can avoid illness once you are old. Chinese begin to realize this problem and develop APP for sports, you can share you experience with your friends and do sports with your friends.

It’s awkward for me when people ask me ” Did Chinese eat dogs or cats?” Dude, although Chinese really love their old traditions, but world is changing and we are changing, we write down our traditions and move on. China got 5000 years history, and we learn mistakes from it, government is really doing good jobs these years,people are getting benefits from it, although there are still poor places in the countrysides of China, governments tried their best to avoid people in poor areas died from hunger and disease. There you go, hope you can learn more about China after you read this passage, Chinese is warm hearted and kind.