Braumon Cade Creighton was all smiles while holding a plate of three glutinous rice balls made to look like pandas.

The sophomore economics and anthropology major at the University of Chicago in the United States had made the balls himself during a study trip to the Sichuan Cuisine Museum in Chengdu, Sichuan province, last Tuesday afternoon.

Creighton was one of 44 students from American universities who arrived in Chengdu on July 13 for a four-day visit to the province as part of Peking University's 2024 China Deep Dive program.

The project is part of an initiative to invite 50,000 young people from the US to visit China for exchanges and study programs over the next five years.

The 44 American students joined 10 students from Peking University on a tour of Sichuan, where they visited a high school, a panda conservation center, and the Sichuan Cuisine Museum. Along the way, they learned about Sichuan's achievements in building the Tianfu Granary, traffic management and the face-changing art of Sichuan Opera. They also stopped by a tea house in the People's Park in Chengdu's city center.

Like some of his peers in the program, Creighton was on his first visit to China. He was most impressed by the face-changing demonstration he saw at Qingchengshan Senior High School.

Before visiting the high school, the students stopped by the Dujiangyan branch of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

Leo Glasgow, a junior from Cornell University, took photos of the pandas and exclaimed, "I am so lucky. I have never seen them so close."

Glasgow, also on his first visit to China, described the country as a perfect combination of history and the present.

The New Yorker was impressed with people wearing hanfu (traditional Chinese clothing) in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, and admired how the locals showed respect for history by wearing them.

"I'm impressed with parents and their children visiting the Sanxingdui Museum," he said. "They show their respect for history, too."

EJ Allen Patton from the University of Hawaii showed his passion for China by wearing a T-shirt with Chinese words about Taoism. Patton's fluent Mandarin and knowledge of Chinese history and culture surprised many locals.

A diner at a restaurant in Chengdu was shocked to learn that Patton's dissertation for his PhD degree is about Zhang Lan (1872-1955), the former vice-chairman of the Central People's Government, who was from Xichong county in Sichuan.

"Not many people in Sichuan know Zhang Lan," the middle-aged diner said.

Patton is a history major studying China's Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) and the Republic of China (1912-1949). He said he had visited Mount Wudang, a Taoist mountain in Hubei province, and liked its tranquility. The misty mountains remind him of his home state of Oregon.

Ravidini from Sri Lanka was one of the 10 students from Peking University who partook in the China Deep Dive program.

A senior majoring in Chinese language and literature, Ravidini was on her first visit to Sichuan.

She said she likes Sichuan because it is similar to her home country's hospitable weather, slow pace of life and spicy food.

In Chengdu, Ravidini took a 40-minute walk from her hotel to Jinli Street, which was built in the ancient Chinese construction style. When she asked for directions, she was impressed with the local hospitality.

While in Xi'an, Ravidini rode a bicycle on the city wall. "I enjoyed the ride. We have a city wall in Sri Lanka, too," she said.

Before winding up their trip to Sichuan, she and the China Deep Dive program participants attended a lecture entitled "To the mountains and rivers: Inheritance and innovation in China's West".

The lecturer, Professor Zhang Ying from Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, shared his insights and answered questions.

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