Reflective Essay On Couchsurfing In China

I am a big advocate for trusting people from the very beginning. In addition, I also love to travel and to meet locals. That’s why when I traveled throughout China, I decided to try out an app called Couchsurfing. This app is like Airbnb, however, it is absolutely free and there are no expectations of you from the host. It’s all from the good of their hearts. In exchange, it is usually polite to spend time with your hosts or to share some of your culture such as cook them dinner or leave them some sort of memorabilia.

My first time Couchsurfing was during a 36 hour layover in Tianjin. Although Tianjin is in China, it was prior to my two-month long nomadic trek through Japan and South East Asia. Let me summarize by saying that Tianjin was really amazing, and not so much because the place itself is worth seeing, but rather the people

There were so many interesting things I only wish I had the time to read. We talked politics and culture and everything one might question when in China. It was much more enlightening and dark than what I was used to in Wenzhou. This was the real China, beyond the upper class and the stereotypical foreigner status in which all of us teach English.

Later that evening, I talked with the mom about Yogis and her desire to spread the practice of yoga throughout China. Although I have never had an interest in yoga, hearing people talk about their passions which such heart in their words makes you interested and curious. Not only was she a huge yoga enthusiast, but she was also vegetarian.

Finally, as were about to turn in, perhaps at around two or three o’clock in the morning, I was asked whether I wanted to go to their university in the morning. Seeing as I had not seen the inside of a Chinese university and hadn’t met with too many people my age throughout my stay here, I saw this as an opportunity for a positive experience and took