Support Our Cultural Trip to a Small Chinese City

My name is Sarah. I would like to raise money to fund a trip to Yantai, China for myself and others as a cultural exchange.

I previously lived in Yantai for 4 years. It was a very formative and life-changing experience for me. There is no way to describe the impact it had on my life to be integrated into the local culture with minimal to no other Westerners living in the area. Since returning to America, I've enjoyed bringing small groups of people to Yantai to get to know the culture without traveling as a tourist. I show them around the local hot spots and introduce them to many of my local friends. We experience the city from the viewpoint of a local rather than rush through and tour the city. Most often, I like to have people with me that have never left the United States. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to visit Yantai since COVID hit as COVID presented me with lots of financial setbacks. On top of that, the people that I would love to host are also not in a place in which they can financially support a trip either.

Ultimately, the purpose behind my trips is to allow people to experience a foreign place that would otherwise be inaccessible to them. Yantai is not a large city and is not considered a tourist area, but it also is not a rural town. This is the ideal location to immerse oneself in the culture and to make meaningful friendships with people of such a different culture.

My goal for this fundraiser is to raise support for myself and a minimum of 3 other people to be fully funded on this trip. The costs would include airfare, miscellaneous travel expenses (like visas, taxis, local buses, entry fees for sightseeing), food, etc.

Let me introduce you to the 3 people that I would like to raise support for.

Alison: She is a young adult that has a passion for life. She craves new experiences and lives her life out loud. She's a ray of light wherever she goes. She's not yet adventured outside of the country and would love to experience China as her first great adventure.

Devin: He is a Vietnamese American who has not been to Asia since he was a child. Over the past few years, he's become interested in traveling to China and seeing the difference between what the people are like as opposed to what we hear about on the news.

Brianna: She went to China in 2019 where she learned about the culture through experience and wants to go back to her “second home” if given the opportunity. She’s even learning Mandarin through Duolingo to be ready in case the opportunity arises suddenly

If we are able to raise enough support to go, we will be going to Yantai in the Fall of 2025. And if we raise more than the goal support, we have several other people that would love to join us on the trip. They are people that have previously visited China - and some have even been to Yantai. It would be a "going home" experience for those people.