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Gratitude

A Letter of Thanks

To the people who made this journey unforgettable.

Dear teachers and students of the Guangzhou College of Commerce,

We came to Guangzhou knowing very little — ten days on a calendar, a campus name we practiced saying on the plane, and a forecast promising July heat with afternoon rain. We came, honestly, as strangers. What we could not have known, walking out of Baiyun Airport into that warm southern air, was how quickly the word “strangers” would stop applying.

You did so much for us, and you did it so lightly. The welcome on our first morning that made a group of travel-worn visitors feel expected. The classes where our teachers turned lectures into conversations and never once made a question feel too small. The long lunch tables where someone always made sure the newest dish landed in front of us first. And your patience — heroic, unflagging patience — as we mangled our tones in Mandarin and Cantonese alike, and you corrected us gently and cheered anyway. The student volunteers gave us something rarer than any itinerary: their time, hour after hour of it, freely and warmly.

And then there is Guangzhou itself, which you handed to us like a gift you knew by heart. The Pearl River at night, with Canton Tower changing colors as if it were showing off just for us. Morning tea that rewired our whole idea of breakfast — shrimp dumplings, siu mai, rice noodle rolls, and the small ceremony of tapping fingers on the table in thanks. The old arcade houses shading the pavement, kapok trees standing guard over the streets, the hush of Shamian Island, the renewed lanes of Yongqing Fang. This is a city that manages to be ancient and brand-new in the same glance, and you taught us how to look.

What do we carry home? A new respect for slow breakfasts and fast friendships. A few phrases of Cantonese we will keep practicing on each other, badly. The understanding that hospitality is not a program or a schedule, but a hundred small decisions to make someone else comfortable. And a strange, standing homesickness for a place that was never, technically, our home.

Now it is our turn. Our doors are open, our guest rooms are (mostly) ready, and we have already started arguing about what to cook for you first — though we admit up front that nothing we make will survive comparison with your dim sum. Come. Bring your curiosity for our city the way we brought ours for yours. We will be terrible at hiding how happy we are to see you.

Ten days is a short time to be changed by a place, and a shorter time still to be changed by people. You managed both. Thank you — for the welcome, for the patience, for the laughter, for the city. Thank you, Guangzhou College of Commerce. Thank you, Guangzhou.

With all our gratitude,

The visiting delegation

With gratitude to

  • The faculty and staff of the Guangzhou College of Commerce

    You built ten days that felt effortless, which means you worked hardest of all. Every class, every visit, every quietly solved problem — we noticed, and we are grateful.

  • The student volunteers

    You gave us your afternoons, your evenings, your best restaurant opinions, and your endless patience with our questions. You turned a visit into a friendship.

  • Our guides and drivers

    Through July heat and sudden downpours, you got us everywhere safely and on time — and always with a story about the street we were passing.

  • The cooks and canteen staff

    You fed us three times a day and spoiled us for life. Every future meal will be compared to yours, and every future meal will lose.

  • The city of Guangzhou

    Thank you for the river and the tower, for morning tea and kapok trees, and for making us feel welcome in a place so much older and wiser than we are. We will be back.