YSU students to present program about China

The students visited four famous mountainous regions during their trip.

YOUNGSTOWN — More then a dozen Youngstown State University students who participated in a three-week study-abroad field course in China will share their experiences at the “Mountains of China Symposium” from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

The program will be in Room 2000 (Schwebel Auditorium) of Moser Hall at YSU. It is free and open to the public.

The study-abroad course “Mountains of China: Geologic and Human History,” was led in December by YSU faculty members Ray Beiersdorfer and Matt O’Mansky and included 17 undergraduate students.

The group visited four of China’s famous mountainous regions, Xi’an’s Terracotta Warriors and the Great Wall near Beijing. 

“We hiked for six hours through Huangshan, China’s equivalent of Yosemite National Park, where we were treated to some spectacular views of granite peaks piercing through the clouds below,” Beiersdorfer said. “I think many Americans don’t realize that China is a mountainous country and has some incredible geology.”

The Guilin region, he said, has the world’s best developed Karst features formed by the dissolving of limestone rock and is featured on murals in Chinese restaurants across America.

O’Mansky said he was moved by the volume and importance of the archeological finds he visited in China. 

“Xi’an alone has 3,000 years of human history buried around the city, and they are making new discoveries on a continuous basis,” he said. “I’ve been working in Central America for almost two decades, and I was a little surprised how visiting the Peking man site affected me emotionally. To stand in a canyon where 500,000 years ago, early human ancestors were doing the same thing filled me with awe and wonder.”

Beiersdorfer said it was a thrill to take students to see parts of China that most tourists don’t visit.