A trip to China by a group of Old Dominion students and faculty was nearly grounded before they even boarded the airplane.

The journey, part of Jie Chen's class on social, economic and political reforms in post-Mao China, was in doubt up until a week before they were scheduled to take off.

The U.S. State Department had issued warnings against traveling in China after NATO forces accidentally bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The warnings were lifted May 14, the same day the group was to decide whether to go or not.

For all the uncertainty, though, the trip went smoothly, and the students gained an understanding of a culture that only such an excursion abroad can provide.

The students started the multidisciplinary course by attending lectures on campus and continued their studies by visiting rural villages outside Shanghai and state-owned and joint-venture enterprises in Shanghai and Beijing.

They also toured cultural sites, including the Great Wall of China, Beijing's Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City.

The group attended a briefing at the U.S. Embassy and visited Tiananmen Square, the site of the Chinese government's bloody squelching of a student-led democratic uprising, on the 10th anniversary of the massacre.

During their stay in China, May 23 to June 6, the Old Dominion group met together in the evening to discuss what they had learned.

"The students were really active in discussions," said Chen, associate professor of political science and geography and director of the university's Institute of Asian Studies. "Those meetings were much better than classroom discussions."

To wrap up the course back in the states, the students were asked to write a research paper based on what they learned. Research topics have ranged from a study of environmental issues comparing pollution in China's urban and rural areas to an analysis of Chinese-American relations, specifically Chinese perceptions of Americans.

"They have a strong sense of the environmental problems," Chen said of the students. "Pollution before reform wasn't that bad. Afterward, it has been worse."

Chinese perceptions of Americans were tested by the Belgrade bombing, which many Chinese viewed as an example of American arrogance, Chen added.

Yet it was Western media coverage of demonstrations in the days after the bombing that was blown out of proportion, observed group member Carl Boyd, Louis I. Jaffˇ Professor of History. Boyd noted that coverage of events by Chinese TV was less inflammatory than the reporting back in the states.

"You watch CNN compared to local Chinese TV and they're like night and day," Boyd said. "CNN keeps the kettle churned up."

Other than curious questions from some Chinese citizens, the group saw no signs of hostility from their hosts, despite concerns to the contrary.

They did , however, notice some anti-NATO graffiti and found some windows broken and others boarded up at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, leftovers from post-bombing demonstrations.

Chen, a native of China who has taught in the United States since 1987, got high marks from the group for the study-abroad course.

"It was a very well-organized, well-run trip," said Carole Seyfrit, associate dean of the College of Arts and Letters, who went with the group. "You're dealing with students ages 18 to 45, and it was so well structured. He made it a cohesive class."