Design Engineering student, Nicole Kirk reports from the cultural exchange trip to China.

Six Queen Mary University of London engineering students recently travelled to Xi'an, China, as part of the university's partnership with Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) home to the Queen Mary University of London Engineering School (QMES). The students, drawn from a range of engineering disciplines, were formally selected and invited to represent Queen Mary on the international visit, with the university fully sponsoring their participation throughout the duration of the programme.

The six students who made the trip were Christo Damai, Nicole Kirk, Janush Ramesh, Alina Shah, Mehmet Sezgin, and Rayan Amjad, each bringing their own disciplinary backgrounds of aerospace, design, robotics, mechanical and chemical engineering.

The visit offered students the opportunity to tour NPU's campus, attend academic lectures alongside QMES students, experiencing first-hand the academic environment that has emerged from the collaboration between the two institutions. The students participated in cultural activities including:

• cycling the city's ancient walls
• Beijing opera face painting
• eating local noodles
• visiting the Muslim quarters dating back over 1300 years.

Among the group Nicole Kirk reflected on how the trip had exceeded all expectations:

"I had no idea this opportunity existed when I applied to Queen Mary, and that makes it all the more special. A fully-funded trip to the other side of the world, experiencing a completely different culture while connecting with fellow engineers from across the globe, really speaks to Queen Mary's vision of producing engineers who think and operate on an international scale. We have built great friendships with the QMES students in China and we absolutely cannot wait to return the hospitality and show them everything London has to offer when they visit us this summer”