Seeing pandas, walking on the Great Wall of China, and tasting cultural foods are upcoming opportunities students can experience when exploring China with classmates and teachers. This trip is offered to all students in the West Linn-Wilsonville school district, even if they are not enrolled in a Chinese class, and can be experienced by attending a trip to China. 

Currently, it is undecided when the next trip will take place, but the Chinese Department of Education is funding trips to China for the next five years. This means that there will be multiple trips occurring in the future, and students only have to pay for the airfare. In previous years, the department sponsored high school trips but COVID-19 put it on pause. 

Anna Gustafson, Chinese teacher, will be planning and overseeing the trips.

“The department wants young people to make friendships across borders and have a cultural exchange with American students,” Gustafson said. “When we received the news about the funding, we got excited thinking that maybe more students could come. I’m very passionate about bringing students to other countries and showing them the world.”

Gustafson has taught Chinese for ten years, three of those at West Linn. Last year, she went with 20 students to Taiwan for a 10-day trip. 

“I’m really thrilled and I hope that lots of people will sign up and be interested,” Gustafson said. “I always love going back to China because the people are super friendly and the food is amazing.”

Currently, Gustafson and other Chinese teachers in the school district are organizing the trips and how they will lead the students. The district has a sister school in the city that they plan on visiting while there. Sisters schools are defined as two schools that work together to promote cultural experiences and exchange programs.

“Hopefully we can visit them and reestablish that connection,” Gustafson said. “We can also see what high school life is like [there]. We do some arts and crafts, and last time we did a cooking class.”

If students are interested in attending the next trip, they can fill out the interest form to mention when they are available and possible interests. There are no requirements to go, and approximately 100 students have voiced their interest so far.

Additionally, throughout this year and previous ones, other travel trips have been proposed. From June 25 to July 4, roughly 20 students will explore Costa Rica and Panama City. Along with that, on June 23, around 20 others will fly to Ecuador for an 11-day trip. 

Currently, there are six spots available on the nine-day trip to Spain, specifically Madrid and Barcelona, taking place during Spring Break of 2025. There, students will take a tour through the cities while viewing monuments, learning history, eating cultural food, applying knowledge acquired in Spanish II or higher classes, and more. Furthermore, it was announced that there will be a Spring 2026 trip to Chile and Argentina. For more information on the Spain and Chile opportunities, those interested can contact Ian Rowe ([email protected]). Finally, there will be a trip to Washington D.C. and New York in 2025. To know more about this see the slideshow that includes a video and registration details.

To keep up to date with the multiple trips taking place, sign up for the weekly newsletter or visit the West Linn Travel website.