Last spring, you might have found her wandering through downtown Shanghai, walking alongside the Terracotta Warriors or exploring the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Wayne State business professor Meena Dalal is not an easy person to keep up with.

Students and faculty got the chance last Tuesday in Gardner Hall, where Dalal recounted her experience traveling across China.

Earlier this year, Dalal joined anthropology professor Dr. Susan Ellis and 14 WSC students on a two-week tour through China. On the trip, the group had the opportunity to visit several historic sites that seemed to only exist in the pages of textbooks.

Among those places were Tiananmen Square, the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall and The Great Wall of China.

“That’s the only man-made object you can see from space. Its 1,600 miles long,” Dalal said of The Great Wall. “It’s incredible. I couldn’t do it justice, talking about it.”

Throughout the trip, the group also got to experience firsthand what life is like in the big cities of China, as well as the small, indigenous villages.

On a tour of a Miao village in Jishou, known for its musical culture, Dalal performed a song for the locals.

“I couldn’t understand what the tour guide was saying, but when he asked for volunteers I raised my hand,” she said. “I thought they were going to teach me something. Next thing I knew, I was singing a song.”

While in Jishou, the group also had the chance to interact with college students at Jishou University.

“That was my favorite part of the trip,” she said. “I got to give a lecture to the students there. I taught them about the American economy and the cultural revolution.”

But for the most part, it was Dalal who did the learning.

“I failed history when I took it growing up. I hated it,” she said.

“Traveling this way is my redemption for that. This way, you get such an appreciation for the people and the civilization.”

Dalal’s experience in China was a culture shock, though she said she has learned to expect that from her many travels.

“Still, I had to study for two months when I got back,” she said. “I needed to make sense of all that I experienced there.”