On the last day of May, I boarded a 13-hour flight to Beijing, not completely certain about what to expect over the next month. This was the beginning of my Zhi-Xing Eisenhower Fellowship. Over the next 28 days, I would travel to seven cities, meet with more than 100 people, and become fully immersed in a different culture.
Eisenhower Fellowships is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that brings together leaders through an international fellowship experience, creating a global network of people committed to working toward a peaceful world that is also prosperous and just. Each selected fellow has a primary focus area while abroad, and mine was to explore the ecosystem around smart cities and gov tech in China.
The Zhi-Xing Fellowship was a collaboration between Eisenhower Fellowships and the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE), an organization that was pivotal to my on-the-ground support while in China. To get