The First Lady's Travel Journal

US first lady Michelle Obama gives a speech at the Stanford Center at Peking University in Beijing on March 22, 2014. Wang Jing / For China Daily

First lady promotes 'citizen diplomacy'

Michelle Obama visits Summer Palace

This morning, I had the privilege of visiting Peking University and speaking with Chinese students and American students studying abroad here in China. Peking University was founded more than a hundred years ago, in 1898, and it is one of China's best-known universities. The American students in the audience today came from a number of different universities, and by studying here in China, they get to experience daily life in this country firsthand, practice their Chinese, and form lifelong friendships with Chinese students.

As I said in my speech today, these experiences represent so much more than a fun way to spend a semester. In today's increasingly global, interconnected economy, businesses here in America do business with, and compete with, businesses around the world. So these days, knowing a foreign language and being familiar with a foreign culture can actually be an important qualification for a job.

In addition, so many of the challenges we face today – like climate change, economic opportunity, and disease – are shared challenges, meaning that no one person in any one country can address them alone. So soon, it will be up to your generation to solve these problems working with other young leaders across the globe. And by studying abroad, and getting to understand cultures and societies different from your own, you can begin to lay the foundation for that kind of cooperation.

Special: US first lady visits China