CITY FOCUS:

Yousheng Cho was 5 when his father decided to take the boy from his home in Shanghai to the United States. His mother would have preferred her son stay with her in China, but his father was adamant Yousheng would benefit from an American education.

It was that same education that brought Yoshi (as his friends nicknamed him after the Super Mario World character) back to China and a reunion with his mother.

Yoshi is a Carden Academy student in Huntington Beach, and he was joined by more than 50 classmates, parents and teachers on the school’s week- and-a-half long trip to China.

The group set out March 29 and visited Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.

After nearly a decade apart, Yoshi was greeted by his mother and a gaggle of other relatives in Shanghai.

“They cried and cried with joy,” said the school’s founder and president, Carol Van Asten.

Yoshi’s mother arranged for a vegetarian meal for the entire group in a Shanghai temple and even gave every student a pearl necklace and silk scarf.

It was a special occasion for Yoshi, but a wonderful educational opportunity in Van Asten’s eyes. The school’s junior high class takes one such trip every school year. In years past they’ve seen Vienna, Paris, Rome and London.

Students experienced China’s rich culture as they walked the Great Wall, and explored the Emperors’ Forbidden City and the Empresses’ Summer Palace.

They hopped a high-speed elevator to the top of the 1,614-foot-tall Shanghai World Financial Center and mingled with Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s 2,200-year-old Terracotta Soldiers.

“It shows you the old and the learned and then you get the newest,” 13-year-old Celina Huynh said.

The trip becomes an extended geography lesson each year. Students study the macro and micro economics, the history and culture of each country. They even learn about the political systems, which the students observed full force in the communist country.

Students observed China amid conflicts with Tibet and controversies over the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Students visited Tiananmen Square, the site of the 1989 protests for Democracy, which they had learned about in class.

They were told the event had been a parade — the Chinese government’s official version of the protests.

Jennifer Nguyen, 13, fluent in Cantonese and semi-fluent in Mandarin, spoke about pollution in the air. “It got kind of hard to breathe, and your throat chokes a bit.”

A tour guide told Jennifer a story about being a little girl and seeing a picture of China with a blue sky and white clouds above in her history book. She asked her teacher why the sky was blue and was amazed to find the sky is supposed to be blue.

The goal of Carden’s travel program is to educate through genuine cultural experiences. Parent chaperone Allison Bianco said she’s observed the good the trips have done for two of her children. She credits the academy’s travels with inspiring her son to pursue his passion for history in college.

Every student has a different favorite memory of China. Most counted the Great Wall among the best, and a few cited the soldiers. Diana Schwene loved meeting Chinese high school students and Will Sprowls enjoyed interacting with the street vendors.

Krystian Lahage was fascinated by various culinary oddities he saw like frogs and beef stomach. He even saw scorpion-on-a-stick, a kind of arachnid Popsicle.

And Yoshi Cho’s best memory?

“Seeing my mom.”

WHAT WAS THE BEST PART OF THE TRIP?

“Being harassed by street vendors everywhere you went.”

Will Sprowls, 13

“Seeing Tiananmen Square because it made me so grateful for our government.”

Brandon Mauch, 14

“The more modern parts in Hong Kong. There are lots of big buildings.”

Celina Huynh, 13

“Walking the great wall. I couldn’t believe people actually made it without all the tools we have today.”

Nicole Zapotczny, 13