"Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement," is the definition of the American Dream over the past hundred years. Now, there is also a dream about China, which has a new charm and characteristic and attracts people from around the world. Some of them have found an ideal job in China; some of them gained a happy marriage and some of them saw a promising future. Chinese just is the bridge to their dreams.

Chinese is an opportunity

At the beginning of reform and opening up, no one knew what China will develop into in the future and foreign students at that time came to China just for learning Chinese. However, with the rising of China, they encountered numerous opportunities and challenges here and Chinese has become a stepping stone for them to China.

In 1979, Han Cheng and seven American students came to China as the first batch of overseas students. In the last two years before he came to China, Han pursued his postgraduate degree in the United States, majoring in Chinese politics and economy. Han began to study Chinese for the convenience of study and research. In 1980, Han began engaging in business in China and his Chinese name was gotten at that time. "Cheng" means being honest and trustworthy, which is his expectation to himself.

When the author asked Han why he came to China, Han said that English and Chinese are different languages and it needs a pure Chinese learning atmosphere to learn it well.

Chinese is their matchmaker

In 1990s, some foreigners came to China to study Chinese, develop their business and build Chinese families.

When talking about why he came to China, Wang Yuanyuan said that he learnt Chinese so he wanted to use it. Wang paused and grinned shyly and added that his girlfriend is a Chinese.

Majoring in East Asian studies in his university days, Wang took part in the Chinese language training program in Beijing Normal University in the summer vacation of 1999.

Studying in China was not common to the people of the United States in 1997. With curiosity, Wang came to China at that year. Wang found that he really did not understand China during the short training program and he hoped to know China more deeply and thoroughly. Wang said that the best way to understand China is to study Chinese.

Thanks to this training program, Wang met his wife, Liu Lan. After this training, Wang returned to the United States. Then, he found that he had lost motive power and pressure to study Chinese since he left China.

In 2001, Wang came to Tsinghua University to continue his study in Chinese and Liu Lan became his girlfriend since then. In 2004, they got married and in the same year Wang joined the New Channel International Education Group Limited and began his business in China. Now, Wang was the vice president of the New Channel.

Chinese is their future

Foreigners will always be attracted by Chinese culture and food at the first but when they come to China, they will find that China has not only glorious history but also promising future. They came to China, fell in love with China and promised to return to China. Chinese is a guide for them to fulfill their dreams.

Shan Wen from the United States is one of these foreigners

After Shan Wen graduated from high school, his uncle took him to China for sightseeing. At that time, Shan knew nothing about China. However, after a short journey of only three weeks in China, Shan's heart was completely captured by China. He made a wish that he would come back to China again someday. For this goal, Shan took an elective course of the Chinese language in his university. At first, Shan planned to study it for only three terms. But as he knew more about China, he realized that the rapid development of China would give him a lot of opportunities and he hoped that he would stand on this exciting land write chapters of his future. Ultimately, Shan studied the Chinese language for eight terms and realized his wish with China.

"At that time, a lot of friends of mine did not under why I wanted to study Chinese and come to China. I love this country and I will be able to meet many opportunities and challenges in this country." Shan believes that studying Chinese was an important decision that he made, and it was the Chinese language that made him know the brand-new China and gave him a new life. "The Chinese language has given me my current job and created the current me," said Shan emotionally.

Currently, Shan is the market operation manager of a network technology company in Beijing and does a job of selling wine that he loves. On a page of the company's Website, Shan quoted a famous sentence written by the U.K. poet Rudyard Kipling: The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it. And if you "smell" the language of a country, which gives off the special fragrance of the country, you will be able to feel the charm and special characters of the country.