Fewer US students are studying in China

In January 2026 , Peter Boehm left his home in Michigan and flew more than 10,000km to China. He would spend the next five months on an exchange at Capital Normal University in Beijing. “I remember just staring out the window of the taxi and looking at all the high-rises, the skyscrapers, like I’d never seen skyscrapers before,” recalled Boehm, who recently finished his second year of university. Even in a city of 21 million people, the sense of community was tangible. “People don’t go to parks at night in the US. It’s kind of a sketchy environment to be…