Aiming to truly understand rural realities

American Rafael Victor Florez travels weekly between Tianjin, where he studies at Nankai University, and Beijing, where he learns crosstalk.

"It is convenient to take the bullet train between the two cities," said Florez, who selected the Chinese name Wei Ke, which is a transliteration of his middle name, Victor.

Florez came to China in 2010 to participate in the Chinese Bridge, in which he took the first prize.