Young Chinese students return to pursue dreams at home

Her view is echoed by 28-year-old Jiang Yumeng. "In China, if you want to order food or make purchases online, delivery is fast and affordable," she says. "When it comes to job-seeking, it's more difficult for foreign students with certain majors to find jobs as good as those available in China."

Jiang, who holds a master's degree in education from Johns Hopkins University in the US, is currently a teacher at the Aerospace City School affiliated with Renmin University of China.

Growing up in the port city of Qinhuangdao in Hebei province, Jiang recalls hearing her parents talk about their lives at her age, when they lived in the dormitory of their work unit. Today, Jiang lives in an apartment in northern Beijing and travels whenever she has free time, exploring destinations across China, as well as abroad.

"Thanks to opening up and growing prosperity, young Chinese today have more opportunities to travel abroad, and observe the differences between China and the rest of the world," she says.

During her time in the US, Guo noticed that many local media reports were biased and rooted in outdated stereotypes about China. "If they had traveled extensively in China, they would see how much the country has transformed over the past 10 or 20 years," she says.

Over the past decade, China has introduced a series of policy measures, from the central to local levels, to create the conditions to make life more convenient for returning overseas students.