Not everyone gets to experience another culture head-on while gaining cultural awareness, meeting friends and building up photography portfolios, but Charlotte-area students involved in The Light Factory's youth exchange program I-Sights are doing it all. The series started with a correspondence via postcards -- crafted to depict each student's own photographic images to represent issues in his or her life and country -- from local students to students in China. Then Charlotte-area students flew to China to meet their peers and experience another culture upclose and personal. What they've brought back will be shown in the China: I-Sights exhibition. And get this ... the photography (along with blown-up versions of postcards) will be on all over the walls, but divided — the works of Chinese students on one side and American students' works on the other. If you can't make it to China for a look at the Great Wall, this might just be the next best thing. Opening reception is Thursday, Jan. 15 from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. and it's free and open to the public. Exhibition runs through March 29. The Light Factory (Knight Gallery), 345 N. College St. 704-333-9755. www.lightfactory.org.