Last Days

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Olympics and Great Wall

On the second last day of our most wonderful trip to China, we had the breathtaking opportunity to climb the Great Wall. Luckily for us, we got to take a cable car 7/8 of the way up the wall. At first we thought we were being sort of lazy, but to my surprise, it was SOOOOO STEEP!!!! We were basically climbing on a 45 degree angle, probably even more! But reaching the top made everything worthwhile since it was such a beautiful view. We took lots of cool pictures, including about 100 shots with a number of different Chinese people. After the wall we spent some time visiting the Olympic sites from 2008. We got to go into the Bird’s Nest and look at the Water Cube from outside. It was neat to see these buildings in real life and have to opportunity to cheer on Usain Bolt and Leah Robinson, even if we were a few years too late… We capped off the night by watching a Chinese Acrobatics show, complete with juggling performances, balancing acts, men jumping through hoops, and the exciting finale: a giant ball with 5 motorcycles driving full speed around it! This day was definitely a highlight for all!

~ Alex Hood

Second Day in Beijing

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First day in Beijing

March 25
We started the day off by going to Tiananmen Square after a 12-hour train ride from Xian to Beijing. Tiananmen Square is the biggest square in the world and within the square was the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City, built in the Ming dynasty, was home of the emperor and it’s name refers to that common people were not allowed to enter, the inner portion of the Forbidden City held the residences of the emperor empress and the concubines of which he could have up to 72. The outer portion of the Forbidden City was used for official business and ceremonies. The women were not allowed to enter this portion of the Forbidden City so the emperor built a garden in the back where the women could spend time. The garden contains many rocks from lake Tai which were hard to acquire and extremely expensive. In the Forbidden City we had to fight through a crowd of people in order to get a picture of the thrown where the emperor would sit and see the whole city. I thought that it was very interesting to see where the emperor lived for part of his life, but he didn’t live all of his life there. After the Forbidden City we went to Beihai Park where we walked around and looked at the nine-dragon screen, which actually had over six hundred dragons on it. Then we left the park and went to Hutong, which is the oldest part of Beijing. We had a bike tour around the town and at our only stop a bunch of people bought two-minute paintings of creative name art. We continued our tour, than went out for supper. Finally, we had free time around the hotel and some of us went shopping at the near by street market.
-Kristina

Xian

Today, after a long 17 hour train ride, we dragged ourselves off the train and onto a bus, where we went to a hotel for a breakfast full of rice, noodle dishes, and to our great surprise, bacon! After that we went to see the Terracotta Warriors. We were shown an educational movie on their construction, and then were finally allowed to go see the warriors. The site was phenomenal! Each soldiers face was unique, possibly crafted after the ones in the emperor’s army. There were 3 sites, each full of these soldiers. There was also tons of people trying to sell these wonderful little soldier statues, which although none of us really wanted them in the first place, most of us ended up buying them because we bartered them down to such a good price just by trying to get away from them! Following this, we had lunch, and went for a bike ride along the top of the Xian wall, some of us using double bikes. Next we had a marvelous dumpling dinner with 18 different types of dumplings. They ranged from chicken, to chicken with vegetable, to pork, pork with vegetable, to fish, walnut and peanut. I think it was an enjoyable meal for all of us. Finally we went back to the train station to get on another long overnight 12 hour train ride to Beijing.

By Kiah

Pandas

Today we went to visit the Giant Pandas! This was a really cool experience! Everyone loved to take lots of pictures with the cute pandas! Some students and I were able to actually pet a panda! That was awesome! This was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. After we finished visiting with the pandas we returned to Xindu school for lunch and some free time before we had classes!
During this free time a basketball game between the Xindu students and the Rockway students broke out! There was quite a crowd! The two classes that we had this afternoon was an art class where we cut out a snowflake, geese, and a butterfly. I must say I was a little challenged at this! We also were able to try Chinese painting! Following this fabulous art class we had a music class and learned a traditional song about jasmine. Lindsay, Alayne, and me got asked to perform this song at our hot pot banquet but we graciously declined this tempting offer.
We then walked to the hot pot restaurant! We enjoyed a delicious spicy meal with members of the Xindu teaching staff! After dinner we went into town to do our own thing! We all had a great time today and will miss our Xindu friends as we leave on a train tomorrow for Xian!
Sam Besant

Host Families

At 8am we moved to the track to find our host families. But before that, we had to do some Kung Fu for the camera. Basically, they just wanted to film Alayne and Sam and it was really funny watching the cameraman jump closer and closer to Sam until she fell over laughing.
Anyway, we were assigned partners and after awkward forced photos with them, we were on our way. As soon as I got in the car, my 12 year old host brother began asking me a whole host of questions, like an interview. As soon as I mentioned that I liked badminton, my host dad did a U-turn in the middle of the road and took us straight to some sports complex to play.
I was very lucky to have a host family that could speak English very well! My host dad and grandpa were fluent and my host mom knew English pretty well. Others had families that knew barely any English at all so we had very different experiences. The family took me to all kinds of sites around the city including a temple (not sure which one, they all kind of look the same) and a kite festival, where my kite was stolen! We went out for meals most of the time but when we did have home cooking, it was actually really good. After the 2 days, we all really missed each other, but it was definitely a perfect time for all of us to have a break from being together 24/7. It was a very different experience from what we’ve been doing but it was nice to be able to see how people actually live here in China.

~ Thomas McGill

Mount Qingcheng

March 21st
A rainy morning set the mood for our trip today. Luckily, there was a street vendor just outside the irrigation center so some of us could buy some umbrellas (for an elevated price for us white people of course). Our tour guide explained the importance of agriculture to the Schuan province and the center’s roles in helping the areas farmland as well as how it doubles as a flood prevention mechanism. As we were lead through the place, we saw some fancy water features (excluding the rain) such as two dragons spewing water out of their mouths. We took a couple battery busses, along with their aggressive drivers, to a look out point where we spent a couple minutes looking out at the river and a few more taking pictures before jumping around on some swinging bridges. After that lovely adventure we went out to climb a mountain, but as none of us really wanted to trudge up a mountain in the rain we just took a cable car up most of the way. At the top of the mountain we wandered around a temple for while before heading back down, ready to get back on the dry bus. Afterwards, we were let loose at a shopping mall to kill some time before supper where we purchased bread, peanut butter and the last jar of Nutella. We then rushed to McDonalds where some of us devoured it like savages (we got an understanding smile from a nice white man). While on the bus waiting to go to supper, we had a woman trying to sell us panda bears from the windows. After supper we were treated to experience a Chinese Opera of sorts. I expected it to be in a large auditorium but it ended up being more of a community theatre of sorts. There was mask changing, shadow puppets, horrid singing (much too shrill than what we are used to), a huge stick puppet that breathed fire, playing of a trumpet that sounded like a bird being run over and some interesting skits. One of them was of a woman and some old man running around the stage with a paddle for a couple minutes which none of us really understood. After the show we went back to Xindu to have some free time before going to bed.
~Sean

Xindu

Today,
Ye old china group had another eventful day. It all started when we woke up at 6: 30 am, freezing cold, to the sound of intense Chinese music. A man came over the loud speaker and was counting in mandarin in a quite aggressive manner. The group then proceeded to exit our rooms into the cold Xindu air, where we were escorted to the basketball courts. We received our first lesson in Tai Chi, which evidently is much harder than you would think.
We proceeded to the cafeteria at Xindu #1 for a wonderful breakfast of hardboiled eggs, and who knows what. I have come to find that if you don’t know what you are eating, it generally goes better. Occasionally things taste a lot better than they look or smell, and other times not, all you can do is risk it and hope for the best.
We then boarded a bus and were on our way to Xindu #1 Experimental School. Bus rides in Xindu consist of absolute disorder and chaos on the roads, unending honking of horns, and many close calls. Don’t worry, we are all safe and doing well, you have nothing to be nervous about. Upon our arrival at the school, we were greeted like Hollywood Stars. We were bombarded with screaming Chinese students who were desperate to take our pictures say “Hello”, “ Ni Hao”. This madness continued the whole day, where we were unable to take more than ten steps without someone coming up to us, asking for autographs, pictures and just wanting to talk to us. I don’t know if you can get Carpal Tunnel syndrome from signing autographs, but after a couple hundred signatures in the period of a few hours, I would make a strong case for it.
In our day at the school we were given the opportunity to teach a short class to the students at the Experimental School. In the class time, we taught them songs, games, and a little bit about ourselves and Canada. I was given the unique experience of learning a Chinese song and how to do the moon walk. I would say on a whole the classroom experiences were very positive and memorable.
In the middle portion of the day, we spent a few hours drinking tea, learning the game of Mahjong, and spending time in relaxation ( which is becoming more and more rare as time progresses).
Our day at the school also consisted of learning and playing Chinese Chess, Kung Fu, and seeing a little bit of how there school works. We shared in a short talent show, where we sang a hymn, as well as Justin Bieber. We shared a few of our talents and got a wonderful show of a variety of the students’ talents.
We concluded our day with a wonderful walk through Xindu, to a local park, where we saw many people gathered in courtyards, to dance. Apparently it is common for people to come out in the evenings to get some excersise and have a good time (and boy is it ever a good time).
It is getting late and time for me to go sleep on my paper thin mattress for what will likely turn out to be a short few hours of sleep, and waking up to yet again, wonderfully irritating Chinese music.

Rest assured, the hospitality we are experiencing is unmatched and we feel incredibly welcome. We are enjoying are time here in China and are incredibly excited for the days to come!

Catch ya on the flip flop rubber duckie!
Bubbye!

~Joshua Klassen

Leshan Giant Buddah and Mount Emei

Thursday March 17 and Friday March 18
We began the day with a visit to the Lushan Giant Buddha which, at 71 km tall, is the largest sitting outdoor Buddha in the world. The Buddha was completed in the Tang Dynasty after 90 years of construction and is located at the conjunction of three rivers. Local legend has it that since it’s completion there have been no floods in the area. After climbing down the long staircase to the feet of the Buddha and then back up to its head we were absolutely exhausted, and it was time to break for lunch. That afternoon we piled back into our tour bus and drove to Mt. Emei, the tallest sacred Buddhist mountain in China. As the bus climbed the mountain, the air coming through the cracks in the windows grew colder, and bits of snow appeared on the ground. By the time we had reached the place where the bus was to drop us off, the landscape resembled that of a typical Canadian winter. It was a twenty-minute hike to the cable-car station and then a twenty-minute ride up the cable to the top of the mountain. We were cold, tired and slightly grumpy by the time we reached the summit, but the trip was soon proved worthwhile when we caught a glimpse of the spectacular view. From the top of Mt. Emei, we looked out over a sea of clouds. It was easily the most amazing sight of the trip so far.
That night we stayed in a luxurious three-star hotel at the top of the mountain. It had flush toilets, soft beds and heat that worked! The idea was to wake up the next morning to see the sunrise. But, after dragging ourselves out bed at 6:30 to walk back up the look out, we realized that it was far too foggy to see the sun come up. We left the top disappointed, but our time on Mt. Emei was not over. That afternoon we hiked around the centre of the mountain, visiting a monastery on our way. Then we loaded up the bus and drove to supper, then back to the school.

~ Vanessa

Hong Kong

Monday, March 14, 2011

We started off today with a traditional Chinese breakfast of hotdogs. After this filling meal we headed off on a long, fast, winding bus ride up Victoria Mountain to take pictures from the peak. After a few minutes of taking pictures of the view we hopped back onto the bus with a tour guide and drove back down the mountain to walk along the seaside and visit the fish market. The market was basically a bunch of buckets of half dead fish flopping around and splashing fishy water all over our feet. After the fish market we got back on the bus and drove to Repulse Bay where there were a lot of Buddhist and Taoist statues and incense everywhere. Then we walked down the beach and cooled our feet off in the water before getting back on the bus to Stanley where there was a long, narrow, crowded street lined with small shelters selling anything and everything you might want. While we walked up and down this street our tour guide got our lunch. We ate our lunch by the water and then boarded the bus once again. We got off the bus at Tsim Sha Tsui (Avenue of the Stars) where we walked along a boardwalk looking over Victoria Harbour and saw the handprints of many Chinese celebrities including Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Later that evening, when it was dark out, we went on a harbour cruise which took us up and down Victoria Harbour to see the buildings. Surprisingly there was a lot to see even in the dark because all the buildings were lit up with lots of colourful lights. After this long day quite a few of us fell asleep on the boat while the rest of us enjoyed the view.

Alayne Gossen

Arriving in Hong Kong

Friday March 11 - Woke up at 4:10ish and went to school. We had the sending ceremony. Left for TO by 5:30. Sat in the airport for over three hours. Flew to Hong Kong.

Saturday March 12 – Flight continues… Drive on left side of the road. What?!? (It took me half an hour of riding in the bus to realize that we were driving on the wrong side, and another day to figure out that driver sat on right side of the cars). Arrived at our retreat centre, played Catch Phrase and went to sleep.

Sunday March 13 – I got up 7:00 and walked around and played ping pong with Josh until breakfast, at 8:00. Breakfast was some sort of soup. Then we met this Swiss tour guide with a half Scottish, half Australian, with trace amounts of Asian and also a bit of German accent. He showed us the legislative place where there was a group marching about getting more money from the government, which miraculously had an approximately 6 billion Hong Kong dollar surplus last year and is giving it away. We also saw a building that appeared to be in need of dusting.

Then we had lunch of traditional Hong Kong cuisine, then we took the tram and the subway and a coach to the largest ever outdoor sitting bronze Buddha. Then we took the gondola down to the sea for a 2 hour cruise around Victoria Harbour before the return to The PHAB Camp residence to sleep.

by Michael Hewson

Getting Ready to Leave

The 2011 Exchange Trip is off to China in less than a week! This is the place to go to receive current updates, look at some pictures, and get a preview of stories that will be told upon our return. So check in regularly and we hope you enjoy!