Here are the rest of the Wuhan pictures that didn't load the night before! We still have Xi'an pictures to post, as well as blogs about our stay in Shanghai, where we are currently. Stay tuned!
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On our third and fourth days we mainly toured Wuhan. We met together at the school, and by this time, the students were very comfortable and loved following us around and saying “hello” to us. They didn’t want to leave us alone! We headed out to the Guiyuan Buddhist Temple. It was very quiet,
peaceful, and beautiful inside the temple. There was one room filled with different Buddhas, each with different poses and facial expressions. Tradition is to pick a Buddha to start, and count Buddhas sequentially up to the number of your age. Once you land on a specific Buddha, you record his number and visit a booth outside the temple. There you receive a card for your specific Buddha with predictions for the coming year. This was a fun tradition for us to try, and of course we all have goodfortunes coming our way! The next stop was lunch. We had another special lunch with a few faculty from the school, and the eating adventures continued for the Wyoming teachers! This time we were introduced to bull frog, eel, rabbit and pig’s tongue. Many of us agreed that the rabbit actually tasted pretty good, but the telling green skin on the bull frog and taste buds on the pig’s tongue made it difficult to go past just one taste! The Yellow Crane Tower was the next destination. It sits just a mile from the Yangtzee River. The tower itself has been rebuilt several times throughout the different dynasties due to fire and other disasters. The current tower has only stood since 1985. The past towers actually stood on the bank of the river, but the first bridge to be built across the Yangtzee was built there in 1955 while no tower was standing, so it was rebuilt a mile away. It had great views of Wuhan, but unfortunately visibility was very limited for us, due to weather and smog. We visited Han Street next, a new shopping street that had just been finished a year ago. This is where we had dinner, our final dinner with Principal Li. We had a private dining room and less adventurous foods, so we thoroughly enjoyed the meal! Principal Li presented us each with gifts—a set of beautiful chopsticks for six! We headed back to the school to meet our host families, but our bus broke down on the side of the highway, and we had to wait awhile for another bus to come! Principal Li is a powerhouse though—people definitely listened when she spoke, and she had everything under control. We finally got back on the road and met our host families for our final evening with them. On our last day in Wuhan, we met one final time at the school. We took lots of pictures with everyone and said our final good-byes to our hosts. It was incredible that even though we had little to no common language and only three days with our hosts, we still developed strong bonds with them and were very sad to say good-bye. The hospitality and graciousness they showed us will never be forgotten, and we only hope we can repay the favor if and when they come visit us in the United States. We visited East Lake, the largest lake in China, as well as Wuhan University. Wuhan University is in the top ten universities in China, and it is also known to be the most beautiful. It was really neat because it was graduation day while we were there, so we saw all the students in their caps and gowns around campus. We had one final lunch in Wuhan, at a restaurant inside a mall. We were able to visit the book store in the mall too, where we made some great discoveries! Only teachers would be excited to buy children’s books as souvenirs while they travel! Principal Li surprised us by showing up at the mall and buying us one final gift—beautiful, decorative clips for our hair. She drove us to the airport where we met up with others from our group to continue on to the next leg of our trip—Xi’an. It was so interesting heading to school on the second day in Wuhan. We all traveled there in different ways, but the sights were eye-opening. There were many people sitting outside little open garages, and after a second you realized that was their home. Many were shops with a little living area in the back, while others were just the single room. People were sitting outside cooking, eating breakfast and brushing their teeth at the curb. Cars, motorbikes, bicycles
and walkers streamed in every direction. There was not much order to how people got around—lines on the street were ignored and everyone would just enter the road or intersection, expecting others to slow down or move over. It was so nerve-wracking! Many children were on the back of bicycles or motorbikes—sometimes even both parents and their child would be on the same motorbike! One funny sight was a little girl, riding on the back of her father’s bicycle, eating breakfast from a bowl with chopsticks! Once at school, we all met together in the meeting room. It was a relief for us to be together again and be able to speak English and share our experiences from the night before. We waited a little while before it was time for the “Opening Ceremony” as we liked to call it, and the morning exercises. The students left their classrooms and were gathered around the courtyard to watch the first performance. Students in costume put on a dance routine for us, and apparently the group has won many awards and competitions! Then all the students streamed onto the courtyard and got into their normal lines, completely filling the courtyard. We were escorted to the front of the group where a little stage was. Two students gave a speech (in English and Chinese) about their partnership with Wyoming. We then were presented with framed paper-cutting artwork by the students who created them. We also received red scarves to wear around our necks as a sign of friendship (all the children wore these, and we saw them in other schools as well—the government must require them). After the presentation, we moved to the side and watched their daily morning exercises. These exercises are the same in all schools across China—the entire student population meets in the courtyard in the morning for an exercise routine, as a voice over the loudspeaker speaks directions and counts through the series. Each class has a student leader who leads the class in the exercises. After the exercises, there was one more performance for us—rubber band dancing! This group was made up of only girls, also in costume, and they performed a routine with elastic bands that could connect and be made very large for intricate jumping routines. This was also an award-winning group. After all the students returned to their classrooms, we went into a special classroom set up like an auditorium with desks grouped together in the front. We watched an English lesson with 5th graders. It was a great lesson to watch because it was all in English, and we could understand it! We got to interact with the students because they were working on interviewing and introducing people to others. After the English class, we took a tour of the school to see the different classrooms and students at work. They had a library, music room and art room just as we do, but they also had a room for dance, as dance is an important part of Chinese culture. We had a meeting with the teachers of the school to ask many questions about Chinese Education and teaching. They asked us some questions as well. We had lunch following the meeting, and because we had had so many adventurous foods the day before, they had ordered us Pizza Hut to make us feel at home. We presented Principal Li with the Wyoming teddy bear from Mrs. Hill and the book Wyoming Second Graders made about American culture. We headed to another school after lunch, SanDaojie Primary School. The school was an experimental school of Technology that had just been remodeled a year ago. It was beautiful and very high-tech. We met with administration and teachers from the school and then went on a tour run by students. Each student was wearing a headset and had a prepared speech to talk about various highlights of the school. We were very surprised and impressed to see such new technology at a school in China! After leaving the school, we met up with our hosts and went home for the evening. We had varied activities in the evening, including going out to dinner, cooking dinner with host families, playing Mah Jong and going for walks around town. It's time to back up to our visit to Wuhan. We arrived at the Wuhan airport and were greeted with a huge banner welcoming us! Several teachers and Principal Li had come to pick us up. We headed straight to school, where we unloaded our luggage and got back in the van.
We arrived at a local restaurant where we were treated by our hosts to a traditional Chinese meal. They told us we were honored guests and wanted us to have the very best foods their region had to offer. This included many tasty dishes such as ginseng and sesame nuts, lotus root, and chicken and vegetable dishes. We also had a few dishes that challenged our adventurous eating spirits. We had pigs feet and sea cucumber! We were brave and tasted both. Following lunch, we visited the Hubei Provincial Museum. We were first taken to see a Chime Bell performance. In addition to traditional Chinese musical instruments, the musical selections featured dozens of replica bronze Chinese Chime Bells. They were just like those recovered from tombs dating back to ancient Chinese dynaties. The bells ranged in size and tone from very small and high-pitched, to very large (almost as tall and wide as an adult!) and low-pitched. Following that performance, we toured the museum. It not only contained the original chime bells recovered from an ancient tomb, but also many other musical instruments that were found as well. There were rooms and rooms of many kinds of pottery and porcelain, weapons and jewelry, and other artifacts that have been found in the Hubei Province. Following our day at the museum, we returned to school to be introduced to our host families and be taken to their homes. We all had invaluable and unique experiences which reflected typical Chinese living situations. Some homes had air-conditioning and some did not. Some had eastern toilets and others did not. Some of our hosts spoke English while others experienced a language barrier. Some slept on mattresses while others of us slept on covered plywood. No matter the situation, it gave us great insight into the true Chinese culture. We were constantly learning from the time we got up in the morning, until we finally crashed at night. We have an early morning tomorrow since we have to catch our flight to Shanghai, so this will be a quick, pictureless post! Yesterday and today were spent in Xi'an. We started the day at a rural school called Pang Liu Xiao Xue. It was outside Xi'an, and we drove through a very small village to get there. This school was very different from the school in Wuhan (which we still haven't told you about, sorry). We visited on a Saturday, but they went out of their way to welcome us at their school, and an entire class of students even came! They put on a show after answering questions and being showered with gifts from us. :) We had collected donations to give to the school for welcoming us, and hopefully we will get to see how our donation has helped them.
We had lunch on our own once back in the city and then visited a Buddhist temple. There were actually monks at the temple, and we got to see some chanting. There were tons of Buddhas to see, although we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. One room's walls were completely covered in jade carvings, depicting stories. It was amazing! We went to an art museum later that afternoon where we tried our hand at calligraphy and got to purchase art done by local art students. Before dinner, many of us experienced quite a treat. Both Dr. Kist-Kline and Dr. Lang raved about the foot massages in China, so we decided we had to get them. It was like no other foot massage any of us have ever had! It started with 20 minutes of back, neck, shoulder and head massage while your feet were soaking in hot herbal water. Then we had 40 minutes of massage on our feet. While some of it didn't feel the greatest while it was going on (those women are strong!), our feet felt wonderful afterwards! We had a delicious dumpling dinner to end the day, followed by free time where some relaxed in their rooms, wondered the streets of Xi'an or enjoyed each other's company in the hotel lobby. Today was a day many of us have been anticipating--visiting the Terracotta Warriors! Before we went, we toured the city wall of Xi'an, a 9-mile wall built around the ancient city to keep enemies out. Now there is an inner- and outer-city, with the smaller buildings on the inside and the highrises on the outside. We walked and biked around the top of the wall, exploring the city sights. The Terracotta Warriors did not disappoint. The emperor of the Qin dynasty wanted to bury anyone and anything he could with him when he died. Instead of doing that, he had these terracotta statues of warriors, horses, chariots, etc. constructed and placed in front of his tomb. In the 1970s, a farmer unknowingly unearthed one of these warriors, and soon the excavation began. Now thousands of statues have been found, and they are still excavating! The size of this place was incredible. Pictures definitely do not do it justice. We headed to a history museum next to see additional artifacts of Chinese dynasties. Dinner tonight was Mongolian Hotpot. We each had our own pots with a broth over flame. We mixed our own sauce and then added different foods to cook in the pot: mutton and lamb, egg, potatoes, various noodles and vegetables. It was delicious, but we definitely worked up a sweat at this meal! After dinner, a group of us headed to a traditional Chinese cultural show that included singing and dancing. They had so many different instruments that we've never seen before, and the singing sounded very different from what we would normally hear. It was fun to see all the brightly colored and intricate costumes! Tomorrow we head to Shanghai, our last city of the trip! It feels like we have been here forever because we have experienced so much, but it's hard to believe it's almost over! Once we left Beijing, we traveled to visit our sister school, Yu Jia Tou Primary School. We are going to wait for our written post, but it was an unforgettable and life-changing experience. Here are some pictures from our visit! More to come! And we're back to blogging! Sorry for the delay, but we didn't have internet access from a computer while we were visiting our sister school in Wuhan. Also, it's been a little tricky trying to do multiple things on a blog post, so we will do a written post and then add pictures in a separate post. We have a lot to catch up on!
You already saw our Wyoming picture on the Great Wall of China, but you didn't get to hear about it! We started our second day in Beijing at the Temple of Heaven, which was a temple built to worship the gods of the sky. I was in a beautiful park where we saw many elderly people relaxing and doing different activities. Many people come here to practice Tai Chi, play cards and play other traditional Chinese games. Then we made our way to the Great Wall. We had a long drive and stopped for lunch beforehand. Once there, we took a gondola up to one of the gates, which is where we took our Wyoming picture. From there, we could hike up or down the wall as far as we wanted, and Caryn and Jen even took a luge back down to the bottom! There was a small market set up at the bottom where we could shop from street vendors as well. The Wall was incredible. It was surreal to be standing on top of something that you have seen so often in pictures and truly get a sense of just how long it really is. Once back in the city, we went to see the Olympic Village, including the Bird's Nest stadium and the Cube where swimming and diving took place. We also stopped at a tea house where we learned about different kinds of tea and traditional tea ceremonies. Dinner was another large group meal. We stopped at the Night market on the way home where we saw things most Americans would cringe at the idea of eating (and many of us did)! Just to name a few foods for sale on a stick: snake, seahorse, grasshopper, scorpion, silkworm, starfish, and centipede! Yeah, I know, I can see your cringe too! A few people in our group ventured to try the scorpion--no Wyoming takers yet. :) It was a long travel journey for us, but we finally arrived! We had a flight to Detroit, a 5 hour layover, and finally boarded our overnight flight to Beijing. It was bit of a bumpy flight, but after 13 hours or so, we arrived at midnight (noon Cincinnati time). We met our tour director, boarded the bus and went straight to our hotel. On Sunday, we had an early departure to see many sights in Beijing.
We started at Tian'an Men Square. It's the largest open square in the world, around 150 acres. It was originally the main entrance to the Emperial Palace and is now a meeting place that can hold 1 million people (Chinese people, not American :) ). . Next, we entered the Forbidden City, which was across from the square. It is the largest palatial complex in the world. It was the seat of Emperial power during the Ming and Qing dynasties. There were several intricately painted gates and courtyards that we entered through, and each gate led to a more distinguished and exclusive courtyard and palace. We saw both the outer where the Empirial workw as done and the inner palace where the Emperor lived. We had lunch at a nearby hotel. It was buffet-style with a lazy susan in the middle of the table. We all at least attempted to eat with chopsticks! We also visited the Summer Palace. It mainly consists of Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake, both manmade. We walked the longest corridor that was hand-painted with scenes from the area--it was hundreds of meters long! We also took a Tai Chi class! We stood in the middle of a courtyard with an instructor guiding us through moves. We felt relaxed doing it until groups of Chinese visitors walked by laughing and taking photos of us! I guess we stick out a little. :) Dinner was a Peking Duck dinner. Again it was buffet-style, and they just kept bringing dish after dish!! The food was wonderful. A few observations of differences between Chinese and American cultures: Women carry around umbrellas to give themselves shade from the sun. Young children who are not potty-trained do not wear diapers. They have slits in their pants for when they go to the bathroom instead! A traditional Chinese breakfast doesn't have the foods we are used to seeing: cooked vegetables, noodles, hot milk and different fruits! Of course our hotel caters to foreigners, so there were plenty of American options as well. That's all for now! Tomorrow we are off to The Great Wall and the Temple of Heaven. We also hope to see the Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium and a tea house. |
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