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.
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.