AAVE Trip BLOG » China #1 Update from Chengdu!
July 13, 2009
China #1 Update from Chengdu!
Posted by Chris in : China , trackback
Ni Hao again from Chengdu China!
After finishing the Gorge, we took a bus to Lijiang, China. Arriving in the evening, we had some dinner and then some town time to explore the maze of streets in Old Town Lijiang, which was left untouched after a horrible earthquake in the late 90’s. Johana is still our best bargainer! I should have her do my souvenir shopping!
Then next morning (July 10th) we hiked for 3 hours to Wen Hai Lake. Agustin, Ethan, and Alex definitely have some good riddles to keep us busy during hikes. And Nicole and Derek joined in the frustration/fun of the riddles too. No one has figured out the answer to “Four is the magic number” game yet, but Eddie seems pretty determined to do so. When we arrived at Wen Hai we had some lunch at one of the elementary school teacher’s home and then headed over to the school to interact with the kids. Since it is their summer break the principal had asked the kids to come in for a special lesson that day with us. Jeff, Agustin, Johana, Ethan, and Eddie played some basketball with the boys for a bit before we all went to a classroom and began teaching a small group of 9 students English. Jeff started us all off with numbers. Then we broke into small groups and worked more individually with the kids. Jeff and Eddie each worked one on one with a couple kids. Johanna had two young girls. Agustin and David helped a couple boys. Ethan, Alex, and Sarah worked with three different boys. Since there were more of us than students, Nicole and Derek got a private Chinese lesson from Rock and Stony - our Chinese guides. As a teacher myself during the school year, it was one of my highlights of the trip to see each of the kids take the initiative and work with the Chinese students to teach them English.
We had a good old-fashioned dinner of Pizza and pasta that night. Eddie still loves the Chinese food and gets it even if offered the option of Western food. Sarah often opts for the Curry!
July 11 we had a lazy morning of sleeping in and an afternoon of town time before getting on our plane to Chengdu. Since we’ve had so much town time, I decided to make a game of it. I gave each of the kids 10 yuan and they had to buy a gift for another person in the group whose name they had drawn the night before. Some of the gifts were serious and some were goofy. Sarah got Nicole a silver ring b/c she thought she’d like it. Nicole gave David a carving a pig b/c he had bought one earlier in the trip. David gave Alex a ring. Alex got me a traditional Chinese doll. I got Agustin his favorite gum and a hand made backscratcher/massager. Agustin got Eddie a Kaleidoscope. Eddie got Johana a purple scarf. Johana got Sarah a scarf. Derek got Ethan a bracelet. Ethan got Jeff a doll. Jeff got Derek a bracelet.
On July 12th we went to the panda sanctuary in Chengdu. Since it was so hot, the pandas weren’t too active but David had the unique opportunity to hold a baby panda and get lots of pictures. You could see in his eyes he recognized it was an experience of a lifetime. In the afternoon we went to the Wenshu Buddhist temple where our guide, Lily, gave us some history and information about the grounds. In the evening after some more american food, we went to a traditional Chinese cultural show. There was a comedic skit, dancing, musical instraments, a shadow show, and a very cool mask changing show. Multiple dancers have masks on and by the turn of their head, the mask changes. It was incredible.
Yesterday the kids started their hike up Mt. Emei where they stayed at a Buddhist monastary last night. Today they are enoying exploring the monkey area as well as the summit of the mountain before heading back down to the hotel for the night. Depending on when they arrive, we will have the opportunity to get in some swimming and/or bowling at one of the local hotels.
Tomorrow we will board our second overnight train to Xi’an where we will see the famous Terra Cotta Warriors.
It is sure to be an adventure!
Until next time…
Denise and Stony and the rest of the AAVE China Team
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