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18 students and 2 teachers left Heathrow on Saturday 17th July, with a mixture of excitement and fear, on their way to China. With a 7 hour time difference and a 3 hour stop over in Dubai we eventually reached the hotel at Beijing airport at midnight on Sunday 18th. 5 hours later we were up again for an early morning flight to Harbin, arriving at the Harbin Normal University International student's accommodation block at midday on Monday. The students were joined by 4 people from a film crew who were making a documentary about the visit for Hanban, who funded a large portion of the trip.
The activities over the next 5 days included;
Language lessons, where the Chinese teacher developed practical lessons with Ms. Xiao where the students met in a classroom for the introduction to the session and then went out, in pairs, with a Chinese student to develop their language skills. They went to order food in a restaurant, to a shop where they had to negotiate the price with the shopkeepers and to the hospital where they had to pretend they were a patient and explain their symptoms to the doctors and nurses.
The students thought that this is a much better way of learning a foreign language than sitting in a classroom.
Calligraphy lessons were classroom based and the students were able to progress much faster than the teacher had expected.
2 sessions of Tai Chi with a Fan were not really long enough to master the topic, but the students did master the fan part.
A 2 hour session, with a Chinese doctor, on Traditional Chinese Medicine, where some of the students were given a review of their health and what they need to do to improve it.
A visit to the Tiger Park was one of the highlights of the trip. The Siberian Tiger is an endangered species and the government has set up a number of tiger parks to ensure their survival. The group took a 'mini safari' tour of the park where they were able to see as many as 80 tigers. The students were able to buy chickens that were then fed to the tigers by the gamekeepers. Other animals in the park included Lions, Ligers, White Tigers and Jaguars.
An afternoon at 'Sun Island' where the students took boat rides and relaxed in a mini theme park.
The accommodation was basic in the university, although much better than a typical Chinese student would have access to.
We celebrated Yusif Javaids 13th birthday with an enormous, freshly made cake, which 30 people could only half finish.
The 9 Chinese volunteers and our students made friends and I am sure many will continue to contact each other in the future. Gifts were exchanged at the closing ceremony on Saturday 24th when we had to depart for Zhengzhou and the Shaolin Temple.
A 2 hour flight to Zhengzhou and a 90 minute coach ride took us to the mountain Retreat of the Monks in the Shaolin Temple, passing many of the Kung Fu schools in the area. The Zen International Hotel, 5 minutes walk from the temple, was our base for the next 3 nights.
The next morning we enjoyed our first Kung Fu lesson at 8am inside the Temple. This rare privilege was obtained through the Xinhua press, where a friend of Ms. Xiao works.
We now had 2 film crews recording our every movement.
The students were made to work hard, but enjoyed the session. In the afternoon we had a tour of the temple and the Pagoda Forest.
In the evening we attended an outdoor music performance by the Monks about the history of the Shaolin Temple. Over 800 actors and Musicians took the stage, which covered an area of 3 acres.
The following morning saw the students attend the early morning ceremony in the Temple and then had breakfast with the Monks. Very basic food was provided and everything had to be finished before you were allowed to leave. The second training session followed breakfast, in the open air, in a private area in the Temple. The students made better progress during this session. At the end the Master posed for photos with the students and invited us back for next year.
The students then attended a demonstration of kung Fu by the Monks. 2 of our students were brought up on stage to join in a competition, with Jamal Carney Lawrence coming 1st and Gabriel Galindo coming 2nd.
In the afternoon the group took the cable car up the mountain and then walked along the path that wind around the side of the mountain. The target was to reach the rope bridge, but we ran out of time and had to return before the cable car stopped running.
The following morning we flew to Beijing, staying at the Holiday Inn near the Temple of Heaven.
We had tours of the Temple, Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. A visit to the, very exciting, Acrobat show was enjoyed by all the students. We saw the Tea ceremony and the students then bought many types of Tea and Pee Boys for presents. The students made 2 visits to the shopping centre, where the students honed their bargaining and Language skills, buying presents and personal items.
A visit to Hanban HQ to see the work they do to promote Chinese culture outside of China through Confucius Institutes and Classrooms was very interesting; with the interactive resources they have available. The visit to the Birds Nest, the Olympic stadium, was a little disappointing as the track was closed so the students were not able to run on it.
A visit to CETV gave the students the opportunity to see how a TV studio works. The report about the visit was due to go out on national TV on Monday 2nd August. The visit to a local park resulted in renting a 6 aside football pitch to play an impromptu game with the TV crew and some students playing Table Tennis on the open air tables.
The group returned to London on Saturday 31st July.
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