Check out of the hotel
Zongbei Middle school (two campuses)
Tai chi
traditional painting
Made dumplings
Ping pong
Wenshu Temple (Buddhist)
Bullet train to Chongqing
Three Gorges Cruise.
This morning we packed our bags and checked out of the Chengdu Garden City Hotel. We then took a bus to the Zongbei Middle School. There we met new friends who were very excited to see us! This visit strengthened our relationship with the school, as we have been sister schools with them for three years now. The first activity we took place in was Tai Chi. Tai Chi is a mix of meditation and martial arts from which we learnt a simple routine from the school’s instructor. I (Liana) personally enjoyed a traditional painting class that we took today. We used traditional tools like the maobi, which is a brush used with ink to create art; we also used special Chinese paper to paint onto. We first painted crabs, using help from a video for inspiration, but I ended up just experimenting with the ink and having fun. For me, (Liana) this was very unique experience because I got to immerse myself in part of the daily Chinese middle school life and also experience different variations of the similar subjects we have at home.
For me (Kosta) my most favourite experience of the day was by far playing ping pong with the students of Zongbei. It was fun to challenge some of the students in friendly games (even if some of us lost) and we all had a great time. We were all sad to leave the first campus but the adventure continued when we visited a second campus of the Zongbei School! Here we split into two groups and did ping pong and traditional painting. It was especially nice for me (Liana), as I got to continue traditional Chinese painting. In this class we painted a pot of flowers using different inks and my end result I am very proud of! I would love to learn more about this style of painting in the future as it was so much fun and very easy! A new experience we learnt was creating dumplings. Fortunately, we were taught well and the dumplings tasted delicious. This was a dish that I (Kosta) enjoyed very much and would enjoy making again.
Another magnificent place that we visited was the Wenshu temple. We learnt a lot about its history on the bus trip there, including that it was a Buddhist temple. This was an experience for many of us that was excitingly different and will become a long lasting memory that we will cherish. To add even more to the amazing things we have done today we are currently sitting on a bullet train travelling at 300km/ per hour writing this blog. The background is constantly changing as you could close your eyes for a few seconds and everything is completely different. The landscape is beautiful, unlike anything we have seen before – farms, forests, and green as far as the eye can see. To top it all off we are going to be cruising down the Yangtze River in a few hours – an experience that I (Liana) am greatly looking forward to. Today marks the 3rd day of the Big Experience and we have already seen so many memorable places and enjoyed experiences that will be remembered for a long time, and I can’t wait to see what more China has to offer.
Signing out,
Liana & Kosta
Note from staff: we will be on the boat cruise for the next three nights. Wifi will be uncertain during this time, so do not worry if the blog is not updated until the weekend. We hope to be pleasantly surprised…