This morning we went to the Xi’an Centre for Children with Incarcerated Parents. When we arrived we were shown a video about how the village was started and how it has progressed over the years. We lucky enough to observe some of the stories of the children who had passed through the village and their experiences. It was a bit confronting to see how the children started but as the video went on it showed the sense of family in their community. It was great to see the successful stories of children who were reunited with their parents at the conclusion of their sentence.
About 10 children currently in residence at the centre arrived from kindergarten. The kids were about 3-4 years old so they were very shy at first but very excited to see us. They ran into the room and 4 of them got up and preformed a dance that they had practised for us. It was really well rehearsed and so adorable to watch. In return Daniel played a song called Demons on the piano and the kids, with their happy faces, surrounded him. To conclude the musical part of our meeting the kids went up on to the stage and some of us older people joined them to dance to the song Gangnam Style. It was interesting to see how easily we were able to connect to them and have something in common with them through dance and music.
We were given a tour of the village and were shown the primary school kids living areas. The girls rooms had many things, neatly organised, to make it feel like home whilst the boys rooms were a lot more simple. Overall the rooms had a common area and two rooms with bunkbeds. During the tour we saw the construction site of the new kitchen and music/media areas.
We brought footballs and soccer balls with us to give the children which the kids loved and we taught them how to use them. We also donated flour, rice, cabbages and two TV’s for the media and reading rooms where the kids stay on snow days in the colder months.
Before we left we had a bit of time to play with kids and connect with them. It was quite amazing to see how they warmed up to us. As we were leaving it was quite an emotional time even though we only spent a couple hours with them. As a trip group we felt very happy and proud to be helping out the village with our fundraising efforts.
After we had lunch we went to the city wall of Xian. It was incredibly big and we got the privilege to cycle around the whole thing which was 14km. The road was extremely rough as it was cobble stone but it was a good experience to see the city from 50m in the air. The mountain bikes managed the bumps well.
After the wall we went to a museum which displayed modern and historical arts. We learnt about our zodiac animals and what they mean. We saw old paintings that had been buried in tombs. They were a bit damaged and faded but they still showed their meanings well. Our tour guide from the museum taught us how to write Chinese characters using calligraphy equipment. It was fascinating to see how simple the characters actually are when they are broken down into certain strokes. We also learnt that bamboo paintings take ten years to master because they have to be studied for a very long time.
We had dinner at Tang dynasty theatre where we were served a dumpling banquet. After we had eaten there were several choreographed dances preformed on the stage about the Tang dynasty. The performers were very talented and the show feature fantastic costuming and staging. It was amazing to watch.
By Isabella Hall and Hannah Perkin 🙂
