Author: nhutchinson

Due to technology challenges our final blog post is in the form of a photo. 

  
   
    
 
   
   

   
 

This morning we woke up at 9:00 and readied ourselves for the coming day. Breakfast was enjoyable and tasty. We travelled to the Shanghai Bund and saw the amazing city skyline. It felt like there was a competition between the two architectural styles – one influenced by the French Concession/International settlement and the other modern day China. On one side of the river you can see the European styled banks, hotels and stock exchange offices. We saw an incredible silver clock, like a miniature Big Ben. The pollution was thick and disrupted the view of the “bottle opener” building (second tallest building in Shanghai), although the cloud cleared for a moment allowing a glimpse the top of the building.

  

  
  

 

Next we went to a waterside village, venetian in style, with canals and gondolas. There was an abundance of unusual delicacies on sale in the market stalls. Things on offer were, pig’s trotters, bull hearts, chicken feet and other challenging foods. The village was surprisingly very crowded and congested compared to other markets we have experienced. As we had been informed that pickpocket were present most of the trip group members were wary about having personal belongings stolen, luckily everyone made it out unscathed. The ambience and scenery of the village was very calming and relaxing.

Prior to dinner we enjoyed the night view of Shanghai’s skyline from the Bund which contrasted greatly from what we had seen earlier today. Behind us the european styled buildings were lit up with grandeur and those in front, on the opposite bank, highlighted with flamboyant colours and fantastic patterns. The cities lights reflect beautifully on the water only to be disrupted by the occasional boat. The pearl tower was especially eye-catching with a vast array of lights and displays.

  

All up everyone is grateful for the opportunities that this trip given them. Today has been a great example of the awesome experiences we have enjoyed throughout our time in China. Whilst we have had a fabulous time and learnt a great deal on our adventures, we are all looking forward to returning home to our family and friends.

Mr Scott and China trip staff will be writing the final blog update tomorrow.

– Maddie James, Arie Gershon and Aiden Cha

Hello from China everyone!

Today we started by leaving the hotel at about 9:30am, where we walked to a nearby park. In the park there were locals (mainly the elderly) participating in all sorts of activities, such as group dancing with fans, playing cards, and group tai chi sessions. There was an arcade in the park, with a few rides surrounding it, like go-karts, and a merry-go-round.

After we took a quick look around the park we left to go to the West Street Market, where we spent 40 minutes experiencing the market scene of a smaller Chinese city. There weren’t as many shops open as there was at the nighttime, so there wasn’t many things to buy. I (Rebecca) particularly liked the calligraphy shop.

After the West Street Market we went back to the hotel we readied our luggage for the bus, and checked out of the hotel. Then we walked down to one of Yangshuo’s top restaurants where we ate our lunch for about an hour. We had foods such as toffee’d sweet potato, prawn crackers, and deep fried potato pieces. They even went to the effort to mould some of their dumplings in the beautiful shape of swans.

After we all finished up eating, we walked back to the hotel and loaded all of our luggage onto the bus where we got on and drove to The Silver Caves. The ride was about an hour’s drive and everyone was quieter than usual. This is probably because the morning was relaxed. We arrived at The Silver Caves where there were lots of vendors selling annoying whistles. (It didn’t seem very annoying at first but once there are vendors and other people blowing the whistles loudly, trust me, it gets very annoying!).

We walked from the carpark down to the caves where we took a group photo whilst we waited to enter the exhibit. Other locals took photos of our group as well, which we should probably be used to by now, but it’s weird having random people taking photos of you. When we entered the caves we were greeted by long Stalagmites (that come up from the ground) and Stalactites (that grow down from the roof), all lit up with numerous colourful lights. The caves were very humid and they were absolutely packed with people, but the spaciousness of the caves still kept us at a somewhat comfortable temperature. The caves were like giant halls, they were ginormous and spacious in the roof-space but the paths were mainly narrow. They had signs saying what the names of the rock formations were but the rocks were probably named ages ago as they didn’t look anything like their name. For example, one was called ‘Ice cream’ and it did not at all look like ice-cream. It was quite amusing because the named rocks didn’t look like anything and the unnamed rocks looked like all sorts of things like dragons and horses.

  
  
  
  
Once we exited the cave we were met by smoking policemen! We were still trying to catch our breaths because of the humidity and the amount of stairs we had to climb so the smoke from the cigarettes were not helpful whatsoever. Once we passed the policemen we were SO glad for that fresh breath of air. We had a bit of time on our hands, so we went down to the large pond, wait…no, small lake and watched the fish that were in there. There were all sorts of fish, like Koi, Goldfish, Catfish, Carp and the likes. There were huuuundreds of fish swimming in large groups. Next to the lake there was a stall selling bags of fish food so lots of us bought some bags and fed the fish. The fish swarmed towards the food and scrambled over each other just to get a piece. It was funny watching them slap each other with their tails in the mad rush, and the big ones opened their mouthes so wide that you could actually throw pieces of food directly into them.

 After we got had our fill of feeding the fish, (we spent about half and hour watching them just go bonkers over food!) we hopped onto the bus with chatter spreading throughout the group and we drove to the airport. We checked in, got dinner, and we are now writing this! We hope everybody at home is having a great time without us and are enjoying reading our blogs, cos we’re havin’ a ball!

– Rebecca Forest-Gabbe and Hamish Rhodes