Author: rtoce

China- Day 12

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Waking up on the overnight train from Xi’an to Shanghai proved to be a challenge as it was difficult to gain sleep with constant stops and bumps along the journey. However this lack of sleep did little to discourage us from exploring the wonders of China’s biggest city Shanghai. We disembarked the train at 8am and had to wait 30 minutes to catch a bus to our hotel. Once we arrived at our hotel we could all tell that it was placed in a wonderful location and on the biggest shopping streets in Shanghai. Once we arrived at our hotel we consumed both western and eastern foods for breakfast. Something our group found interesting was that dumplings were served for breakfast. We were then informed about our task for the day, the task assigned was a race around Shanghai. We were separated into three teams and given locations to travel to and money to use for transport. This seemed challenging as we had never used public transport in China, the main use of transport for the day was the Shanghai subway. The subway proved to be chaotic as there were a huge number of people using the underground train system. It was significantly more crowed than the Melbourne train system as Shanghai contains more than Australias’ population in one city. This meant that the subway had to be significantly more effective and efficient. 
One location we vistited was the Yu Yan gardens and this is one of the most popular tourist sites in the whole of Shanghai, the garden was full of rivers filled with the biggest type of goldfish you would ever see and was very interesting and intriguing to look at. The garden was very peaceful as well as spiritual as everyone was silent and taking in the experience. We then took a quick train to have lunch, lunch was a mix between western and eastern foods but almost everyone had the preference to eat the western fast foods of McDonald’s and KFC. However Ryan’s group made the choice to explore how Shanghai had adopted a large amount of western foods, therefor bakery’s and Starbucks where consistent throughout Shanghai. So Ryan’s group adventured to try a eastern company that had completely adopted western cuisine. The food was a good attempt and tasted really good. 
All the groups then met up at a place called Tienzefang and we were are allowed to explore the area for a hour and a half. We where pressured into purchasing from the 

American cafe chain Starbucks to learn that like in Australia; we didn’t like it very much . Besides Starbucks we enjoyed the experience and had fun exploring the markets. The markets for very crowded and products where much cheaper than Australian products.
Later in the evening we decided the investigate the worlds second tallest building, the Shanghai Tower. The Shanghai tower being over 600 meter high created excitement amongst us, as we were excited to get to the top of the tower to see the high rise over the city. The building proved to have great engineering as the elevator went at 18 meters per second and only took 52 seconds to reach the top. This makes the elevator of the Shanghai tower the fastest in the world. Unfortunately, the view was disappointing due to a heavy haze. Even so, it was a great experience reaching such a high altitude. 
All off to bed now after a huge day.
Ryan and Marcus  

China- Day 11

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Day eleven began with a delicious breakfast comprising both Asian and Western delights. After having certain entertaining chats about what we expected the day to be like, we took off on the bus towards the iconic terracotta warriors, a famous tourist destination located in the surrounding countryside of Xi’an. As we passed striking scenery, we were enlightened by Mr. Toohey’s condensed version of how the warriors came to be so many years ago. 
After arriving at the museum, a gentle stroll to the excavation site’s centre offered us the beautiful array of autumn leaves through the misty and not at all polluted Xi’an air. Following a second unnecessary ticket check, we were amazed at the sheer vastness of the first viewing area. As we hastily toured the gallery, we were astounded at the unprecedented number of unique terracotta statues carefully aligned within their ancient boundaries. We were humoured to see our peers being hassled by the eager (and slightly corrupt) salespeople attempting to profit from their miniature replicas of the stone-cast warriors. 150, 100, 50, 24 yuan…sold!
The group was collectively amazed at the fact that these statues were so detailed and lifelike. The flamboyant red emblazoned upon the chest of the one remaining painted figure stood out amongst the crowd of nearly eight thousand others, as it was difficult to comprehend the fact that such a bright colour can endure thousands of years. After having moved through all three excavation pits, we were led to another exhibition section featuring the marvellous bronze horses and carriages from a long-passed time. 
The tour was concluded by a stop at the souvenir shops, where we were yelled at by shopkeepers to purchase the “bigger one” for a “very cheap price”. We then wound past the large car parks before arriving at our restaurant to enjoy a fully satisfying meal. The dishes just kept coming! Ryan, would you like any more fried and seasoned mushrooms? 
Another hour long bus ride took us to a Xi’an train station, where many purchases of admittedly unhealthy snacks were made. These included Au-li-au’s (Oreo packets), chips and drinks. We then boarded the Hogwarts Express straight to Shanghai in our first class cabins, which involve shoving four people into a room the size of a tic tack box. 
We are very excited for the next fifteen hours in the train and are ready for the coming days in Shanghai. We miss you at home!
Henry and Benjamin 

China 2016 – Going “Off-line”

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Dear Families and Friends of China 2016,

Tomorrow we will be spending more time exploring the beautiful city of Xi’an. At the end of the day we will be boarding the overnight train to Shanghi. Therefore, due to the lack of internet, we will be unable to post a blog and will be offline.

Fear not! We will still write the blog and take photos and post them as soon as we are able.

Kindest Regards 

The China Team 

China- Day 10

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When we went down to breakfast this morning, as soon as we walked in, everybody’s eyes instantly went to the fries that were sitting at the buffet. People lunged at the fries, as if they were gold bars, and they were hoping to grab a few. 
The bus pulled up to the Huilin Community Centre after a short 10 minute ride. This was the venue for the next part of our community service. When we entered we were greeted by a group of smiling faces, eager to welcome us with song and dance. After a number of energetic and enchanting performances, we attempted to replicate the hospitality, and we almost hit the mark. Following these lovely performances, we split into groups to interact and engage with the students. Our time with these students was a great experience.
We then sadly farewelled the students and headed for the next part of our big day. Due to the bus driver’s tardiness, Mr. Toohey decided that the best solution would be to take the Chinese Metro. This was an interesting experience, as despite it being the middle of the day, it was as if it was Flinders Street Station during rush hour. We forced ourselves onto the train amongst many Xi’an locals. After one station we arrived at Zhonglu (Bell Tower) station, to begin our bike ride atop the city wall. 
We began our journey at south gate of Xi’an city walls of some dinky dual suspension bikes. At the start of our journey, we were forced to take a slow approach, as we were lead by Mr. Toohey, and penalised if we even slightly passed him. After we reached the west gate, Mr. Toohey decided we could go at our own pace. While some raced ahead, others chose to take a leisurely, scenic ride. It was a pleasant ride, as the weather was brisk and overcast with a slight smog, caused by the pollution. After an hour of riding we completed our loop and ended up, once again at the south gate.
We finished our enjoyable day with an overly plentiful serving of dumplings and some night time shopping.
-Celine, Jack, and Matt 🙂
Technical Issue

Greetings Families and Friends of China 2016,

We have experienced a minor technical issue with many of today’s photos, there should be more to come soon.

Kindest Regards 

The China Team 

China- Day 9

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Hello to all back home! We have now arrived in Xian after another big travel day.
It was the earliest start of the trip this morning with a 5.30 wake up call, made bearable by the fantastic breakfast prepared by one of our Guizhou guides, Billy. We made our way up to our coach and for the last time, used the shuttle bus that is like a rollercoaster. Nathan tried to sleep but he kept getting thrown around. We then boarded our coach for our long trek (3 hours) back to the airport.
As we journeyed along, we reflected on our past two days in the Miao Village and how different their lives are from ours. For us two personally, we both felt satisfied at what we had done to help the community, and we are sure that this is a feeling that is shared across the China Trip Group.
When we arrived at Guiyang Airport, a reward for our hard work had arrived. After we had checked in, we headed for Burger King (as pointed out in the group- Hungry Jacks in Australia), and feasted on our first non Asian meal. While we are ensuring to emerse ourselves in the Chinese culture, it was a nice change to have a western style meal.
Once we all felt bloated (not literally!!) from Burger King we proceeded through security and headed for our gate. What the group has discovered is that going through security in Australia for domestic flights is like a piece of cake compared to security for Chinese domestic flights. Eventually we boarded our Shandong Airlines flight for Xian. Despite some turbulence, it was a great opportunity to do our journey docs, write postcards or for some (including Nathan) have a little snooze.
We arrived in a chilly Xian, and entered back into the chaos of cities in China after having spent quite sometime in rural areas. Xian used to be the worlds’ biggest city and was one of the ancient capitals of China. Once we arrived at our hotel we had some chill time with our new room buddies. Our rooms finally have some English speaking channels (CNN- so we have caught up with all the Trump developments!)
Now that we are in the Eastern part of China, we are now having noodles and dumplings at dinner, and the group certainly is looking forward to more dinners 

like this! After dinner we walked around the bell tower and the Muslim quarter. It is a very busy area but the group handled it really well- practise for Beijing!!
We hope everyone is well (apparently it is raining a lot back home- we saw some blue sky today!) and we are all having a fantastic time but we look forward to seeing you all soon.
Gab and Nathan :))

China- Day 8

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The day started with a 7 km trek that felt like 20km from our hotel to the Miao Village. The trek involved steep descents down through 1000 year old rice fields and slippery paths. The paths were challenging but the views were breathtaking and tranquil. We learnt how rice is properly picked. It was interesting to find out that the rice fields are also used as a breeding ground for fish. Due to the breathtaking views and the fact that I (Seann) have only 24 pictures left on my disposable camera, I had to rely on Dan to ask if the view was ‘photo-worthy.’ After climbing over rivers and creeks that got most of us soaked, we started our ascend to the villages school. The mountains were seriously steep but it was refreshing to get some exercise after a bit of time on buses and planes. And then we arrived at the school…

It was our second day of our community service project. After becoming a tradies yesterday, we all had the challenge of becoming a teacher for two hours. We found it interesting how much English the year two kids knew despite their current education situation, which was not very good. It was an unforgettable experience to be able to work so closely with these underprivileged kids. We taught them simple English words and numbers. It was amazing to see how happy the kids are with what they have. After playing teacher, we got back to work on painting the school and setting up new basketball systems. I (Seann) had the opportunity to coordinate the painting of the walls on the school. It was poorly put together by duct-tape and spray cans! But after persisting we managed to paint Australian animals and rainbows on the wall and an epic giraffe! 

After a long walk back down from the village, we returned to out hotel rooms. We had time to think about what this community work meant to us and how it would effect us and more importantly, the kids. This community work, to us is allowing us to have an insight to life in the village and the school. It is a great feeling to know that we have made a difference to these kids school. 
-Tom and Seann