2015+China+Trip

2015 Trip

Thursday, June 18 We left the hotel at 8:45am and arrived at the airport at 9:32am. It took us about one hour to get to the gate. While we were waiting for the big bird, which was delayed, the kids got snacks.

We arrived at San Francisco at 9:20am and it was 10:46am when all of us came to the gate for our flight to St. Louis.

Wednesday, June 17 We visited Tiananman Square and the forbidden city in the morning, had a nice lunch. IMG_0753.JPG IMG_0755.JPG IMG_0756.JPG IMG_0766.JPG

Then we headed to the Silk market at 2pm. It began to rain heavily at about 3pm. When we tried to leave the market for the Temple of Heaven, it was still raining. We waited for 15 minutes, we decided to go on the bus heading for the Temple, although some of the students were tired and wanted to directly go back to the hotel. Because of the heavy rain, the traffic was really bad and when we arrived at the Temple, we passed the time to go to the Temple. So we just walked in the park and tried to find good angles for pictures. IMG_0795.JPGIMG_0805.JPGIMG_0806.JPG

Tuesday, June 16 The highlight of our Beijing trip, the Great Wall. IMG_0710.JPGIMG_0713.JPGIMG_0698.JPG

After the Great Wall, we bought our lunch from KFC and had lunch on the bus to Ming Tombs. We visited one of the tombs, then we headed to the Sacred way. "In the front part of the imperial necropolises, there usually is a Sacred Way (or Divine Road) which means the road leading to heaven. The Emperor, known as the Son of the Heaven, who came from Heaven to his country through the Sacred Way, also deservedly would return to Heaven through this road." (travelchinaguide.com) IMG_0721.JPG IMG_0723.JPGIMG_0724.JPG

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Monday, June 15 We arrived at Beijing in the morning. We didn't see the blue sky, but the weather was good. We first visited Hutong on rickshaw ride. The students enjoyed the rickshaw ride. IMG_0619.JPG IMG_0620.JPG We learned some basic facts about the traditional Beijing house style, siheyuan. After visiting Hutong, we went to Gulou to have a Chinese painting class. Drawing bamboo on rice paper with brush was not that easy. IMG_0629.JPG IMG_0627.JPGIMG_0646.JPG

In the early afternoon, we had our first banquet style lunch. We were too hungry to take pictures. Although it was a little crowded for 13 people to sit around one table, we enjoyed many dished together.

We went to Summer palace. IMG_0665.JPGIMG_0666.JPGIMG_0667.JPG

Red theater for the Gongfu performance. It was not as good as the acrobatic show in Shanghai and some of us were really tired and almost fell asleep during the show.

Weekend, June 13-14

Abbie, Mary Beth, Mia and Skyler

On Friday, we all (us + buddies) went to see Jurassic World. The animation was awesome, but the plot of the movie was very bad. Chris Pratt was amazing though. Abbie says that she is going to marry him. On Saturday we all went together to eat brunch. Mary Beth and Abbie got ice cream before meeting the rest of us at Pancake Day. Hannah also was with us. We had American styled breakfast foods like waffles and salad. Afterwards we made little cakes and cookies at a special store. Skyler and Mia made Mahjong pieces and Mary Beth and Abbie made little cookies. They were both delicious! Later, we walked around the area until we decided to go to a mall. Abbie, Mia, and Mary Beth got flash tattoos! On Sunday, we met again for pottery along with all the rest of the MICDS students (minus Ben and Caroline). That was fun! Afterwards we had lunch at the restaurant next door; the food was so good! Then we went to a place called “Escape Room.” It was a room full of mirrors and your goal was to escape. It was fun, but it only lasted about 5 minutes. When we finished that, we got ice cream and went to a supermarket to buy food for the train ride. We all are going to miss our buddies. Abbie’s buddy started crying when they had to say goodbye.

Ben, Kevin, Justin, Annie, Caroline, Hannah

On Friday, we stared off by visiting the Yu Garden. At the Yu Garden, we saw many interesting buildings and we did lots of shopping at the markets. Kevin did much for the bargaining for the group. We bought things like Beats Pills, coins, and many other survivors. On Friday night, we each went home with our host family. On Friday night, Kevin and Justin went together to eat Thai food. Ben took a two hour drive to the home town of his host family. Annie and Caroline went out to dinner at a Spanish restaurant with one of Caroline’s family friends. At Hannah’s exchange house, she ate a home cooked meal and tried Chinese sausage. On Saturday, Hannah had brunch with the other girls and their exchange families. In the afternoon, they went to the Hershey’s store at the mall. For dinner, Hannah made homemade dumplings. They hung out at the Hershey’s cafe. Caroline had lunch at the Oriental Pearl Tower. Annie went to KFC for breakfast and then went to the Pearl Tower at night. Kevin went to a park in the morning and then later he went with Justin and Daniel to play basketball and later have roasted for dinner. Justin went bowling with Daniel. Ben went to two old traditional towns in a different province and later had dinner with his exchange family at their grandparent’s house. On Sunday morning Hannah, Annie, Kevin and Justin, went to a place to make pottery. They thought that making pottery was very fun and they learned how to make clay ceramics on a pottery spinner. Then they all painted cups. Their exchange buddies will bring the things that they made to America in October. Caroline rested on much of Sunday, then went shopping. Ben stopped at another old town, then drove back to Shanghai. For lunch he had Mr. Pizza. During the late afternoon, we all gathered at the dorms to pack for the train ride to Beijing. Many of the girls had lots of packing to do and had to make room for many of the things that they bought. The boys did not have as much packing to do. Around 6, we headed over the train station. Two of the teachers from the Shanghai Foreign Language School came with us to the train station. Once we were there, we waited for about an hour to board the train. Our first impressions of the train were that it was nicer than we expected and each room has two sets of bunk beds. The rooms are very crammed.

Back during the week, we took many different classes. Our favorite classes were the folk music and the other hands on classes. We liked the folk music class because music is easily understood by many different cultures and we learned a lot. Another class that we liked was calligraphy. This was another hands on class and the teacher taught us about each character and we got to create something to take home. We did not like to classes where the teachers were talking. Many of the students could not really understand what was going on because it was taught in Chinese. A class that we did not like was the Chinese food one. During that we were taught about foods, but we did not really understand what was being said. Kevin was our translator, but was a bit frustrated because he did not always know what was going on (Kevin did a great job! I didn't realize that there were some words he didn't understand since he was translating well. ---from Ms. Chang). Another class that was not enjoyed by the majority of the group was paper cutting. Paper cutting was too long and very hard for us to do. It took a lot of patience.

Friday, June 12 In the morning, half of the students didn't go to the school cafeteria for breakfast. They missed American food. We had another city tour day. First stop, Yuyuan Garden. "Yuyuan Garden is a famous classical garden located in Anren Jie, Shanghai. It was finished in 1577 by a government officer of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) named Pan Yunduan. Yu in Chinese means pleasing and satisfying, and this garden was specially built for Pan's parents as a place for them to enjoy a tranquil and happy time in their old age." (www.travelchinaguide.com)

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Thursday, June 11 Another day of classes. We enjoyed the Guzheng class. After learning the basic skills of playing the instrument, we were able to play a short piece of music together. IMG_0439.JPG IMG_0440.JPG

Wednesday, June 10 We went to Suzhou, one of the paradise cites in China. We got on the bus at 7:30 and had breakfast on the bus. Around 9:30, we arrived at Tiger Hill. IMG_0343.JPG

After Tiger Hill, we went to the famous place for shopping and eating out in Suzhou, Guanqianjie.

We visited one of the four most famous gardens in China, Lingering Garden, which originally was a private garden. "Possessing typical Qing style, it is well-known for the exquisite beauty of its magnificent halls, and the various sizes, shapes, and colors of the buildings. In 1997, it was recorded on the list of the world heritage by UESCO." (www.travelchinaguide.com)

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Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Our first class was a survey about Shanghai. We learned about the history, the population, the economy and development of the city, the biggest city in China. IMG_0294.JPG IMG_0295.JPG

Our second class today was math with the SFLS students, and it was very different.Whenever someone answered a question, they had to stand up. There were about 40 students in the class. Each desk had one boy and one girl. (As we are discussing, we are eating ice tea ice cubes that have a hint of soap in them.) There were no clocks in the classrooms either. The teacher lectured a lot and there is no air conditioning in any of the classes. The teaching style doesn’t always acknowledge everyone, because there are so many people. The lecture moved pretty and it seemed like some students didn’t understand the material. Also, the students in the back didn’t pay attention and we saw one kid reading an English book. IMG_0298.JPG IMG_0300.JPG

After lunch, Abbie, Mary Beth, Mia and Skyler played soccer in the basketball court. IMG_0304.JPG IMG_0305.JPG

The class in the afternoon was paper cutting. Everyone tried to cut one piece. It was not easy even for the simplest one. Paper cutting is a traditional Chinese artwork. Different regions of China have different cutting styles. It is still well used for the special celebration occasions, such as wedding, New Year and anniversaries. People put the finished artwork on windows or doors.

IMG_0322.JPG IMG_0317.JPG IMG_0315.JPG IMG_0308.JPG We went to the nearby mall for dinner and shopping.

Monday, June 6, 2015 This was our first day in school. We had Chinese calligraphy in the afternoon. IMG_0265.JPG IMG_0276.JPG In the evening, we left the campus and went to see a fantastic acrobatic performance. IMG_0291.JPG

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Everyone came back to the dorm, excited, ready to share their stories.

Saturday morning, Hannah, Caroline, Annie, Justin, Kevin, and Ben all woke up around 8 am and had breakfast. Annie’s host family took her out to morning tea and she tried new foods. Hannah’s host mom made her a fried egg and bought American bread from the market for her breakfast. Ben’s host family fed him dumplings, soup, and hardboiled egg. Kevin had toast, ham, egg, and milk. Justin had rice, dumplings, toasted, and an egg. Caroline had porridge (soup), youtiao (fried bread), and rice. After breakfast, Hannah, Caroline, Annie, Justin, Kevin, and Ben spent the beautiful, sunny morning exploring the streets of Shanghai. Annie took a trip to Suzhou and stayed in a hotel. In order to attract tourists, the hotel allows the guests to buy carrots which they could feed to bunnies which were in a pin outside the hotel lobby. After eating breakfast with her host family, Hannah went to Yu Garden (which the kids will take a field trip to on Friday) with her exchange partner, Elaine. After experiencing the market life and bargaining of Yu Garden, Hannah and Elaine took the underground train to one of the Raffle City malls in Shanghai. In the mall, they walk went into countless stores, many of which can be found in St. Louis malls. Hannah found that the Shanghai mall had Converse, Sephora, MAC, H&M, Hollister, and many more. After shopping, Elaine took Hannah to the Shanghai National History Museum. The museum recently opened and contains multiple animal exhibits. The exhibits contained information of animals like dinosaurs, fish, bears, birds, and many more. Tired from their day of shopping and exploring, Hannah and Elaine took the public bus home and took a nap. Meanwhile, Caroline and Stacy spent their day touring the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition. The museum contained exhibits explaining the fascinating history of Shanghai. Hungry from a morning of learning, Stacy and Caroline headed to the mall to grab some lunch. After lunch, the girls headed back to Stacy's apartment to grab their bathing suits and drove to the Shanghai public pool, a very popular activity the people of Shanghai enjoy doing on their weekends.

Friday, June 5, 2015 The first Chinese breakfast in SFLS. (Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to rotate the pictures in Wikispaces.) IMG_0113.JPG IMG_0114.JPG After the breakfast, we went to Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC), which was completed in August 28, 2008, being the second tallest skyscraper in mainland China. Having 101 floors with a height of 492 meters (about 1,614 feet), it ranked the top in the heights of roof and usable floor by the time when it was built, announced by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)” (TravelGuiceChina.com) IMG_0118.JPG Outside of Shanghai World Financial Center. IMG_0130.JPGIMG_0128.JPG IMG_0129.JPG Can you spot Eric?

After spending 3 hours in 正大广场, Super Brand Mall, which is one of the largest shopping malls in Asia, shopping, walking around and having lunch, we boarded the Cruise on Huangpu River. In the mall, we split up into 3 small groups, and met back at 2 pm to board the 3 pm cruise. IMG_0133.JPGIMG_0140.JPGIMG_0155.JPG

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Thursday, June 4,2015

After traveling more than 24 hours, we finally arrived at the Shanghai Foreign Language School. One of the teachers, Thomas, brought us some KFC takeout for a quick dinner. Now (10:09pm in Shanghai) in the hallway where I can get a Wifi signal, a few girls are preparing for bed, and all the boys have dropped into a deep sleep about an hour ago (without locking their door!). We are going to tour Shanghai tomorrow, starting bright and early at 8:30 am. IMG_0094.JPGIMG_0105.JPG

BTW, I got my Chinese SIM Card right at the airport and my local number is 15669920536.

备注 1.如果在机场买电话卡，要上海本地的号或者直接买带国际长途的. 2.2015年建行的单次取款上限是2500.一天内可取至少两次. 工行收$5手续费，单次上限是$5000. 3.2015年在龙之梦吃饭最贵一顿是50元/人. 火车上自带晚餐和早餐. 4.胡同游导游每人十元，车夫每人十元.