Adventures in Learning Mandarin a.k.a. You've got to make a fool of Yourself

FOR SRA. BABSON’S STUDENTS:

“Hola - Hola - Hola” or as they say in China “Ni Hao - Ni Hao - Ni Hao!”

I hope you are all well and having fun in COLD, COLD Dover-Sherborn! I am in Shaxi Village in the Yunnan Province of China and it’s about 75 -80 degrees F and sunny. We just finished hiking up a huge mountain to see 1,000 year old carvings of Buddha and the gods of the local “Bai” people who are the original people of this area. I’ll show you pictures of all of my adventures when I get back, but right now I wanted to tell you about how my Mandarin Chinese is progressing.

The Town Square in Xin Jie, Yunnan

We arrived in Xin Jie just as the sun was setting. We’d been on the road for about 7 hours. (I should note that our day included a hike through the other-worldly “The Stone Forest” 75 miles southeast of Kunming. Check out the other blog postings and our photo gallery for more about that.) The last 2 hours of the trip took us from approximately 2,000 meters above sea level to 200 meters and back up to Xin Jie - again at about 2,000 meters above sea level! (I’ve never had my ears “pop” so many times before!!) 

Rollin' On the River

I've been delegated the delightful task of blogging about our time spent in Guilin and Yangshuo. It began on the last day of January, when we said a difficult goodbye to Hong Kong and flew to Guilin, arriving at around 3 o'clock. It was there that we met our lovely guide, Bing. Guilin is a very small city located just a quick 45 minute flight north of Hong Kong, and its reputation across China is generally that of a Chinese tourist town known for its incredibly unique geography. Bing explained to us that in the second grade in China all children learn that Guilin is the most beautiful area in the country. When we arrived, there were people absolutely everywhere celebrating the Spring Festival Holiday with a vacation to Guilin's gorgeous mountains.