Chinese Culture, and American Appetites

(Timmy)

Today was a long day for the group, but it was also one of the more memorable days. We started by visiting Pangliu village on the outskirts of Xi’an. The drive to Pangliu village was short, but exciting because we finally met Richard Wang, a friend of Mrs. Viz and the tour guide who we owe a great deal of gratitude to for this exchange.

Last Day in Lijiang and First Day in Xi’an

(Max)

On our last day in Lijiang we got an early start with our guide Evan and set out to visit the Black Dragon Pools. It was quite nice to have an activity close enough to our hotel that we could just walk. The pools were amazingly clear and the scenery of the overall park was picturesque. A bridge stretched over one of the pools and we had an absolutely beautiful view of Lijiang’s snow mountain, which we had ascended a day earlier. Oh, and before I forget, on our walk to the pools we passed by a kind gentleman with a monkey, with whom Timmy and I took our picture. I’m really not sure of the type of monkey, but the little thing was dressed up like a tiny bellhop and as the picture was taken he was sitting in my hand, rubbing his cheek against mine; it was adorable.

“How is that even silk? It looks like a picture.”

(Dareus)

I woke up in my own private room at the guesthouse in Shaxi Village with the Korean drama still on the TV from the previous night. After a breakfast of noodles black with spice, we boarded our little bus and began our trek to Lijiang. Our first stop in Lijiang was Baisha village where the most intricate embroideries were hand crafted by the Naxi minority people. The girl who showed us around told us the mind blowing fact that her trade master could separate a silk strand the width of a hair into 250 separate strands. After that she showed us an art gallery of embroideries that was far more modern than you would expect for a village so small. The thin strands of silk were melded together so well by the artisans that the color gradients challenged those of digital pictures. After that our tour guide brought us to see Naxi murals that were about the mixing of cultures and religions in the local regions. It seemed like the ideal environment where all the different religions just kept to themselves and didn’t bother each other.

Shaxi Village (2/7-2/8)

(Caitlin)

Friday morning we got up in Dali, had our breakfast at the hotel, and started on our three-hour drive to Shaxi village. About an hour and a half into our trip we pulled over at a roadside restaurant, had lunch, and met our new tour guide, Evan. After introductions and a hurried round of Oreo-purchasing at the gas station nearby, we set off for another leg of our journey. We had been warned that this part of the car ride might be a bit, well, bothersome if you tend to get motion sickness, but that didn’t end up being a problem for anyone. Instead, we were able to enjoy the view from the windows as the road snaked its way around the sides of the mountain.

More Adventures!

(Heather)

Douglas Adams once wrote, “It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, ‘As pretty as an airport.’” Well, in our case, I’d actually tweak this saying, and have it read “It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression ‘As pretty as a sleeper train from Kunming to Dali.’”

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Fending Off Paparazzi in Yangshuo

(Tim)

First blog post of the trip, it feels good. So far the trip has been amazing and we are all having a great time. For the past two days, we have woken up to a nice western breakfast of fried eggs, ham, sausages, vegetables, and assorted baked goods. A great part about this trip is that we aren’t always bound to pre-determined sights. With our free time, we decided to hike up a mountain to visit an old, stone pagoda.

Yangshuo Adventures

(Max)

All right, so yesterday was quite the adventure. We started the day off with a nice early start at 7:45 a.m. when our tour guide, Summer, took us to the well-known Elephant Hill. About a fifteen-minute walk from the hotel, this natural rock structure resembles a massive elephant dipping its trunk into the Li River for a drink. Local myth tells that the elephant was a servant of the jade emperor and was sent down to earth, but when the elephant realized the beauty of Guilin, he decided to stay. After about a half an hour stay at this site we returned to the hotel where our driver took us to the very famous tour attraction, the Li River cruise. I can’t even start to describe the magnificence of what we witnessed on that four-hour tour.

Jetlagged in Hong Kong ...

(Dareus)

Despite extreme jetlag from arriving the previous night we managed to wake up and gorge ourselves on a buffet style breakfast with a picturesque view of the bay of Hong Kong. The smog gave the skyline a hazy shade and completed the Hong Kong feel. Somehow we missed the plethora of things to do in Hong Kong and wandered around the coastline for a couple hours despite it being the Chinese New Year, which should have given us even more to do.

(FIRST POST of 2014 China Exchange) And They're Off!

2014 group, left to right: Dareus Chen, Tim Jaung, Max Dunn, Exchange Chair Ms Viz (not going!) Teacher Heather Lockrow, Caitlin Sheehan

The 2014 Dover-Sherborn High School China Exchange students and teacher took off for San Francisco and then Hong Kong VERY early on Wednesday morning (had to be at the airport at 4am!).  First reports from Hong Kong are that they are having a great time, enjoying New Year festivities.  More will be coming in the form of frequent blog postings, so return here often to stay in touch with their adventures over the next 8 weeks!

(FINAL POST of 2013 Exchange) Aiya! My Last Blog Post!

(Deanna)

Today was our official first day in Beijing. I was woken up by a woman telling people to get up at 6 am and then proceeded to go back to sleep for a little while longer. We all finally woke up at around 7:30am when we realised we were approaching the station in Beijing. Me being on the top bunk of our section I had to throw things down with Veronica to Brandon and Patty and then organize ourselves to get off the train. In getting off the train, we met our tour guide Lily. We walked about ten minutes to get to the parking lot where our van was (in Beijing, vehicles cannot always park on the street due to the large population so there are many parking lots). We went to the hotel, took showers and ate breakfast.

"Might as well throw Platform 9&3/4 in there!"

(Brandon)

Hello from Ho Chi Minh! We got on the wrong train (no one explained "platform 2" was the first floor of the station), largely due to the tickets being in Chinese and the conductors being nonexistent. Well,
it looks like we're going to have to learn Vietnamese now.

Until Next Time, Hangzhou

(Patty)

Today was the last day of our last weekend with our host families, and so three of the four bears (plus Mifield) (Brandon was busy tea shopping) met up to go ice skating. I, for one was excited to get back on the ice and really enjoyed teaching some of the other kids how to skate (which also provided some comic relief). Afterwards, we got Korean BBQ and went to go see the new Oz Movie, which was.. Interesting. In the evening, I ate a final meal with the Ye family, and packed all my stuff for Beijing.