Our Arrival in Hangzhou and My Apartment

After a 14-plus hour over night train ride from Beijing, we finally arrived at our new “home” early Wednesday morning. The Hangzhou High School welcoming committee were on the platform to greet us and, after introductions by all, whisked us off to the the high school.

Hangzhou is a very cosmopolitan city with lovely architecture and areas of great natural beauty. (As we drove through the city that morning, however, we weren’t able to fully appreciate it until a day or two later.) We drove through the school gates past impressive academic and administrative buildings. Founded in 1899 Hangzhou High School is considered one of the best private high schools in the Zhejiang Province. With over 2,000 students, some 175 faculty members and a rigorous curriculum, it more closely resembles a university or college than a high school.

Settling In -- In Hangzhou

Hello friends! After one month straight of pure travel, we’ve finally moved in with our host families in Hangzhou. It was a big adjustment, but just a few days in and this incredible city is already starting to feel like home.
As I write this, I’m sitting in Hangzhou City Library with my host sister, Sunny. It’s Sunny’s family tradition to come with her parents to this gigantic, beautiful library to do their work every Sunday, which I'm 100% on board with because I love libraries and the wifi here is magnificent.

I moved into Sunny’s apartment on Wednesday of last week, after a bumpy nighttime sleeper train from Beijing and a warm welcome from the Hangzhou High School staff. I was a little bit worried that after the thrill of travel -a different hotel everyday, airports, monuments, hikes- that I would be more prone to homesickness in Hangzhou. I wasn’t wrong, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that being in a school and in somebody else’s home made us all yearn for our own family, friends, and bed. It even felt weird to not be living with Jenny anymore, we had gotten so used to the constancy of each other’s company. The first couple of days we all felt the difficulty of adjusting to the new environment.

The Great Wall Toboggan

Hey everybody! I’m back with another story. So a few days ago we got the privilege of visiting the Great Wall of China, which as you all know is one of the most famous landmarks in the world. We left our hotel at 10:30 to embark on our journey to the wall. Unfortunately, the great wall is a great distance away from Beijing, so we had to deal with a 90 minute car ride. This was somewhat nice, because we were able to get a long nap in before the wall.

When we got to the site we realized it was lunchtime. Another obstacle had prevented us from the wall. This lunch was a small walk away, and when we got inside we realized it was boiling hot in the restaurant. So we had to take off our jackets and sweatshirts to readjust to the temperature, and then put them all back on after lunch to prepare for the chilly 40 degree weather of outside.

Kids in China - A Joy to Behold

I’ll admit that I was a little apprehensive about what children in China would be like. We all know about China’s One Child Policy which was instituted in 1979 to help control the population. As you can imagine, that one child was the recipient of love and attention not only of their parents but also grandparents. Unfortunately, however, since sons have traditionally been the heirs and caretakers for their parents, new parents were taking drastic measures to insure that their one child was a boy. The result was a drastic imbalance between the number of boys versus girls born for almost 40 years. In 2015 the government eased that policy and families are now having more than one child which was evident everywhere we went!

There seemed to be children everywhere we went and I’ve been getting a kick out of seeing them (and their parents)!! I also ended up taking pictures (some candid - some with the proud parents’ permission) of kids doing what kids do anywhere in the world. I’ve created a GOOGLE SITE WITH PICTURES I’ve taken. The captions tell you where we are and the jist of what’s going on - but what I was struck by was how similar kids are - wherever they are from and whatever their circumstances.

Not the Kind of Tie-Dye We Know

On our second day in Dali, after wandering the morning market and exploring a bit of the old town, we followed our guide Nancy through a small alley way which opened into the courtyard of a traditional Chinese home. This courtyard, however, was completely taken up by two large tables covered in a thick white fabric, a gigantic wooden bucket as tall as I am, all sorts of other tools, and most strikingly, dozens and dozens of intricately patterned cloths hung from strings crisscrossing the yard, dividing the space with huge swaths of color. Most of the pieces of fabric were rectangles, a deep indigo color with white designs on them, but some were circular and others more narrow rectangles. A few were red, or green, or multicolored the way we in America generally think of tie-dye, but most were blue and they fluttered in the wind, their colors glowing brighter in the sun: it was a beautiful sight.

Mountain Day Story

What’s up DS? I’m here to tell you all about a nice day going up and down a mountain near Shaxi village. We’ve seen a few mountains on our trip so far, but we had a much more thorough visit to this one.

Up until this point, we would wake up around 6:00-7:00am, something none of us were too fond of. Luckily our day didn’t begin until 10:30, so we all got some much needed rest. After a healthy breakfast, we hopped into our van and drove up part of the mountain for a few hours to go and pick up some lunch. We had the pleasure of eating our midday meal about halfway up the mountain, which provided us with a pretty cool view. Lunch itself was an awesome, unique experience. We had a barbecue pit in the center of our table and got to cook our own food on a raging fire. Overall a stellar meal.

"Can we take a selfie?"

We had all been warned that when we visited the more remote areas of China, that some people might ask to take pictures with us. I didn't really entertain this thought for long, and I think we'd all forgotten that it was a thing since Hong Kong was such an international city, and there were plenty of travelers from across the world. We certainly weren't a rarity!

Guilin, though, was almost entirely Chinese tourists. It really began when, on the roof of the Li River Cruise Ship, three old women grabbed Jenny as she came up the stairs and had her pose with them for multiple shots. A bit jarring for Jenny, but the ladies were very kind and absolutely thrilled that she was going to be a part of their vacation photos. They had asked first, and it wasn't like we weren't expecting it, so it wasn't too big of a deal. Though strange, none of us were offended, and we found it pretty funny.

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.

An Amazing Start in Hong Kong

After a seemingly endless day of travel and a disorienting amount of time on planes, we disembarked into the Hong Kong international airport, and proceeded to immediately get lost searching for our coach to the hotel. After a lap or two of the airport and a little more waiting we were driving (on the wrong side of the road) towards the city, which seemed to come out of nowhere and soon surrounded us on all sides. Although we had no idea what time it felt like to us, it was technically around 9:30 pm or so, and looking out the bus windows we were immediately transfixed by the sheer amount of lights coming from apartment towers and business buildings no matter where we looked out the window. It was Chinese New Years Eve, but by the time we made it to the hotel and checked in we were too exhausted to go out anywhere, and instead just called it a night.

[FIRST POST of 2017 Exchange] And They're Off!

Bright and early this morning, the 2017 D-S China Exchange Group left for China! After months of preparation including in-depth study in a special course this fall, they will find themselves in Hong Kong for Chinese New Year's and all the celebrations. Follow their adventures over the next 8 weeks by bookmarking this live blog, and feel free to post your comments and questions!  

(Please note that posting dates and times are in CHINA TIME, including this post.  The Exchange left Boston Logan Airport at 8:00am on Thursday, January 26.)