Day 11

Today was a very busy day! After packing all our belongings, we had a large breakfast. Following breakfast we took a short bus ride to the Mt. Hua parking lot. We then took a shuttle bus to the cable cars after getting our tickets. The cable car ride was peaceful and the scenery very beautiful. After getting off, we began our journey on the most dangerous mountain in China. The spectacular view from above was breathtaking. Before we reached the “Dragon’s Mouth” (the start point of the hike) we split into two groups. One group dared to challenge themselves aiming to reach the peak at a faster pace and the relaxed group, the ones who wanted to enjoy the scenery at a less dangerous and challenging pace. One group reached Mid peak (2,037 m) – so called because it sits between the east and the west peaks and there witnessed spectacular views. Many photos were taken from this point. On the return journey, we enjoyed an ice cream to reward out persistence. We experienced the true beauty of Chinese nature including animals and native plants. We rejoined the rest of the group at the North Peak and made our way back down in the cable cars. In all we had spent 5 hours on Mt Hua. On our return to the Hotel we had a delicious dinner. Afterwards we went to the train station where we had to wait for several hours before boarding our train to Shanghai. When the train arrived we hurried to board- we were Shanghai bound! Patrick and Lochlan

Day 10

On Wednesday the 21st the Mazenod Chinese Tour group went and saw the Xian City Wall, small Wild Goose Pagoda, the Hua Qing Hot Springs and finally the Terracotta Warriors. The Xian City Wall gave a great insight to the architecture of the Tang Dynasty. It was a great historical significance and we all enjoyed taking photos and viewing the ancient city from its thick defensive walls. The small Wild Goose Pagoda is a large tower of translated Buddhist scriptures surrounded by calm and soothing gardens. It otherwise consisted of few smaller buildings, one of which has been partially overgrown by vines. Everyone enjoyed exploring this ancient tourist attraction, which is of great importance to Buddhist religion. We then went to the Hua Qing Hot Springs. It’s a series of bathing pools for the emperor, his wife and family and the rest of the officials. The hot springs were consistently warm and made especially to live out the cold winter. The whole location was very beautiful. For the final part of the day, we visited the Terracotta Warriors. It consisted of a collection of pits, which contained 8000 soldiers, designed with different facial expressions. There were also 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses. There was also a museum, which sold which sold Terracotta Warrior miniatures made with actual terracotta. We thought of the Terracotta Warriors as a 2000 year old wonder of the world that cannot be missed.

Day 8 & Day 9

On Monday, we had an early start at 4 am, catching the morning bullet train to Xi’An. The train travelled at 300km/h and the journey took 5.5 hours. On our arrival in this ancient city, we spent the afternoon relaxing and settling in before a dinner of Hot Pot. Chinese Hot Pot is a meal where each person cooks there own meal in a small pot of hot broth. We all enjoyed cooking for ourselves and have vowed to do more of it when we return home!! On Tuesday morning, after waking up at the Xi’An City Hotel, we set off to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The Big Wild Goose Pagoda was used to store Buddhist scrolls brought from India. The pagoda is currently an active temple with numerous monks practicing Buddhism. The Pagoda is on a slight lean due to earthquakes in the area. The Chinese call it the “Leaning tower of Xi’An”. The tour guide showed us Chinese paintings and calligraphy. We each had our Chinese names painted on a sheet of rice paper, and some of us bought paintings along with their names. After the Big Wild Goose Pagoda we enjoyed a delicious lunch buffet at a 5 star restaurant. Even the toilets had 5 star service, with a butler attending to our needs , turning on the taps, giving us towels to dry our hands and opening and closing the door. Once we had finished lunch, we had planned to ride the ancient city wall however as it was raining heavily, we went to the Muslim market instead. There, many boys practiced their bargaining skills buying small items. After dinner, we went to a traditional Chinese performance, which showcased many acts of music and dance. It was very interesting to watch and listen. When the show had finished, we walked back to our hotel whilst taking many photos of Xi’An at night.

Day 7

Today was our last day in Beijing, and was by far, the most tiring. We had breakfast at the usual time and it was no different from the previous days. At 8am we set off for the Great Wall of China. We learnt that the wall was first built during the Qin Dynasty to keep out the Mongolians. However during the Tang dynasty, there was no wall construction as they were very powerful and respected and during the Yuan dynasty the Mongols ruled China and felt no need to build fortifications. When the wall was still in use people used fire during the night and the burnt smoke of wolf dung during the day as signals to warn nearby watchtowers of enemies. The climb itself was both tiring and arduous, but the satisfaction we received when we reached the top was to die for. The view from the top made the whole climb worthwhile, despite physically destroying ourselves, and the blood, sweat and tears we all shared. In the words of Chairman Mao we could finally be seen as true men. After, we all ‘dabbed’ on the Great Wall, teachers included. After arriving back from the Great wall, the lunch we had was one that we all wish we could have again, mainly because the deep-fried chips reminded us of McDonalds. We also enjoyed the sweet and sour pork. The vegetables were nice too, according to those people who dared touch those tainted things. The rest of the day wasn’t nearly as exhausting, for we travelled to Beijing Olympic Park and saw the 2008 Olympic venues, including the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube. We spent 40 minutes taking in the sights and exploring the area; unfortunately we could not go inside as the tickets cost money. Overall it was an eventful day in Beijing and one we’re all sure to remember. -Felix and Andrew

Day 6

Today we went to the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, ate Peking duck and watched an amazing acrobatics show. The Summer Palace is very large, and is the king’s palace in the summer. The Kunming Lake covers most of it, which we crossed in a dragon boat. For lunch, we had Peking duck at a fancy restaurant, which was very tasty. The temple of heaven is where the king went, annually, for a worship ceremony to pray for good harvest. It also has a wishing stone which grants one wish to the person standing on it. Many of us such as Felix (who earned 16 yuan), Lawrence, Nathan and Lachlan took pictures with girls when we had free time to explore. We watched an acrobatics show called ‘the wonderful Han’. They did many amazing tricks and acts but the highlights were the death ball and an act that involved some metal structure, which looked like police cuffs. Those two acts were very interesting, it made us all gaze in awe and stood out a lot compared to the other acts which had minor mistakes that had been very obvious. One of the awesome acts where a ball that had 5 motorcyclists doing tricks inside out; like driving upside down and on the side of the walls. It got really crowded with 5 motorcyclists and looked like some people would get seriously hurt but you could tell that the cyclists had been practicing for ages to get this right on the day. The police cuffs also looked like it was also very dangerous. The police cuff was rotating at high velocity and the performer acted out stunts that no one in their right mind would do unless they had been practicing like he did, he even went blindfolded and also juggled with pins (without the blindfold) while walking free hand on the rotating, huge police cuffs. The acrobatic acts were so cool and looked impossible to us and everyone else watching and you can tell the time it took for them to get it just right. The ride home was not long at all because we had all been exhausted and had a chance to sing with everyone on the bus in unison.

Day 5

Most of us did everything as we usually did everyday, woke up at 7am, breakfast at 7.30, wash face, etc. We had class straight after at 8.30 am. Ms Chen gave us an unscheduled lesson on the “Golden Rule” which was a translation sentence pattern. We sang the song “Sorry my Chinese is bad”. Then we had a competition between the teams on the best oral presentation of our best diary entry, critiqued by Ms Lin. Felix and Ash got first place for their respective teams. The first prizes they received were fans with the schools name on it (in Chinese) and a Chinese drawing. Everyone else received a Chinese knot for participation. We had lunch at 12pm, which was straight after classes. For lunch we had rice, fried Bok Choy and fried chicken, which everyone wanted the most, as it tasted like KFC. At 2pm we had calligraphy class, which was in the room exactly below our drawing class, before the class even started we had a problem, no ink. We had to then get the ink from the class above us. Then our calligraphy teacher, Mr. Li, showed us how to draw the basic strokes and how to hold our brushes. We started drawing after we received our ink. We also received a sheet filled with Chinese characters, we all thought it was our practice sheet and we were going to draw our calligraphy on a white piece of paper; but we could not be more mistaken, the “practice” sheets were actually the final copies. Later that night, at 6.30 we had a Kung Fu class, same teachers as the last session, and this was our final session. Almost no one was looking forward to this class. We learnt new Kung Fu patterns and had a competition between the two teams. Random people kept coming into the class and interrupting, with the most notable interruption of two random people “dabbing” and us “dabbing” back. Team A (Alana’s group) won, but thinking we lost due to the extremely late response from the teachers, did 10 pushups anyway (agreed upon by both teams prior to the competition), we all ended up doing ten pushups as a result of this, with a single person attempting to do more “for fun”. Despite not looking forward to the class, it was very fun, and we all ended up enjoying it. We finished class at 8pm and went to sleep at 10pm.

Day 4

Thursday 15th September 2016 Happy Mid Autumn Festival! Today we woke up at 6:45 just like all our other days. Today’s breakfast was very interesting. There were many different dishes, but the group favorite was definitely the Chinese donut. Class started at 8:30 just like Tuesday and consisted of 4- 45-minute periods with 10-minute break in between each. Everyone enjoyed class today as we played heaps of Chinese games. We were playing a game like sheraids but had to talk in Chinese and act a Chinese word out. Everyone had to keep saying bizui (be quiet) to chenlaoshi and linlaoshi as they kept trying to help each group. Fanlaoshi who is one of our Chinese teachers here, made the losing team sing and dance to Pingguo (apple) and dui bu qi (sorry) which are both Chinese songs. Fanlaoshi made todays class very fun and interesting and we’re all trying to get linlaoshi and chenlaoshito play the same game when we return to Australia. Everyone washed their clothes after lunch. For a lot of boys it was their first time washing their clothes, as we all have loving parents back home who normally do it for us. Washing was easy and only cost five yuan for a wash. Dumpling making though was by far the highlight of the day. It was a really fun experience and one to remember. Everyone enjoyed eating them for dinner. Linlaoshi and chenlaoshi were by far the best at making them. Many people also ate moon cakes as today the whole of China celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival. As we continue to stay within China’s border our knowledge and understanding of Chinese Language and Culture expands. Farewell for now zaijian.