A few more photos

All this travel gets exhausting!

 

Josh, Emma and Sophie at the Forbidden Palace

The Forbidden Palace

Days 1-4, Will – Beijing to Shanqing World.

Hello

 

My first impressions of china were confused ones, I saw a beautiful country but it had some terrible poverty. The housing was cramp and small and the roads busy and dangerous. I was pleasantly suprised when i actually got to know the country, even though the people live in small apartments in cramped conditions a lot of them are very happy, first two days we did a lot of tourist like things, we went to the great wall, forbidden city and tian’an’man square.

 

The more interesting part was the home stay on day 3 and 4, i got put with a 12 year old boy who had good english but lived in a poor apartment complex, it was an interesting experience to see how most normal chinese people live. I felt bad because of the fact that my home in england and our way of life is much richer. I spent the night talking to the young boy about the differences between our cultures, he enjoyed hearing about england and we chatted for a long time. The next day we went out to the park, were the main focus of the park was a 25 foot statue of chairman mao. We then moved on to lunch which we ate with my host family’s mums work colleagues, which again was an interesting occasion. After lunch we climbed hero mountain, one of many large mountains overlooking jinan, It was an amazing experience, because jinan is a huge city that looks about the size of london.

 

I had to leave my host family after that because i had a busy day with the group the next day. In the day, we went with the group to shaqing world which is an activity centre. It was a very good activity centre with very original ideas, we built huge catapults and flung water bombs at each other, which was great fun. Im having an amazing time an i hope to continue, the only real problem i have encountered at the moment is the food, eating chinese food for breakfast, lunch and dinner doesn’t go down well. I will continue to enjoy myself and blog again soon.

Days 1 – 4, Lara – Beijing to Shanqing World

Hi guys this is Lara, and this is my first blog to date, so will include all details I can remember from the trip! Be prepared for an extensive blog! Plane journey was good, first breakfast was SPICY, Great Wall was amazing.

 

Oh, and while we’re talking about the Great Wall, a few members of the group and I decided to travel down the Great Wall in a most imaginative way! We found a ride that travels down the mountain and it completely controlled by a little man who makes use of a single handle to brake. That was mighty exciting. When we arrived at the bottom we were in a market/bear place…! There were several pits, one of which was around 5m x 10m and contained 10-15 black bears. It was one of the most distressing and upsetting sights, especially as there was nothing we could do.

 

Anyway, skipping a few fun-filled and eventful days, on Saturday night we were off on our home-stays which was quite simply one of the most insanely wow experiences ever. I can’t even explain! The family were so friendly and were constantly taking photos (photos took about 1hr 30m!). Wow. I got presents (including something impressive for the lounge, Mummy and Daddy), I ate good food, we talked as much as permitted and generally had a great time. The next day, having been hurried out the door after a few more photos, we went to the zoo with a few other members of the group and their hosts. Taxis were fun, as were buses and walking and GO-KARTING! Woop! So much to talk about but no time.

 

Today was lots of activities for team building etc which was awesome. The Shandong Youth Federation hosted the day and the banquet in the evening which was so nicely organised. Had the best time. The Chinese are so friendly. I wish I could stay just to get more to grips with their culture etc. Lots of toasts after which you must finish your drink! And I thought Asians had a low tolerance…! Wow just, so much has happened.

 

The best thing has to be the food. Love it. Something different every time. My friend Dahlia and I have been daring each other to eat chilies and the like. Funny as hell.

 

Another great point is I LOVE THE GROUP OF PEOPLE! Everyone’s different and I just know I’ve made some lifelong friends. Couldn’t ask for a better group. And the leaders have been amazing too.

 

Big shout out for Tom! Miss you! (Because he asked )

 

So, bye guys! Hope everyone’s well, and will see you in just over a week! x

On the Great Wall

The group at the Great Wall, China.

 

West Sussex Youth Service at the Great Wall

 

Day One from Rosie

The flight was shorter than expected 8 hours instead of the 13 i was anticipating. We arrived at 6 in the morning according to Beijing but really it was 2 in the morning for all of us. We managed to stay awake from the airport to the hotel where we had breakfast, however me and few other people were full up and didn’t eat the Breakfast that was offered to us. In my opinion i wouldn’t have eaten it even if i was hungry!!!

  

Later we went to the great to the Great Wall of China which for me was an amazing experience. i walked all the way to the top!! James, Will, Emma, Lara, Maddie and Me went on this ride down the great wall it was really slow but i enjoyed it nethertheless unfortunately we had to walk back up and on the way saw all these bears chained up dancing and begging for food. :( on the otherhand we had an interesting lunch which i eat only the sweet and sour chicken which was lovely but were now off for a meal so cant wait to see more of china tomorrow.

 

Talk to you tomorrow seeya…. x x x x x x

Day One from Dahlia

It never really would seem real until we’d actually landed and seen it all with our own eyes. True enough, the nine hour flight didn’t prepare me for what I would see when I landed, and at no point on the flight did I truly realise that I was on my way to China on the other side of the world!

  

First impressions of Beijing Airport and the area around it are simply too intense to describe via a computer, and perhaps equally difficult to describe in words infront of someone. Just to see the shiny, new, glass, carefully crafted airport and everything around it, just perfect for the recently passed Beijing Olympics 2008. Everything is just so clean and neat, tidy and organised, it’s like living in a new world.

  

When we landed I thought I was tired, I hadn’t slept during the flight and had been up a good 6 hours before we even got on the flight. But how I felt then doesn’t even compare to how I feel now! I’m absolutely exhausted and one thing I would really love to do right now is curl up into a ball and sleep for a whole day. With that said, today was amazing.

  

We headed to the Great Wall of China and pure determination and will drove me to the highest point and furthest point that we could go to without being unable to return. I have never seen anything like it, and pictures really don’t give it any justice. Not only is it a magnificent piece of history and ancestry for the Chinese, but it’s a piece of genius work seemingly done entirely on bursts of necessity. It really is a dragon-backed snake winding all over the mountains and it was an amazing thing to see.

  

So far the food here has been quite interesting too! I’m all up for trying things and pushing the boat out, you only live once and this may be the only chance I have to do this sort of thing! Breakfast was a bit bizarre, I’m not used to it I suppose and I was still partly asleep, or at least wishing I was; a variety of spiced foods and vegetables! But the funniest thing was lunch, when Lara and I decided that we’d be even more adventurous and tried a small black something that accompanied the chicken. At first, it seemed strange and then, it hit us. It was like having a full on blazing house fire, in your mouth. Stupidly, I accepted Lara’s challenge to do it again and suffered from it! It was some kind of chili – very very hot. But we’re both fine now, so it was worth it! I’m looking forward to tonight when we can try other random things, perhaps things that are still moving on the plate!

  

Anyway, I have been typing away for ages and I don’t think I’ve done exactly what I should have… But we (Tom and I) need to go and make a video blog thing, where I will pretty much repeat this but in a way where you can see my DREADFUL face.

 

Chat soon…

Dahlia

Day One from Tom

Hello

  

How are you all? good? oh, that’s nice.I’m now sat in a fairly classy chinese hotel. I haven’t slept for a good 28 hours, yet not feeling it too much…other people have gone and slept, and are a lot worse off for it.

 

So we left heathrow on time, quite a posh new terminal they’ve got there. We had a second breakfast and boarded the plane. It was 8ish hours in the end, not the 14 hours we were told. it was a good flight, good choice of food, films etc. We landed at 5 in the morning, and headed to the hotel for yet another breakfast, we got to have some chinesey food, but once we were settled down, they brought us english food, fried eggs, bread etc. I’m not sure I really liked getting special treatment because we were europeans….

  

After breakfast, we headed for the Great Wall. On the way there on the coach, the tour guide managed to reel off fact after fact about beijing and the ming dynasty and all sorts for about an hour, with the rest of us too tired to take any in or respond.

 

Once we got there, we saw the Great Wall. Pretty great. It’s still quite surreal the whole being in china thing, so walking a good way up the Great Wall really highlighted that. I managed to end up with Bren going up the more difficult side. More difficult, but less crowded, which was pretty magical, being the only ones for ages on what is one of the greatest surviving monuments in the world. People asked us to take pictures of them and us, even though we’d never met them. Us just being there was a tourist attraction.

  

We had a large lunch and I realised I’d lost my camera. Not too good, but my phone can still take pictures, despite having no network (don’t expect calls/texts for a while) and there’s loads being taken by the other folk. I may have written a bit too much, so I’ll stop now, give someone else a go.

 

catch you later

Tom