Back to base – Dahlia reflects

So we’ve all been living our ‘normal’ lives for the past 5 days now, a complete contrast to how we were living in China. The disfunctional family has been taken apart with careful hands and now sits all around the county once more, missing each other but keeping in touch! If there’s one thing I really really miss about China it’s certainly the people I was with and the life we led. A spontaneous, suprising and satsifying sort of life where absolutely anything could have been round the corner and it was just about stepping up to the challenge and facing the dark.

Lara looks up at the blue skies

I think it’s really difficult when people ask, “How was China?” or “What did you do when in China?” because there’s so much to say and I often have absolutely no idea where to start! In an attempt to ‘put it simply’, I would say it was nothing short of an amazing experience that I am honoured to have been a part of. I am so glad that we were encouraged to wake up early every day to get as much as possible packed in to each and every single day. Despite the fact that most of us thought we were going to keel over and die on the first day when after a 9 hour flight and having been up for a further 6 hours before, we were taken to the stunning Great Wall of China and offered the chance to walk the infamous steps, it was certainly worth it.

Sunny but ever so cold!

I have learnt a lot about China from being a part of this process, and one of the greatest things I think I have learnt is their passion and respect towards their history. Whilst in China we were lucky enough to visit several historic sites and have guides who knew a lot about their ancestry. Personally, I found it all intruiging and the extent of the preservation of their history just as fascinating. If there is anything worth looking at in depth, it’s most definately China’s history and progression over time. The country has come an incredibly long way and with the help from the recent developments for the Beijing Olympics, the people stand confident and proud of what they have become.

Sun rise over the Birds Nest

The Chinese people’s way of life is, as expected, very different from ours. Simple differences like their style of eating – several dishes with chopsticks, to the most common ways of travelling – bicycle, motorised bicycle, taxi or 1yuan bus. There was always so much to learn, so much to see and we were very lucky that Ivan and Miracle were always willing to help us with any questions or queries to develop our understanding.

I would personally like to say a huge thank you to Jane, Hilary, Maralyn and Steve for letting me be part of this experience and for insisting that young people were a part of this experience. Thank you also to the Shandong Youth Federation for the amazing experience and for all their hard work and planning that must have gone in to it all. And finally, a massive thank you to everyone who took part for making the trip as amazing as it possibly could be. The group bonded so well and I think we’ve all made friends we will never ever forget. I miss you all and I can’t wait till we start organising a similar trip for the Chinese when they come over to England!

Day 3, Maddie – Homestay

When we arrived at our hotel, after a 3 hour train journey from Beijing, there were Chinese young people waiting for us in the lobby. There was a short, awkward hello before we were paired up with someone from the Chinese party. My exchange partner went by the name of ‘Jayce’; she was 18 years old and was studying English at university. Everyone collected their luggage and then parted ways to make their way to the Chinese young person’s home.

Jayce explained to me that we couldn’t go to her parents house as that would take 3 hours traveling (she couldn’t drive so there were few other options to get there). Instead Jayce’s boyfriend had said that we could both stay round for the night. We walked for around 30 minutes until we reached a corner were we hailed a taxi – it took almost an hour to drive to the flat. Before we arrived, Jayce kept saying that the building was old and that she was sorry that she couldn’t introduce me to her parents.

 

The building was incredibly old; the block of flats had windows missing, no front door, and the mosquito nets on the windows had holes. The building also had not been painted and dust from the road had spilled in a bit from the wind. The flat had three rooms in total; two bedrooms and one kitchen. In the kitchen only had a sink and a work top. Jayce’s boyfriend had bought some metal pots that he could plug into the wall to cooked / boil his food. The flat genuinely had no bathroom. There was only one toilet for the entire floor. It was in a very small place – like a cleaner’s cupboard – and didn’t have a window. It was similar to a squatting toilet in France, only without foot places and didn’t have a proper flushing device. I think that on every floor the toilets must have all been in the same places as a large water pipe ran down the side of the wall (a smaller pipe was attached to it and was shaped so that it poured water into the bowl of the toilet when a lever was held down). A cardboard box was placed to cut off the opposite corner – I’m not sure why, but I think it because there was a hole where a pipe had once been. There was also no toilet paper or light.

 

Jayce was so nice to me – she was an amazing person and very kindhearted. Her boyfriend cooked us both some dumplings and a tomato-egg dish, which both tasted great. After eating, Jayce showed me around her neighborhood. As soon as we walked out I saw two young boys playing on the broken path with old bricks and broken tiles. I was shocked that they were on their own and playing with things that could easily cut them. I waved to them and they bashfully waved back. Jayce showed me one of the most wonderful fountains I have ever seen; it was just a 10 second walk away and still in her neighborhood of flats. Each jet of water had a different colour light shining on it to give it the effect that you were watching a moving rainbow. We then played on the outdoor gym.

 

Fountains in Jinan

 

 

 

 A lot of outdoor gym can be found in the cities in China; some are right next to the bus stops to give the people waiting something to do. The gym is free to use and helps keep the older residents fit and healthy. It also means that the community of the area is very good; they all know each other, respect and trust them. Our walk was around 10pm, so I was surprised that there were next to no adults walking around. I found out that they tend to go to bed early as on average they get up at 5am to get ready. We walked back to the flat and I met the two young boys again. I realised that Jayce wasn’t worried about them being on their own because everyone knew each other and that they were safe to be on their own (the bricks they had found themselves, so I don’t think that their parents knew that they played with them). They boys started talking to me in Chinese, asking were I came from. After Jayce told them that I came from England, they tried their best to talk some English to me – they also tried to teach me Chinese but he insisted that my pronunciation was too bad.

 

After I had stayed the night Jayce told me that she was very proud that her boyfriend had a good job and was paying to live by himself. He had worked hard to afford what he could and I realised that a lot of young people in England can’t afford a home unless they take out a mortgage. Even after that, the ex-university students still find that they have to pay off their university loan along with their mortgage. Jayce’s boyfriend didn’t owe money; he bought what he could afford and saved for the things he needed. For the average Chinese person they work or socialise to the point were their home is just a place for them to sleep for the night. Why pay more money for luxuries that they wouldn’t have time to use and could be found at work anyway? This seems to be their attitude for their way of living. Along with their opinions on western style toilets – they believe they are unhygienic due to the fact hundreds of people could have sat on the toilet seat before they have sat on them. Once again, a western style toilet is a more expensive version of the necessary. Toilet paper isn’t supplied in most public toilets because people tend to take it. They do it to save money buy because toilet paper is quite expensive in China.

 

The morning after Jayce took me to a place to eat breakfast. It was family run business that served breakfast to most of the people living in the flats. It was in front of a shack. It’s the best way I can described the house. There was a long line of them all using the front part of their house for something different – one just had a garden full of beer. I had the best breakfast I had had during my time in China. After having meal after meal of some elaborate way to cook meat, the plain pork, rice and egg was the nicest I had tasted.  I sat on a small fold out chair that meant my knees became level to the table and looked out to see collapsed shacks across the dirt road. The local people kept on walking to the edge of the shack to stare at me eating with chopsticks and sometimes asked Jayce where I came from.

 

Days 2-4, Dahila – Home Stay, Zoo and Shanqing World

Adventure day (and a bit about yesterday!)

 

I had so much to say about yesterday, so much in fact that I didn’t think I could possibly write a blog, not to mention I was quite tired, so I will give a quick update on here, but I believe there is a film somewhere, an interview, in which I properly express my experiences from yesterday.

 

We had our home stay the day before yesterday which was, in short, very interesting and a worthwhile experience. My Chinese friend was Wenwen Gao, a petite 20 year old student who lives on the outside of Jinan. Shortly after we met our new friends, we were whisked off out of the hotel and onto the streets. After a moment of complete confusion amongst us Brits and a lot of discussion between the Chinese, two of the male friends disappeared with James and Josh’s luggage and the rest of us, including James, Josh and Lara plus the female friends and one of their friends, headed off in the opposite direction! We walked for at least half an hour before they hailed two taxis and headed off to our new homes…

 

Where I stayed was, quite simply, in the middle of no where. It was far out of Jinan in a small community of land workers and children. The house, although large on the outside, was small on the inside as most of the space was concreted outdoor space. Wenwen has a brother, 8 years old and lives with her two parents. I had a very polite evening, listening to lots of Chinese and meeting all their neighbours and their children as they came in and out. I was quite tired though so headed to bed considerably earlier than everyone else in the house. To be honest, my experience at the house wasn’t thrilling but it was really nice because the family were so polite, friendly, smiley and welcoming. My worst experience there was most definately the toilets. The house had no running water, meaning no taps which leads to no sinks, no showers and no flushes. The toilet is, quite literally – and I’m not exaggerating, a brick hut – no door – outside with a rectangle cut out of the ground leading to a deep ditch… That, was all. I’m having difficulty with the toilets here… A lot of difficulty, more so in the sense that I don’t feel clean after using them or even as I enter them (particularly public toilets!), but even toilets in restaurants!! 

 

The following day, ie. yesterday, Wenwen and I headed out of the house, with my black, white and red spotty suitcase, to the zoo. We waited and met (eventually), with Jeremy, Lara, James and Josh and walked, with my suitcase, down the long side road in to the zoo. We spent the day there, saw a baby Panda and Siberian tigers, fed elephants and deer and stroked camels… Not to mention we drove (super fast) go-karts around a track – grreeaatt fun! After that we headed to one of the four Jinan springs… then went to Wal*Mart and then had lunch before heading back to Jeremy’s friends house, where my suitcase had appeared (magic.) and then back to the hotel.

All in all, it was a great experience and I am really glad we did it! We also got on the *1 Yuan* busses, the bus that costs 10p to get absolutely anywhere in Jinan from absolutely anywhere – very interesting experiences there as well.

 

Today was another day though… And to be honest, I will probably write a lot on that too, despite the fact that I am going to try my best to keep it short and as interesting as possible…!

 

First thing in the morning we bundled in to the coach and headed to Shan Quing World, the adventure centre combined with a hotel, restaurant and farm plots. We did some team building activities, had some lunch, catapulted water bombs at each other, played some tennis and basketball, climbed a few walls, got changed and headed to the banquet dinner. The banquet was nice, we were sitting with very important people from the Youth Federation and chatting to them all about things and letting it go through the translator first… The food was the same as at lunch time and most of us didn’t eat much, but it was pleasant because they are so kind, polite and friendly, despite their status.

 

I’m tired now. Good night xx