Day 8, Steves reflections on China

Wow. What an amazing place. I have travelled fairly extensively in south east asia but not to China but I have to say this is definately one of my favourite places. Our welcome was fantastic and the enthusiasm of our guide Ivan and the hospitality of our host from Shandong Miss Che has been wonderful. We have been very well looked after staying in some excellent four star hotels and dining in some very good quality restaurants.

My favourite bits of the trip so far have be the Great Wall and our visit to Shanqing World activity centre which was followed by our formal welcome banquet which included the signing of the formal agreement between West Sussex and Shandong Youth Federation and a speech by Jane and the president. It felt like we were there to sign a treaty on behalf of the whole UK with Jane as our head of state but despite some nerves she carried it off very well. We have had so many highlights on this trip it’s difficult to pick just a few to mention here, but the beauty of the view from the top of Tai Shan Mountain has to be one of them. I took the cable car with Maralyn and 3 of the young people whilst Jane and the other 9 young people walked the 3.3km of very steep steps. All credit to James here who ran up in just 44 minutes which is just outstanding!

We are now heading to Quindao for a couple of days before returning to Beijing. I have to say all of the young people on this trip have been awesome. Despite unfamiliar food, language and culture they have represented West Sussex exceedingly well and are a credit to us and their families back home. Your comments from back home have been very encouraging for them and it is great to see that so many people are accessing the blog. Thank you and keep commenting!

Days 3-6, Josh – Home Stay, Shanqing World, Shandong University and Tai Shan

hi people …

sorry i have not been blogging alot, been really busy .

 

so what do you need to know .. well life in china is different to the UK, not only are the people much friendler but there way of life is a lot slower then back home.

 

whilst i have been in jinan i have had an amazing host stay.. my host Mr White was a student at the shangdong university were he is studing to be a teacher. as he is living in student halls, we ended up spending the night with lara’s host family who cooked us dinner, they were very interested in the english culture, and were very excited when i showed them pictures of my family. the next day  we met up with his friends, who were also hosting members of the group and spent the morning at  jinan zoo were i had the chance to ride a camel and see my first panda. also traveled to jinan springs before going off to have lunch. if i am honest i am getting SICK of chinese food and really want to tuck into a BIG MAC  or a ROAST DINNER.

 

on monday we spent the day at Shanqing world, were we took part in team building activites,  the best part of the day was the water fight at the end of the day

 

we also had a welcome banquet where we were presented with more presents from are hosts. yesterday we travelled to the shangdong normal  university and meet up with students who gave us a guided tour of the campus, after exploring the uni we went of for lunch before going to visit the shangdong medical university, this was just  as interesting as the first university we visited. in the evening my host mr White and james’s host asked if they could take us out to explore the city centre at night, the mixture of culture was amazing, young people hang out with old people, chav’s hanging out with emo’s there seemed to be no divisions between the groups and the town centre at night looked amazing!!!  more attractive then any city centre in the UK ( see photos on blog ) the night time is when the city seems to come alive, and unlike young people in the UK people here dont need to drink to have a good time.

 

as for today well were do i start .. well my new job is as wake up call guy, this morning i was up at 6:30. we left are hotel about 8ish and drove to mt tai- shan. the mountain stands at 1500 meters, myself and a few other decided to climb the mt tai-shan we ended up climbing over 3.3 killometers up steps to the top of the mt ( see photos on blog ) i thought i was going to die !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! jane had to drag me up as after 1hour of walking my legs had gone to jelly !!!! it was one of those laugh or cry moments as we struggled up the last flight off stairs to the top known as heaven. after a tour of the top of the mt and a nice lunch we traveled down by cable car before getting back on the coach and driving to qufu the home of confucius … where we had dinner …. tomorrow we are visiting the temple of confuius as well as another university. right well there is a que of people waiting to write there blogs so im off ski now … hope your all ok back home and not missing me  to much !!!!! ( dad i know you are really ) keep checking are blog for more info love josh xx 

 

Days 3, 4 & 5, Sophie – Homestay, Shanqing World and Shandong University

Hey guys,

China is sooooo amazing!!!! Right today we went to Shandong university, we went to two different campuses, where we were shown around by some of the Chinese students. They were all very lovely and very helpful people, which we got a chance to ask lots of questions about the Chinese education. The tour started off being rather interesting but as the tour went on throughout the day it got a little boring and i think people were beginning to get tired.

  

Two days ago we went and stayed with a Chinese family during a home stay. I was already really nervous about going, but when we heard that we were staying with the families by ourselves rather than in pairs this made me even more nervous. We didn’t know anything about the families or who we were staying with, or where we were going, everybody was extremely unsure. When we came back to the hotel to meet the families they were already waiting outside, seeing them made me extremely excited rather than nervous, i was really looking forward to the experience. I stayed with a really nice family. The young person was called Christina, this was her Chinese name, they gave them selves English names so i could pronounce and remember it easier. Christina was the only one who could speak some English, who parents did not know any. The home stay was actually amazing, i am so glad i got the chance to do it!!! They welcomed me in just like a member of the family.

 

When i first got to their home and met Christina’s mother and father,we ate dinner, i was quite pleased as i was STARVING. The dinner was a traditional Chinese meal.  Christina’s mother was so lovely, she kept putting food on my plate for me, some of the stuff i did not like but ate it as i did not want to seem rude. I was so full but she kept insisting i eat the food, she even went an got another plate for me so she could pile more food on to it for me to eat. I think i must have looked hungry, i was so bloated afterwards.

 

After dinner we watched a dvd that was in english with Chinese sub titles which was very nice as i could understand. I then showed Christina and her mother some photos of me, my friends and my family on  facebook. They were very interested in the amount of brothers and sisters i had, as in China you are only allowed one child per family. The next day Christina’s mother had gone to work for an important meeting. For breakfast i tried Pigs ear and some other meat which i am not entirely sure what it was, also a thousand year old egg! Christina and her dad then took me to a Chinese museum so i could look and learn about Chinese culture, however i could not understand as everything was written in Chinese, however Christina tried her best to translate for me.

 

Christina and myself then met up with her friends called Catherine and Shelly again their English names. They were absolutely lovely, they took me to see the springs and to pizza hut, they wanted to make me feel at home which i thought was so sweet. They then took me shopping and we took many photos of us all posing together. To be honest i was so surprised i honestly felt like i had known them for ages and completely forgot about the language barrier between us, i felt like they were good friends and that i had known them for ages. We have all swapped email addresses and will definitely stay in contact with them.

 

Erm yesterday we went to Shangking world and did lots of activities, it turned out that the mother of Christina who was hosting me was in charge and showing us around, which was so amazing!! We played lots of games, including making a catipolt and aiming water bombs at each other which was hilarious. We then had to go to a Banquet which was interesting, we all a bit nervous and did not really want to go as we did not know what to expect.

 

We put on our chinese tops so they knew who we were.  when we went in we were placed in our certain seats where are names tags were, i was the guest of honor on my table as Christina’s mother was the host and i was her top guest, which i felt privileged to be, however a little embarrassed. The dinner was not as bad as i thought it was going to be, we had a lot of fun on our table actually,  every time somebody made a toast you had to down your drink if they downed there’s. I do think it is weird that Ivon does not eat with us, i feel really bad but it is because she is not allowed and has to be invited by the host, and we sorta just have to accept that!! Well i am really looking forward to the week we have left and i am so excited about the things we are getting up to xxxxx

byebye xxx

Photos – Day 4

Jane and the President of Shandong Youth Federation

 

Banquet with Shandong Youth Federation

 

West Sussex Youth Service China Exchange group at Shanqing World

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.

Day 4 – Jeremy – Shanqing World

This evening we attended the official banquet at Shanquing World, Youth Activities Centre. There wasn’t much tap water because there was a power cut and the pumps stopped working, but plenty of other drinks.  Speeches were made from the hosts, Jane and myself. Those I was sitting next to were very nice and spent a lot of time making sure I had enough to eat…which I did.

 

Jeremy at the Banquet

During the day we spent the time bonding as a team. We built catapults and played a trust game where by someone would stand on a platform about a metre and a half off the ground and have to fall back to be caught by the rest of the team. It was quite an experience because we all knew that we might not have been able to do the things we did today because of all the health and safety laws but we were assured that if it had been too bad we wouldn’t have done them. I am having a really good time although missing people at home. I feel very honoured to be spending the week in China experiencing culture particularly with such a wonderful group of young people.

 

Tomorrow we are going to visit the Shangdong Normal University meeting with students and taking part in an English lesson.