On the 16^th October, 15 Sixth formers went on the return leg of our exchange programme to China for 2 weeks. We would like to thank Dr Stirrup and Mrs Yang Williams for this great opportunity.

The next day we arrived in Jinan and met our exchange partners at the school. It was really nice to see them again even though it was only 4 months since they had come to London. At the end of the day I was nervous about meeting her family because they didn’t speak any English. I soon realised that there wasn’t a problem with the language barrier as we were able to communicate in other ways. Humour and laughter are the same all over the world. I loved the evenings while I was there as they made me feel at home and really looked after me.

 

Jinan Middle School is quite different from our school. The classes are much bigger in size with 60 pupils in one class, 1400 students in a year and the school day is quite long too. The lessons begin at 7.30am and finish at 5.40pm as they have 8 lessons a day- but they do get two hours for lunch. The school is very big on exercise, and the whole school has morning exercises and eye exercises every day. We got to experience some of their lessons such as English and sports such as table tennis, tai chi and volleyball lessons.

We went on many day trips and discovered the beauty of Jinan. Firstly we climbed Mount Tai, the most sacred mountain in China. Then we went sightseeing in Jinan’s city square and saw the famous blue statue that symbolises ‘The city of springs’, as Jinan is called. There is a fountain there shaped like a lotus, the city’s symbolic flower. The next place that we visited was Damming Lake - one of the city’s main natural attractions that is really beautiful. We also saw many springs such as the Black Tiger Spring, Pearl Spring and Baotu Spring. Baotu spring is very famous with a history going back 2700 years. Jinan is known as the "City of Springs" because of the large number of natural artesian springs. There are more than 700 springs within Jinan City, each of them unique.

 

We visited another school during our stay in Jinan. Instead of learning academic subjects, the students in this vocational school learnt how to do things such as count money, carve table decorations out of vegetables, hand-make noodles and put sheets on beds. We all joined in with various games including skipping and basketball.

The highlight of the day was definitely when we competed against the students in a game of tug of war, and won.

 

The students there made us feel like celebrities and they all wanted to have photographs taken with us, as they had not met Westerners before. In fact, we felt like celebrities during our whole stay in Jinan.

 

The food in China is very different to the food in England. There is a lot more variety in China. Some of us were even offered cows stomach and duck head. Dumplings are a favourite in China and one day a Chinese family showed us how to make them. Eating with chopsticks was also very eventful. Another main attraction for us was shopping at the markets. There were big malls full of markets where you could barter everything down to the price you were happy with. We also visited a traditional Chinese market, selling old coins and stamps.

 

During our last couple of days in China, we visited several more famous cultural sites. Back in Beijing we visited The Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is famous for having the longest corridor in the world, which takes a whole hour to walk down and also for its huge manmade lake. In the evening we all went to see an acrobatic show. The performers were amazing, including a man who stacked 15 chairs one on top of another and did handstands on the top. The day before we left for the airport we visited the Temple of Heaven. We took it in turns to stand on a round stone and say something because it has been said you can hear echoes if you listen carefully.

On the last day we went for a long walk on the Great Wall. Being on the Great wall is a surreal experience. It was essentially in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains and lakes and was built thousands of years ago. Parts of the wall were falling apart, showing us how old and monumental it really is. We walked to fifteen towers - there are 10,000 in total - in three hours and could see the surroundings for miles because of the perfectly clear skies.

 

As you can see we had a great time in China, and if you ever have the chance to take part in this trip, we would highly recommend it. This trip was an amazing experience that none of us will ever forget.

 

Archanna Arunathevan, Sarah Brook, Lynsey Davies, Sophie Ferguson, Rebecca Gravell, Laura Johnson, Rianna Lofts, Hannah Mead, Hayley Pavis, Brooke Porter, Georgia Price, Shria Radia, Payal Tripathi, Grace Whitby, Lisa Wondzinski

The next day we arrived in Jinan and met our exchange partners at the school. It was really nice to see them again even though it was only 4 months since they had come to London. At the end of the day I was nervous about meeting her family because they didn’t speak any English. I soon realised that there wasn’t a problem with the language barrier as we were able to communicate in other ways. Humour and laughter are the same all over the world. I loved the evenings while I was there as they made me feel at home and really looked after me.

 

Jinan Middle School is quite different from our school. The classes are much bigger in size with 60 pupils in one class, 1400 students in a year and the school day is quite long too. The lessons begin at 7.30am and finish at 5.40pm as they have 8 lessons a day- but they do get two hours for lunch. The school is very big on exercise, and the whole school has morning exercises and eye exercises every day. We got to experience some of their lessons such as English and sports such as table tennis, tai chi and volleyball lessons.

We went on many day trips and discovered the beauty of Jinan. Firstly we climbed Mount Tai, the most sacred mountain in China. Then we went sightseeing in Jinan’s city square and saw the famous blue statue that symbolises ‘The city of springs’, as Jinan is called. There is a fountain there shaped like a lotus, the city’s symbolic flower. The next place that we visited was Damming Lake - one of the city’s main natural attractions that is really beautiful. We also saw many springs such as the Black Tiger Spring, Pearl Spring and Baotu Spring. Baotu spring is very famous with a history going back 2700 years. Jinan is known as the "City of Springs" because of the large number of natural artesian springs. There are more than 700 springs within Jinan City, each of them unique.

 

We visited another school during our stay in Jinan. Instead of learning academic subjects, the students in this vocational school learnt how to do things such as count money, carve table decorations out of vegetables, hand-make noodles and put sheets on beds. We all joined in with various games including skipping and basketball. The highlight of the day was definitely when we competed against the students in a game of tug of war, and won. The students there made us feel like celebrities and they all wanted to have photographs taken with us, as they had not met Westerners before. In fact, we felt like celebrities during our whole stay in Jinan.

 

The food in China is very different to the food in England. There is a lot more variety in China. Some of us were even offered cows stomach and duck head. Dumplings are a favourite in China and one day a Chinese family showed us how to make them. Eating with chopsticks was also very eventful. Another main attraction for us was shopping at the markets. There were big malls full of markets where you could barter everything down to the price you were happy with. We also visited a traditional Chinese market, selling old coins and stamps.

 

During our last couple of days in China, we visited several more famous cultural sites. Back in Beijing we visited The Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is famous for having the longest corridor in the world, which takes a whole hour to walk down and also for its huge manmade lake. In the evening we all went to see an acrobatic show. The performers were amazing, including a man who stacked 15 chairs one on top of another and did handstands on the top. The day before we left for the airport we visited the Temple of Heaven. We took it in turns to stand on a round stone and say something because it has been said you can hear echoes if you listen carefully.

On the last day we went for a long walk on the Great Wall. Being on the Great wall is a surreal experience. It was essentially in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains and lakes and was built thousands of years ago. Parts of the wall were falling apart, showing us how old and monumental it really is. We walked to fifteen towers - there are 10,000 in total - in three hours and could see the surroundings for miles because of the perfectly clear skies.

 

As you can see we had a great time in China, and if you ever have the chance to take part in this trip, we would highly recommend it. This trip was an amazing experience that none of us will ever forget.

 

Archanna Arunathevan, Sarah Brook, Lynsey Davies, Sophie Ferguson, Rebecca Gravell, Laura Johnson, Rianna Lofts, Hannah Mead, Hayley Pavis, Brooke Porter, Georgia Price, Shria Radia, Payal Tripathi, Grace Whitby, Lisa Wondzinski