Local School Visit

Our next stop was a local school. The school was actually a boarding school that taught English. When we arrived all the kids starting screaming "Hello!". We visited a 4th grade class where we did some introductions and exchanges gifts. Them all the kids went outside to play games. There were a ton of kids at the school and they were all so interested in us. It was funny trying to talk to them because most of them only knew a few phrases. Many of the kids wanted pictures with us. I handed out a few jolly ranchers and a few seconds later I had a big crowd around me. The jolly ranchers were a big hit and gone fast! We really enjoyed playing with all the kids at the school.

 After the school we went to a local restaurant which served some interest food choices. It was my least favorite meal so far. I was happy to finally see soy sauce though!  Before dinner we got to participate in a fun game/dance using large sticks. It was kind of like jump rope or maybe double dutch. They would hit the sticks apart and then together and the goal was to make it across without getting hit by the sticks. From the pictures below you can tell that not many of us made it across. It sure was fun though!

 Had to include this cute little boy... he was at the restaurant and sooooo cute! 

Nanning

Getting caught up on my China posts... At the end of our trip the internet didn't work most of the time. Had a wonderful trip and I can't wait to share lots of photos!

Today was a full day in Nanning. Nanning is the capital city of Southern China. It is very green and humid. Still very crowded like Beijing. Our first stop this morning was an orphanage. They held a welcoming ceremony for us. A few orphanage directors were in attendance and gave speeches. The orphanage children performed two dances for us and then some children from our group performed a variety of talents. The children were so excited to perform their dances for us. They passed out fruit, but it soon became a game of banana's turned into guns. They loved seeing the pictures I had taken on my camera of them.  

After the speeches and performances were done all the children from our heritage group put red ink on their hands and filled an album with all their hand prints and names. 

We felt like famous people after the ceremony was finished. Their were camera crews and interviewers everywhere. We snuck away for a few minutes and found rooms full of little children eating lunch. We didn't want to intrude so we just watched them for a little bit, waved, and took some photos. I wish we could have stayed longer and played with them.

 We were served lunch at the orphanage. We had some free time after lunch so a few families decided to be brave and explore Walmart while the rest of the group returned to the hotel.

Lots of strange strange things in Walmart. I did find some familiar things though like Pringles! Funny story.... We were trying to find the bathroom in Walmart so we followed the signs with the boy and girl on it. No luck. Well an older couple were watching us and were trying to help us. So hard to communicate in this country. They ended up showing us to the bathroom which was two stories down, through a parking garage and down a hallway. We never would have found it without them. Such a nice old couple! All of the families stuck together as we left Walmart and walked back to the hotel. We thought it was just a few blocks from the hotel... 45 minutes later we finally made it to the hotel, barely in time for our next excursion. Turns out we took a wrong turn... Now we can say we got lost in China! Oh and the humidity in Nanning is pretty high so we were drenched by the time we got back to the hotel. 

Beijing day 2 -Tian'anmen Square & Hutong Tour

This post was written the day we visited the forbidden city. We tried to visit Tian'anmen square but it was closed due to government meetings. We didn't find out till later that night there had been a terrorist attack until I read all the frantic texts from my mom. We had been right where the terrorist attack happened an hour or two before. I believe we were in the forbidden city when it actually happened because they kept making announcements that there were closing early. 

Today we visited the forbidden city. We also planned to visit Tian'anmen square but it was closed for a government meeting. The forbidden city was very cool, it is where the emperors lived. It was very large and there are many rooms and court yards. Only a small section is open to the public.

 If you rub the gold balls on the big red doors it is suppose to bring you luck all year

 Our next stop was the Hutong tour. Hutong is the original part of Beijing. Many of the houses there are very old. We visited a private house and a public house.

 We ate lunch at a local Hutong house. The food was good. Lots of different kinds of food. I was happy white rice was served. Throughout the Hutong tour we rode in rickshaws. Fun way to ride through that part of the city. 

The Hutong tour was very beautiful and interesting. After that we went to visit CCCWA (china center for children's welfare and adoption) it is where all the children are matched to their families. We saw the employees at work with many many files of children waiting to be matched to their families. All the children in our group then took a culture class where they learned to do calligraphy and more about their heritage. Our next stop was the tea house. A very cool experience. We were all seated at a long table and they showed us the proper way to hold our tea cups. They were more like tasting cups, very small. 

We tried 5 different kinds of tea. They taught us about all the techniques to make tea. My favorite was the tea made out of dried fruit. I also liked the jasmine tea. One of the teas we tried tasted just like roses smell. After we got our fill of tea we drove to a restaurant that served the famous Peking duck. The duck was sliced in front of us and then put into these little wraps ( I think they were rice wraps). Then we added some sauce and a few vegetables. It was a long day! Almost 12 hours of activities! Tomorrow we fly to Nanning.

Great Wall of China

Pictures from our day at the Great Wall! 

Such an awesome experience!