During the half term break 20 students from the Fourth Year to Upper Sixth went to China as part of their GCSE Mandarin or A Level History courses.
There were many highlights during the packed nine day trip including:
- Climbing and then descending from the Great Wall on the first day.
- Cycling around Xian on top of its 37km long walls then visiting the Terracotta Warriors the same afternoon.
- Going on the 350km/h high speed train from Beijing to Xian, and then from Xian to Chengdu.
- Seeing both red and giant pandas at “Panda Valley” near Dujiangyan irrigation system.
- Students donning make-up and dressing in traditional costumes of the Sichuan Opera.
- Spending the final day walking around Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and seeing the sunset at the Temple of Heaven.
- Lunch and dinner were taken at local restaurants, and included dishes such as biang biang noodles, hot pot, peking duck and dumplings!
All of the students picked up a few key phrases during their stay, whilst the students studying Mandarin were able to improve their language skills by immersing themselves in the culture and speaking in shops and restaurants.
The students would like to thank Ms Zhang for her tireless efforts arranging everything, Mr Litchfield for helping run the trip, and Amy (tour leader), Jessie and Lucy (guides) who ensured everything ran seamlessly throughout our time in China.
Feedback from by students included:
- It was an incredible insight into China’s culture and the food was very very good.
- Fun, eye opening, breathtaking, immersive, engaging.
- An incredible cultural experience, unique, very fun.
- Learning about the culture, history and language at the same time was great. Each of the activities was well organised and the trip as a whole was meticulously planned.
- The trip was incredibly good and I really enjoyed all aspects of it but I especially enjoyed the culture, landscape and architecture as it was simply amazing. Furthermore I really enjoyed the history of the area and the talks on the history of each place of historic significance that we went to as it meant that it was not just sightseeing when we went to places such as the Great Wall but also a learning experience.
