Day 7 (17 July 2016)

Day 2 in Harbin started very early with all of us, apart from Alex DLB and Rosie (who are usually the early birds) oversleeping and us running down to breakfast which again was a mixture of classic Western and Chinese food... It was delicious.
After breakfast we walked towards our first Chinese lecture which we were all very excited but slightly nervous about as we don't know any Chinese except for basic phrases. It was very informative and useful with us learning the 4 tones of the  Chinese language and the pinyin song of letters. We were all very good at this by the end of the morning.
After our amazing lecture we headed for lunch which was slightly more authentic Chinese food, however we were all looking forward to the traditional dishes of Harbin for dinner as our volunteers were taking us to a famous pancake restaurant. Soon after lunch we went by coach to our first official visit in Harbin which was the Flood Control Monument. We took lots of photos and the school banner made its first appearance in Harbin. The. Monument is found at the end of Central Avenue, a huge road with lots of shops along it. These are a mixture of Chinese, Russian and European shops like Zara. We also found a Nanbos, definitely a Nandos but spelt Nanbos. 
Central avenue, like a lot of harbin was built by Russians and so the architecture is very different in some areas. Some of us also saw St Sofia church, a beautiful church built by the Russians in 1907. 
We seem to get more attention in Harbin than Beijing with lots more people wanting to take our photograph as we walked around... We feel famous! We all bought a few classic tourist gifts with Rosie, myself (Dannielle) and Roxana buying fridge magnets and Alex and Alex buying a bracelet. We also bought Russian bread, a traditional food in Harbin and a particular type of ice lolly which Harbin is famous for. They are very creamy with a slightly spicy vanilla flavour - not as good as ube in a certain someone's opinion (Alex!). After looking around the shops and taking lots of photos we bought some bubble making sticks which made giant bubbles that could be released into the air. This turned a bunch of 'mature' year 10 students into 5 year olds again with lots of students from other schools joining in to pop the bubbles - it was so much fun! Mrs Hudson managed to catch some sneaky photos of us running around doing this. We are getting to know some of the other students really well and this was a great icebreaker for those we don't yet.
We then headed to the famous pancake restaurant which is famous for its dumplings and pancakes and apparently there's one in every province in China. These were delicious and we all agreed this was our favourite meal that we've had so far in China. After this we headed back to the university thinking we were going to relax and get ourselves ready for another day of laughter, learning and love (Mrs Hudson had other plans ;) ). About half an hour after returning home Mrs Hudson sent us a message to see if we wanted to join another school group and some volunteers, to go and visit the harbin markets. We all said yes and off we went on another mini adventure. The markets were amazing and gave us a real taste of genuine Harbin life. There were lots of stalls selling jewellery, bags and clothes and there was also a food section where they were cooking pigs trotters, kidneys and lots of seafood. Roxana and myself bought a necklace and Alex bought a key ring but there was so much to see. Rosie and Alex bought a rainbow drink and Mrs Hudson asked them 'why the colours weren't mixing' (always thinking science!). Rosie explained this perfectly which we were all very pleased about. Rosie and Alex also bought a 'chip stick' which is basically a giant stick with flat potato slices on it that is fried and then spices are added. This was delicious!
After this we all headed back to the university, tired but very happy. We were all asleep in no time. 
All the best to everyone back in the UK .... we all miss you very much. See you all soon, goodbye and goodnight from China.

Dannielle Jones