Part 1
So today we visited one of the seven wonders of the world: The Great Wall and it was amazing. It took two hours to get there and on the way our guide Kevin told us all about it ...
The wall was built 2500 years ago and it was mostly farmers and soldiers that made it - about 1 million people died and they were buried underneath as a sacrifice to make it strong. The wall was built to keep out the Mongolian people that kept coming into China to steal and kill people. Today the wall is seen as a symbol of love and a lot of people go there to propose, as it means your love is strong and will last forever like the wall.
Kevin also said that in china you are not seen as a real man until you have been to the Great Wall so we would all become real men (and women) today! He also said he had been there over 300 times so he was now a 'superman' - we're not sure which parts of the stories he makes up.
We arrived at the wall and had two hours to walk along it. I got a little hyper and powered through to the top (dragging Rosie along with me). When we arrived we took lots of pictures and we made sure to get one with the school banner. Even though a few people stopped and some sat at different parts, everyone made it to the top so we were all very proud of ourselves (it's crazy steep!). When we were all there we went into the shop and I bought a 'I climbed the Great Wall of China' tee shirt. We then took the scenic route back down where we could look over and see the other parts of the wall winding away over the mountain. It was incredible. We all stopped off at the bottom for a well deserved ice cream (and I found another ube ice cream (a cornetto this time).
We also managed to fit in a game of 'where's Kevin?' so we could find our guide again to return to the bus - Roxana won this one although Rosie and Jack are still in the lead.
Alex De La Bastide
Part 2
We went from the Great Wall to a restaurant above a hand made pottery factory where people were carving huge vases to paint and you could see them working as we walked past. We then had a huge Chinese banquet which was delicious. Alex DLB has introduced us all to the delights of Coke mixed with Sprite and we get both of these with every meal. At the end of our meal we were back on the coach and off to the silk markets.
After we arrived we were told to meet back at 6.30, giving us two hours of shopping in this huge building. Dannielle, Jack and I all looked round and decided to buy some items, I got a dragon and chopsticks after haggling the price down and Dannielle bought a hand made item. Meanwhile the other three Rosie, Roxana and Alex DLB bought jewellery. Rosie and Roxana were brilliant at haggling the prices right down but we all got bargains. We didn't want to leave, the fun of haggling for items was addictive but at 20 past 6 we had to head back to get on the coach.
After getting back on the bus we stopped at another restaurant to have another Chinese banquet (the amount of food we keep getting is insane - we have to keep giving whole dishes away as we just can't finish it). We had slow cooked pork, 5 different Chinese dishes, grated potato, salad, rice, more pork in a pepper sauce and lots of dishes with different vegetables on them... Oh and watermelon to finish.
We've started another game of 'what is Mrs Hudson eating?' where Mrs Hudson has to guess what food she's eating and we find out if she's right or not. There have been many mistakes ... Mistaking potato for noodles, pork for beef... None of us now trust her when she says 'it's just chicken'. After the meal I challenged Alex DLB to pick up a watermelon seed with chopsticks. After many failed attempts Alex succeeded and held it in the air for ten seconds. This set off a number of tables playing the chopstick challenge. After this we got back on the coach, tired but happy and headed back to the hotel.
We are all looking forward to the zoo and the summer palace tomorrow!
Alex Bradley
So today we visited one of the seven wonders of the world: The Great Wall and it was amazing. It took two hours to get there and on the way our guide Kevin told us all about it ...
The wall was built 2500 years ago and it was mostly farmers and soldiers that made it - about 1 million people died and they were buried underneath as a sacrifice to make it strong. The wall was built to keep out the Mongolian people that kept coming into China to steal and kill people. Today the wall is seen as a symbol of love and a lot of people go there to propose, as it means your love is strong and will last forever like the wall.
Kevin also said that in china you are not seen as a real man until you have been to the Great Wall so we would all become real men (and women) today! He also said he had been there over 300 times so he was now a 'superman' - we're not sure which parts of the stories he makes up.
We arrived at the wall and had two hours to walk along it. I got a little hyper and powered through to the top (dragging Rosie along with me). When we arrived we took lots of pictures and we made sure to get one with the school banner. Even though a few people stopped and some sat at different parts, everyone made it to the top so we were all very proud of ourselves (it's crazy steep!). When we were all there we went into the shop and I bought a 'I climbed the Great Wall of China' tee shirt. We then took the scenic route back down where we could look over and see the other parts of the wall winding away over the mountain. It was incredible. We all stopped off at the bottom for a well deserved ice cream (and I found another ube ice cream (a cornetto this time).
We also managed to fit in a game of 'where's Kevin?' so we could find our guide again to return to the bus - Roxana won this one although Rosie and Jack are still in the lead.
Alex De La Bastide
Part 2
We went from the Great Wall to a restaurant above a hand made pottery factory where people were carving huge vases to paint and you could see them working as we walked past. We then had a huge Chinese banquet which was delicious. Alex DLB has introduced us all to the delights of Coke mixed with Sprite and we get both of these with every meal. At the end of our meal we were back on the coach and off to the silk markets.
After we arrived we were told to meet back at 6.30, giving us two hours of shopping in this huge building. Dannielle, Jack and I all looked round and decided to buy some items, I got a dragon and chopsticks after haggling the price down and Dannielle bought a hand made item. Meanwhile the other three Rosie, Roxana and Alex DLB bought jewellery. Rosie and Roxana were brilliant at haggling the prices right down but we all got bargains. We didn't want to leave, the fun of haggling for items was addictive but at 20 past 6 we had to head back to get on the coach.
After getting back on the bus we stopped at another restaurant to have another Chinese banquet (the amount of food we keep getting is insane - we have to keep giving whole dishes away as we just can't finish it). We had slow cooked pork, 5 different Chinese dishes, grated potato, salad, rice, more pork in a pepper sauce and lots of dishes with different vegetables on them... Oh and watermelon to finish.
We've started another game of 'what is Mrs Hudson eating?' where Mrs Hudson has to guess what food she's eating and we find out if she's right or not. There have been many mistakes ... Mistaking potato for noodles, pork for beef... None of us now trust her when she says 'it's just chicken'. After the meal I challenged Alex DLB to pick up a watermelon seed with chopsticks. After many failed attempts Alex succeeded and held it in the air for ten seconds. This set off a number of tables playing the chopstick challenge. After this we got back on the coach, tired but happy and headed back to the hotel.
We are all looking forward to the zoo and the summer palace tomorrow!
Alex Bradley
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYou guys make me smile - loving the story you are telling!
ReplyDeleteHope that you are all taking hundreds of photos to share and treasure your memories - can't wait to see and hear more! Look forward to the next instalment and more images! Collect anything that's free that you can collage in your memory books -old chopsticks, wrappers, leaflets etc anything!!
Proud of you all!