UCAN Visit China

Our students arrived home today, tired but in great spirits.  Ready to spend some time with their families once again. This is not the end of #UCANvisitChina, it's just the beginning..... Watch this space For now, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed their journey and story telling as much as I did. Enjoy your summer break and we will see you all again in September. Ms Phillips

Last day Today was a very special day for us all as it was our last official day in Harbin and China. We have been on the most amazing adventure and have experienced the most incredible things. Most of all we have made new friends which I know will be friends for life. First off our day started with a test, which we were all slightly nervous about even though everyone kept reassuring us that it would all be fine. Needless to say we had nothing to worry about and we all passed our YCT Mandarin test with flying colours yay!   After this we had free time to practice and perfect our performances before the closing ceremony. We got together with our new friends and and practiced our cha cha slide piece for the ceremony, which went extremely well!  Late afternoon we had the closing ceremony where all the Harbin teachers, organisers and our teachers did a speech. The volunteers had also put a slide show together showing lots of special moments in our trip. It was amazing to...

Today we had our last mandarin lesson of the trip, in which, we reviewed our knowledge of the mandarin that we've learnt so far. We also went through a practice paper for the YCT exam we are taking  tomorrow . This was followed by lunch which was similar to every day in the canteen. Lunch was followed by a trip to the Confucius temple, Confucius was an eastern philosopher who believed education should be a right for every one, regardless of your background or how rich or poor you are. He would teach anyone who listened to his teachings. There were a great many exhibitions and traditional buildings located at this site. We had a good look round and took lots of pictures. We also saw traditional clothes made of fish skin (yuck) and fur.   After this we travelled to a Buddhist temple where Buddhist monks worked the ground and planted many exotic and amazing fruits and vegetables. The area was amazing and the various paths were surrounded by nature. We were surprised by ho...

Day 12 In today's Mandarin lesson we learnt about different foods. This included staple foods like rice and noodles but also special foods that are involved in festivals such as dumplings in the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). In the breaks Abener, one of our teachers, put Chinese music on and then me and Alex B went downstairs looking for Pokemon (we admit we've joined the craze!). We also learnt how to pronounce our Chinese names in the second lesson. After lunch we took a bus ride for about an hour to the Museum of Ancient Vestige of King Dynasty. This museum is in a place where there was once a huge palace (nearly as big as the forbidden city) hundreds of years ago. However the Mongolian people tore it down when they invaded. Many artefacts have been recovered from the area and we could see these in the museum. There were lots of carvings, bowls, mirrors and even some sitting dragons. There were also paintings and calligraphy produced by the descendants of the King ...

Day 12 In today's Mandarin lesson we learnt about different foods. This included staple foods like rice and noodles but also special foods that are involved in festivals such as dumplings in the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). In the breaks Abener, one of our teachers, put Chinese music on and then me and Alex B went downstairs looking for Pokemon (we admit we've joined the craze!). We also learnt how to pronounce our Chinese names in the second lesson. After lunch we took a bus ride for about an hour to the Museum of Ancient Vestige of King Dynasty. This museum is in a place where there was once a huge palace (nearly as big as the forbidden city) hundreds of years ago. However the Mongolian people tore it down when they invaded. Many artefacts have been recovered from the area and we could see these in the museum. There were lots of carvings, bowls, mirrors and even some sitting dragons. There were also paintings and calligraphy produced by the descendants of the King ...

Day 11 Today started off bright and early with us all getting up for breakfast on time and ready to start another exciting day in Harbin.  In our mandarin lesson today we learnt about the different ages that students go to school and the names of all the different schools. Then we compared this to our own school system. Our teacher was very interested to know about this, as in China they don't have free education and they have colleges. All students have have to pass a really hard entrance exam just to go to school otherwise it costs them a lot more money to go.  After our mandarin lessons ended we all went to a little ice cream shop located on site and bought ice cream and popcorn as a treat - it was delicious. After lunch we travelled to the famous architecture museum in Harbin, which housed many plans and draft sculptures of Harbin and how its 'New York' - type vibes came to life from paper. We all found this very interesting and captured many photos including many...

Day 10 In our mandarin lesson this morning we all learnt how to say 'I like...' And 'I don't like'. For example I like pudding is Wo xy huan bu ding (without the correct tones!). We also learnt how to say brother and sister and the Chinese have different words for older and younger brothers and sisters. However a lot of Chinese people don't have any brothers or sisters because of China's 'one child' policy. This has now been changed to two children so more Chinese people will have a brother or a sister in the future. We also learnt some nicknames that the Chinese have for famous people - some of these are hilarious. Taylor Swifts nickname is 'mei mei' which means bad luck. We think they said this was because she had been up for a lot of Grammys but hadn't won any. Kim Jong Un's (leader of North Korea) nickname is Kim San Pang (3rd fat man) as his grandfather was the first leader and in the words of our teacher Abner 'and he'...

Day 9 Today has been a special day for me as its my 15th birthday... And I'm spending it in Beijing! I woke up to Dannielle wishing me happy birthday. I got a birthday card, sweets, sparkly hair grips and a bracelet from everyone including Mrs Hudson. I was really happy and loved all the presents. In the morning we had 3 hours of Chinese lectures, where we learnt how to say what we want to be when we are older and we practised our numbers again. We also compared the price of different foods in the UK compared to China... Fruit is so expensive in the UK! Our teacher Abner told us that everyone eats out a lot in China because the food is so cheap. He was really shocked aswell that we can buy one apple or banana in the UK. He said that if you tried to do this in China you would be kicked out of the supermarket.  After lunch we visited the sun island. This is a large area which is very peaceful and  has lots of different lakes, parks and even a huge waterfall. We all got in a...

Day 8: Harbin. Today we started by learning more mandarin in the morning so that day to day conversation should be easier on trips out. We are now quite confident at Hello, good morning, I am English, thank you and we are beginning to know our numbers.  We then went for lunch after the lesson where we discussed the days lesson and practiced speaking Chinese.  After lunch we travelled to an imitation traditional Chinese alley. This was amazing and had lots of little shops and stalls selling Chinese food, drinks and handmade ornaments and paper cutting. We walked round the shops in excitement from the various sights and smells. One of the best attractions was caramelised sugar moulded into different shapes, like dragons, butterflies and sunflowers.  We had a great time and could have spent much longer here but we had to get back to meet the families for our home stay.  At 4 o'clock  all the families arrived to meet us and take us out. We were quite nervous a...

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 m...

This morning we all woke up very early to have our first full day in Harbin. After we had breakfast, we went on a tour with our volunteer called Joy. We all really like her and her never ending enthusiasm. We were very overwhelmed when she showed us around the campus because the size of the university was so much bigger than we expected! Once the tour was finished, we had a little rest in our rooms and had the chance to visit the shops. They sell lots of drinks, cakes and ice cream etc but no ube unfortunately. By half past one  we went to the hall where all the students gathered for the Opening Ceremony . This is where we met the teachers within the university and the other teachers from the different UK schools that have come to visit China. We then had a short test where we showed how capable we are at speaking Mandarin. For students who had never been taught Chinese, we did know the basics for example, "hello", "my name is...", and "thank you". We ...

Yesterday was a lonnnnng day as we did lots more sightseeing in Beijing and then flew to Harbin.  To start day five of our trip we went to the Confucius Institute. Here we got welcomed, took some group photos and went into their museum. They had many historical artefacts including vases and costumes. They had lots of beautiful artefacts. We all got given traditional cut out papers of our animal from the year we were born. I was a dragon, so was Alex Bradley and Jack. Everyone else were snakes except Mrs Hudson who was an ox. (which made us laugh).  We went for lunch (this was one of our favourite Chinese buffets), then off to the 798 art district. Some graffiti covered the walls, however, it wasn't the scribbly type. They were very creative and tasteful.  There were lots of little street stalls selling homemade jewellery which was amazing and we all bought some gifts from here. There was also lots of little shops and art galleries that we could look in and some of the ...

Today's the day! After a few changes to the itinerary, today's the day we finally get to go and see the pandas. We got up and went for breakfast earlier than planned and then we arrived at the meeting point early (we were all really excited). It took us about an hour to get to the the zoo and we waited outside while our guide Kevin sorted our tickets out. We took lots of group photos outside with our banner. This is always funny because we get lots of Chinese people stopping to watch and asking to take photos with us and our banner. First stop, the pandas ... They were all so fluffy and chubby and cute. They were either eating bamboo (they couldn't get the leaves in fast enough) or they were asleep - sprawled out with their legs resting in the air or star-fished on their bellies like a human. We all returned to the shop at the end to buy panda teddies (apart from Dannielle who got her tiger). We wondered around after seeing lots of animals we haven't seen before. T...

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 ...

We welcome any donations towards the visit to China. Thank you for making this once in a lifetime opportunity become a reality for our students. This is a small group of students and we intend to build upon this but need financial support to subsidise the cost for families. If you are able to donate please do so via the Crowdfunding website: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/ucanvisitchina

Day 2 here in Beijing started with a rush to get ready, we were still so tired after our journey yesterday. Soon after breakfast we headed out to find our local shop so we could get some water (Mrs Hudson) and some sweet treats (the rest of us). We then met up with the other schools visiting Beijing and off we went on our first official visit.  When arriving in  Tiananmen Square we were all flabbergasted by the overcrowded streets and shops. Slowly and carefully, making sure we all stuck together every step of the way, we headed towards the centre. We took lots of photos here which we will add when we get back but unfortunately we couldn't unroll our '#UCANvisitChina banner' as we were warned that it could be taken as making a political statement which was a big no no. We were amazed by how many Chinese tourists wanted to take our photo and Alex B was even asked to have his photo taken with a local primary school class (we all found this very amusing as they all looked s...

We have all arrived in Beijing safe and sound. Everyone is very tired but excited and looking forward to getting to our hotel. Although the flights were long they both went very quickly with lots to see, especially in Dubai airport. It's half past five here and we are just on the coach travelling from Beijing airport to the Rainbow Hotel. We expect it to take about an hour but it's peak time and we've just been informed there are six million cars in Beijing so we could be waiting a little longer for our dinner. We are off to the forbidden city and Beijing Zoo tomorrow where we shall hopefully pick up our mascot and see the pandas (something we've all been looking forward to). 1 hour later... We arrived at our hotel and had a lovely meal (a mixture of Chinese and Western dishes). Our guides promised us a much more authentic Chinese meal tomorrow which we are all excited but a little apprehensive about. We then had a lot of fun figuring out our hotels fabulous li...

#UCANvisitsChina- they have touched down in Beijing this morning.  They have found their guide and are just waiting on another school group before setting off to their journey.

A little tired, but still excited group of students have landed in Dubai. Their next flight is in a couple of hrs, let's hope they manage to get some sleep.

Well today's the day. We have just over seven hours until we depart and begin our amazing adventure. I hope you all have your bags packed and I will see you at the airport at 11.00am (don't forget I have your passports, flight tickets and money) For those of you who are interested in what we are doing on this trip, the students and I will be completing a daily diary of everything we have done.  We arrive in Beijing late Monday night so we should be starting to add to the blog from Tuesday, depending on internet access.

Preparations for the visit to China are well underway. Mrs Davies has put together a journal and ideas  for students so that they can create wonderful memories to share with their family and our student community upon their return.