China Trip Update 21 April 2014

Dear friends and family – Ni Hoa

Well, the last 2 days have been eventful. They consisted of 2 lessons at the university with a focus on money and food. The teacher set up a small shop in the lecture theater and our students had to buy food from her using pretend money and of course only speaking Chinese. In the evening we went for a Chinese hot pot and then over to the park to participate in a Kung Foo lesson. Chris Olsen excelled with a version of YMCA as a new kung foo move that the locals had never seen before - in 5000 years of history. 

Today, we travelled to the Yellow Crane Temple but unfortunately it has been raining heavily so our trip was soggy and the view from on top of the mountain was clouds. As any where in the world no one controls the weather. The students enjoyed going to the stalls around the temple. Following the visit we went to an upmarket area with designer shops to show us that China has modernised but I suspect 99% of the Chinese population could not access what was on offer. It did show clearly a large raising middle class desiring modern living standards and China is working towards providing these.

Tonight the language supervisors [local teachers completing masters degrees at the university] are hosting a party for the students. Tomorrow we visit the local museum and then have another lesson in the afternoon. The following day, Wednesday we have a closing ceremony and are taking the night train to Beijing so that is going to be an experience.

Summary- we are fine and the trip is going well.

Zai jian

Kerry and Nicky