Our Monday morning began with a visit to the beautiful Temple of Heaven, an ancient place of worship. Although we were not allowed inside, the stunning exterior made up for it. We enjoyed a stroll around the peaceful surroundings, whilst admiring the building itself.

After this, a short bus journey took us to the Pearl Market.  The Pearl Market consists of three floors packed full of vendors selling everything from silk scarves to cameras.  We had just under 2 hours of free time to navigate our way around the market, where we were able to do some shopping for gifts and other items. This gave us the opportunity to show off the bargaining skills that we learnt during our Mandarin classes in Tianjin.  It soon became clear that the vendors were being extremely unrealistic in their pricing.  For example, when we asked how much a silk scarf was being sold for, the original quote was ¥1500 (about £190)!  However after some stubborn negotiation, the price was agreed at ¥100 (about £13).  Persistence pays off!

After the market, we enjoyed some lunch at a local restaurant.  Then, we visited the Hanban Confucius Headquarters. Here, we listened to a presentation from the First Secretary for Scottish Affairs from the British Embassy in China, Martin McDermott, who spoke about his role in developing relations between Scotland and China.

After this, we walked up Qianmen street, the oldest pedestrian street in Beijing and made our way to a famous roast duck restaurant, where we enjoyed lots of duck pancakes.  We then returned to our hotel, where most of us began the somewhat challenging task of packing our suitcases, ready for checkout the next morning.

The following morning, Tuesday, it soon became clear that the majority of us had more things to pack than we had space for.  Nevertheless, we managed it, and checked out of our hotel for the last time. We made our way to the Olympic Park, and saw the Bird’s Nest stadium and Water Cube aquatics centre.

We then visited the Beijing zoo, and saw lots of different animals, including Giant Pandas (even though they were asleep). We then arrived at another restaurant for our final meal in China, where we enjoyed many now-familiar dishes.

We then went to the airport, Tuesday evening, and checked in our luggage.  Many of us were disappointed that the duty free shops were already shut, but we did find a Costa. We then boarded our first flight to Dubai, and travelled through the night. After a 3 hour stopover, we boarded our Glasgow flight, and we are now all looking forward to getting home on Wednesday.

Jenny Smith & Jemma Whyte

Saturday afternoon/ evening of the 22nd was the day we all realised we should have done at least some form of training in the hiking department months in advance, as we visited one of the Seven Wonders of the World – The Great Wall of China.

We arrived at the Great Wall at roughly 10-ish and had an hour and forty minutes to climb and explore. Everyone was extremely buzzed to see how far they could get – some more than others. Despite the slightly overcast cooler day – that many of us moaned at first, it was actually a blessing in disguise as we soon realised the sheer steepness of the very varied, uneven steps. It was also very busy with tourists such as ourselves, other large tour groups and families which made it harder to get up and down. The really embarrassing thing was many young children were beating us and there was even elder people with walking sticks and loads on their backs (workers).

Congratulations to Callum who was 1st to climb to the highest point out of our hub and 2nd overall. The views were out of this world and everyone definitely felt a sense of accomplishment afterwards. Going up was certainly tough but going down was also very challenging, especially when the railing was at the height of our knees and our thighs were burning. We had some time to buy souvenirs at the gift shops at the bottom before leaving.  Some of our legs were shaking as our muscles had actually been worked! It was one of the most enjoyable and memorable activities of the trip and one we will be talking about for years.

We then went for lunch nearby before going to visit the Summer Palace.  We took a nice walk through the gardens and finished up on a short boat ride on the man-made lake, to exit.

Our final activity of the day was our visit to Beijing Foreign Studies University, where we got to watch a short play (in Mandarin) put on by some local primary students before splitting up into our hub groups with the students for some games. Even though we were unable to understand the dialogue their acting skills and confidence made up for it and it translated amazingly.  It was very well rehearsed.

Sunday 23rd we did a guided tour of Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City with our tour guide, Judy. It was good to see both attractions in real life as many of us have only seen pictures. Pictures don’t capture the grandness of the whole city nor the very fine details like art. The tour took 2 hours and we finished up in a region full of beautiful trees, plants, rock structures and a very wide moat – one of the imperial gardens.

Then it was back on the bus to go to lunch and then in the afternoon we went to the Hutongs, which is an old part of Beijing made up of narrow streets.  We took a 20 minute rickshaw tour which was very relaxing and the best way to travel and see the neighbourhood.

Then we went to visit a family who are friends of Jackie Chan. He told us their house has been passed down through 6 generations and that 1m square was roughly worth ¥400,000 (over £50,000). We went outside to see a world famous cricket fighter who explained to us the art of cricket fighting. He showed us their houses and the fine tools used to keep it clean as well as the coffin that he prepares for each of his beloved crickets.  A cricket’s life span is  around 100 days and really good crickets can be worth $10,000!  He also showed us the ‘cheerleaders’ on the side of the fight i.e. Grasshoppers!

Lucy Paterson

Our trip to China has undoubtedly been one of bests, firsts and worsts, with so many new experiences for all of us.

The stay in Confucius’ birthplace of Qufu was certainly an interesting experience: our hotel was not particularly luxurious and everyone felt a little low after a long journey from Jinan, but we all really enjoyed a beautiful walk around the Confucius temple and the Confucius mansion in the sun the next day.

The Confucius temple at Qufu was begun in 478 BC, and it is one of the three largest ancient architectural complexes in China. Despite having been destroyed and burned down at various points in history, the Confucius temple was really peaceful and ornately decorated with lots of traditional Chinese patterns and colours.

Also during our stay, we visited a market in Qufu. It was really interesting to see a street where tourists were buying gifts and souvenirs, as well as local people buying groceries and chatting to their friends in the street.

We left early the next day to head to Beijing – a seven hour journey! Most people on the bus enjoyed a really long sleep after an early start and to catch up with sleep ahead of a busy week sightseeing in Beijing.

Harriet Patterson

After our week-long stay in Tianjin, we travelled 6.5 hours to the intriguing city of Jinan, known both as “the city of springs” and as the capital of the province of Shandong. After the bus journey we were all glad to start our stay in Jinan with dinner, which involved a range of traditional foods, some of which weren’t entirely unpleasant and some of which were rather dire.

After a great night’s sleep at the Liangyou Fulin Hotel, we were prepared for a day of absorption and exploring. Due to unfortunate weather conditions, our plans for the two days in Jinan were changed last minute. We started the first day by going to the Shandong Museum, where we were shown around rooms containing various rocks and Chinese masks. We also did a bit of calligraphy.

After lunch we travelled to the Nishan Academy and the Daming Lake.  Here, we were shown archery, artwork and paper printing, a traditional Chinese instrument and tried our hands at puppetry, before walking around part of the lake. The lake itself was lovely and offered lots of candid photo opportunities.

That night, we hoped to hit the nearby karaoke, but Mr Allan told us we wouldn’t be allowed unless he came to sing too. We didn’t go. So instead, we decided to spend our 2 hours after dinner going to a shopping centre to enjoy a cheeky Starbucks. Whilst we were there, we noticed an interesting sight outside: a flash flood! We took it upon ourselves to go and stand outside whilst it was occurring (churlish not to really) which resulted in us becoming completely soaked. In approximately 2 minutes, the road looked as if it were a river. It was a fabulous experience all-round.

For the second day in Jinan, we went to the famous Baotu springs within the city. The climate felt very tropical in this stunning area. We very much enjoyed the springs, the surrounding architecture and the exotic vines that hung above them. We have just arrived in Qufu, and are excited to see what the next few days will hold…

Ellie Lang

Yesterday we drove by bus to our partner school in Tianjin to meet some of the teachers and pupils, including Lucy, who briefly taught us Mandarin at Balfron. Everyone was lovely and we found ourselves showered with lots of little gifts. We took part in a clay moulding class (making tiny minions), made pizza and took part in a kung fu session. Afterwards, we split into smaller groups and some of the students led us to meet their families, with whom we spent the rest of the day. We ate meals with our families, some of us went for walks, played games, others sports, and some even sang their hearts out in a private karaoke room! In the evening we all met up again.

Today we travelled from Tianjin to Shandong. Our day started with a hectic morning trying to fit in breakfast and packing to have everything ready for 12pm. Once we said a very emotional goodbye to our fantastic volunteers we made he 6 hour bus journey to our fabulous 4 star hotel. We spent dinner tonight in a restaurant near our hotel trying traditional Chinese dishes which was an interesting and new experience for us all. We look forward to exploring Shandong tomorrow.

Lauren Harvey

When we went to our beds on Thursday night it’s fair to say we weren’t prepared for the busy day ahead of us. We first started with Mandarin classes with our teachers (laoshì), where we began preparing for our final test on Saturday morning. In the early afternoon we departed the hotel, arriving at the Cantonese guild hall where we witnessed quite the spectacle. First we heard a Beijing opera performer, whose performance included waving a paper fan around vigorously while singing in a voice only few dogs could hear. Nevertheless, the performance was good and we were all happy, until we found out that we would have to perform a little routine in our schools in front of everyone! Luckily we were in good hands with fellow Chinese opera performers there to guide us.

Following on from the success of the latter, we then headed off to the ‘Ancient Cultural Street’ where we all indulged in a spot of shopping, while bartering and admiring this cultural hot spot. I think we can all admit that by the end of the day we were shattered.

On Saturday the big day arrived. The final test, which would hopefully provide confirmation of our Mandarin language skills, was done just after lunch and wasn’t as awful as first thought. The test went smoothly and we all passed! Needless to say, hopefully this isn’t the end of our Mandarin language learning and we continue to study this interesting and complex language in the future.

It is difficult to upload media because wifi is so hard to get sometimes but photos and videos will follow.

-Erin Gallacher

Wednesday morning Mandarin lessons consisted of learning the names of various different foods, as well as debunking the myth that Chinese people enjoy eating cats and dogs! We also learnt to express our likes and dislikes.

After nibbling on lunch many of the team went up for a well-deserved snooze, before lathering up on the sunscreen and heading out to brave the 40 degree heat of midday Tianjin. After a little time in the sun we made our way to Taichi classes. The traditional art of Taichi is a popular street activity in China and we have seen a lot of this so far on our visit, so we were all excited to finally give it a go for ourselves! Everyone enjoyed the relaxing experience and it finished with the teacher herself giving a demonstration!

Next came the dumpling-making workshop. This involved rolling out a dough, putting in a pumpkin filling and folding it together. Despite being rated a poor 1/10 by the instructor we pulled through and made a full batch! Maybe she thought 1/10 was the top mark?

After dinner, (which included the dumplings!) we made our way to our first rehearsal, practising our Chinese song for the concert we will be putting on when we arrive at the partner school next week. Whilst we picked up the tune well most of us still struggled with the pronunciations, but I’m sure it will be ready in no time!

After what felt like a brief sleep we made our way to Thursday morning Mandarin classes. We continued our topic on food and drink, learnt how to buy things in a shop and played a game of genuine Chinese whispers!

In the afternoon we went to watch a musician’s lecture and demonstration. He spoke a lot about Chinese folk music whilst showing of some of his awesome instruments! He played us some traditional Chinese music as well as some more well known pieces!

We continued to soak up Chinese culture as we made our way to Tianjin Nanshi Food Street and then onwards to more shops.
Everyone is tired after our long day so early beds all round!

Photos and video to follow.

Angus Brownlie.

After having a throughly well-deserved sleep, we awoke on Monday excited for the day ahead. It started with us meeting our two new Mandarin teachers (or 老师, should I say), who wasted no time getting straight into the language (in pinyin mainly), which is full on.

After finishing, we then moved on to the day’s culture sessions: calligraphy and tea-appreciation. The former may have been quite difficult for the non-arty, but enjoyable nonetheless, and allowed us to practise our language in a different way. I think we all did a pretty good job with the tea. Some of us played chess.

Another sleep brought us to Tuesday. This day started started much the same, in the classroom, but after lunch we travelled to the Mahua food factory. Not only are lots of different types of regional pastries prepared here (a process which we saw first-hand), and the local favourite, sesame twists, but the building also acts as a mini-museum – demonstrating the fascinating history of food in Tianjin.

We then arrived back at the campus to play Go – a traditional Chinese board game. The game’s easy to play, but very tricky to master, and there were a few very skilled Chinese players helping us. Mr. Allan thought he’d take one on and seemed to be doing quite well but the opponent was going easy.

The final activity of the busy day was a boat ride on the Hai river, the most important river in the area. Tianjin is a stunning city, and even more so at night with its glowing buildings and amazing architecture. This trip even allowed us to get a sense of the city’s vibrant night-life, as we saw street-singers and public Tai-Chi – there were even swimmers.

Overall, the day was amazing but tiring, and so I think we’re all looking forward to our beds tonight.

Lewis Forbes

Continue reading Day 1 to Day 2 – Saturday 8th to Sunday 9th July – On the road to Tianjin →

Welcome to the new blog for Balfron High School’s 2017 immersion trip to China.