APRIL 8 & 9: SAN FRANCISCO TO BEIJING (VIA HONG KONG) We leave on a red-eye and arrive in Hong Kong more than 13 hours later, crossing the International Date Line and losing a full day in transit. Because our plane lands eight minutes before our connecting flight to Beijing, Cathay Pacific Airlines makes sure we (and our luggage) all get on the next flight to Beijing. Jetlagged and hungry (are adolescents ever full?), we go directly to our first restaurant where boys experience an abundance of new foods, eating with chopsticks and learning the rituals that define eating “family style.”
APRIL 11: BEIJING After another excellent and extensive breakfast buffet, we board the bus. We drive through morning traffic in Beijing, passing the Olympic Village, while boys sings hymns with gusto. In under an hour we have arrived at the significantly cooler Summer Palace. The highlight for many of the boys is the ride on the Dragon Boat on the lake surrounding the palace. At lunch, I notice that nobody is stabbing at their food with chopsticks. After a satisfying lunch, we go to the silk factory. We learn about the life cycle of the silkworm, see silk being spun from cocoons on a giant whirring machine, stretch silk fibers into layers for the strong yet fluffy silk quilts, and shop for silk items. Overheard: “Can you imagine this silk underwear touching parts?” From the silk factory we head to The Temple of Heaven. Outside there is a playground/exercise area (thank goodness!) where boys work off a little of the energy built up over the course of this busy day. Our dim sum dumpling dinner offers a wide variety of dumpling and non-dumpling courses. Chopsticks are in action and this dinner is a resounding favorite. Finally, we are back at the hotel where the boys are asked to write a thoughtful response to two questions for tomorrow’s blog post: What have you noticed about being in China? What have you learned about yourself so far? (Boys’ responses can be found at csbchinatrip2016.blogspot.com .)
A boy has to eat...
APRIL 10: BEIJING In Tiananmen Square, we go through a number of body and backpack scanning devices before we enter the largest city center square in the world. Crowds pour in around us while vendors attempt to sell knock-offs. A government-authorized photographer takes our picture. Charlie, our tour guide, talks to us about the history of the plaza, and Chairman Mao’s role in the revolution. Beyond this is the Forbidden City, reserved for the emperor, his family, and their servants. After lunch, we’re off to the Beijing Shichahai Sports School, famous for a number of Olympic athletes, as well as actor and Wushu champion, Jet Li. The Kung Fu master leads the boys through a number of exercises that showcase grace, agility, and endurance which are followed by a short Kung Fu show. Next to The Hutong, an old section of Beijing which is nearby the school, we get in rickshaws and drive through the old winding streets. The rickshaws drop us at a typical Chinese style home built in 1621. The home’s courtyard had a pergola covered with dried gourds from the last season and was surrounded by four sides of a complex. We explore and then we are back in the rickshaws, cruising the city’s streets at breakneck speed and curving around people and cars. Later, we board a bus to the acrobatic show where we see amazing feats of balance, strength, flexibility, and endurance. At dinner that evening, Sam gets a surprise cake for his 13th birthday, and a round of “Happy Birthday” is sung in both English and Mandarin.
Rickshaw driver peddling CSB boys to The Hutong (old section of Beijing)
A FIELD TRIP TO CHINA BY HELEN HUBER, Former Librarian
APRIL 12: MUTIANYU The bus ride to the Great Wall gives us two hours to sing more hymns, turn Rubik’s cubes, enjoy the changing landscape, read, sleep, or write the next blog post. We take the chairlift to the top of the Great Wall and marvel at the height and length of one of the Seven Wonders of the World. We wander and explore, taking group pictures (What is the likelihood that everybody’s eyes can all be open at the same time? Well, it’s lower than one might think.) as well as individual pictures of each traveler. At the top, we take a short ride to a restaurant where we enjoy noodles, toppings, and fresh fruit on a sunny patio. Boys anticipate the toboggan ride down to the bottom and, once there, we find ourselves in the small living room of the local village doctor who describes life during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a firsthand account of cultural upheaval and great societal change.
FEW SCHOOL ACTIVITIES BRING THE PERSONAL GROWTH, anxious trepidation, and life-changing potential as a foreign language trip. Our trip involved over 15,000 miles of air travel; cultural immersion in food, customs, and history; plus a homestay. On April 8, 2016, four chaperones and 23 CSB boys began this journey. The next eight days would keep us engaged, amazed, and full. Beyond the ancient tourist destinations and the dozens of courses at each meal, the trip offered us the chance to be responsible for ourselves and our things; and provided us with new ways of thinking about the world along with realizations about the life we so often take for granted. The best trips, including this one, bring us back better than when we left: transformed, enhanced, and facile with chopsticks.
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