Capilano University Students Blogging Abroad

Our jobs were quite easy today as most of the day was free time. A lot of the group chose to go to Summer Palace, and then make second trips back to the Pearl Market to do more shopping. At 5pm we met as a group at the Deluxe Hutong and participated in a teacher lead activity discussing the highpoints and low-points in each city, and any pre trip beliefs that were proven to correct or just a myth. We broke into random groups to do this, and then came together as one big group and each group shared their findings. This was a good activity because it really encouraged all the students to think back and allowed everybody to voice their opinions and discoveries of what China was really like in comparison to what was thought before we departed. Personally one of my biggest realizations was that the air pollution wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I had imagined. We could see blue sky on several days we were there and even saw stars some nights! My breathing wasn’t effected whatsoever and after ...

  On May 14 th 2014, was the day where the group of China Field School 2014 went to Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square is the fourth largest square in the world. As mentioned on the China Field School Reading Material , there were several activities been held in this square, which caused so many police officers had to be all around the square, until today. The four places that could be visited: Tiananmen Tower, Monument to People’s Heroes, Great Hall of the People, and Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao.     Since it was late in the afternoon, the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao has been closed for public. Therefore, we only had opportunity to walk around the square and see the people that visited the square. At the same time, I had opportunity to actually see so many police officers and the army with and without uniform in the Tiananmen Square. I also saw couple of fire extinguishers that according to Wikipedia used to anticipate the unexpected protest that m...

So, for today I was the daily leader! My formal duties as leader began at 10:30 sharp today, which I arrived for, just on time. I began with my presentation about the BC Trade and Investment Office. I went over some basic facts such as general background, what they do, and how they do it. After my presentation, we made our way towards the office via subway. On our final stop, we met up with a friend of Yvonne’s who was definitely an intriguing fellow. He started school at Capilano, transferred to UBC, worked for KPMG and finally found his way into Beijing. For me personally, it was a satiating feeling, being able to see someone who was at one point on the same path I am currently on (transfer from Capilano to UBC) to be as successful as he is. Anyways, he walked us to the BC Trade and Investment office where we met Kevin Tsui, the managing director of the North China district, and as well as the East China district now. He gave us a presentation on a more in-depth look at what h...

At the crack of dawn we bid farewell to the Poly Hotel and Guangzhou and boarded a chartered bus for Huizhou. We were greeted by several of the notoriously enthusiastic students of Huizhou University -our hosts in Huizhou.    The long bus ride brought us to the city, which should be significant for Vancouverites since our China Town was based off the city. While considered to be relatively small, Huizhou actually has about the same population of Canada's largest city, Toronto. Our partner professor at the university, Lynn, told us that most of the development in Huizhou has occurred within the last six years.   Lynn first introduced himself while we had started our lunch at the cafe adjacent to the campus hotel -which became a favourite haunt for its wi-fi access. He is a Canadian English professor whose been teaching at Huizhou University for quite sometime.   Those excited accommodating students even offered us a campus tour, where we got ...

On Sunday May 11 th , after a long day of travelling from Hong Kong to Beijing, our group attended an acrobat show at the Chao Yang Theatre. The troupe performing was established in 1980 in Beijing, and have been performing in the same theatre since 1984. The troupe performs two, hour and a half shows each day, and we were lucky enough to witness a series of jaw-dropping acts over the span of their show. The art of acrobatics is found in many performing acts, sports, and martial arts and is commonly associated with any activity that makes extensive use of gymnastic elements. It is one of the oldest known performing arts known to mankind, and in China dates back to the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). Acrobatics were originally performed in China during festivals to celebrate the end of successful harvests. The skills required to perform at high-levels were kept within the family line, becoming somewhat of a trade. Nowadays, children as young as 10 or 11 with exceptional skil...

Information on the Big Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery: 1.Once a remote monastery hidden by lush, mountain scenery, the Po Lin Monastery made it to the world map when the Tian Tan Buddha statue (informally known as the Big Buddha). This monastery is opposite the statue, and is one of Hong Kong’s most important Buddhist sanctums and has been dubbed ‘the Buddhist World in the South’.  was constructed beginning in 1990, and was finished on December 29, 1993, the day of the enlightenment of Gautama Buddha, the founder of the Buddhist religion. 2. The big buddha sits 34 metres high and faces north to look over the Chinese people, which is unique among the great Buddha statues, as all others face south. 3. The eyes, lips, incline of the head and right hand, which is raised and represents delivering a blessing to all and/or the removal of affliction, these combine to bring a humbling depth of character and dignity to the massive Buddha. The Buddha's left hand rests on his lap in...

Today we started off with two group activities; one was where we split up into our two age groups and tangled our arms together trying to get out in a perfect circle without letting go of each other’s hands, the other activity had us standing in a large circle with everyone holding hands they had to squeeze one another hands and make it all away around the circle as fast as they could. It took the group two tries to beat their first time. As well with the untangling activity both groups ended up with two separate circles, one mini and the other one larger. Our day began with us going on a bus tour with Lynn showing us around Huizhou. He showed us all the new buildings in Huizhou, as well as some of the rundown buildings. On our tour we saw the housing of where all the workers stay while building the new apartment buildings. Some of them had holes in the roof, and they all looked run down, something we would dread having to stay in. We went to one of the markets they have in Huiz...

Having already spent one week in China, our versatile 26 (including Casey) was beginning to feel comfortable with our surroundings. At the start of a bright and sunny day in Huizhou, we were preparing to head out for our daily activity – touring the TCL factory. We had to meet early in the morning so we could be ready to board the bus and still have time for my planned activity. Some had visited the local café to grab a bite or some coffee and afterwards we all regrouped in the lobby of our hotel. As the daily leader, I felt it was important that we all were comfortable with each other’s names and knew a little about one another.   Therefor, for my daily activity I organized a game that focused on remembering names and personal facts. Each player took a random piece of paper with a name written on it, and without looking, held it on his or her forehead. I separated the group into two small circles and had each person ask yes or no questions to find out which name was on the...

On May 4th we traveled to Huizhou by bus. Niki and I lead the day and started with a group discussion about what each of us liked and also what we had each found challenging thus far on our trip. I shared that I enjoyed how friendly and welcoming the Chinese were but that the crowds were quite overwhelming. Reflecting and recapping each segment of our trip made it easier to remember our activity packed days. Next we jumped on a bus and headed to Huizhou University where we would be staying for the next four days. On the three hour ride I spoke to our group about the new city we would be staying in. I shared that the city has a population of 4.6 million people, close to the size of Toronto. The residents primarily speak Cantonese, Mandarin and Hakka and the city has a history of more than 600 years. It has a mild humid climate with landscapes of mountains, flat plains and a coast-line on the southern end. Local products include: Orange, mango longan, and sweet tea. It is the la...

We started of our leadership project in the evening of the Canton fair day when sally handed over her leadership to us. Ian and I had both come up with two ideas of what we could do as a group in our free time; we both had to pitch the ideas to the group in the evening. The group had to then decide what activity that they would rather partake out of the four proposed ideas. Ian’s two ideas were the Buddha temple and the museum and my ideas were the canton tower and the tomb museum. The Buddha temple won with 13 votes from the group. The next morning we all had to meet in the downstairs lobby to be ready for our group activity at 9am.   Ian and I decided to do and activity that would make the group think about what they had learnt from the trip so far. We ask everyone to stand in a circle and then individually deliver what they had thought that they had personally learnt or gained from the trip so far. I felt that this activity enabled us to think deeply about what we ha...

  Today was our fourth and final full day in Guangzhou and at the Poly Hotel. Breakfast was again provided by the Poly Hotel but a large portion of the group preferred to find breakfast around from the local vendors and shops. The day before, myself and Cleo had proposed a number of ideas for things to do on our semi-free day and the group had voted to visit some Buddhist temples. We left the hotel around 10 am and started heading toward the first Buddhist temple called the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees. Unfortunately Google maps lead us astray and we ending up in the largest and busiest shopping area in Guangzhou which caused mass distraction for the group. By the time we figured out where the temple was and got there it was getting close to noon, so we made the decision not to go to the other temple.   The Temple of the Six Banyan Trees was extremely peaceful and majestic as well as a still functioning Buddhist temple. After the temple, everyone was free to do...

Well-known as the Canton Fair, China Import and Export Fair has been held biannually in Guangzhou every spring and autumn since 1957. The Canton Fair boasts the longest history and the highest level among trade fairs in China. It is co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of People’s Republic of China and People’s Government of Guangdong Province and is a state-level and comprehensive international trade event. Participants of the fair are from over 210 countries and regions across the globe.   Regarded as the largest scale, the highest level, Canton Fair presents the most comprehensive exhibition covering the widest range of industries and sectors, as well as the richest products and commodities. There are 3 phases for each session lasting 5 days each, and we got to see 17 categories of products such as men and women’s clothing, kids’ wear, underwear, sports and casual wear, fashion accessories, home textiles and so on in phase 3. The accumulated export turnover achieved a...

  Last night we went on a cruise through the pearl river delta. It was a really interesting cruise because we got to see the city through a new perspective and we saw how busy the city gets during the night time.   The first thing I noticed upon arriving to the boat cruise was how many native Chinese people were actually waiting to get tickets for the cruise. I think we might have been some of the only tourists. But, the fact that it has been a holiday weekend may have added to the abundance of what seemed to be local people.     It was a really beautiful cruise; we had assigned seating downstairs on the first floor but most of us decided to go up to the deck, where you were outside, and could see the beautiful lights and scenery first hand. Having been the day leader, I had already researched my topic and knew somewhat what to expect, but I was still really surprised with how completely modern the architecture was. One might have expected to s...