2016 China Field School: Another day, another adventure in China!
The morning came quick as it was moving day! By 6:45am we were all present in the lobby and checking out of our rooms. By 7:00am we were all present and accounted for on the bus which was impressive considering much delay in the past when coming to this. Cheers to our daily leader Rahim 👍.
The bus took us to a big railway station where we grabbed some breakfast and shortly embarked to our next destination city Huizhou. Sultan pointed out that security was extremely high as there were many bag and personal checks along with metal detectors and multiple check points. A lot more emphasis on this here compared to back in Vancouver. While on the train, Louisa mentioned that when she went to the restroom, it was just a hole in the train to the tracks! Kind of hard to believe, but I guess it’s China.
After a shorter than expected train ride, we arrived in Huizhou. Getting cabs to our hotel outside the station proved to be a difficult task with all our luggage, but we managed the situation well and all got to our place of stay, the Veee Hotel, safe and sound. We split into groups after checking out our rooms and went out to explore the city!
Most of the group including myself took up McDonald’s which has quickly become our “go to” food place of choice. From there we walked around the city and the very scenic West Lake! The islands of the West Lake are stunningly beautiful. Some of the sites included a newly founded Buddhist temple, many shrines, and an ancient tower from the time of the Dynasty’s. This is the location of the oldest buildings in Huizhou. Very cool!
After returning from the lake, we got some rest before heading out for dinner. Accompanying us for dinner were some local students from the Huizhou University. In the lobby of our hotel we met their teacher Lin. He gave us a breakdown of the city and a warm welcome. Very humble and kind gentleman. We headed out to dinner from there and on the way we stopped by and got a short experience of nightlife at Binjiang Park.
We arrived at an American Bar that has live music, pool, foosball, and burgers! We really enjoyed the night and taxied home after we had our fill. We learned later that some of the group had fallen ill due to food related illnesses and/or dehydration, but everyone is doing well now and recovering smoothly! This finished the night.
Another day, another adventure in China! We started off the day with a brief orientation and got to meet some more local students. From there we headed to the 5-star Kande Hotel for a visit and brief tour. Huizhou, like any other place in China, is extremely busy! One step out the door and you run into mazes of people. One cool thing about the Kande besides the fact you can check all your social media outputs is that it has stunning views of the scenic West Lake.
From there we went down and checked out the city wall near the Kande. We also checked out some local temples and views of the lake from ground level.
After we got a good taste for the sites, we all broke off and went to do our own things. Ken, Shiva, Mark, and myself went to a local mall to find some good eats. We were accompanied by two very nice students from the university. It wasn’t long before we found an authentic dumping place to try out which was delicious! After a great lunch, some shopping ensued. Kelly experienced while shopping somewhere else that it was tougher than it seemed, especially with the language barrier and such. Things don’t move fast around here. The Kande hotel was our stop afterwards as we decided to treat ourselves to a massage! It was well worth it. Later on it was Karaoke time! They call it KTV here in China. It was sooooo much fun! Everyone had a blast! Precious our leader for the day just couldn’t let go of the mic for even a second ! I think the local students had a blast partying with us and experiencing how westerners perform at Karaoke. Once we got back from the singing and dancing, we all quickly passed out and called it a night 💤💤💤
Wow, what a night! Karaoke was by far one of the highlights of the trip. It took everyone a lot of strength to climb out of bed. Breakfast was seemingly very similar to days past, but with maybe one more choice. At breakfast Michael discussed an assignment that he had passed out back in Guangzhou for us. We were to pitch an action plan to him regarding if that we were selling a product from China and had a defect , what to do , etc. Gave us some time to work on this. At breakfast, Lin, the teacher from the Huizhou University who we met the day before gave us a breakdown of the safety measures and what to watch out for here in China. He gave an example of a Chinese man who was heckling at a local hospital , the government found out and now he has been sentenced to 10 years in prison with no appeal. Puts a lot of things in perspective.
From there we got some free time to work on our assignments and/or wander the city a bit. Dennis mentioned the fact that there were many places where you can smoke in China. Most restaurants allow it and even in other public places like pubs and parks. While during this time groups of people split up. Some went to the city centre for food, others went to tour west lake a bit more. Another group went along the river towards the back side of the hotel and then to the Kande for lunch. Was a good meal.
Everyone then headed back to the hotel to prepare for Michaels assignment. Lots of people went all out regarding attire and it went quite well regarding getting points across. Sultan became a game changer as he was able to download the Game of Thrones premiere and once all the presentations were done, a bunch of us got together to watch. Was on point 👌.
Later we headed to a nice vegetarian place for some good eats. Was a very good meal! It was a good change from the many meat dishes other restaurants only offered. After that we headed to the Kande for some happy hour drinks before heading to bed. Was a good catch up day here in Huizhou.
This group of CapU students and faculty are currently in China on the 2016 China Field School offered through the Wong and Trainor Centre for International Experience and the School of Business at Capilano University.
The bus took us to a big railway station where we grabbed some breakfast and shortly embarked to our next destination city Huizhou. Sultan pointed out that security was extremely high as there were many bag and personal checks along with metal detectors and multiple check points. A lot more emphasis on this here compared to back in Vancouver. While on the train, Louisa mentioned that when she went to the restroom, it was just a hole in the train to the tracks! Kind of hard to believe, but I guess it’s China.
After a shorter than expected train ride, we arrived in Huizhou. Getting cabs to our hotel outside the station proved to be a difficult task with all our luggage, but we managed the situation well and all got to our place of stay, the Veee Hotel, safe and sound. We split into groups after checking out our rooms and went out to explore the city!
Most of the group including myself took up McDonald’s which has quickly become our “go to” food place of choice. From there we walked around the city and the very scenic West Lake! The islands of the West Lake are stunningly beautiful. Some of the sites included a newly founded Buddhist temple, many shrines, and an ancient tower from the time of the Dynasty’s. This is the location of the oldest buildings in Huizhou. Very cool!
We arrived at an American Bar that has live music, pool, foosball, and burgers! We really enjoyed the night and taxied home after we had our fill. We learned later that some of the group had fallen ill due to food related illnesses and/or dehydration, but everyone is doing well now and recovering smoothly! This finished the night.
Another day, another adventure in China! We started off the day with a brief orientation and got to meet some more local students. From there we headed to the 5-star Kande Hotel for a visit and brief tour. Huizhou, like any other place in China, is extremely busy! One step out the door and you run into mazes of people. One cool thing about the Kande besides the fact you can check all your social media outputs is that it has stunning views of the scenic West Lake.
From there we went down and checked out the city wall near the Kande. We also checked out some local temples and views of the lake from ground level.
After we got a good taste for the sites, we all broke off and went to do our own things. Ken, Shiva, Mark, and myself went to a local mall to find some good eats. We were accompanied by two very nice students from the university. It wasn’t long before we found an authentic dumping place to try out which was delicious! After a great lunch, some shopping ensued. Kelly experienced while shopping somewhere else that it was tougher than it seemed, especially with the language barrier and such. Things don’t move fast around here. The Kande hotel was our stop afterwards as we decided to treat ourselves to a massage! It was well worth it. Later on it was Karaoke time! They call it KTV here in China. It was sooooo much fun! Everyone had a blast! Precious our leader for the day just couldn’t let go of the mic for even a second ! I think the local students had a blast partying with us and experiencing how westerners perform at Karaoke. Once we got back from the singing and dancing, we all quickly passed out and called it a night 💤💤💤
Wow, what a night! Karaoke was by far one of the highlights of the trip. It took everyone a lot of strength to climb out of bed. Breakfast was seemingly very similar to days past, but with maybe one more choice. At breakfast Michael discussed an assignment that he had passed out back in Guangzhou for us. We were to pitch an action plan to him regarding if that we were selling a product from China and had a defect , what to do , etc. Gave us some time to work on this. At breakfast, Lin, the teacher from the Huizhou University who we met the day before gave us a breakdown of the safety measures and what to watch out for here in China. He gave an example of a Chinese man who was heckling at a local hospital , the government found out and now he has been sentenced to 10 years in prison with no appeal. Puts a lot of things in perspective.
From there we got some free time to work on our assignments and/or wander the city a bit. Dennis mentioned the fact that there were many places where you can smoke in China. Most restaurants allow it and even in other public places like pubs and parks. While during this time groups of people split up. Some went to the city centre for food, others went to tour west lake a bit more. Another group went along the river towards the back side of the hotel and then to the Kande for lunch. Was a good meal.
Everyone then headed back to the hotel to prepare for Michaels assignment. Lots of people went all out regarding attire and it went quite well regarding getting points across. Sultan became a game changer as he was able to download the Game of Thrones premiere and once all the presentations were done, a bunch of us got together to watch. Was on point 👌.
Later we headed to a nice vegetarian place for some good eats. Was a very good meal! It was a good change from the many meat dishes other restaurants only offered. After that we headed to the Kande for some happy hour drinks before heading to bed. Was a good catch up day here in Huizhou.
This group of CapU students and faculty are currently in China on the 2016 China Field School offered through the Wong and Trainor Centre for International Experience and the School of Business at Capilano University.
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