We were picked up and escorted to the school at 8:30am and were greeted by the Principal and her assistant plus some familiar faces from years past. It was all very friendly with lots of handshakes and photos. Afterwards we were given a tour of the school which was built in 2009 and has a current enrolment of 936, the least of our school network in china! They had organised a school assembly and we got up and tried a…
Today we experience our first rainy day – and boy did it bucket down! We jumped on a bus to Souzhou and met our tour guide Jenny – a bubbly Chinese woman with fantastic English! The drive was very interesting as we moved through the outskirts of Shanghai and into the rural areas – funny thing was there isn’t really any rural areas as we know them. For the entire two hour trip, you were always in sight of huge…
It was another stunning day here in Shanghai – our third in a row! We set out early to get to Yu Yuan Gardens – an oasis in this very busy and modern city. Built 1000 years ago, it was designed as a retreat and place of reflection. There were many ponds with different coloured fish, beautiful big trees and lots of temples. We went for lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant and the kids tried some foods they had…
We started today at the market, which our group was super excited about – time for some bartering! Everyone had a great time and we had an array of purchases including sunnies, hats, headphones and shoes. We were proud of the kids as they bartered on their own, going back and forth with strangers – no mean feat for 11 year olds! After the markets we made our way to a dumpling house which was delicious! We then headed over…
After a Skype session over breakfast, we jumped on the metro for the first time and headed over to the Pearl Tower. We took the lift 290m up onto the clear sky deck. After milling about scaring the height-shy locals, we left and looked through the history museum. After grabbing a bite to eat, we took the metro to the oldest temple in Shanghai – the Jing’an Temple. Pretty impressive temple surrounded by modern skyscrapers! With everyone running out of…
Yesterday was one very long day! The flight was fantastic. The kids were up and about for pretty much the whole flight but things really hit fever pitch upon hitting the Tarmac. Getting through customs was a breeze and finding our bus driver was easy too! Everything is big and bright here and the kids spent most of the bus trip to the hotel glued to their window! Once we arrived at the Park Hotel, travellers were assigned their rooms…
The kids are through security and very excited to be boarding their first international flight! The flight is 11hours in duration so we’re all hoping the movies are working, especially Mr D!