Dear all,
We have all arrived back safely to the Utahloy International School after our week away undertaking many adventurous and positive experiences up at Longsheng and Yangshou in the Guangxi Province of China.

After the initial long day of travelling, the next day’s saw us spend time in a minority village in Longsheng where we were surrounded by the rice terraces and witnessed whole communities working together. We were treated to hotel style accommodation, amazing Chinese meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The accommodation was basic for our second night, yet it gave us all a great insight into local village life and the architecture of the surrounding rice terraced hills. The students hiked from one village via the rice terraces to another. The villages are set high in the mountains and road access is limited, hence we got to see the local farmers preparing the terraces for planting, and also were treated to a village where the women do not cut their hair from birth. They gave a demonstration as to managing, cleaning and tying their hair up. Fascinating!

We are encouraging the students to begin gathering research information towards areas they hope to address as part of their project and presentation they need to complete in school groups. There is a lot of development in the area with the increase in tourism, so there are many different areas students could investigate. Perhaps you could ask some questions about their project ideas too.

Following Longsheng, we spent time in Yangshou and this time stayed in a very western style hotel with luxury beds and buffet breakfast to say the least. The students continued with their Mandarin classes and begun doing their ‘headcount’ or roll call of student numbers in Mandarin. This has been a success. They have also practiced their Mandarin language when bargaining or purchasing gifts or souvenirs. Again, here they have shown good development. We are all learning how to write and recognise Hanzi characters, the Mandarin written language and are tested most days.

Whilst in Yangshou, there was quite a lot of rain which thwarted access to some of the activities, due to flooding. Hence, some groups did slightly different activities and the students took this on really well and enjoyed everything they did. They were all managed well by the Outdoor adventure company with safety being our priority, as I reassured this to the students and the activity instructors and guides.

Overall, students experienced some of the following activities; rock climbing, bike riding, community service, day walking to a local tower viewpoint, fan painting, tai chi, caving or abseiling. Their approach to taking on the new challenges or experiences was positive as they were prepared to give whatever they did a go. They reflected upon their learning and their own personal journey of achievement and challenge.

As we are now back at Utahloy for this week, they are immersing themselves again into more localised learning, as soon we will be preparing and packing to head off to Hong Kong island and the beach area of Pak Lap for 5 days next week.

Busy days continue with daily Mandarin classes merged in there too.

Enough for now,

xie xie and ziajian.

Russell.