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Published: July 20th 2009
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Ni Hao from super hot Beijing! The temperatures rose to 37C today and all the students had their hats, sunscreen and umbrellas up while also drinking lots of water to beat the heat! We hope that in sending you this blog you might feel some of the “heat”/excitement of the students and the team here knowing that you aren’t having temperatures as high back home!
From the supervisors, we are so happy with the amazing students who are on this trip. Everyone is very courteous, polite, and friendly to each other and it is so nice getting to know all of them and share this exciting adventure with them. It is so good to see them making new friends and really showing interest in the culture and history of China. The students ask lots of great questions of our wonderful guides Sammy and Oscar, and are always snapping their own photographs to capture memories of their experiences to share with you. We are helping to take photos of them too so that you can see them at the places we are visiting.
Today was truly an exceptional day! Today we got to feel like Olympic Heroes and catch some
of the olympic spirit! We began our day at the Olympic Park to take a tour inside of the Bird’s Nest where the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field events were held for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The students were so excited to go and sit in the front row seats and field level and have their pictures taken and to look up at the jumbotron screens and see recounted stories of Olympic victories from last year. They also pretended that they were running a 100 m dash and got themselves in position on the start line for photographs. Others wanted to get their photos taken with the Olympic Games mascots-The Fuwa— Beibei the fish, Jingjing the panda, Yingying the Tibetan Antelope, Nini the Swallow and Huanhuan the Olympic Flame. These mascots each represent the colours and inspiration of the Olympic Games carrying messages of friendship and peace. I learned today that when you put their names side by side it spells out Beijing Huan Ying Ni-Welcome to Beijing!
It was almost magical to be out on the field of the stadium of the Bird’s Nest where all the Olympians from around the world paraded in
with their flags and heard their anthems played, to look up at the roof at 68 metres high and at the 91,000 seats and imagine what it would have been like to have been there last summer to see the flame lit for the opening ceremonies, watch the medal presentations and see incredible performances by athletes and artists alike. You could almost sense the Olympic spirit as we walked around the complex. What an incredible structure and a fitting place to have such an amazing event. Many of the students took a moment to buy some official souvenirs at the Gift Shop to remember their time there.
It is exciting to know that the upcoming Olympic Games are going to be in Vancouver 2010 so we in a sense will get to bring some of that Olympic spirit back home with us to Canada.
Our next stop on the Olympic Green was to the H20 Cube (Water Cube) location of all aquatic events during the Games. We saw all the high diving towers, and the Olympic size pool where there would have been synchronized swimming and lapped swimming competitions—there was even an event happening as we walked through.
Many of the students commented on how happy they were to see the Canadian flag hung atop the rafters. This is where American swimmer Michael Phelps won his 8 medals last year. It is a very cool place to visit! From the outside it looks like a series of water bubbles. Because of the heat outside the students were happy to be indoors for a short while and be in an air-conditioned space. They had a great deal on souvenirs at the Water Cube so many of the students again bought some great souvenirs here. It is exciting to think that may be one or two of the students on this trip might be able to someday compete at or work for the Olympics! A very unique experience indeed.
Lunch today was at a hotel not far from the Summer Palace—we had soup, lemon chicken, sweet and sour pork, beautiful fish, and rice. We are happy to see that all the students are eating well and are even trying some new foods. For those students who aren’t used to eating with chopsticks daily-they are improving quickly.
This afternoon we went to the Summer Palace. It was built in
the Jin Dynasty and construction continued on into the Qing Dynasty as the royal residence for the Emperor and his family. We arrived at the palace and saw the beautiful tall lotus flowers in the water of the Kunming Lake. There were lots of people out on the pedal boats on the lake too. Our guide Oscar took us through the different pavilions, courtyards and along the Long Corridor which is the largest outdoor gallery of original paintings. At the end of the tour we saw the Marble Boat. The students were entertained by Oscar with lots of stories about the history of the palace and the 18th century life of the residents here. We all got on a Dragon Boat at the end of the walk which took us back to the North gate. The students enjoyed walking through the gardens and I think they enjoyed the boat ride the best!
Now after all this sightseeing and touring about, it was time for some practice at bargaining at the Pearl Market in Beijing. This multi-floor building has so many different vendors selling everything from electronics to Converse running shoes, to belts, to dolls, to many strings of pearls
and even straw woven hats. These are just some of the things the students bargained for. Many of them were able to make some good deals and all enjoyed the experience. Everyone seems happy with their purchases and were exciting to share their “finds” with us.
Dinner tonight was the Peking Duck restaurant, a famous place for this cuisine in Beijing. This time in anticipation of the Peking duck being ready, we ate a spicy pork dish which came in a hot pot, bokchoy, lemon chicken ( I think this is the students’ favourite), and various vegetables. When the duck came out to the table one of the chef’s showed how he cut it all up and then served it to us. We all had little pancakes with sliced cucumber, spring onions and hoisin sauce and made our own wrappers with the duck. The students really enjoyed this and ate until they were full!
En route back to the hotel we drove along the Dongchan’an Jie past Tiananmen Square and the Gate of Heavenly Peace. A great end to fantastic day 2 in Beijing!
Tomorrow we will head outside of the city in search of cooler temperatures
we hope as we climb The Great Wall of China! I for one am excited to climb back up on the wall and to share this experience with the students and the team here. In the evening as our reward for all our hard work climbing the wall, we will be going to the Shaolin Ganfu Martial Arts Show which is sure to be a treat.
We hope you are enjoying our posts and the photos. I will do my best to upload as many as I can and to show as many students as I can. It takes a long time to upload these, so we hope you understand that not every student will be shown in the photos each day. Please know that they are all in the group photos and we will be happy to share more of our pictures upon our return to Canada.
Thank you for all your messages. We continue to share them with the students.
Take care.
Signing off-Time for bed to get rest to climb the Great Wall Tomorrow.
Goodnight from Beijing,
The TDSB Chinese Heritage Summer Camp team!
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Kee Fung
non-member comment
No 'Bird's Nest" soup?
I would image that Bird's Nest soup for lunch would be a good complement for the awesome sight of the stadium! Yiming and Jasmine both had the olymipc look, ready to conquer!