Blogs from Sichuan, China, Asia - page 5

I’ve never been to China before. Here’s some observations of China from a newcomer: · China loves concrete. Why build something that’s structurally sound, when you can build gigantic structures that way exceed the minimum standards! Aussie specs: 100 X 100 posts; Chinese specs: 800 X 800 posts! Chinese engineers are also very playful and creative in the way they design bridges and other structures. Why build two apartments when you can build twenty? · China embraces technology. I jumped on a bike today. Using my phone, I scanned a bar code on one of the millions of bikes parked around the streets. It automatically unlocked the bike and debited my Wechat account. How amazing is that! Try to pull that one off, Cairns! · Sparkies nightmare? Or an historical wiring record? Walking to a restaurant ... read more

We took a really long bus drive to Dujiangyuan, which consisted of a series of temples around a gigantic river. In the beginning we did a really bad flash mob singing ‘Land Down Under’. After leaving that cringe-worthy moment behind, we were basically forced to take pictures with these guys in monkey suits. That was before we realized we had to pay. We took a lot of pictures, but Che’la, Tamara and I kept getting left behind because the teachers were walking too fast. Walking from temple to temple was basically all stairs, which was painful. The place was beautiful, and it was sad we had to go. We walked a million miles to the bus to get to lunch, which was one of the best lunches I’d eaten out so far. We then drove to ... read more

On the weekend I met up with a girl named Milli whom I hosted in Australia last year. She picked me up after camp and we went to see a movie and go shopping. We watched the movie ‘The Mummy’ with her whole family and it was great. The next day we got up early and went horse-riding. The Stables were so fancy, a real equestrian vibe. They had many horses, and some were so beautiful. They even had baby foals. After Milli told the stable staff I was from Australia and owned a horse, they instantly trusted I could ride. It was great, and they let me off to do my own thing. I was riding a horse with a name (it was Chinese and too hard to pronounce) that meant ‘handsome boy’. He was ... read more

The excursions this week have been FANTASTIC, we are really getting to see some amazing parts of Chengdu. But it is a bit of a shame that we aren’t able to spend most of these last few days with the Chinese students after we got to know them a little better at the camp. They really do seem like an awesome bunch of people and I honestly can’t wait until they come to Australia!! Some of them have unfortunate names like Awake, Fish, etc., and some of them don’t have an English name at all. So the last couple of days we’ve been trying to think of some new English names for them (it’s pretty funny naming people…but anyway), we gave Awake the name Olivia, we gave GelBoy, who I don’t think had an English name, ... read more

At camp we did orienteering all around the bush. On the first day we learnt how to do it and then went off on our own to find 11 random points all around the bush, armed with a map and compass. At first I was worried I would get lost and not find any points, but in the end I found all of them and had fun running around the bush. The next day we did a bigger search, this time in teams of six, with about 60 points and four hours to complete. It was very hard and tiring, running around everywhere, and there were so many mosquitoes. The ground was muddy and slippery from the overnight rain and I fell over a few times. My feet hurt from walking for so long, but I ... read more