Welcome to China!

So folks, now I can finally give you a report on my exciting trip to China!! :)

I've been back since the 16th of January and I admit that those impression still have a big influence on me and I'm sure they'll stay for a long time! The things we've seen, experienced and felt were really new for us and unique. Some of the happenings are even almost undescribable, but I'll try to get you a little closer to the topic and our experiences ;)

Our trip is based on the celebration of the five-year-long partnership between Hessen (a region in Germany) and China. Because of this occasion our "Mädchenensemble" - that's a part of our school choir consisting of 22 girls - and another band from Hessen were invited to go to China.

On the 5th of January, our journey started. At the airport, excitement was already high:

But of course after our arrival in Asia, we were even more curious about what we're going to see and to do during our stay.
The first 'complete' day we passed in Guangdong started with a full program! In the morning, there was a welcome ceremony for us combined with a sports meeting at a Chinese kindergarten. It was soooo cute and you could see how much work the people had to prepare and practise each part of the presentation. Here are some pictures showing those little children:

Later, we visited Tangxia Performance Art Center - the place where we'd give our first two concerts. 

It looks quite nice and modern, doesn't it? From inside, too!
And on top of that we were lucky with the weather, sun was out and no clouds in the blue sky :))

There we recognized surprisedly that the posters, showing the band and us with our solo singers, which were designed for China were really attached on the frontside of the building! Pretty cool :)

I'll now show you the pictures I like the most because I'm of the opinion that they illustrate our tours and feelings in the best possible way. The pictures won't be in a chronological order, I'm sorry. I'll just post them with little titles and textes, so you know what they show (; Hope you don't mind!

On this picture you see our "Mädchenensemble" performing at one of our concerts at Tangxia Performance Art Center. We sang the songs we've practised for half a year and many hundred people were watching our performance.

Our lovely group in front of the center! :D

We're holding (from the left side on) the German flag, the one of Hessen, China, our school (Kopernikusschule Freigericht) and the flag representing the Main-Kinzig-Kreis.

The third concert we gave was in Xinhui City. Here's a photo showing the band from Butzbach performing on stage:

Holding a concert for such a big audience was something new for most of us. On stage as well as backstage we had fun - aaaand backstage we experienced something which we could never have imagined before!! 

Chinese children and teenagers came to us and wanted to have signatures, pictures with us or even our        e-mail address! At first we reacted kind of astonished, but then we learned the reason for the big interest of the Chinese people in us Germans: A big majority of them has never seen any person of another country in his life. That's why they find it so exciting to meet different people. When I heard and thought about this, it was easier for me to understand them.

So here you see us giving signatures for the Chinese people :b

... Of course we didn't only practise singing and gave concerts. During the 10 days on the other continent we also had quite a lot of excursions!

For example, we visited a so-called 'painting village' where we could see artists drawing all kinds of different pictures and a museum. There were some houses which had paintings on their walls, I liked that idea (:

In the museum was one picture that reminded me of my trip to California! Guess what was on the picture? :D - Good old Golden Gate Bridge!! Love it!

The following picture was taken after a walk on a little mountain (it really wasn't that high) - you had a wonderful view from over there!! :) Unfortunately it was a bit foggy, however you could see the skyline!

On another day, our group went to a kind of 'attraction parc' - well, when we heard of this we thought of something like Phantasialand (remember? I put some photos of it in my report 'Berlin & Potsdam, Lorette & me' ;)). But actually, there were no roller coasters or stuff like that. You could walk through it, discover Chinese culture by watching animation films, you could buy souvenirs in little shops, go into restaurants, see the nature, etc. Though we expected something different, it was quite nice, especially the show at the end of the day!

On the streets our group was impressed by a show some Chinese men performed. It must have been a traditional one, guess I've seen this kind of dragon on some pictures before, but not in real life of course ;) They also had some Chinese music in the background and the men in the costume tried to pretend the dragon is dancing to it, I figured out.

Our group also visited a place called 'birds' paradise'. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear this expression? Birds! Obviously.
Strangely, there were hardly no birds. Well, of course there were, but you couldn't see them cause they were hiding in the trees. Or better: the tree!
The interesting and absolutely stunning thing was that, in fact, the whole thing - which I'd describe as a wood of plants - was one single tree whic grew and grew and spread over this whole space!
I'll give you a picture so that you may get a better impression ;)

A tour guide told us that this is unique in the whole world, there used to be a second tree like this, but this one doesn't exist anymore. So as you may see, the territory we passed by boat is big and it took maybe half an hour to circle the whole tree.
And sometimes, you could really see some birds, but  most of the time, they were somewhere between all the branches.




Another day, we went to a place with many many Chinese houses and also platforms from where you got beautiful views! Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the city. But here are some pictures:
I have to add that we were really lucky with the weather! Especially this day, we had a lot of sun and the temperature was around 16°C.

On the same day, we made a little excursion to the coast - that was enjoyable, too!

On our last day in Xinhui City, we had dinner in a very delicious restaurant. Before it started, we spend some time outside and watched the sunset, that looked very pretty!
Here are some impressions:

:)





The food:

During our stay in China, we visited a couple of partner schools of our two German schools (the band's school & the KSF). That was a great new experience, too! We were always friendly welcomed by teachers,  the principal and the Chinese students!
At some schools, we also had some music classes together. For example, the Chinese pupils and we sang a song together:

In another course, some people of our German group, including me, learned how to do a traditional Chinese dance. That was very funny! Because we Germans aren't really used to that kind of moves and music :b
Unfortunately, I don't have any good picture showing the practise of the dance.
We could also learn how to play typical Chinese instruments:

At another school, we were even taught how to write in Chinese letters!!! That was really cool! I always wanted to know how to write my name in Chinese :D We also learned the correct method how to hold the paint brush and how to hold our arms.

this was the student who taught me writing

my name in Chinese letters

With the help of little Chinese kids we did some handicrafts (: That was so cute!

Well, and finally, at our last day, we spend the whole time in the city of HONGKONG! This was a very special and amazing highlight which brought down our great trip to a round figure!!

At first, we visited the Peak from which you have a nice view over the city. On the Peak itself there's also a shoppingcenter, some bars and restaurants.

Later we went on a boat tour which was also very interesting! You could see many skyscrapers just at the shore of the stream, the city already started to impress me.

this was the little boat we sat in :)

Here's what we could see:

In the afternoon then, we got some free time to explore the city centre of Hongkong on our own in little groups and to discover for some time its nightlife.
It was just undescribable!
Our first thought was: Are we in America? Isn't that New York City? :D You may laugh now, but this is really the question that came to our mind. And maybe you don't think anymore that this may be a bit stupid, if you take a look at this picture:

So, what do you think?
Quite similar to American cities, isn't it? :b













Just like almost every other city in China - as we found out - Hongkong is a city that doesn't sleep at night! Stores are open till - well, I don't know, but looooong!! :D And compared to German opening hours, you'd call it Late Night Shopping every day!

Back with the group again, we finally watched the light show at the river together. That was beautiful, too: The skyline in different colours, each of them reflecting on the water!

So... this is already the end of our tour in China :(
But of course, the experiences we gained and all the pictures and memories will be kept in our minds for a long, long time!
Hongkong and Chinese tradition, we won't forget you! And we'll keep eating with chopsticks, sometimes :D

Seeing China and looking inside, discovering its culture was really incredible for me! And I guess for most of us a completely new, but really great experience!

Hope you guys liked it and you could have a little introduction into the Chinese way of life with my pictures and texts ((:
See you soon, on the next continent!
Yoko ♥