Enjoyable Winter Trip to China

Last December, a few Cambridge students and I joined the yearly China Winter Camp. There were a total of 31 students all over from SHB. Our destination was Henan, we travelled all around it, going to Luoyang, Zhengzhou and more. This wonderful trip took around 10 days to experience Henan.

On the first day, we were welcomed with an opening ceremony in CBD district. As we were in the district, they also invited a few teachers to introduce the culture and history of Henan. It was very interesting as it is the province with the most Chinese surnames, also having the famous Peony flower. They also taught us simple and basic use of Chinese, to help us through our stay. The next few days we learned plenty of interesting information. Such as, learning about Chinese traditional medicine in a famous university, the famous Chinese paper cutting, opera, calligraphy, wushu and more. We also went to places like, the hometown of a past emperor, shaolin temple, songyang college (which is one of the four oldest universities), and a few museums.

My favorite location was to an old mini town , where I found a lot of mini stores for shopping. There were also some fun rides, which made it look like a mini amusement park. Lastly, in the city alone, we learned and experienced Opera singing, traditional printing and Chinese calligraphy.

On the last day, we were celebrated with a closing ceremony, performing a few Chinese songs and poems that we have learned the past few days. We even performed the song of the Winter Camp, called “Long de Chuan Ren”, telling us that we are all somehow Chinese, which is quite confusing for me.

Overall, I really enjoyed this trip, I visited places which I thought I would never go to. Became friends with other SHB students, and learned information that was very interesting.

Phylisse (CS-4)