Virtual Experience
Eat & Exercise
This school trip (I thought I would drop in that key piece of information right off the bat) was filled with authentic Chinese food experiences. For the time being, I have traded dumplings for egg rolls and have concluded that bok choy is the only thing that tastes the same on both hemispheres. My taste buds missed western flavor so upon my return to HK I treated myself to a good old-fashioned cheeseburger.
As for exercise, each day my footwear was saying, “These boots are made for walking,” while my feet were screaming these toes are made for massages! The most strenuous day was the hike on the Great Wall for which my calves are still working out their ability to forgive me.
Pray
While there, I read a quote that has resonated with me. It said, “Where there is life, there is hope.” To my faith, it was a reminder that each day of life I am given, is another day to put my faith to work while watching God work on my behalf. Recently I listened to a sermon by Rev. Dr. Freddie D. Haynes, and he shared these words, “When you’re in the mean time of your meantime, see beyond your situation and be energized by your expectation.”
It is my prayer for you and yours truly that for whatever you are believing God for, you take courage in the words penned in Romans 12:12 (TLB), “Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and prayerful always.”
In every circumstance, continue believing that God is able.
Love
One of the blessings of being an international educator is that I am able to travel to places I read about as a child. The cherry on top is that sometimes, I get to go for “free.” Why the quotation marks? Because when guiding the young minds of enthusiastic and high energized children, outside the boundary of school walls, there is a price to pay!
I love that I am in this season of my life where this is an option and have vowed to enjoy it to the fullest extent possible.
Teach
After our 5 a.m. departure for the airport and a long morning of transporting a host of sixth graders through security and immigration at both airports, we ended our evening at the Chaoyang Theatre where we enjoyed an acrobatic show. It was said that this high drama performance would have me clutching the armrests and gasping for breath and it did not disappoint. For one act I found myself saying to the performer, “You know what happened to Icarus right?”
The next day was filled with activities at The Temple of Heaven. Our students joined other Beijingers in Tai Ji, devil sticks, yo-yo, Kungfu and jump rope. I enjoyed a little bit of Tai Ji and had a try at the yo-yo. Both will need more attention if I would like to earn the title of a novice. The Temple of Heaven itself is a vast complex of Chinese architectural masterpieces where Chinese emperors conducted arguably the most important rituals an emperor ever had to do: offer sacrifices to Heaven and pray for good harvests. Even larger than the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven grounds were designed and laid out in strict accordance with ancient cosmology and numerology to reinforce the legitimacy of the emperor’s divine ordination. Now open to the public, the gardens surrounding the Temple of Heaven serve as a lively gathering spot for local Beijingers to enjoy activities.
Also visited on this trip was the Confucius Temple. The temple was built in 1302, and officials used it to pay their respects to Confucius until 1911. The compound was enlarged twice, during the Ming and Qing dynasties and now occupies some 20,000 square meters.
The Forbidden City was also a popular destination for the students. The Forbidden City was home to 24 emperors – 14 of the Ming Dynasty and 10 of the Qing Dynasty. The city was built from 1406 to 1420 from wood transported from northern China. It holds 980 buildings that cover 7,800.000 square feet.
Housed within the Forbidden City is The Palace Museum. It is now the best-preserved palace complex in China. Crowds of tourists (up to 80,000 a day) are free to roam the courtyards, toting children and imagining a life far different from the one they lead now. It is a life preserved in chambers, where emperors ruled, empresses and concubines strolled in the gardens, and palace staff lived for centuries behind the towering red walls.
The last emperor to dwell there was Puyi of the Qing Dynasty. He reigned at the age of two from November 14, 1908, to February 12, 1912. Puyi led a very colorful life and died a citizen at the age of 61.
The biggest highlight for the students and yours truly was the visit to the Great Wall. Before arriving, we stopped by a Hexi Village where we learned the art of making dumplings. Please know that I did not take too many notes as cooking and I have a love-hate relationship. The students however thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and there were dumplings for days. It was great fuel for what was next on our trip, the climb to the Jinshanling portion of the Great Wall.
During the Ming Dynasty, the low-lying position of the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall was battered in numerous battles against invading Mongol forces. In order to address this positional weakness, General Qi Jiguang ordered the construction of double-walled sections that increased the wall’s height. A historical and less visited section of the Great Wall, Jinshanling is an off-the-beaten-path destination. A comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that the Ming walls measure 8,850 km (5,500 mi). This is made up of 6,259 km (3,889 mi) sections of actual wall, 359 km (223 mi) of trenches and 2,232 km (1,387 mi) of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers. Another archaeological survey found that the entire wall with all of its branches measures out to be 21,196 km (13,171 mi). (Wikipedia)
Starting at the sea and stretching more than one thousand miles to the desert frontiers of China’s west, the Great Wall is a lasting symbol of China’s imperial might; built over the course of two millennia; it is a series of defensive walls erected to protect China’s heartland from invaders. Although it ultimately failed as a defensive structure, the Great Wall remains a monument to the ingenuity and determination of imperial China.