2019 Ensworth China Program

The Wall

Written by Adair, Lexi and Lilli

This morning, Adair, Lexi and I all woke up to the lights coming up on the overnight train. We had a long, fun night beforehand and hoped to get more sleep, although we ate the bitter and kept going strong for the rest of the day. We started by departing the train and eating breakfast bright and early together. We had a bunch of bao zi and fried breadsticks. After breakfast, it was time to prepare to take on the Great Wall of China. We headed there straight after our meal and arrived around an hour and a half later. We took a cable car up to the wall. I was terrified, but Lexi helped me keep a positive mind and got me through it. We proceeded to get off the cable car and started walking the wall. It was extremely interesting and special for us to be able to walk on the wall together, as we had never imagined doing that.

After a full morning, we ate lunch at the homestay and got ready to keep walking up the hidden sections of the Great Wall. We explored the destructed watchtower near our homestay, taking multiple group photos and sharing lots of laughs. Finally, we hiked back to our homestay and freshened up, ate a good dinner together, and played Dutch Blitz, Mahjong, and Uno for the rest of the night. Today was a great opportunity for all of us to bond and become closer to each other, and it’s safe to say that eating the bitter is worth it in the end.

The Journey

Written by Erina, Salwa, BryNhyia

We began our journey this morning with a hearty breakfast of baozi and tea eggs at a local shop down the street from our hostel. After a filling meal, we stocked up on delicious snacks and cold drinks (a hot commodity) for the day. We hopped on a bus and headed on over to the Longman Grottos where we experienced a historically rich site that consisted of various caves and Buddha carvings. On the way out of the hot park we took a nice relaxing boat ride on the Yi river. After spending a long time in the hot sun we were happy to find an air conditioned restaurant complete with a high tech automatic Susan. We can assure you this was no LAZY Susan. We ate a good lunch that included pineapple pork, scallion pancakes, and fried green beans. We even dared to try a whole fried fish!

We then continued our adventures to the oldest Buddhist temple in China. The architecture was truly stunning and felt straight out of a Disney movie. We then ventured along and stumbled upon a few shops. The Bargaining Crew featuring; Bry’nhyia Brazier, Charlie Mahanes, Karim Daouk, and myself (Salwa Daouk) all took this as an opportunity to haggle down some prices and take home a few souvenirs. We all shopped for some local items and even practiced our Chinese skills. With plenty of gifts in hand, the group drove to the train station. Just as we were ready to go through security we had a slight malfunction. Apparently metal security detecters and big sharp swords do not mix well. Our group was all stopped as the security guards were shocked to find that many of us carried a few weapon-like souvenirs to bring back home. Two of our acquaintances had particularly pointy little pals which did amuse the security staff and were promptly whisked away to be interrogated. They made it out safely, but unfortunately their sharp friends did not quite make it to the train. Who would have thought that knives were not allowed in public transportation! shocking news! Despite our dysfunctional security encounter, we all made it safely to the terminal to buy a voluminous amount of tasty Chinese snacks to prepare ourself for our 10 hour ride. Once we got on the train we played card games and had many laughs while sitting on the bottom bunks. Lights out was at 10:00 and some of us struggled to climb to our cramped third level bunks. I’ve got to say, the train ride was a solid amount of eating the bitter. Our day ends here on the train ready to embark our final night journey before the Great Wall tomorrow.

Temples on Temples

Written by Aiden and Charlie

Yesterday(18th), we hung up our gi’s and left the shaolin temple after eating breakfast and facing the bitter disappointment of not being able to buy authentic shaolin temple jackets. After a long bus ride, we made it to Dashangguosi, a famous Buddhist temple, where we looked around and took lots of photos. We then took another trip to Qingmingshangheyuan, where we saw a massive stone replica of the famous painting often dubbed “the Mona Lisa of China.” Lastly, after a delicious lunch consisting of soup dumplings and fried noodles, we visited the iron pagoda tower. While the tower was beautiful, we faced many hardships as Ms Anderson, Brnhyia, Colin, and I(Charlie) decided to climb to the top of the tower, where we quickly realized that the stairwell was clearly built for that of a small child. Despite the ordeal, the view was beautiful and those who climbed to the top got to see the “secret zen surprise”. We faced another tough loss when Dr Kelley tragically hurt his leg in our daily game of Jianzi. We have been searching for canes ever since. After a delicious dinner with one of the most magnificent lazy Susans we have seen on the trip, we spent the night at the Buling Hostel where the boys played as many hit songs as possible to make each other laugh.

Beginning our Training

By Ben and Benji

We woke up with a laugh today because some of us headed to the lobby of our Zhengzhou hotel an hour before they needed to. Once everyone was up, at the correct time, we loaded up a bus with our bags and headed off to the Shaolin Temple to begin our training! After the two hour ride we arrived at the campus where our bus driver dropped us off a short walk away from our rooms. Then we dropped our luggage in our rooms and headed to meet our new Kung Fu instructor, Liman. He then told us that we was actually born in Georgia and had just graduated from the University of Georgia. He took us to a courtyard to do some basics and warming up, while we drew a large crowd spectating us. After our legs were burning and we were worried for the rest of training, we went to the cafeteria to have yet another lazy Susan meal. After lunch we walked over to the the temple to sightsee the temple itself and it’s surrounding landmarks. Then it was time for a show as we headed to watch a Kung Fu performance where young monks did things like breaking metal bars on their heads and throw needles through glass. After the show it was time to train! We entered the training room warmed up and began our first of three two and a half hour sessions with Liman. Many of us fell down and our joints popped but we gave our all and had a great time! And at the very end, we got to do some special cartwheel practice. After working hard we headed back to the cafeteria to eat dinner, once again with our friend Susan. After finishing up many of us bought our new Kung fu shoes and headed back to our rooms. We are tired from a great day, but ready for what tomorrow’s 6 AM run will have for us.

Final Day at Lianda

Written by Colin and Karim

Today, we returned to Lianda for our third and final day working with the students in Zhengzhou. Together with the Chinese students, we were split into two groups and tasked with each creating a giant mural for Lianda. In the end, after a few long hours of drawing (and thanks to Bry’Nyhia’s artistic talent), both groups focused on creating a visual depiction of the day’s unity between America and China, with the Ensworth and Lianda logos in the center. Additionally, for today’s meals, we took a break from Chinese food and tried out some American food franchises in China. A group went to McDonald’s for lunch, and we all ate dinner at Pizza Hut. It was interesting to compare the American and Chinese variants; for example, Pizza Hut in China has a fancier aesthetic than in America. After dinner, we stocked up on food at the local mall and prepared for tomorrow’s early morning wake up call to get to the Shaolin Temple.

Getting to Know the Locals

Written by Alexis Elcan and Salwa Daouk

We started the day with a delicious breakfast at the Tian He Hotel. We then packed up our things and took a nice stroll to the sunny park next door. Here, we met up with our Chinese friends and began the task of interviewing the Chinese people enjoying the park. We had an amazing time collaborating with our Chinese friends and learning more about everyday life in China. Alexis shared this experience with Collin Murray and three Chinese students. Collin and I thought of witty questions to ask and the Chinese students helped to translate them into Chinese. We attempted to ask the questions in Chinese to the interviewees however, most times the Chinese students had to translate our Chinese into better Chinese and translate the answers! While we interviewed five people, one memorable interview was with two elderly ladies sitting at a bench. These women were practicing their English! As we interviewed them a great crowd formed around us to listen and the women tried to answer in English. The women then asked me to read a passage from a text aloud to them. As I got up to leave the crowd formed a line to take pictures with me and people quickly started putting their children in my hands to take pictures. After about 8 pictures I had to leave to continue our interviews. Salwa experienced this with Ben Smitherman and two Chinese friends. We walked around the sunny park looking for people to interview. We eventually found 5 sweet elderly people to interview. They gave some really inspirational advice. One lady told us that to her family, to her, was her happiness. After plenty of conversations and smiling faces, we took a few pictures with our new friends. We all congregated together and played games in the park and got to know one another. When the big group of us began to take a group pictures another crowded formed to take some of their own. We then said goodbye to our new friends and walked to lunch.

We enjoyed a tasty meal of noodles, dumplings, wontons, and more. After lunch we went back to the hotel and had some downtime. We enjoyed some good laughs while eating Charlie Mahanes’ sour straws and hanging out with our friends in our room (1907). After two hours of bonding time, we explored an interesting museum about Chinese history. We saw some elaborate artifacts that truly captured our attention. Although there were many exhibits, we quickly became the main attraction. Many people lined up to take photos with our group as we sang Disney tunes to pass the time. We then headed over to a nearby park where we experienced high tech bathrooms with sliding doors and talking toilets. We then made our way to the restaurant where we enjoyed dinner with quite a thick Lazy Susan. After a full meal complete with pineapple shrimp, sticky rice, and delicious juice we continued our journey through the rain to the night market. On the way there Charlie, Karim, and Alexis stopped off at a sketchers in the hopes of finding Heelys. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful.  After the adventures in the night market, the group traveled back to the hotel with many new purchases in hand. We once again ended the night safe in our rooms with our funky fresh friends. 谢谢再见 (xie xie zaijian)!

New Friends at Lianda

Zheng Zhou

Written by Charlie and Aiden

Day 4 of the Ensworth 2019 China trip started with us leaving our hostel and driving to the train station, eating lots of baozi on the way. Taking the ride was a very relaxing experience, considering how fast (max speed of 310km/hr) yet smooth the ride was. We then arrived at Zhengzhou, where we went to a mall to eat lunch. We all sat together, eating lots of unique food such as snow peas, steamed buns, and squid. After a small break in the hotel, we went to the park, where we played jianzi , danced, and chatted with the locals. It was amazing how big and popular the park was. It seemed like there was a group for everyone to find something fun to do. We then had another dinner at the mall, explored some of the shops, and before we knew it our day was over.

Today was a huge day for cultural emersion and it really made us all feel like celebrities. Throughout the day we experienced life in a more urban environment and we got to enjoy some of the differences between China and America. For example, in the city of Zheng Zhou the park we visited had very beautiful scenery and we got to see how many people enjoyed their time at the park. Some danced to music and others played ping pong. We played Jian zi to pass the time, which is the Chinese version of hackie sack and badminton. The park was overall an amazing experience and we’re glad that we were able to be involved in Chinese culture.

Forbidden City

Written by Peter Liu – Program Leader

We started our day with finding our breakfast in the morning market. After enjoying the Chinese fried pie, sesame bread and special dates with soybean milk we made our way to the drum tower. First with our hutong photo scavenger hunt, we took some great pics with the hutong and a key highlight of all photos was finding a grandma and grandpa in PJs! They lead the fashion in Beijing. Then we saw the amazing beating drums show, which also told us it’s the time for lunch.

Walking through the Tiananmen Square, enjoying the beauty of Chinese architecture, and practicing our Chinese, we made our way to the Forbidden City. Someone said: “This place reminds me of the movie karate kid. Let’s do the snake pose.” Some of the students discussed that encountering someone that thinks you speak the same language as them in a different country and trying to communicate is a lot harder than you think. After the long walk we finally arrived at Jingshan park which everyone really enjoyed as it is the center of Beijing where you can also see a great view from above. We also learned new exercises that people doing in parks, we called it 踢键子. After a delicious Yunnan speciality dinner we end the day with everyone journaling to themselves.

Arriving in the Middle Kingdom