Day 10

We are in the southernmost part of China, so it is much, much greener, but also more humid. They told us to carry umbrellas, because they often have sudden afternoon rain showers (so far I’ve mostly been using my umbrella like the Chinese do to keep the sun off my head). We’re staying in an Ibis hotel which is actually part of a European chain. It reminds me a lot of our cabin on the cruise – clean, but tiny.


This morning we visited a foreign language high school. This is the school where we get our exchange students from each year. I didn’t see any of my former students, because they’ve all graduated and gone on to college, but 4 of students were the host families for the Chinese students this past year, so they did a mini-reunion. Since it was Sunday, we didn’t get to see classes in session, but some of the students and teachers came in to give us a tour. We had a little free time before lunch, so we played a game of ping pong. When we asked the Chinese students what they missed most during their 4 months in the U.S., they unanimously said, “the food.” (They called U.S. Chinese food “fake.”) Many of the people on our trip have been missing American food as well.


After lunch we visited Sun Yatsen’s Mausoleum. It was very hot, humid, and high up. We opted for taking the tram rather than walking all the way up (a couple hundred steps). After being in the Central Plains which were very dry (reminded me of Kansas), this city is like being in the tropics. It’s very green and not nearly as dusty.


In the late afternoon, our local guide dropped us off between a KFC and a McDonalds in a market area along the Qin Huai River. Several of our students went off with their Chinese friends to find a local Pizza Hut. Dr Tai and I went to see the Confucius Temple. When we walked up, we saw hundreds of red prayer ribbons hanging all over the temple. Dr Tai said that local students were in the middle of their final exams, so it was the custom for students and their parents to pray for good fortune or success or wisdom. We walked through a folk art museum next to the temple and saw a Chinese lantern display. The annual lantern festival is in January during Chinese New Year.