Visiting China was on my wish list for a long time and finally materialised. The Centre for Language Education and Cooperation under the Ministry of Education in China organised an observation trip to China for the Principals of some schools in Nepal, courtesy of the Centre, a team of 16 people led by the supervisor of Volunteer Chinese Teachers in Nepal Dr Liu Yunhai left Kathmandu for Beijing on November 24, 2023.
As a founder and Principal of Elite Grand School and contributor to the Chinese volunteer teacher/s, I was also one of the members of the team of Principals to visit China. The flight carrying our team and others flew to Beijing.
As soon as the plane crossed the Nepal border, one could enjoy the view of Tibetan land peacefully stretched over a large area. There were many dunes and dust in the area, I think. Some clustered buildings could be seen near small streams. Leaving behind all this scenery, the plane was approaching a flat farming area, the mid and northern part of China. Finally, the aircraft landed at the Daxing Aiport Beijing.
The journey of learning and enjoying
On the second day of our arrival, the visits to the National Museum of China, Forbidden City, Palace Museum, Beijing National Olympic Park and walking through Tiananmen Square gave me a bigger picture of China; an attractive, large and well-managed nation.
The guide of the day carrying a stick with a flag at its tip told us to follow her. She was trying to give her best and most detailed information about the area with the context of history and present scenario of her country. We came to know that Tiananmen Square a monument for parade attracts thousands of people every day from around the world.
The Forbidden City covers a large area; with many palaces and beautiful architectural monuments. The columnist of these lines was surprised by the imagination of then emperor/s who envisioned such a wonderful multifaceted palace covering a large and far distant area for various activities and programs.
As described by our guide, The Forbidden City is a palace complex at the centre of the Imperial City of Beijing, surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples. The Forbidden City served as the home of Chinese emperors and was the ceremonial and political centre of the Chinese government for over 500 years.
The excitement to visit the Badaling Great Wall came into reality when we reached the base on the morning of our third day after a drive of around 2 hours from Beijing. Here the temperature was colder (minus 7 degrees Celsius) than in Beijing.
After the bus stopped at the base of the Great Wall, a short walk took us to the nearest point to climb the Great Wall. This point may be one of the convenient bases to climb for those coming from Beijing city. All of us were eager to start climbing, so we did it with excitement along with many other tourists who were going up and coming down.
Each of us reached the highest spot that we wished and backed by our legs. Two hours was gone for this adventure and everyone felt worth climbing the wall. According to our tour guide, the Great Wall is the largest defence work of ancient China and one of the wonders of the world’s architectural history. The walk ended with a feeling of achievement and was finally followed by a relaxing cup of coffee.
After this adventure, we were taken to one of the Acrobatic Centre in Beijing, where many other audiences were entering the hall while we reached there. Soon after we took our seats, the audience hall became full. The program was started by performers who were around the age of 20-25. The unbelievable performance of the young chaps at the Acrobatic Show of the evening was mesmerising; beyond my imagination.
A meeting held on the fourth day with the officials at the Language Exchange and Cooperation Centre of the Ministry of Education of China impressed me with the attitude and behaviour of the officials; the gesture this composer understood was their readiness to support Nepal.
Soon after this meeting, we headed to the airport for the departure to Guangzhou. On our fifth day, we visited Aisha International School (AIS) where a conference was held with the theme—Education for International Understanding.
We appreciated the theme of the conference and discussed and shared our views. This was one of the takeaways we can introduce and apply in our schools. The school focused on ISA (Inquiries, Success and Action) in its teaching and learning.
As set in the schedule, we continued the program of the day to visit the architectural site. The site we reached was the oldest settlement/city in the area, I guess. The narrow street took us to an inner part of the city where Bruce Lee’s father had built the house and Bruce Lee was grown up there. The adjoining area we visited is historical and magnificent. The monuments in the periphery are preserved attractively. The students who came along with us guided the city tour and at the end they interviewed us regarding their school, program, tour etc.
On our sixth day, a male guide led us to Huangpu Military Academy and the 1911 Revolution Memorial Hall, which were well-maintained. The pictures, objects and texts displayed on the wall were self-explanatory. A visit of two hours to Tianhe City on the same day kept each of us very busy going around the shops and purchasing some gifts as we had only two hours for this activity.
We had more programs of the day to be accomplished. Among them was a visit to Canton Tower. Reaching the highest sky as high as Canton Tower which serves thousands of people a day, was my first experience of this high.
Popularly known by its name Canton Tower, the second highest Tower in the world at the moment, has 108 floors and it serves a panoramic view of beautiful Guangzhou from its 107 floors. The time we were on the top was around 7-8 pm, so all the buildings, roads, bridges, nature and monuments that we saw from 360 degrees of the Tower looked bright and beautiful with the lights twinkling on them.
This trip gave me another chance to experience of fast train (Bullet train) ride which I first experienced in Japan. We reached the city of Shenzhen on the seventh day of our trip by this train.
It did not take long to feel the development of Shenzhen soon after we reached the area. The history of development in the past and the architecture of the future city are visualised on large screens and walls of a huge Exhibition Hall.
So, one could easily understand how visionary and dedicated the leaders and the people of Shenzhen are. The window of the world is also one of the best products in Shenzhen city; the displays iconic items from different nations. On a family trip, we observed three years back similar products in Canberra by the name of miniature garden, but a little different than here.
Good memories
Before the last day of our departure, a conference was held at Nanfang College, where both the Nepali side and the college side shared initiatives taken regarding the teaching and learning of the Chinese language, cultural exchange, and overall teaching-learning in the classrooms.
An experience of a practical class on writing and understanding Chinese characters was also given to us at the end of the program. During the sharing, we were informed about Nanfang College’s responsibility to prepare Chinese Language Teachers for abroad. Carrying good memories of the People’s Republic of China, on December 2, 2023, we flew from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport to Kathmandu.
The trip, on the whole, remained unforgettable and rewarding in many ways: it added moments of pleasure and joy to my life and enhanced learning through seeing, observing, meeting, and sharing with people.
