Guest Post: China Trips

Last week I took 50 seventh graders to Yaolinzhen as part of the outdoor lab-esque program called China Trips. Every student from grade 6-12 visits a different region of China depending on their grade. Most of the trips are service oriented so that the experience can fulfill part of the IB curriculum requirements. The 6th and 7th graders however get an outdoor education trip that is focused on team building and comfort zone challenges.

Yaolin is 4 hours and 30 minutes southwest of Shanghai and we made the trip in the pouring rain of Typhoon Fitow. When we left the school it was just starting to rain, but as we drove south if started to let loose. Each town we passed was more flooded than the last. 

When we got to the hotel we had to present all 50 kids and 5 adults with matching passports in order to check in to our rooms. Surprisingly, this only took about a half hour because not one person forgot their passports. It was a miracle! After dropping our things in the room we got back on the bus to head to the campsite for introductions. 

notice the standing water...

 a short walk up this trail to the campsite...

After a few hours of getting muddy in the field we went back to the hotel for a great meal and an early bed time... for the kids.

The next day we split into two groups. One group, my group, would camp on Tuesday and the other would camp on Wednesday. We ate a big breakfast and packed lunches before heading back to the campsite. The day was filled with three main activities.

1. Archery... awesome!

2. Wilderness Skills... boring and long

3. How to build a fire... with tissues and a lighter.

After a short break and a snack we set up our tents. Setting up a tent can always be a challenge but doing it with 25 7th graders who have never set one up before was borderline impossible.

The day ended with a camp fire and a giant spaghetti dinner.

Day three consisted of a hike with some nice scenery.

Day 4: Repelling, rock climbing, and laser tag.

On Friday we woke up and checked the kids out of the hotel. We got all the bags and kids into the lobby only to find out that the bus was going to be late. How late? 3 and 1/2 hours. We played every version of tag known to man before checking out two rooms at the hotel for movies. The bus finally came and we made it home just in time for happy hour. Thank god!