CHINA, CHINA!

WuYi Mountain Show

While we were at WuYi Mountain a few days ago, we watched a show during the night and the weather was very cold. The show took place outside and it was freezing! Anyways, the entire program was in Chinese and I did not really understand all the details of it. I know that it had to do with a story between two lovers on the mountain, a white horse, and ancient China. The show also had a more modern approach to China and the moral of that story was that drinking tea will make you happy. I did not expect the show to be so great. It was amazing! We all enjoyed it. It was a rotating stage, or well, the area where the audience sat rotated so the stage was a circle around us. The actors did a great job and their costumes were colorful and beautiful. What I really loved was their special effects. They had a really cool hologram that made it seem like they were actually in the mountains and the trees and leaves seemed so real. It was so nice. They even had holograms of birds that would fly over us. They also used multiple colored lights that made the show even better. The dancing involved a lot of people and they were so synchronized. It is a show that I would definitely watch again.

This is one side of the stage. The dancers would cover the entire stairs (there were that many).

These are a few of the actors. They were so colorful.

This was a part in the show. That is an actor in white and everything around him, the colors, are holograms. It came out really nice; too bad my camera was unable to capture it as nicely as it looked in person.

Paper Cutting!

This morning, we had a paper cutting class. A teacher came in with a few of her students to help her. At first she demonstrated some of her work and she is really good! She made it seem so easy. I started to panic a little because the patterns she was cutting out seemed so difficult. The first one we made was something more simple than her example. She incorporated elements such as fire and water into the design. The design also included moon shapes.

This is the teacher who lead the paper cutting class. She is holding her first example to us. We were all amazed at how it turned out.

Look how pretty it is! Her design has butterflies in it.

This are the supplies we used

This was the first design we made together as a class. Everyone's design came out a little different, but we all followed the same instructions. The center was made by cutting out moon shapes. The spiky design resembles fire and the lines on the outer most part is supposed to be like a wave of water.

The second design we made was the Chinese character for Spring. When it stands, it has four sides, just like the four seasons. This is used as decoration in celebration of the Spring Festival. You can hang it on your door or window.

Overall, the class was pretty fun and interesting. I would really like to have cool paper cutting skills. The students who came to help were very nice and they always complimented my work although I knew it wasn't so great.

Class group photo

Shopping & Panda World

We went with our big sisters to do some shopping! First we went to one of Fuzhou's famous areas, it is called 'Three Lanes, Seven Alleys'. All the buildings had older architectural styles, I thought it was very cool. There were many shops offering many different things. My big sister helped me to bargain for stuff! Mrs. Zhang-Micco, Tiffany and her big sister Silia, my big sister Donna, and I decided to have some dessert. We went to 'Honeymoon Dessert' which is based in Hong Kong and very popular. I ordered a honeydew juice and it tasted very fresh and sweet.

This is a picture Donna and I at Honeymoon Dessert.

We also took the public bus to a shopping complex with 5 floors! Taking the public bus in China is very different than taking the public bus in Hawaii. Bus fare is very cheap! It was only 1 yuan which is like 16 cents. There are very little seats and a lot of space for people to stand. There were also TVs in the bus!

Today we went to... PANDA WORLD!

This is the first panda we saw. He is 33 years old!

All the pandas were so cute, but all they did was sleep or eat. We were not the only ones at Panda World. There were also elementary students on field trips. They were cute also! Some of them wore matching school tracksuits.

This panda is sleeping. He looks very comfortable.

We also got to watch a 'Panda Show'. Panda World also has red pandas, but they are called 'lesser pandas'. The panda show was basically a red panda doing tricks. The red panda jumped through a hoop, swung on a swing, rode a rocking horse, and other spectacular tricks.

This is the red panda who performed for us!

Unfortunately we were not able to purchase any souvenirs from panda world. There were an assortment of panda stuffed animals and other panda apparel that many of us would have liked to purchase. Ultimately though, being able to see pandas in the flesh was good enough for me.

Pandas and Museums

Today was very exciting because we went to Panda World. Seeing pandas in real life is a great experience. We traveled with out older sisters to see pandas, and later to the Provincial Museum. I was surprised that they had dinosaur fossils. It was all pretty fun, but it made me really tired. Nearly everyone fell asleep on the bus ride back.

This is the first panda I saw. It was eating some bamboo.

A red panda, or "lesser panda" is sitting in a tree. They're much more nimble than the regular pandas.

This is my older sister, Violet, and me trying to get a good picture with the panda. It was sleeping in the tree.

I was surprised to see dinosaurs in China. These fossils are from the Sichuan Province, the same province that the pandas are from

PANDAS!

Oh. My. PANDA! Yesterday we saw pandas! They looked so fluffy and content eating bamboo! After they ate their fill, they flopped onto their bellies and napped. Then, we saw some red pandas! They were so adorable - they were like raccoon/cat/possum/panda hybrids! One red panda performed for us by climbing on stools and jumping through some hoops. A whole mob of kindergarten kids came and their high-pitched voices echoed everywhere.

After leaving the cuteness behind, we went to the provincial museum and saw what prehistoric life up to the Qing Dynasty was like. My three big sisters explained a large amount of the history to me. Best of all, we saw the World of Dinosaurs! There were so many exhibits with so many realistic models. Today was really educational but fun at the same time!

My Chinese Big Sisters

We have lived in China for a week now, and I have so many new friends! I have met many many people, and have a lot of big sisters from the Hwa Nan Women's College. Note: this is not all of them. I have posted pictures already with some of my previous big sisters, but unfortunately, I could not get pictures with everyone I met.

Mao Yanlin and I are standing in "Three Lanes Seven

Alleys." It is a famous shopping street.

We play with the merchandise.

Li Zheng, Li Xing, and I are at a shopping mall,

looking at all the clothes and products.

So many Li's!

Mao Yanlin bought me an ice cream cone, and taught

me how to say it in Chinese: bing qi ling!

At the panda zoo with Lin Li, Kelly, and Pei Na

Lin Li, Pei Na, and I watch the panda show.

The "lesser panda" knows so many tricks!

GIANT PANDA

Lin Li and I go to a dinosaur exhibit.

We are in a dinosaur's rib cage!

Kennedy is not Chinese, but she can still be my

big sister!

Vivian, Pei Na, and I stand in front of a dinosaur

skeleton. It's so creepy!

I love all of my big sisters. They are all very kind and generous. When we first got to Fu Zhou, all of the university students were so welcoming and excited for us. It has been a great experience to get to know the people of China and what they are like. I could not have asked for a better opportunity.