After lunch on Wednesday, the students traveled to Seven-star park, a large recreational park with many paths, streams, fishponds and vistas for viewing the rest of the city. The park also contains a zoo, a fledgling panda reserve, a large amphitheater for ethnic operas and a cave similar to the one the students visited on Tuesday. The park’s grandest attraction, however, is a large cave-like crack in the side of a mountain, which contains hundreds of inscriptions in the stone, cut into the walls over the years by poets, artists, Calligraphers, political leaders, and other historical figures. The earliest of these carvings dates to 1056AD.
A tour guide explained some of the most famous of the inscriptions to the students. Examples of all eight styles of Calligraphic writing were visible in the cliff walls. After the tour of the inscriptions, students were able to purchase copies of the inscriptions made off of the walls themselves. The group continued through the park, walking along the edge of a mountain and winding its way between mountain and river. At one point the group paused at an empty souvenir stand with a large platform dug into the side of the mountain. Some students noticed that the trees in the pavilion were hanging with large, round green fruit. After resting for a while, the students continued on. As the last student was just about to turn a corner and descend the stairs, she heard a strange animal sound and looked back towards the empty souvenir stand. Coming across the pavilion, two large, furry monkeys trotted on all fours towards the fruit-bearing trees. As she snapped a few quick photos of the monkeys, other students reappeared to see what was keeping her. The monkeys weren’t too afraid of the students, but it was evident that they had been patiently waiting for the group to move through before returning to their fruit.
The students continued through the park and made their way past ice cream vendors, purchasing here and there, past other visitors to the park enjoying the shade and back to the bus, ready for dinner and a little rest. After dinner, many students began studying for the second day of language classes.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Cultural Lecture: Calligraphy
Chen Laoshi, a professor at GXNU, gave the Calligraphy lecture. He presented Calligraphy to the students through a brief history of the eight styles of Calligraphy as they evolved through the dynasties. As told by Chen Laoshi, the first example of writing was mainly pictographic. Characters were carved into animal bones as a form of divination. These bones are now known among researchers of Chinese antiquity as Oracle Bones. The second style was a form that synthesized the pictographs of Oracle Bones into newer, slightly simpler though more abstract characters. Some of these new characters are still in use today. When the 1st Emperor of China unified the six kingdoms into the kingdom of China, he also unified the scripts of the six regions into a universal script, which is known as the third style common to Calligraphers.
The fourth style evolved during the Han Jian period and these characters were carved into bamboo. This style is known for being less rigid, more casual. Brushes were not in use at this time. The fifth style is known as the style that drew a distinct line between ancient characters and the characters that have become the modern script of China. The sixth style is called the “Running Style”. It is very difficult to read, doesn’t have a particular method for copying, but is very easy and quick to write. It is considered a style that only masters can truly perfect in an attractive manner. When comparing similar and sometimes not so similar characters written in the Running Style, it can be exasperating trying to determine what makes them different. Chen Laoshi pointed out some of the most difficult to detect subtleties and confounded his audience.
The seventh style was created during the 2nd Emperor of the Tang dynasty’s reign. When he died, a tablet inscribed with this style was placed in his tomb. The tablet was supposed to be sealed into the tomb before anyone could set eyes upon it. However, there are several supposed copies of the tablet available for viewing throughout China, implying that the tablet maker made a copy for himself or someone else saw it for long enough to make at least one copy. The eighth and final style was created during the Hui dynasty and is considered to be the model of script, what one should aspire to in their writing. It is very standard and easy to learn, though not to perfect.
Within Calligraphy, there is talk of the four treasures. These are the brush, the ink, the paper and the inkstand. There are many types of brushes, though ink is generally very standard. Calligraphy is written on rice paper, which there are also many types of. In ancient Chinese culture, the inkstand was a very important part of the Calligraphic process. In modern society, Calligraphers who are not attempting to recreate the past will use pre-made ink from bottles. The typical content of a Calligraphic piece is either poetry or sage advice regarding work ethic and fortune.
In classical China, Calligraphers wrote from right to left and vertically. After Chairman Mao began making changes within society, he changed the way in which Chinese people wrote so that books would read from left to write and horizontally. Today, Calligraphers choose the most appropriate direction for their work. In order to know how to read a piece of Calligraphy, look for the red signature “chop” (the square stamp of the Calligrapher’s name in Chinese characters). If it is at the bottom right of a piece, the piece should be read from left to right. If it is located at the bottom left of a piece, the piece should be read from right to left.
There are nine strokes that make up the toolbox of a Calligrapher. Before the student can begin with even the simplest character, he or she must perfect these nine components. They are the building blocks of a character and require much practice and precision with the brush. The structure of a character is very important. Some ask to be tall, or short. Some demand to be square, or diamond-shaped, or triangular, either base down or point down. Diamond-shaped characters sometimes want to slant forwards and others want to slant backwards. Some are top heavy, others bottom heavy.
Some characters can even be rewritten for the sake of their beauty. For example, if a character is usually written with two components side by side, but the left side is heavier than the right, the sides can be switched and one component can be lightened in style in order to balance the character’s appearance.
Chen Laoshi couldn’t emphasize enough that the variety in the stroke is what makes a character beautiful, unique. It is what makes Calligraphy attractive and alluring. When a Calligrapher’s script is too standard, without distinction or whimsy, or emotion or thought, the writing may look correct but it will also feel soulless and unpleasing to the eye.
Once his lecture was finished, Chen Laoshi demonstrated all eight of the writing styles for the students and then left them to practice on their own until lunch.
The fourth style evolved during the Han Jian period and these characters were carved into bamboo. This style is known for being less rigid, more casual. Brushes were not in use at this time. The fifth style is known as the style that drew a distinct line between ancient characters and the characters that have become the modern script of China. The sixth style is called the “Running Style”. It is very difficult to read, doesn’t have a particular method for copying, but is very easy and quick to write. It is considered a style that only masters can truly perfect in an attractive manner. When comparing similar and sometimes not so similar characters written in the Running Style, it can be exasperating trying to determine what makes them different. Chen Laoshi pointed out some of the most difficult to detect subtleties and confounded his audience.
The seventh style was created during the 2nd Emperor of the Tang dynasty’s reign. When he died, a tablet inscribed with this style was placed in his tomb. The tablet was supposed to be sealed into the tomb before anyone could set eyes upon it. However, there are several supposed copies of the tablet available for viewing throughout China, implying that the tablet maker made a copy for himself or someone else saw it for long enough to make at least one copy. The eighth and final style was created during the Hui dynasty and is considered to be the model of script, what one should aspire to in their writing. It is very standard and easy to learn, though not to perfect.
Within Calligraphy, there is talk of the four treasures. These are the brush, the ink, the paper and the inkstand. There are many types of brushes, though ink is generally very standard. Calligraphy is written on rice paper, which there are also many types of. In ancient Chinese culture, the inkstand was a very important part of the Calligraphic process. In modern society, Calligraphers who are not attempting to recreate the past will use pre-made ink from bottles. The typical content of a Calligraphic piece is either poetry or sage advice regarding work ethic and fortune.
In classical China, Calligraphers wrote from right to left and vertically. After Chairman Mao began making changes within society, he changed the way in which Chinese people wrote so that books would read from left to write and horizontally. Today, Calligraphers choose the most appropriate direction for their work. In order to know how to read a piece of Calligraphy, look for the red signature “chop” (the square stamp of the Calligrapher’s name in Chinese characters). If it is at the bottom right of a piece, the piece should be read from left to right. If it is located at the bottom left of a piece, the piece should be read from right to left.
There are nine strokes that make up the toolbox of a Calligrapher. Before the student can begin with even the simplest character, he or she must perfect these nine components. They are the building blocks of a character and require much practice and precision with the brush. The structure of a character is very important. Some ask to be tall, or short. Some demand to be square, or diamond-shaped, or triangular, either base down or point down. Diamond-shaped characters sometimes want to slant forwards and others want to slant backwards. Some are top heavy, others bottom heavy.
Some characters can even be rewritten for the sake of their beauty. For example, if a character is usually written with two components side by side, but the left side is heavier than the right, the sides can be switched and one component can be lightened in style in order to balance the character’s appearance.
Chen Laoshi couldn’t emphasize enough that the variety in the stroke is what makes a character beautiful, unique. It is what makes Calligraphy attractive and alluring. When a Calligrapher’s script is too standard, without distinction or whimsy, or emotion or thought, the writing may look correct but it will also feel soulless and unpleasing to the eye.
Once his lecture was finished, Chen Laoshi demonstrated all eight of the writing styles for the students and then left them to practice on their own until lunch.
First expedition outside of GXNU: The Cave and Elephant Hill
Students loaded onto a bus and rode through town to the first site of the trip. The rain had subsided and Guilin’s summer heat was steaming the windows of the bus. The first site was situated within several small mountains and featured a huge cave. As the students wound their way through formations illuminated with colored neon lights, the cave became more and more cavernous. When students felt there was no chance for coming across a wider expanse, they turned a corner and found themselves smaller and smaller than before. The cave was illuminated in pinks, greens, yellows and blues for effect. The lights cast shadows and intensified the incredible internal formations of the mountain. A guide led the way, at times singing songs relating to the cave, at times telling stories from mythology to spark students’ imaginations and to plant a seed of fancy in their minds. Students were encouraged to look into the formations in search of animals, people, plants and anything else that might appear to them.
Some rocks were slick with dripping water from the ceiling of the cave. To the touch, these slippery rocks were filmy and the water felt full of sediment. The guide informed students that even now, the cave is continuing to grow and shape itself, the water being the source of this slow and patient growth.
The zenith of the cave tour came at the middle when students found themselves in a huge underground room, with a large stalactite for a central chandelier. The floor had been cleared of formations and circular lights were placed approximately two feet apart, flush with the floor. Once the area had filled up with a number of visitors, music began to play, and a light show danced across the cave formations. The finale included a strobe-like lighting of the floor lights and the Stalactite chandelier, with colorful bubbles billowing out of machines behind two larger formations directly below an especially theatrical formation. Many students noted a stark difference between this cave and caves visited in the United States, where the emphasis is often on maintaining a natural approach to viewing the formations. Theatricality is certainly a staple of many Chinese tourist sites.
Right before the exit to the cave, a ticket stand was set up at what looked like a narrow entryway cut into the walls. The tour guide informed the group that a new cave had been recently opened to the public and that housed in this cave was an ancient tortoise. Given the extreme uniqueness of such an animal, persons wishing to see the tortoise were asked to pay an additional ten kuai (approximately $1.50) in order to enter the new cave. The UW group declined the opportunity and left the neon-lit, cool insides of the mountain. The group then snapped several photos outside of the cave, returning to the bus for the second adventure of the day.
After another thirty to forty minute bus ride, the students were deposited at the entrance to Xiang Bi Shan or “Elephant Trunk Mountain”. Students walked through a small park, crossed a narrow damn over a fast-moving stream and walked toward a larger river. The mountain rose from this river and facing the water a large hole in the rock formed what looked like an elephant’s trunk dipping down to drink the water in. Students took photos together and separately in front of this famous Guilin site and were then given thirty minutes of free time to climb the mountain, purchase souvenirs, talk with locals or simply enjoy the flavor of the park. Though it was late afternoon, the site was teeming with Chinese tourists who were curious and eager to talk with students when given the chance. A climb of the mountain afforded a 360-degree view of the city and its curious sloping mountains.
Once the students returned to the bus, they were taken to an older neighborhood in Guilin, which sat next to a large, newer shopping district. The bus let the students out in front of an old music conservatory where dozens of ping-pong tables were set up in the twilight-laden street. Locals played ping-pong as students disembarked and an older, 76 yr old man offered a paddle to a UW student, smiling and beckoning for a game. Several students tried their hand at playing the man and then the group continued on to the shopping district. GXNU paid for the students to eat at a buffet-style restaurant. These types of restaurants are extremely common in China and are often found in the tops of department stores. A customer is given a receipt and goes around to various cooking stations where foods of all kinds are being prepared. The customer orders a dish and the cook stamps the receipt. At the end of the meal the receipts are collected and paid for at a cashier. The students were overly hungry after the day’s activities and tried almost all of the varieties of food offered. After dinner the students perused a night market, which was set up along the streets below the restaurant. Around ten the students returned to the dorm and were told that the following morning’s cultural lecture would be on Calligraphy.
Some rocks were slick with dripping water from the ceiling of the cave. To the touch, these slippery rocks were filmy and the water felt full of sediment. The guide informed students that even now, the cave is continuing to grow and shape itself, the water being the source of this slow and patient growth.
The zenith of the cave tour came at the middle when students found themselves in a huge underground room, with a large stalactite for a central chandelier. The floor had been cleared of formations and circular lights were placed approximately two feet apart, flush with the floor. Once the area had filled up with a number of visitors, music began to play, and a light show danced across the cave formations. The finale included a strobe-like lighting of the floor lights and the Stalactite chandelier, with colorful bubbles billowing out of machines behind two larger formations directly below an especially theatrical formation. Many students noted a stark difference between this cave and caves visited in the United States, where the emphasis is often on maintaining a natural approach to viewing the formations. Theatricality is certainly a staple of many Chinese tourist sites.
Right before the exit to the cave, a ticket stand was set up at what looked like a narrow entryway cut into the walls. The tour guide informed the group that a new cave had been recently opened to the public and that housed in this cave was an ancient tortoise. Given the extreme uniqueness of such an animal, persons wishing to see the tortoise were asked to pay an additional ten kuai (approximately $1.50) in order to enter the new cave. The UW group declined the opportunity and left the neon-lit, cool insides of the mountain. The group then snapped several photos outside of the cave, returning to the bus for the second adventure of the day.
After another thirty to forty minute bus ride, the students were deposited at the entrance to Xiang Bi Shan or “Elephant Trunk Mountain”. Students walked through a small park, crossed a narrow damn over a fast-moving stream and walked toward a larger river. The mountain rose from this river and facing the water a large hole in the rock formed what looked like an elephant’s trunk dipping down to drink the water in. Students took photos together and separately in front of this famous Guilin site and were then given thirty minutes of free time to climb the mountain, purchase souvenirs, talk with locals or simply enjoy the flavor of the park. Though it was late afternoon, the site was teeming with Chinese tourists who were curious and eager to talk with students when given the chance. A climb of the mountain afforded a 360-degree view of the city and its curious sloping mountains.
Once the students returned to the bus, they were taken to an older neighborhood in Guilin, which sat next to a large, newer shopping district. The bus let the students out in front of an old music conservatory where dozens of ping-pong tables were set up in the twilight-laden street. Locals played ping-pong as students disembarked and an older, 76 yr old man offered a paddle to a UW student, smiling and beckoning for a game. Several students tried their hand at playing the man and then the group continued on to the shopping district. GXNU paid for the students to eat at a buffet-style restaurant. These types of restaurants are extremely common in China and are often found in the tops of department stores. A customer is given a receipt and goes around to various cooking stations where foods of all kinds are being prepared. The customer orders a dish and the cook stamps the receipt. At the end of the meal the receipts are collected and paid for at a cashier. The students were overly hungry after the day’s activities and tried almost all of the varieties of food offered. After dinner the students perused a night market, which was set up along the streets below the restaurant. Around ten the students returned to the dorm and were told that the following morning’s cultural lecture would be on Calligraphy.
Class schedule and first day of class
The majority of the Exploration seminar is focused on cultural experiences, but a large component of the five credits that UW students are earning involves language. The students are broken up into four language levels with the majority of students in the 2nd and 3rd year classes. Classes are held from nine to eleven in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On these afternoons, students have a thirty-minute individual session with a professor from Guangxi Normal University (GXNU), where they converse with that professor about the lesson topic from that morning’s class. Because the time allowed for the number of classes is limited the workload is intensive. Students are required to familiarize themselves with seventy-five to one hundred characters per class. Homework involves general practice exercises as well as compositions that require students to interview people on the street.
On the remaining days of the week, cultural lectures are held in the morning and site visits that complement these lectures are conducted after lunch. At the end of the seminar, each student will write a short research paper on a topic chosen from the cultural lectures. They are encouraged to interview the GXNU professor who lectured on the topic and go further in their understanding and question asking. The following is a list of cultural lectures the students will participate in: Calligraphy, Painting, Medicine, Culinary arts, Ethnic minorities, Education, Music, and Environmental protection and hydraulic engineering.
The morning of the students’ first language class, Guilin was drenched in a heavy rain. Students met in the dormitory canteen for breakfast at seven thirty. Breakfast included, warm soy milk, fried bread, slightly sweet cornbread buns, noodle soup with meat, vegetables, spices and pickled vegetables, tea, boiled eggs and steamed buns with meat filling. Class began at nine. The 1st and 4th year classes contain two students each. 2nd and 3rd year classes contain nine students each. Yu Laoshi conducts the 3rd year class while professors from GXNU conduct the other three classes. Class pace is fast and much information is covered in the two short hours. Students met after class to do their homework collectively before lunch. After lunch, the students went on their first expedition outside of the University.
On the remaining days of the week, cultural lectures are held in the morning and site visits that complement these lectures are conducted after lunch. At the end of the seminar, each student will write a short research paper on a topic chosen from the cultural lectures. They are encouraged to interview the GXNU professor who lectured on the topic and go further in their understanding and question asking. The following is a list of cultural lectures the students will participate in: Calligraphy, Painting, Medicine, Culinary arts, Ethnic minorities, Education, Music, and Environmental protection and hydraulic engineering.
The morning of the students’ first language class, Guilin was drenched in a heavy rain. Students met in the dormitory canteen for breakfast at seven thirty. Breakfast included, warm soy milk, fried bread, slightly sweet cornbread buns, noodle soup with meat, vegetables, spices and pickled vegetables, tea, boiled eggs and steamed buns with meat filling. Class began at nine. The 1st and 4th year classes contain two students each. 2nd and 3rd year classes contain nine students each. Yu Laoshi conducts the 3rd year class while professors from GXNU conduct the other three classes. Class pace is fast and much information is covered in the two short hours. Students met after class to do their homework collectively before lunch. After lunch, the students went on their first expedition outside of the University.
Seattle to Beijing
On August 23rd seventeen University of Washington students made their way to Sea-Tac Airport to try out the brand new Hainan Airlines’ direct flight from Seattle to Beijing. The students were embarking on a month-long exploration seminar to be hosted by the Guangxi Normal University in Guilin, Guangxi Province, China.
The majority of students in the group have finished their sophomore year at the UW and intended degrees range from Linguistics to Engineering, Psychology to Business. While at Guangxi Normal University, the UW students will participate in language classes ranging from 1st year Chinese to 4th year Chinese. University professors will host cultural lectures on Chinese calligraphy, painting, culinary arts, Taiji or Shadowboxing, and Environmental engineering projects, to name a few. Following each cultural lecture, UW students will visit a site within Guilin that reflects the lecture’s content. Weekend trips are planned for Yangshuo village, Longsheng and Ziyuan counties.
The flight from Seattle to Beijing was approximately ten and a half hours and students lauded the personal television screens and Hainan Airlines’ beautiful stewardesses, while finding the airplane’s lack of air control and sqwunched seating a trifle stuffy. Upon arrival in Beijing, the International Programs director from Beijing Institute of Technology met the students and escorted them to a hotel for the night. Hainan Airlines has not completely worked out relations with domestic partners in China or the United States and so connecting flights are still a little tricky. The Guilin leg of the flight would depart the following morning, Monday August 25th at nine in the morning.
Because of the Olympics, Beijing’s Institute of Technology (BIT), as well as many other Universities in Beijing was hosting visitors and athletes in their dormitories. BIT was hosting the Beach Volleyball participants, as well as the games themselves in their athletic facility. Therefore, the UW students were taken to the hotel set aside for hosting Yunnan Province leaders and officials while they visit the capital. The hotel was set within a double-gated compound on the edge of Beijing. The drive from the airport to the hotel afforded the first views of China for many of the students. It being Sunday, and there being a curfew due to the Olympic closing ceremonies, there were very few people in the streets and Beijing appeared, almost, empty. A strange sight for China veterans in the group.
After students had settled, two by two, into rooms at the hotel, the BIT director hosted a dinner in the hotel’s dining room. A ping-pong table was set up in the lobby and students were told they could order food and drink at any time if jetlag set in and cravings started up late at night or early in the morning. Dinner was a quiet affair as students adjusted to the time difference and their new environment. Afterwards, everyone returned to their rooms, showered, attempted watching the closing ceremonies on television, but most fell quickly asleep. The following morning doors were knocked on promptly at 5:50am and the bus to the airport arrived at 6:20am. The fear was that the day after the closing ceremonies would render the airport a chaotic mess and so the BIT director took precautions to help the UW students arrive with plenty of time to spare.
Checking into the Guilin flight proved effortless and students were through security with almost two hours to spare before boarding the airplane. Several students purchased Olympic souvenirs in one of the ubiquitous Olympic gear shops inside the airport. The group will return to Beijing for a two-day tour before returning to Seattle in September and most likely Olympic gear will be a good deal cheaper at that point.
The flight from Beijing to Guilin was a little under three hours and upon arriving in Guilin, Yu Laoshi, the program director and a UW professor was at the airport to meet the group. One member of the group had spent the summer in Beijing and he was already in Guilin. The remaining four members of the group would all arrive later that day on their own. The students had a quick group photo in front of the airport and then a bus took them to the International student dormitory on Guangxi Normal University’s campus.
Students were given a little while to settle into their rooms and then lunch was served in the dormitory’s canteen. The food was prepared home style and was delicious. It was the first sign to many that they had truly arrived in China. After lunch Yu Laoshi exchanged students’ money at the bank while students had photos taken for student IDs to be made. After the photos, Cai Laoshi, the Guangxi Normal University host of the UW students, took them on a small tour of campus. He showed them a fruit stand just outside one of the University’s gates and this has been a favorite spot for many of the students, morning and night. The students rested after the tour and had a grand banquet in their honor for the evening meal. After dinner, students returned to their rooms and prepared for their first day of Chinese class.
The majority of students in the group have finished their sophomore year at the UW and intended degrees range from Linguistics to Engineering, Psychology to Business. While at Guangxi Normal University, the UW students will participate in language classes ranging from 1st year Chinese to 4th year Chinese. University professors will host cultural lectures on Chinese calligraphy, painting, culinary arts, Taiji or Shadowboxing, and Environmental engineering projects, to name a few. Following each cultural lecture, UW students will visit a site within Guilin that reflects the lecture’s content. Weekend trips are planned for Yangshuo village, Longsheng and Ziyuan counties.
The flight from Seattle to Beijing was approximately ten and a half hours and students lauded the personal television screens and Hainan Airlines’ beautiful stewardesses, while finding the airplane’s lack of air control and sqwunched seating a trifle stuffy. Upon arrival in Beijing, the International Programs director from Beijing Institute of Technology met the students and escorted them to a hotel for the night. Hainan Airlines has not completely worked out relations with domestic partners in China or the United States and so connecting flights are still a little tricky. The Guilin leg of the flight would depart the following morning, Monday August 25th at nine in the morning.
Because of the Olympics, Beijing’s Institute of Technology (BIT), as well as many other Universities in Beijing was hosting visitors and athletes in their dormitories. BIT was hosting the Beach Volleyball participants, as well as the games themselves in their athletic facility. Therefore, the UW students were taken to the hotel set aside for hosting Yunnan Province leaders and officials while they visit the capital. The hotel was set within a double-gated compound on the edge of Beijing. The drive from the airport to the hotel afforded the first views of China for many of the students. It being Sunday, and there being a curfew due to the Olympic closing ceremonies, there were very few people in the streets and Beijing appeared, almost, empty. A strange sight for China veterans in the group.
After students had settled, two by two, into rooms at the hotel, the BIT director hosted a dinner in the hotel’s dining room. A ping-pong table was set up in the lobby and students were told they could order food and drink at any time if jetlag set in and cravings started up late at night or early in the morning. Dinner was a quiet affair as students adjusted to the time difference and their new environment. Afterwards, everyone returned to their rooms, showered, attempted watching the closing ceremonies on television, but most fell quickly asleep. The following morning doors were knocked on promptly at 5:50am and the bus to the airport arrived at 6:20am. The fear was that the day after the closing ceremonies would render the airport a chaotic mess and so the BIT director took precautions to help the UW students arrive with plenty of time to spare.
Checking into the Guilin flight proved effortless and students were through security with almost two hours to spare before boarding the airplane. Several students purchased Olympic souvenirs in one of the ubiquitous Olympic gear shops inside the airport. The group will return to Beijing for a two-day tour before returning to Seattle in September and most likely Olympic gear will be a good deal cheaper at that point.
The flight from Beijing to Guilin was a little under three hours and upon arriving in Guilin, Yu Laoshi, the program director and a UW professor was at the airport to meet the group. One member of the group had spent the summer in Beijing and he was already in Guilin. The remaining four members of the group would all arrive later that day on their own. The students had a quick group photo in front of the airport and then a bus took them to the International student dormitory on Guangxi Normal University’s campus.
Students were given a little while to settle into their rooms and then lunch was served in the dormitory’s canteen. The food was prepared home style and was delicious. It was the first sign to many that they had truly arrived in China. After lunch Yu Laoshi exchanged students’ money at the bank while students had photos taken for student IDs to be made. After the photos, Cai Laoshi, the Guangxi Normal University host of the UW students, took them on a small tour of campus. He showed them a fruit stand just outside one of the University’s gates and this has been a favorite spot for many of the students, morning and night. The students rested after the tour and had a grand banquet in their honor for the evening meal. After dinner, students returned to their rooms and prepared for their first day of Chinese class.
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