Day 7 - Day off - Hailongtun (Sea Dragon Village)

Our first day off in Zunyi,

and the plan was to visit HaiLongTun Fortress. 

Quite honestly, I didn't actually want to go. It was going to climbing lots of stairs, as I had only been told. And I was tired, and I wanted a lie in. Because I am a teenager. But everyone I knew went, and there was no way I could survive by myself, as there were no kitchens and no pot noodles, and no tv with English, and no internet around. 

So I went.

The fortress is situated on top of mountains surrounded by steep cliffs and flanked by streams, with only one narrow path at the back of the mountain leading to it, where it is said a single armed man can stop an army.

There is quite an interesting story behind it, although when the guide told us the story, it was in Mandarin, which I could not understand. So I did a little research on it.
The fortress was built in 1257 on a mountain with a flat peak...

It has the distinction of being the most well preserved military castle in all of Asia. 

'"I can hear weeping and howling at night - the voices of women and children coming from the bottom of the ravine," Liu Yuanguang says, pointing to a cliff from a protruded vista point.

A few steps away is a small stone tablet inscribed with the words: "The Abyss for Execution."

The lamenting voices emanate not only from deep down below but also from across four centuries.

In June of the year 1600, more than 22,000 people, including women and children, were killed and tossed down this precipice.

"There was so much blood that the river turned red, even in downtown Zunyi, 30 km away," Liu continues, as if he were a witness to the tragedy.

The mass execution marked the end of a months-long siege.

Occupying Hailongtun, a mountain with a flat peak built into a fortress, was Yang Yinglong and his army.

The conquerors were Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) soldiers.'

This is all of us setting off, looking fine, and not flustered yet.

Anyway, so thats a little background to where we went. I do kind of wish now I had knew that when I visited the place. I may have felt differently standing in those places. However, I am not one for spiritual 'senses', and if I had not felt it without knowing, the feelings I would have got would only be placebo effects.
We passed a few mules, and I had a little spark of hope that we could ride them, instead of relying on our own legs. I was told there were around 1,000 steps (I am still not sure, as I cannot find a definite number on the internet and neither did I count), plus I did not prepare for hiking, so I did not have decent walking shoes, only heeled crocs. 

I think these are mules...

So anyway, we carried on walking, striding over the steps with ease, and I was thinking this would be easy. 

However, after possibly 10 minutes (I am not sure, but I know myself, and I do get tired and bored and impatient rather easily), I realised I would have to continue walking and climbing and walking and climbing for much longer.
The weather was unbelievably hot, we all had water, and I had a fan. At a break, I had to clip my fringe up. Make no mistake, I dislike clipping my fringe up very much, it makes me look stupid (some would say just more stupid than usual), but I dislike my fringe sticking to my forehead even more.
I also ended up using facial tissues.
Usually when I use facial tissues, it is because I have a runny nose. But in this case it was to wipe my sweat from my face.


It was so hot. I had worn tight jeans too to avoid mosquitoes (Mosquitoes love me! On my right thigh, I had a mosquito bite from Zunyi, Haerbin, Xiamen.... it was like a personal stampbook, but on human flesh!)

In fact... this was what I was wearing .... needless to say I will not be running a fashion blog anytime this lifetime...

This is beautiful Sophie (one with the cute hat) and me. The view was shockingly breathtaking, and overlooked such masses of greenery that you wouldn't think grew near such cities in China.
Oh, and let me explain my amazing fashion sense - hair had just been clipped up (pretty good since I did not have a mirror), the top was because IT WAS BOILING, the stupid stupid stupid snake patterned jeans which made me feel sticky. Oh and someone also told me there could be snakes, so I panicked that they would attack me. AND THE PINK SOCKS, I went through my holiday pictures a while back, and about 80% of pictures with me had me wearing the pink socks. I had 2 pairs, in case people think I am unhygienic, and I only 4 pairs of socks in total in China (I washed my clothes in sinks). And my lovely brown crocs . They're nice. My school shoes are the exact same but black.

I went a litte off topic...

So we continued to walk, the guide talked, I realise the way I describe must make it sound awfully boring. But it wasn't. The place was beautiful, we enjoyed each other's company (haha), and it was good to get some fresh air, and although the walking was exhausting, it felt calming and exercising at the same time.

Until we reached 'The' steps.
'In 1999, a flight of 36 stone stairs was discovered in thickets of shrubberies. Each step is 50 cm high and 2.6 m wide. One cannot walk up - one has to climb.'

May I take this opportunity to tell you I am tall for a Chinese. I was the tallest female there.
The point is, these stairs came up to well above the knees (nearly to the hips) of some people. The climb was not easy.
I was second to the top! Though that may be a little (only a little), to do with the fact I had longer legs than most people, I was the youngest (theoretically with the most energy).... and the fact I did not stay to help the others.

The more and more people arrived at the top, the more people joined in the celebratory photos. I would have put up the one with just me at the top and people struggling to climb up in the background... but I don't look very nice in that.

View from the top, breathless but ecstatic we all made it.


We continued, stopping every now and then to hear a story untranslatable in my mind. Here is a picture of a castle-ly, fortress-y bit.

The most interesting place, had archaeologist sites around it, but either that was the place I wasn't allowed to take photos... or the place that smelled like poo so I did not want to go too close to it.

Aaaaand , we walked back down. Not the same route, an ovally shape to go back down. I personally would not have mind retracing the route, but no one wanted to climb 'those' steps again. Especially down.

You know the moment when something funny happens, and you really are not supposed to laugh. I get those a lot. I cannot do sit-ups (I did 4 sit-ups in 2 minutes last time, and half of them were me pulling at my thighs), but my tummy muscles are good from all the laughing I do. I doubt anyone will meet someone that can laugh for as long as I do. I have a lot of stupid moments.... for example, in Chemistry quiz...' What element rhymes with 'moron'?' Answer is obviously 'boron'. I answered with 'Uranium'. My tummy still hurt hours after that, laughing at my own stupidity.

So my cute cute friend Candy, was walking in front of me, when she slipped and fell on her bum, and she got mud marks on her trousers.. My first instinct was to laugh. However I was very worried for her a split second later. I was genuinely concerned, but that emotion is not really linked to my uncontrollable laughter.
I didn't actually laugh that much, I think I was tired. See, if it was any other day, I would have laughed so much she would be offended.

I think the point of this little story is to say I was tired.

We had watermelon afterwards.

Days 2-6

Every morning, our alarm clock was set a little later each time. Our breakfast eaten by us decreased each time, as the novelty of waking up in a new hotel with a small buffet breakfast wore off.
We would make our way to the school in small groups.. most of the time normally....

But sometimes, when you're in a city full of people that don't know you... well its a chance to be a little silly.

In the morning, from 8.30 to 11.30, were the core lessons.
All the trainees (the English teachers we were training) were split into groups by the age of students they taught, and secondly their ability.
I was a teaching assistant in Class 2A, which were Junior high teachers, the half of higher ability. First half of the lesson would involve some sort of English game, such as build-a-word, or writing poems by filling out blanks....
Did I mention about the technology..?

You see that whiteboard thing.... and that computer thing I'm controlling . They are annoying. The little cursor thing likes to forget I'm supposed to be controlling it, and starts doing some stupid vibrating dance in random areas of the screen.
Oh, and you know most plugs have three 'teeth', the one behind me, which has all the power going to the computer system, has two teeth. And  it does not work if the plug is completely in the socket, there needs to be a gap of about 2mm.
So, every time I get all the powerpoints, or internet pages loaded up,  I lean on the plug, and *zoom*, the whole power turns off.
It is so frustrating.

There would be 10 minute break in the morning, where this woman in my class would go all the way down the stairs (silly, she would to climb up again), and stand in the middle of a basketball court to make a phone call. Most of the teachers just refilled their water bottles and chatted, and texted and made calls, although a lot of them just did that in class too.

The second half of the morning, our class were split into two. One half would be taken by Jacque, and the other half taken by Susana. I wandered around the two, 'helping', or I would sit the staffroom writing poetry. I am not a pretentious poet, in fact, I have no patience for poetry, unless I am forced to study it in class. I wrote the poems for future use in classes, with the help of an online rhyming dictionary.

At 11:30, everyone was dismissed for a lunch break. The trainers would go to a restaurant, which consisted of several rooms in a house-like home. (They did explain to me that the restaurant was located in a home, to save costs).

And if you're immature, you can play with the finished food.

The afternoon session started at 2pm, so at the beginning of the week most of us would go back to the hotel. Some took a nap, and some, well, sat about and read and killed time. By the third day I could not uphold not taking a nap any longer, and fell blissfully asleep while the Olympics was playing in the background.

In the end, instead of going back to the hotel, we just went back to the auditorium. And sang. Very very loudly.

Because we had access to microphones.... I'm pretty sure this is what I dreamed for when I was a little kid, having microphones...

According to the timetable... 2:00 to 2:15 was time for roll call.
Aaaaand, 2:15 to 2:45 was announcements & singing English songs... so basically singing!

The first song we sang was 500 miles. I liked that song. And in the first week we also sang Donna Donna (awfully dreary, rhythm is horrible, complicated, no likey), and Words ( which is a Bee Gees song, the only Bee Gees song I knew was Stayin' Alive, and I also thought they weren't that famous. This shows how much music knowledge I really don't have.)
I sang along, quite happily, though I cannot say the same for those who heard me sang.

On different days we did different activities in the afternoon.
On day 2, we started watching the movie 'Sound of Music'. But it was too bright, (the Sun is always shining in China, unlike Wales, except when there are clouds, or its raining, or it night), so the trainees could not see the projection clearly.
On day 3, there was a plenary led by Dorothy...

This is Dorothy on the left.
Her topic was 'Teachers speak less, students speak more.'
For example, the use of substitution or pattern drills.
You would begin with a sentence, with which the students will repeat, and then a single word or a phrase within that very sentence and be replaced or altered. This sentence can than be repeated as new sentence.

Afterwards there was a conversation session, in which each of the 19 teachers would be allocated a room in a unused building, which was once a school, and around 6-10 trainees.

This is the classroom I had... obviously, when I held the conversation session, there were people there. I moved the chairs and tables into a small circle at the front of the classroom. The first class I had was a group of female teachers, who really wanted to go home.
I wanted to play a simple game, which involved each teacher saying one sentence at a time, to string a short story together. Unfortunately, I don't think they understood the concept (I knew they didn't understand, I should have never told them I did not understand mandarin, they took to conferring with each other in their secret languages)
In the end we ended up with a story about a supermarket, with this guy who didn't know if he was stealing a wallet, or losing a wallet, or neither.
Oh, and I got bitten by lots of mosquitoes in that classroom.
And when I told them they could go home 5 minutes early only if they put away all the chairs and tables, they could not understand, even when I spoke the slowest. Which meant I ended up doing tai chi to demonstrate and mime the actions.

Day 4
Everyone watched the rest of the movie 'Sound of Music'. We had plastered bin bags over some of the windows, so you could actually watch the movie.
After the movie, the trainees were split into their classes again, for further discussion on the movie.
The announcement was made that if the headteacher of the individual classes chose to, the trainees could go home.
For our class, they voted on their favourite song, which would be the song to sing in the next day's morning lesson.

Day 5
The main part of the afternoon was a plenary led by Dr. Diana King.
It was about the phonology in English, which is a branch of linguistics all about the systematic organization of the sounds in a certain language. Which was very interesting to learn about how all the different sounds are made and grouped.

After that, there was another conversation session, which I actually enjoyed very much, as the group I had were the most advanced and could actually speak English well. We managed to have a conversation about things ranging from life in Britain to the Chinese government.

Day 6
On day 6 we started watching the movie 'Mr. Holland's Opus', everyone told me it was going to be a real tearjerker.
Thank heavens they stopped the movie halfway, before I could get too emotional. Though I did have tissues in my pocket just in case.

Aaaaand, at the midway of a beautiful movie, was the end of the first half of the program. With the next day an actual day off, a relief for all trainers and trainees.

Day 1. First day of teaching program.

After managing to wake up at an ungodly hour, we had breakfast at 7 in the morning. Awful time. Too much time to spare when we could be in our cosy beds dreaming of marshmallows.
There was soya bean milk, which didn't have any sugar.
And chinese food.
I am getting lazy, not describing food in detail, it is so unlike me.
Actually, we had a cabbagey dish which was spicy. And buns which you could not tell if they were sweet or savoury. My little pet hate. I want to know if what I eat is going to be sweet or savoury. Imagine biting something that looks like a strawberry and tasting tomato puree instead.
There was also some noodles, which was spicy, and oily.
It shocked me to see that people continued to put chilli oil on the food.

Into the school we all went, I remember the traffic scared me a lot, even though we only had to cross one road, which was a zebra crossing with traffic light. But like I said, no one follows the rules in Zunyi.

We climbed six flights of stairs to the auditorium, where there was a panel of important people (officials from the government and educational board, and the main leaders of the teaching program). They made a few speeches in Mandarin Chinese, and I could not understand a word. I nodded a lot, and amused myself by looking overly interested. My grandad was on the panel, saw me, and gave me knowing wink.

The 'panel' of important people.

All the trainees (120 of them) and the trainers (19 of us) and a few of the officials trampled down the stairs for the beautiful group photo.

(Photo to be inserted later perhaps?)

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And ridiculously, although this was an English training program, not a fitness one, we had to all seperate into our classrooms... which meant for most of us climbing flights or stairs again.

I have a decision now of making up what happened, saying something believable, or admitting I genuinely don't remember what happened. Not the exact details anyway.

We went for lunch at some point.

And then back to the school.

More speeches and stuff were made.

Ah yes I remember now. There was a pre-movie briefing for 'The Sound of Music', which we were going to watch the next day.

And we went through the rough plot and characters... and then I got my moment!

I read the lyrics, with my 'cut glass' accent. They loved my British accent. I grinned a lot inwardly, my friends in Britain always made fun of my accent. But I guess they do not need to know that.

I had to restrain the urge to burst into song when reading out the lyrics, I had to remind myself, if I did burst into song, they would not join in like High School Musical, but I would look stupid.

Everybody clapped, probably because my Grandpa and some of the other trainers looked enthusiastic at my reading. And the trainees were pretty much forced into listening to me again.

Supper:

We had our lunch and supper in the same place everyday, with the 19 trainers split into two tables. This is a picture of some of us, with Candy trying to kiss my hand.

First day, done.

And much needed sleep again, in our hotel....

Day 0. Part 2. Hello Guizhou.

After an hour and a half flight. we arrived in the capital city of Guizhou, a province in China. In the airport, I was reunited with my dear friend, Candy, who had I not met for around 4 years.
She ran up to me, and held my hands, then started talking excitedly in Mandarin Chinese.
Unfortunately, instead of gabbling back excitedly and happily to see her,
"I'm so sorry Candy, I still don't speak Mandarin..."
Which is a pity, ruins the novelty of seeing your good friend again after a long time.
There was also Lily, Candy's mother, who always looks ever so elegant.
Steely, who to me looked a little like a typical uncle you would find in a Japanese cartoon. Even though I don't actually watch much Japanese cartoons at all.
And Shawn, the one who I was told by my grandad was the 'tall and handsome' one. I can't say I disagree.
We took a smallish coach to Zunyi, which meant we had to sit with all our baggage. Which made passing peanuts and cakes around the bus a little harder. It was quite a long journey, over two hours. I tried to be touristy and take photos out of the windows. But I have a bad habit of bringing bad weather with me wherever I go, so of course it was pouring with rain.

The School in Zunyi we were teaching in.

We visited the school we were going to be teaching in for the next two weeks, and to my sarcastic pleasure, our main operational base was to be up six flights of stairs. Our main concern at that moment was dear Diana, but kind Candy led  her gently up all the stairs. I was not as kindhearted, nor as patient to help.
My grandad, looked at all the classrooms, and demanded all the technological equipment were to be in place.
Quite honestly, I missed the meeting in Hong Kong, because I had just got from my flight from Wales, so I didn't actually have a clue what to do. I stood about making conversations. (It gets better, honest, I actually become of some use later on.)
After hanging about (I hung about, adults did stuff), we finally went to supper.
We had food.
And Shawn brought buns and stuff from his hometown.

This is when my memory starts to fade away.

You know I'm tired when I cannot remember what food I had.

Zunyi.
The city was dirty, and busy, sides littered with beggars with deformities. Spitting casually, pushing rudely were the pavement walkers. Shops and buildings were lit up in fancy modern lights, broadcasting loud and unwanted music.
The roads and roundabout were invaded by cars with no concept of laws nor the ways of traffic lights.
At night, the city is lit up to illuminate the blackness of the sky.