Since the age of seven I have always wanted to go to China. I never had a reason why I wanted to go at that time but as I got older I became very fascinated with Chinese people and their culture. In March of this year I finally got to see the Chinese culture that I’ve been so fascinated with up close and personal.
The first time I heard about this great opportunity was during my english class over the school intercom. Mrs.Knapp, a teacher at my school and EF Tours would be traveling to China to see the Great Wall and many other exciting sites in March. At first I thought it would be an interesting trip but I did not pay the announcement that much mind until my best friend told me that she also found the trip to be interesting. We both agreed to ask our parents if we could go but I already figured that my mother would say no for two reasons. One it’s too far and two it was a pricey trip,but to my surprise she actually said yes. From there I told my friend that my mom said I could go and her mother also agreed that she could go,we were both very excited that we could take this trip across the world together.
When the time came to go to China I became very excited and scared at the same time. I was very afraid of the long trip. To go from Florida to China it was about a whole 24 hours! We had to go from Florida to Canada and then from Canada to China but in the end I really didn’t notice the time because I was sleeping the whole plane ride going there. When we finally reached Beijing, China it was Sunday 10 pm which would be Sunday 10am in America. We had dinner,chicken nuggets and french fries which was very familiar to us and it was the only thing familiar to us at our stay there.
The next day we got up early at 6am to have breakfast and meet the other travelers with EF Tours. My school met up with another school that happened to be from Florida also, after meeting with the school we got on to our tour bus and headed to the summer palace. I was in awe when I saw the summer palace it was very beautiful with the red,gold,and jade detailing they use to make the palace.For the next couple of days while we were there we saw all that needed to be seen in China. We walked the Great Wall, saw temples ( which was my favorite!), went to a chinese school, had dinner with a chinese family, had a tea ceremony and we even went to the local street market where some of the students tried food like starfish and scorpions.
I was honored that I was able to take a trip like I did and learn how other people live outside of America. I even told my mother that if I could I would be very happy to live in China for half of the year and live in America for the other half.
EF Tours: www.eftours.com
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