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Tag: National Day

  • A Holiday Trip to Chongqing: Gavin Vine, China, October 2016

    在中国十月的第一个星期是国庆节的假期 。我和我的朋友们自从 到中国一直想利用这些假期去外地旅游。因此，我们十月一号动身去重庆, 经过十四个小时的火车旅程，我们终于到重庆了。虽然重庆现在不算四川，可是在历史上跟四川有关系，直到1997年才是四川的一部分。其实，一些很有名的川菜来源于重庆,比如火锅。去重庆之前我们想象重庆是一个很普通，没有特点的超大城市，可是它居然出乎我们的意料。从它壮丽的晚上城市风光到老城很漂亮的巷子，我们不禁爱上这个叫我们吃惊的城市。我最生动的回忆是走在河边的洪崖洞，在一边看楼上挂着的灯笼，在另一边看现代大楼多彩的灯光。真的代表重庆传统中国和现代中国的交融。

    Chongqing at night

    ENGLISH:

    In China, the first week of October is the National Day holiday. Ever since my friends and I arrived in China we have wanted to take advantage of the holidays to travel around different places in China. With this in mind, on the first of October we set off for Chongqing.  After a fourteen-hour train journey we finally arrived in Chongqing. Although Chongqing is not Sichuan, it has historically been linked with the province and until 1997 was a part of Sichuan. In fact, some famous Sichuanese dishes actually come from Chongqing, for example Hot Pot. Before coming to Chongqing we imagined it to be a humdrum, characterless city, but it surprisingly exceeded all our expectations. From its magnificent night time cityscape to the pretty alley ways of the old town, we couldn’t help but fall in love with this city which was full of surprises. We of course took the opportunity to sample Hot Pot whilst in the city and as expected it packed an extremely spicy punch. Many Chinese people had warned me that as a Westerner I would not be able to tolerate it, but I’m glad to say I survived the experience unscathed! My most vivid memory is walking by the riverside area of Hongyadong, looking at the traditional Chinese lanterns on one side and the multicoloured, modern city lights on the other. It truly represented Chongqing’s blend of modern and traditional China.  For a city often presented as a polluted concrete jungle, it proved to be a pleasant surprise before we travelled on to Sichuan.

  • Golden Week, China – Charlotte McGarry, October 2016

    每年在十月份期间中国人有一周的假期来庆祝庆节，叫 ‘黄金周’。很多中国人趁着这个机会到国内和国外各种地方去旅游。我们班的学生也不例外，同学们之间去了十个多城市在三个的国家。我跟我的同学恩诺去苏州和上海。

     

    我们参观第一座城市是苏州，江苏省东南部的一个地级市。该城市因漂亮的运河和花园而出名。

    我们花了整天沿着运河走，参观苏州最为优秀的花园，不停地吃各种各样的可爱小吃。最初我们打算花整个假期在苏州，但看地图之后而发现了苏州到上海的距离多么近我们 那一刻就决定绕路去上海。上海是中国文化和经济中心，比苏州繁华得多。我们参观了该城市大部分的名胜，如外滩，人民工场之类的。当初上海的热闹气氛对我有很多诱惑力但过了不久我们累了要命，花整天在这么挤满的城市 东奔西跑 让我们烦躁不堪。

     

    总而言是，黄金周去旅行是个不能错过的机会，让你自己体验中国各个地方之间的文化和语言区别以及玩的很疯! 不过我推荐去旅游之前要心理准备一下, 只有在中国黄金周去过旅游，才能真正地明白’人山人海’的意思！

    Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

    Every year in October, China has a week of holiday, called ‘Golden Week’ to celebrate its National Day.  A lot of Chinese people take this opportunity to travel, both within the country and abroad.  Us exchange students were no exception; between us, we went to over ten different cities in three different countries.  I went with my classmate Ellie (Ennuo) to Suzhou and Shanghai.

     

    The first city we visited was Suzhou, a prefecture level city in the south east of Jiangsu Province.  This city is famous for its canals and gardens.  We spent a whole day walking along the canals, visiting Suzhou’s excellent gardens and endlessly eating all types of cute snacks.  At first, we planned to spend the whole holiday in Suzhou, but after looking at a map and seeing how close Shanghai was, we in that moment decided to make a detour via Shanghai.

     

    Shanghai is China’s cultural and economic centre and is much more bustling and lively than Suzhou.  We went to most of the city’s famous sights, such as the Bund and People’s Square.  At first, I found the lively atmosphere in Shanghai to be enticing, but after a while we got really tired of it; spending whole days running around in a city this busy made us unbearably irritable!

     

    In conclusion, travelling in Golden Week is an unmissable opportunity – it allows you to personally experience the cultural and linguistic between different places in China, as well has have an excellent time!  But nevertheless, I recommend that before you go, you mentally prepare yourself – only after having travelled in China during Golden Week will you truly understand what ‘people mountain people sea’ (a commonly used Chinese proverb referencing a mass of people so large it extends to the mountains and seas) really means!.