• Share it :

庄州 (Skylar's birthday day trip)

China exploring 厦门 host family NSLI-Y Today was the second, and last day, that was dedicated to spending time with our host families and sightseeing. More importantly, today is also Skylar's 16th birthday. Since we did not have classes today, our families, along with Aidan's host family, went to 庄州 for the entire day. At first, I did not know what to expect. My host family had only told me it was a farm on the country-side of 厦门. In my head, I pictured a farm with chickens and cows but it was completely different.

The car ride took about an hour and all 60 minutes of the ride, I was asleep. When we arrived and I woke up, I was very confused. All around me were homes and mountains, no farm. We got out of the car and a man guided us down a path. The walk was jaw dropping. I was in awe at how beautiful my surroundings were. To my left was a river, that looked and smelled fresh. To my right was a beautiful lotus flower lake surrounded by gazebos and brick pathways. One of my favorite parts of the walk was the bridges. Unlike classical bridges that arch above the river, these bridges were flat, right on top of the water. It had a similar feeling as walking on the rocks along the creek in my backyard.

Although it was very hot outside, the beauty surrounding me distracted me from the heat. Aidan, Skylar, and my families all came to 庄州 to celebrate Skylar's birthday. Although all of our families were with us, Aidan's host brother, cousin, and father always seemed to be ahead of us; therefore, they did not make a lot of the photos.




After a quick 10 minute walk (that was more like 15 because we stopped to take pictures), we arrived at a traditional Chinese building. At that moment, now of us knew what we were doing here nor what we were going to do. The tour guide brought us up to the third floor of this building to a performance room. There were sat down as a lady began her presentation on this city in 庄州. After looking at the pictures on the power point since I could not understand what she was saying (given that it was in Chinese), I finally understood what that place was. It is an oasis for musicians to come and work on their music and focus on more nature oriented things. After the lady's all-Chinese presentation, another middle aged women came to the front of the room and played the 古琴  (guqin). The 古琴 is a traditional string Chinese instrument. It is made of wood and is played horizontally on a stand or table. After the performance we got to touch/ play the instruments. 


After going back down to the first level of the building, we got to watch some people make the 古琴  (guqin). The were little "stations" with signs next to them explaining each step. 

1) Choice of Wood: One of the important elements of a good 古琴  (guqin) is the type of wood. There are people who are skilled in picking the perfect type of wood to make the 古琴, called a 聋人古琴  (longren guqin)

2) Assemble: After cutting the wood and shaping it correctly, one must assemble the instrument. The 古琴  (guqin) consists of 8 strings, bridge, peg pool/ string hole, gum supported, and the "dragon's gums" or the nut. 

3) Staining/ Glazing: Next one must stain the wood to give the instrument a nice dark brown color. Along with staining the wood, they also gloss/glaze it to give it a nice shine.

4) Final: The last steps is putting on the string. 

Next, we went to go look at the Lotus Flower Lake/ Pond. It was absolutely stunning! In the middle of the pond was a stone pathway with bridges leading to multiple gazebos. We walked through the pond, stopping at every bridge and gazebo to take more and more pictures. (Check my page of photos for more)

After exploring this part of 庄州, we went to a resort in the mountains, 10 minutes away. There, I learned that Aidan's host father is family friends with the people who own the resort (which is why we were able to go there for lunch). Once we walked through the gate, a atmosphere of privacy and western styles overwhelmed me. In the middle of resort was a small pond, surrounded with flowers and long grass. Across the pond was a lounge and 8 small houses you could rent for a few nights. We went to the lounge first. There we were given AC and watermelon, my 2 favorite things! After resting and cooling off for 30 minutes, we went exploring around the resort. We discovered that on the other side the pond, 6 more homes/ resorts were being made. They were very modern looking. On the side facing the pond was all glass, allowing me to look in (which was awesome because I could see the people). On the inside, there was all modern furniture. Also, each "house" was labeled with a different Chinese holiday, which I thought was interesting. On top of the lounge was an outdoor, covered "book nook" with a wall full of shelves of books that people could read. Around the outdoor room were super conformable. 


While we were enjoying the "book nook", one of the workers interrupted us, so rude, but then he invited us to watch a movie so I forgave him. We went into another building, into a home theater room. There we watched War of the Worlds in ENGLISH with Chinese subtitles. Half way through the movie we had to go eat lunch. For lunch we had "forever noodles" which are eaten on all Chinese birthdays. They eat these noodles because they are long, representing a long life.

We then finished the movie and left the "most beautiful place on Earth". We planned on going straight home but instead we stopped at the grape vineyard for a quick tour. There I tasted the best grapes on Earth. Most grapes, especially when they are not cold, are a little plain tasting. But these grapes were fresh, warm, and tasty. Our tour guide simply plucked off grapes for us straight from the vine. Since they weren't washed, we peeled off the skin before eating the grapes.

After going home, Sharon and I went to Skylar's house after dinner. Aidan and his host cousin joined us and we taught our host siblings how to play spoons and BS. They loved the game but did not really get the concept that you had to lie to win. We then ate really sweet lemon cake and sang 祝你生日快乐。

Today was so much fun and gave me the opportunity to explore more of 厦门 beauty and meet more people.