For the first part of our journey we headed to Manchester airport early one cold October morning. We hopped on our first plane. This flight was twelve hours long and we got 2 meals, breakfast and dinner. A funny memory of the flight was everyone playing Boggle and Uno against each other on the inflight entertainment system.  After this we had an 8 hour layover at Hong Kong airport. During this time we chilled in 2 different lounges, went to the Wonder Eggshell (a small indoor playground) and tried the E-sports pop up event they had. We then got on our second flight which was 1 hour and 30 minutes. As we were tired, we all slept on this plane. Finally, after over 24 hours of traveling, we arrived in Haikou, Hainan. Everyone collected their suitcases and we headed of to the first hotel for a much needed sleep.

The day after we arrived in China was the first day at our Chinese school, Hainan Foreign Language School. We had an opening ceremony to welcome us and introduce us to our buddies for the three days. My Chinese buddy was called Yo-yo. Straight after this we went into lessons. My first lesson of the day was Maths, it was a bit tricky as I couldn't read the Chinese symbols but once I figured out what the questions said I got used to it. After this I had English class, where they can't speak any Mandarin at all, we read a piece of text and then we had to answer comprehension questions, which was like an English class in the UK. We then had Mandarin lessons which were really quite difficult compared to our basic lessons we had started at home. Something that was interesting is that the children have a set classroom but not a set teacher. Every lesson they stay in the same desk and the subject teacher changes and moves round to teach their subject. 

In China I was shocked as I thought the food and culture would be slightly similar but it was very different. In school at dinner time everyone goes to the lunch hall and gets a tray with different sections, so each day you get some veggie's, meat, snack, and then you get a bowl to fill up with as much white rice as you want.
In school in the afternoons we did traditional Chinese culture lessons which involved Chinese Kung Fu, Tea Making, traditional dancing, dumpling making, Chinese paper cutting, clay necklace making and Chinese Ink Painting. I thought these lessons were really interesting and I think the children in China are really lucky to get such a variety of lessons. I was surprised by how difficult the ink painting was to do in the traditional way but it was really interesting learning so much about their traditional crafts.  On the first day we got to try some traditional dishes from Hainan such as  sweet and sour fish, Hainanese chicken, fish soup and lots more. I enjoyed some of it but definitely not the fish. 

After 3 days in the school we explored the local area starting with Haikou Volcanic Cluster Geo-Park which is an extinct volcano which last erupted over 8000 years ago. We walked up over 400 steps to reach the top of the crater ridge before walking down to the forrest floor were there was an ancient village. The houses were made of lava rocks and traditionally the bigger the doorway the richer and more significant the family.  Familes would also collect water in large ceramic water pots. The more  you had the richer you were. It was extremely humid and it was a very hot day but it was worth it for the views. 

The Hainan Provincial  Museum was so interesting. First we learnt about shipwrecks, ports and the sea. We got to see old ceramic pots that had been found in shipwrecks and we saw large shells which were very interesting.

After that we headed upstairs and learnt about the history of Hainan and how it formed. There was giant emmersive screens that played a video explaining how Hainan came to be. It also had a massive map (blocked by railings so no one could damage it) which changed colour & design based on what was happening on the screens.

Finally we went upstairs again to learn about the culture and old villages. It was so cool learning about how many different lifestyles and societies there were and how they are still celebrated. An intresting fact is that one of the main religions in southern Hainan (Sanya) is Islam.

It was a really cool experience and helped me learn lots more about the local culture and history.

We visited Haikou Wanly park -also known as coconut park-  first then we went to Haikou Baishamen. The parks were unlike any parks we have here in the U.K. They were full of tropical flowers, massive palm trees, a river, running tracks, exercise areas, playgrounds, sculptures and lots more.  Even though we were in Hainan's busiest city, it was so calm and quiet. It felt nice to relax and chill for a bit. 

The beach was one of my favourite parts of the trip. We went to Hainan's famous Holiday Beach. Everyone was running around, playing Marco Polo, digging holes and just having so much fun. At one point it almost turned into the Olyimpics! People were racing across the beach and doing long jump, some people where even doing gymnastics. There was a bizzare moment where people where taking photos with us because they had never seen western children like us before.