Trip to China: December 2004
At the end of the Christmas Quarter Mr Kent and Mlle Fonteneau accompanied twelve Sixth Formers on a ground-breaking fortnight’s stay in the People’s Republic of China. Oundle has had an exchange with the Pudong High School in Shanghai for several years, but this time the trip was extended to include a stay with the Beijing Normal College High School.
Shanghai showed itself to be a remarkable city, growing at an extraordinary rate and straining in many ways to be as western, as cosmopolitan and as commercially-focussed a city as possible. The Pudong district is a marvel of skyscrapers and exponential development, but our pupils were also able to investigate the city’s cultural heritage and the shopping-mad energy of the city centre. A trip to sing karaoke revealed a wide range of vocal ability within the group, but fortunately our pupils’ exchange partners were not present to show us just how bad we were.
The Shanghai pupils were courteous, inquisitive, and, to the horror of our pupils, extremely hard-working. The Oundle teachers were equally appalled to note the Shanghai school’s policy of having pupils write reports on their teachers three times a term, but all agreed that the school was hugely impressive, in terms of its design, facilities and the attitudes of its staff and pupils.
We spent nine days in and around Shanghai, and then took and overnight train to Beijing. The crowds at both stations were huge, and we were all reminded that there are indeed a lot of people in China; the train was clean, fast and punctual, and we arrived in a chilly Beijing to begin four days of intensive sightseeing and bonding with our new partner school. We were hosted with great generosity and sensitivity, and our pupils’ time with their Beijing partners was extremely valuable. The scenery in and around Beijing is sometimes staggering in its blend of scale and artistry, and the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace were particularly beautiful, though visiting the latter in subzero temperatures posed some problems; the vast lake on which it is sited was entirely frozen over. We saw Chairman Mao’s body in its mausoleum in Tiananmen Square which was an eerie, revealing experience; the crass marketing of the former leader’s almost deified celebrity was disturbing when juxtaposed with the continuing reverence shown by the hundreds of Chinese who come to pay their respects on that freezing morning.
Possibly the highlight of the trip was, unsurprisingly, the Great Wall. Assured by a certain teacher that temperatures would be Arctic, we arrived at Simatai to find a Wall bathed in sunshine, which reflected off the recent snowfall to leave us uncomfortably warm. The stretch of the Wall at Simatai is certainly not fully restored, meaning that the climb up to the finest views was hard work, but well worth the effort.
The exchange was very successful, and our pupils look forward to welcoming
their exchange partners back to Oundle in June of this year. Oundle School hopes
to continue its links to Shanghai, but is delighted to have found such an excellent
friend in China’s capital, and hopes to return there soon.
Simon Kent