Year 11 Trip to China Town
On Friday 9th February, we took some of our Year 11 students for an overnight stay in China Town to celebrate Chinese New Year. It was a fantastic opportunity for our students to experience Chinese culture in a “mini China”.
After school, we took the train to London (sustained by chocolates from Miss Qiao) and after dropping our bags off at our youth hostel, went into China Town to find our restaurant.
The restaurant was very busy and almost everyone there was Chinese. There seemed to be only two waiters and it was very impressive how they rushed around carrying various dishes, and responding quickly to the frequent shouts of “Ni hao!” from the customers. This is an interesting cultural difference between China and the UK: in Chinese restaurants, if you want something, you simply shout “Ni hao” (the equivalent of “Hello”) at the waiter, and it isn’t considered rude!
Our meal was very large: sixteen dishes! At first (after we had been given green tea) came two huge bowels of rice, and then beef, chicken, pork, tofu, duck, vegetables and various other things that we didn’t recognise, but which were delicious! By the time all the dishes were out, it looked as if they would fall off the revolving table!
After that delicious meal, we went out to join the crowds on the streets. Under the famous red lanterns, it was easier to hear Mandarin or Cantonese than English being spoken, and the difficulty was not getting lost among the sea of people: it really did feel like being in Beijing rather than London. We took photos, and practised saying “Xinnian Kuaile” (“Happy New Year”).
After that, we went for some refreshing bubble tea, and explored a Chinese supermarket which sold many interesting items. Then we went back to our youth hostel in high spirits, taking with us much of the meal from the restaurant which we had been too full to eat that evening.
The next day, after not quite a full night’s sleep (the students were still very excited and didn’t go to bed till late) we travelled back to Brighton very happy, and feeling as if we’d had a very fun and educational cultural experience.
Xinnian Kuaile!
