We took an hour and a half bus ride (and STILL were in Changzhou, these cities are insane) and entered the park along with all of our students. Wow! It was gorgeous! To walk to the main section of the park, you pass through gardens that made me think of Thanksgiving Point (I obviously miss that place). We used the bathroom which had clean western toilets, toilet paper, soap, and hand dryers! It was like we were in heaven! We proceeded to a little "village" that was perfectly clean and still so historic and cultural. Kimmy, who happens to be Bailey's good friend, took us to get these Chinese snacks which were basically Chinese pupusas. They were so good!
I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera today! They told us we were going to an amusement park. I knew there were quite a few big ones in Changzhou, and I was thinking like roller coasters and stuff, so I didn't want to deal with my camera. Well I was wrong! So I don't have lots of pictures, you'll just have to believe me that it was beautiful!
For the first part of the day, Bailey and I checked out all of the little shops. In China, you find pretty much the same things at every tourist stop. But there were completely new things at this place! And still amazing prices! We bought some stuff for ourselves (I bought a little hand painted ocarina!) and some birthday presents for our nieces that they will just have to open late (late is better than never right?)
Soon enough it was time to meet with our group for lunch! We met at Tai Chi Square. Kimmy was nowhere to be found, so we took the time to find and say hi to our students. Oh my gosh it was the funniest thing, every single one of our students gave us parts of their lunches! Gift giving is a huge thing in Chinese culture, and they were all so excited to give us what they could and it would be rude to not accept. And it wasn't even the gross stuff - they gave us the best they had! Little Esmee (holding the pink backpack) tried giving me her whole slice of bread and I didn't accept it, but she was persistent. Finally we agreed on me just taking the crust haha.
It was the craziest thing, walking through that crowd of kids. Even kids that I didn't know gave us food! By the time we were done saying hi to each of our kids, my hoodie pocket was overflowing with snacks. It made me feel better when I noticed that kids were sent with ridiculous amounts of snacks, I'm sure their parents planned on their kids giving lots away! Best snack award goes to my little Jake, who gave me vacuum sealed chicken feet.
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| SO MANY CHILDREN. |
Kimmy eventually found us all and took us to a restaurant that I liked well enough. It was a lot like what we ate on the China tour I went on a few years ago - a whole bunch of family style Chinese food. Not my favorite but I like food in general so I got my fill! After that we headed to the one ride they had at this place. I'm not sure what it was called, but it is like Rattlesnake Rapids. You know, where you are on a tube in water and you get soaked! Yay for 5 kuai ponchos!
It was actually a really good ride! There was one part where you go through a cave and it is actually pretty scary. We liked it so much that at the end we all said, "ONE MORE TIME!" and the manager just laughed and let us stay on to ride once more.
We wandered around a little bit after that. It was a really peaceful place and it was fun to just be there to see the sights and occasionally our students (though EVERY student still says "HELLO TEACHA!" whenever they see us.) We bought some soft serve which was SO good! I guess it was milk flavored. It was a little bit coconutty. But it was the texture that was so good! It was frothy! Bailey said it was like butter. It was really soft and melty, but that didn't matter because we ate it up quick!
I wish we had a little bit longer in Taoism world, but the busses were there by 3 to pick us up! What a fun day. Probably one of my favorite days I've had in China! It was nice to have a leisurely day and not be in charge of figuring out busses and stuff, haha.
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