1 - Transfer to Shaxi

2 - Hike

3 - Dinner at Shaxi old town with a dinner story and presentation by the local community (and SMORES!)

Today's award goes to

Hailey Tsang - For helping a fellow hiker to have a positive outlook to the hike

Jayden Tsui - For their positive outlook and interaction in tonights Dance and Singing performance with the community.

Warren Cheung - For their positive outlook and interaction in tonights Dance and Singing performance with the community.

Daniel Cheung - For being caring & thoughtful to the hosting family and their cooks

Blurb of the day

• What did we do (3 points)

• Highlights (3 points)

• What area of the CAS learning outcomes have you explored (choose 1 and explore with 2 points)

• What are you looking forward to tomorrow (2 points)

Student reflection

Student reflection 1 

So, today I finally got the hang of what “spirited fire” means. When I looked at the fire, it seemed to be alive! There were these cool red vertical lines flying all over the place. It was so beautiful. And the night sky was insane! I’ve never seen such a stunning sky full of stars. Nature is truly amazing, and people are even more amazing.

We visited a Buddhist temple today and learned about the history and the proper way to meditate. After that, we had lunch and then went for a hike. It took about 2.5 hours. Hiking in this cold temperate is so refreshing, especially compared to the hot and humid hikes in Hong Kong (my personal opinion is that they’re quite similar, but the view at the summit is what really sets them apart).

We also stopped by a local village and had dinner there. They served some really unique Yunnan cuisine, but I’m not sure if I was a fan. After that, we had a good time partying and eating smores at the village center. We also saw some traditional performances.

One of the highlights was the guy who was making sound from a leaf. I found that really cool. Another highlight was seeing the stars, which was absolutely breathtaking. And the last highlight was learning how to meditate properly, which was taught by the monk before lunch.

I realized that I felt a bit guilty for not giving back to the locals. They offered us food and even performed for us, but we didn’t give them anything in return.

Tomorrow, I’m looking forward to woodcraft and maybe even a morning jog if I wake up early.

-Byon Loke

Student reflection 2 

After the hike to the grottoes, we returned to the ShaXi village to enjoy dinner provided by locals from the village. During this dinner, we had to serve ourselves and also clean up after ourselves, I thought that was a good experience for everyone. After the dinner we walked to the village centre to enjoy performances from the locals which consisted of dances and songs. While enjoying the performances, our teachers/supervisors had also provided smores. The highlights from this evening were the local dinner with a variety of unique foods, dancing with the locals and lastly looking at the sky and seeing so many stars since there’s wasn’t any light pollution. This evening consisted activity since we danced and sang and enjoyed a cultural experience. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to the wood carving because it’s something I’ve never done before and I think it’s a unique cultural experience.

-Diya Davey