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Virtual China Bikers Group #4 Itineraries

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Virtual China Bikers Group #4 Itineraries
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Virtual China, Bikers Group 4 ...... traveling from Siu Hing toward Sun
Hing in Southern China along country roads. This is the first of several
sets of messages to come from Group 4 as they bike along their route over
rural country roads. The date is Tuesday, March 26th, 1996. The messages
below are from the 7th grade students from Hong Kong International School
as they bike through this area.
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Author: Sven Schwiezer
Date: 3\26\96
Location: Siu Hing, China
Activity: Morning Itinerary

Message:
We woke up between 6:00 & 6:30 on the boat. The boat was kind of big. There
were 2-3 bunk beds in a room. but the rooms were small. we put our feet on
solid ground in china at 8:45am and stayed at the boat terminal for about
one hour. Then we went into a factory that made ink stone tablets. The
cheapest tablet was $50 US. and the most expensive was $1,000,000 HK.
Next we went to a school (kindergarten) they played the electric piano and
they also danced. They were tiny kids who were 3-6 years. old. After that
we went to a Chinese restaurant to eat lunch.
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Author: Astu Fujinuma
Date: March 26, 1996
Location: Sao Tao Hotel, Siu Hing, China
Activity: Afternoon Itinerary

Message:
At approximately one o'clock we finished our lunch near the seven star
Craig. As we nearly got on the bus we saw a gift shop near, and then
visited it. Then we got on the bus and went to the hotel "Song Tao." We
took the 30 bikes from the truck one by one which took quite some time,
some were too big, some the seats were to low and etc., the bike man had to
fix them but had no trouble. We tested our bikes and rode from the hotel to
the entrance of the park, and back to the hotel. WE biked back again to the
park entrance but this time we went into the park. We rode a little bit
inside, the quiet park and stopped at the bat cave, a cave in which was
made by nature, on the foot of the Seven Star Craig. Most went on the boat
ride inside the cave, but others went shopping at a near store. After
everyone got together at about 3:15, we biked until we got to the
stairwells of the hike up to the peak of the Seven Star Craig. The hike was
a tiresome, long hike, which actually only took us half an hour, even
though it seemed much longer because of the tremendous incline. The view
was magnificent, with a 360 degree view. Getting down was harder than going
up. At 4:30 we arrived back at the truck and bus, and got our luggage from
the bus. The hotel room was clean with a TV., and clean bathrooms, which
everyone was thankful. Tonight we are going to watch the 1996 Academy
Awards. We ate at the hotel which was the normal Chinese specials: fried
rice.. egg soup.... sweet and sour pork.... and so on. After dinner was
work time when one group wrote Virtual China "stuff", daily journal, and
some people worked until bedtime. I watched the Academy Awards after I
finished this.
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Virtual China Readers!
( From Bikers Group 4, Mrs. Lewis' group...... March 27th, 1996 ...... day
3 of their trip )
Near the city of Sun Hing .... probably about 130-150 km inland from the
South China coast.

The following messages come to you from the Hong Kong International School
7th grade students who are biking from Siu Hing to Kwang Hai, China as part
of their study tour of that country. This is the third day they have been
traveling. Today's trip will take them from Long Shan, where they spent the
night ...... to Hoi Ping, a distance of approximately 30-40 km as they
travel south.
--------------------------------------------
Author: Dar Sandler
Location: Foreign Merchants Entertainment Center, Long Shan, China
(This was our Hotel)
Date: March 27, 1996
Activity: Morning Itinerary

Message:
We woke up; we got up from a good sleep. Well, at least I did. We brushed
teeth; combed the messy hair, got ready, and quickly went down to the
lobby, not wanting to get screamed at by Mrs. Lewis.
After the standard speech by Mrs. Lewis, we went to the dining room. the
breakfast was really good; it included French Toast, egg cake, and spring
rolls. It was quite American. You may be able to see us eating in one of
the pictures.
Later we biked a good 10 km to a nearby village. At the village was a
basketball hoop! There was also a meat stall, and many small houses. A
picture of the meat stall and of the people working there was taken. It
seemed as if they had never seen foreigners; they were very attentive.
Inside the village was a school ...... (end)
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Author: Erin McCallum
Date: March 27, 1996
Location: Long Shan, China (about 12 km from Sun Hing) Activity: Afternoon
Itinerary


In the village we went to a school for 6 to 13 years olds; they totally
swarmed us and there were about 150 of them. They were so interested in us,
and when Miss Pfeiffer took a Polaroid picture of some of them they all
screamed and grabbed at it. I noticed that the children were all dressed,
well, quite shabbily. Some of them had bare feet and all the roads around
were dirty and muddy. When we started riding away they all followed us.
When we got out of the little village we rode along a dirt road and we all
seemed to attract stares from truck/ car/ motorbike drivers who stick their
heads out the window and yell "Hello" when they pass. Another observation I
made was women seem to work harder than men. They are always carrying these
bamboo poles bearing 2 baskets on them. Also the women work in the rice
paddies. We rode along a highway which was really busy and lot's of long
trucks are on it and when they pass they honk their horns the exact minute
your ear is next to it. Everyone honks in China. We rode to lunch and met
our other group and ate with them. We have the same lunch every day. We
then biked to our new hotel. The rice paddies along the way are really
nice. My conclusions for biking 30 km's is "My behind is sore!!!"
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Virtual China, Bikers Group 4, Mrs. Lewis' group ...... traveling from Hoi
Ping to Tai Shan in Southern China along country roads. This is the third
set of messages to come from Group 4 as they bike along their route over
rural country roads. The date is Thursday, March 28th, 1996. The messages
below are from the 7th grade students from Hong Kong International School
as they bike through this area.
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Author: Nicholas Wetzler
Date: March 28, 1996
Location: On the road from Kai Ping to Tai Shan, China
(Approximately 150 miles WWNW of Hong Kong on Chinese mainland) Activity:
Morning Itinerary

We got up at 6:30 a.m. and went to eat breakfast. The food was very good,
especially the noodle cakes and custard rolls. then we made lunch and took
a group picture. Later we took off biking. All of us stopped periodically
to see fish farms, rice paddies, wheat burning, and water buffaloes plowing
fields. After that everyone got very muddy from the rain. the villages were
very crowded and the street vendors sold just about everything. So, this
morning was very interesting.
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Author: Jenny Brockberg
Editor: Mr. Gross
Date: March 28, 1996
Location: Kai Ping, China ..... about 60-80 km inland from the coast
Activity: Afternoon Itinerary

This afternoon, we got peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. When
we had all our food, we went off with our small groups. My group went down
the main road for about 5 minutes. We saw a small road and went down it. We
road down it awhile, until we saw a water buffalo and a man. They were
plowing a field. It took them about 3 hours to do a small field. After we
saw the buffalo, we rode our bikes for about 5 minutes, and then the road
ended. It turned into brown, slushy mud. We had to get off our bikes and
walk, because it was so muddy. We walked for awhile in a fairly small
village. a lady came up to us what we were looking for. We said, "Nothing."
She said she was a teacher, and showed us around the school. She took us to
her sixth grade class. All the people in there were 13 to 15 years old, but
they looked as though they were about 8 or 9. We walked around for ten
minutes. The highlight was the baby pigs. They looked alot like babe. We
left the village and road a bus for about three and a half hours until we
stepped into the village and bought alot of sugar cane. It was so good! We
finally got to our hotel and had dinner there. Then we went to see the
streets of Kai Ping at night. Everyone was wet, tired, muddy, but we all
had a great time.
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Virtual China .... March 29th, 1996 (Last messages from Bikers Group 4)
Mrs. Lewis' group traveling north to south in Southern China.

Today bikers group 4 rode their bikes from Hoi Ping to Tai Shan in Southern
China. Tomorrow they will ride the final 30-35 km from Tai Shan to Kwang
Hai, on the coast, and board a high speed ferry bound for Hong Kong.
-------------------------------------------------------
Author: Christina Ng
Date: March 29th, 1996
Location: Tai Shan Overseas Chinese Hotel
Activity: Morning itinerary

At 3:45 a.m. in room 1404, I jumped up and rushed to the bathroom. Just in
time, I "blew my cookies" in the sink. In the background the thunder
crashed and lightning flashed. It was chucking down rain! At the exact same
time, Joe woke up in his room in 1304. He checked the window to make sure
it was closed. Satisfied, he went back to sleep.
At 7:30 a.m. we all met in the hotel restaurant and had a Chinese
breakfast. Everybody enjoyed the food and was adventurous to try new
things. After breakfast we loaded the bus and rode to the cookie factory.
Seeing the cookies cut and egg rolls rolled was fascinating! We learned a
lot - including that the female labor workers had to retire at the age of
50 and male workers at the age of 60! We also got to sample all of these
treats. We then had a question and answer session with My. Shying - the
secretary to the General Manager of the factory. We asked My. Shying
questions in a disco facility room (for the employees) drinking hot tea and
munching on peanuts. They were so hospitable!
After the cookie factory, I felt queasy again so I sat on the bus and
watched the rest of the group mount their bikes. Ted (our bike man) spent
two hours fixing our bikes because of all the mud that got mixed in. After
an 8 km ride the whole group stopped at a factory. I stepped out and joined
them, eager to visit another factory. This factory originally was a "red
paper factory", but has been converted to a "thousand year old duck egg
processing and packing factory" - due to financial reasons. This egg
packing factory then changed to a lumber yard, where we stood staring at
logs for 5 minutes. (Note from person typing this message ......... if that
is true the change to a lumber yard was made only within the past 7-10 days
because we were there last week when it was still a duck egg processing
factory.)
Just beside the lumber yard was s senior citizens activity center. We
stepped in and watched their game of Mahjong. I think we got a good feeling
of excitement in a game of Chinese dominoes! Feeling a little better and
eager to ride, I got my bike and mounted it. We all started on another 18
km bike ride through the exciting villages of Southern China!!!
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Author: Lindsey Heine
Editor: Mr. Ko
Date: March 29th, 1996
Location: Leaving Tai Shan, heading for the Chinese coast at Kwang Hai
Activity: Afternoon Itinerary

After visiting the "elder activity" we headed back towards our bikes. After
stopping at a small wood shack store for some snacks, we climbed onto our
bikes. We had a "short" ride to a school called the Tze Tin Shik School. We
learned that Chinese schools are not too different from our won schools in
some ways. They go to school about as many days a week and hours per day
that we do. They are lucky, though because they get 2 hours off for lunch!
They are unlucky too, because very few of these students actually reach
high school, and of those few that do only 10% go on to college. After
giving the school a banner, we prepared ourselves for a 13 km bike ride to
the outskirts of the next city. the road we biked on was really nice
because it took us through rice paddies, over rivers, and next to fields.
After traveling 13 km we were happy to find a place that sold cold
Coca-Cola!
We packed up our bikes in a truck and rode on a bus to a park. We ate lunch
at a restaurant there. They served us chicken feet in broth, greens, and a
drink that's a mixture of root beer and coke. On the way out of the park, a
boy who was about 2 years old followed us for about 1 mile, begging!

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