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Virtual China '96 Biker's Study Tour

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  **********  Virtual China '96 Biker's Study Tour  **********

Traveling the rural country roads of Southern China can provide a rich
cultural experience for travelers fortunate enough to have that opportunity.
Suppose the travelers were 12-13 year old students from a middle school in
your neighborhood?  How would they react to such an experience?  How much
would they grow in their appreciation of the Chinese culture?  Immersing
students in such an environment and establishing a reasonable pace that allows
them to absorb the sights, sounds, smells, and human contact along the way
would provide a "living curriculum" for those young travelers .....  a unique
experience filled with rich memories that would probably be carried out of
China and shared with many people, thereafter.

 Hong Kong International School's "Grade 7 Biking Study Tour", started in
 1989, gives 7th grade students at HKIS a chance to "absorb the culture",
 first-hand.  For two successive weeks every March two groups of about twenty-
 five 7th grade students bike along the country roads of Southern China
 between the coastal town of Kwang Hai (also known as Kong Hoi) and Siu Hing
 (Zhaoqing), about 200 km to the north.  One group takes a 12-hour overnight
 ferry up the Pearl River to Siu Hing (location) to begin their week-long trip
 south toward Kwang Hai, while the other twenty-five students take a high-
 speed ferry to Kwang Hai at the opposite end of the biking itinerary.  The
 second week two more groups travel the same routes.  Along the way the young
 travelers visit schools, cottage industries, modern factories, dozens of
 rural villages, monestaries, rubber recycling plants, brick factories,
 vegetable markets, meat & fish markets, rice fields, and more.  They do a
 village profile, a worker profile, and collect information about
 transportation, agriculture, education, and housing as well as other aspects
 of the Chinese culture.  The primary purpose of this trip, and an alterntive
 simultaneous trip to Xi'an, China is to have each 7th grader, "Grow in
 his/her understanding, appreciation and respect for the Chinese people and
 culture". Your students too can participate ......  "virtually".  To get
 registration information about Virtual China watch for a second
invitation which will be sent out within hours of this message, or send an
email message to:

           jzahn@ms.hkis.edu.hk

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VIRTUAL CHINA '96 - BIKING ITINERARY

(Note: Each week two HKIS biking groups start at opposite ends of this
 itinerary .... they meet briefly, halfway through the trip.  The itinerary
listed below is for the group which will be traveling  South to North.  Groups
traveling from North to South simply reverse the dates and the order of the
activities.)

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Day 1 - March 18 or 24, 1996 Kwang Hai (Kong Hoi) to Tai Shan (Choi San) - 45
km Students will board a high speed ferry in Hong Kong bound for Kwang Hai
(Kong Hoi in another dialect).  After arriving in Kwang Hai at approximately
11:15 a.m. the group will mount up and bike 45 km (about 5 hours) through the
 countryside to Tai Shan (Choi San) where they will spend the night.  There
 are many delightful rural villages along the way.  They will see Chinese
 "tower homes", rice paddies, saw mills, recycling centers, brick
 factories/kilns, and village markets along the way.  Arrival will allow an
 hour for dinner and an hour's walk around the town before debriefing, journal
 writing, and Virtual China writing must be completed.

Day 2 - March 19 or 25, 1996-Tai Shan (Choi San) to Kai Ping (Hoi Ping), 18 km
After an early morning breakfast students will visit the markets of central
 Tai Shan, a city of about a million people.  A visit to a Christian Church
and a tour of a modern factory that takes raw cotton and turns it into denim
will precede lunch.  After lunch at a lakeside restaurant, the students will
bus to the edge of town before getting on their bikes for a beautiful 18 km
ride through the country to Kai Ping (Hoi Ping), visiting several points of
interest along the way. Kai Ping is located on the Ham Kong River, the western
branch of the Pearl River.  Along the way the bikers may see clam harvesting,
a retirement home, and a "duck egg" preservation shop.  They will also be able
to observe typical river traffic and activities as they cross the Ham Kong
River.  After dinner the students will be bussed to Wu Xi Middle School for a
"school exchange".  Required "reflections" and writings will conclude the day
before retiring for the night in Kai Ping (Hoi Ping).

Day 3 - March 20 or 26, 1996 ....... Kai Ping (Hoi Ping) to Sun Hing
- 80 km, ........... 53 km biking The group will visit a joint venture cracker
factory after breakfast.  A 30 km bus ride will take them to a point halfway
between the villages of Chong Sing and Long Sing in the direction of Sun Hung.
The group will spend the rest of the day biking to their evening destination,
taking time to do a walking tour of one or more villages.  A number of quaint
villages dot this section of road along with brick factories and rubber
recycling operations.  This is a beautiful valley with sugar cane fields and
rice paddies along the valley flanked by wooded hills  This day will probably
provide the the best selection of small villages seen during the trip.
Emphasis will be on "small-group" biking and exploration.  They will also see
huge scars on the surrounding hills, evidence of the hundreds of tons of earth
that is being moved to make a new road through the area.  Arrival will be
approximately 6:30 p.m. at the Foreign Merchants Entertainment Center Hotel in
Long Shan (near Sun Hing). Dinner, reflections, and writings conclude the day.

Day 4 - March 21 or 27, 1996....... Sun Hing to Siu Hing (Zhaoqing)
....... 72 km ........ approx. 35 km biking After a morning visit to a
Buddhist Monastery near the Hotel the students will bike approximately 12 km
back to Sun Hing, repeating that part of the route taken the day before.
Along the way they may have a chance to visit a snake restaurant, a prawn
farm, and a stainless steel factory, as well as some wonderful markets on the
south side of Sun Hing.  A 25 km bus ride will bring the group to Yiu Gu, a
small village within biking distance of Siu Hing (Zhaoqing).  The day will be
spent biking, sightseeing, visiting villages and meeting with HKIS friends
from the other biking group (traveling in the opposite direction), possibly
for lunch in Yiu Gu, 28 km from Sun Hing. The afternoon will have us passing
through an old Ching dynasty village (with its unique architecture) as well as
Sun Que which has markets of all types.  By evening the group will be at its
China Travel Service Hotel in the Seven Star Crags area of Siu Hing.

Day 5 - March 22 or 28, 1996....... In and around Sun Hing (Zhaoqing)
After breakfast the group will take a ferry across the Pearl River and then
 take a short 3 km bike trip to the small village of Nam Tang where they will
 visit an elementary school and observe cottage industries in the village.
They will return to Siu Hing for lunch before bussing to the beautiful Seven
Star Crags Park.  They will tour the park as well as a 600 year old
"mountaintop" Buddhist Monastery.  The day's optional activities might include
visits to an orphanage or a local kindergarten.  Later in the afternoon the
group will make its way to the ferry terminal and prepare to board the
overnight ferry for the 12-hour trip back to Hong Kong.

Day 6, March 23 or 29, 1996....... Sun Hing (Zhaoqing) to Hong Kong
Students will be arriving in Hong Kong Friday morning on the overnight
ferry from Siu Hing.  After breakfast they will be bussed back to HKIS
where they will spend the balance of the school day doing "debriefing
activities": a mural of the week long experience, helping clean bikes, etc.
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KIDPROJ Information Contact: Patti Weeg pweeg@shore.intercom.net

KIDPROJ WWW Contact: Grant Dougall dougallg@indigo.quadrant.net