---

---

Virtual China Descriptions by Xi'an Group #2

---

Virtual China Descriptions by Xi'an Group #2
----------------------------------------
From: "HKIS Middle School (General Account #1)" 
Virtual China Participants and Observers:

These Virtual China messages were written from Xi'an, March 25, 1996. They
come from the Xi'an Group 2, Anne Street's Group. They are the first
messages received from the second Hong Kong International School study
group to visit Xi'an in the past two weeks as part of their "Virtual China
'96" project.
----------------------------------------
By: Isaac Hall
Location: Xi'an, China
Date: March 25, 1996
Activity: Some history of Xi'an

When we arrive in Xi'an, China. It is cold and sunny at the same time.
There seems to be a lot of poor people. Unclean clothes on them all. When
we get on our bus, our tour guide tells us about the first 11 emperors. The
first emperor and his wife are buried separately but close to each other
from a hill to another hill. Xi'an was ruled by 11 emperors. Xi'an was the
capital of China during 10 dynasties. Xi'an is now the capital of Shoanxi
province. Beijing is now the capital of China. China's crops are corn and
wheat. There is a lot of farmland around Xi'an. When foreigners like me and
the HKIS students go within city limits, a lot of people stare at what we
do. Even if we do nothing. Sometimes they follow us.
--------------------------------------------------------
Author: Brandon Kung
Location: Xi'an, China
Date: March 25, 1996
Activity: Info on Xi'an, China

In China, most of the people own a bicycle, but you can see second hand
beat-up cars. Occasionally you can see new cars or bicycles. Some street
hawkers earn their living through writing Chinese calligraphy which are
extremely beautiful. Xi'an was the home to all the eleven Han dynasty
emperors, Xi'an was also the home of ten dynasty.

The most popular shop in China are the newspaper stand, book shop and the
food hawkers. Whenever foreigners walk by, lots of eyes, (belonging to the
Chinese) stare at them.
Most of the houses in China are old, but there are a few modern day houses
being constructed. Most of the workers constructing the houses do not wear
helmets.
If you're ever looking for bargains, then Xi'an is your place. You can
reduce the price by up to sixty plus percent.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Author: Luana Shen
Date: March 26,1996
Location: Shaanxi museum ....... Xi'an, China
Activity: A description of the Museum and its contents

Message:
The Shaanxi History museum, located near the South gates of Xi'an (Nanmen),
was built in 1991. It is large, in fact, its the largest in Asia. The
museum was two stories tall. There were marble grounds and very little
windows to keep out the sun which hurts the artifacts. It was painted in a
Chinese temple way with beige walls and a green roof and "ledges". There
were 2 stairwells that were made of stone and marble. Each exhibition place
bad a golden plague that said something like, "Exhibition Room One..."
etc.. The rooms were all lighted with very dim lights protect the
artifacts. There were glass cases covering all the artifacts. Each artifact
had a description about it. Their rooms were quite "cool"( as in
temperature ).
As the time period got more modern, artifacts were more complicated. For
example, in the Qing Dynasty there was a plate that had a fancy dragon
design. There were 3 common colors: red, yellow, and green. This museum is
worthwhile to go to.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author: Matthew Waters
Date: March 26th, 1996
Location: Xi'an, China
Activity: A visit to the Big Goose Pagoda

Today we visited the Big Goose Pagoda. The Big Goose Pagoda was fun. It was
huge. There were two temples and there were mats for bowing on. Then we
came to the actual Big Goose Pagoda. We climbed up the 7 floors. The top
was nice, but it wasn't what we expected. It had a good view. After that we
went down and then went back to the hotel. It was really fun. I hope I get
to do it again.
----------------------------------------
Author: Suzanne Siu
Date: March 28th, 1996
Location: Xi'an, China
Activity: Student exchange at Northwest Power Institute School

"Come on baby, do the Locomotion". As the last sound of the 50's Locomotion
died away, the lines of dancing students scattered away.
I exchanged smiles with a shy, quiet girl named Jane and waved her over.
"Ni hao ma?" I asked her how she was in Mandarin. The girl flashed me a
quick smile. As a visiting student who went to an international school in
Hong Kong < was expected to be the outgoing one, the person who ventured
out and tried a new relationship.
To open up the barriers, our school had decided to loosen everyone up with
a rocking demonstration of "Locomotion", while inviting the students from
the Northwest Electric Power Design Institute to join in.
"Did you like the 'Locomotion'?" I tried again, silently pleading for an
answer while speaking in Mandarin. Fortunately, the girl's eyes lit up
instantly. "Wo hen Xi huan! Hen hao wan!" ('I loved it! It was so fun!', I
translated for myself quickly before replying in Chinese, "Yeah, well,
stick with me any you'll learn even more of these outrageous dances.!"
------------------------------------------------------
Author: Crystal Chung
Editor: Mrs. Dawson
Date: March 28, 1996
Location: Xi'an, China
Activity: Comparing/Contrasting HKIS and N . W. Power Institute Middle School

Message:

As I peered through the windows of the empty classrooms , and looked at the
empty halls, I realized that noise and kids and a lot of atmosphere. Maybe
it is because school was over and everyone was mingling in the halls. As i
got to know the school and the kids better , I noticed that there was a
barrier between us, and the kids from NW Power Institute Middle School. In
our school system They encourage the kids to be individuals, and to express
our own ideas. The kids here are encouraged to be really uniform, and to
obey things the elders tell them. But as they played basketball together,
The barriers disappeared. That's not all, the classroom in HKIS. are air
conditioned, carpeted, and have white boards. The classrooms here are
stuffy, rather small, and they use blackboards.
But like the kids from HKIS they like to goof off, and dare each other. I
think they were quite surprised when they saw that we were really open with
each other physically, and emotionally too. But soon, they were eager to be
like that too.
The school's campus is not as compact as ours it. For us, it is really easy
to get around, though tiring. While our school is surrounded by Mother
Nature's wonderful gifts such as trees, flowers, and birds, their school is
surrounded by industrial buildings, and they buildings are not connected.
Sports wise, our school has a wider variation of sports. We've got
basketball, soccer, baseball, ping-pong, track, and lots more. In their
school, they only have basketball, soccer, ping-pong, badminton, and track.
Our visiting the school must of meant a lot to them. They have spent 1 year
preparing for our visit. We didn't even have time to practice the
Locomotion! But I'm glad that our visit has made their lives different. We
have helped them to open up and to be who they really are, and not who
other people want them to be. I sure hope that we made an impact on their
lives!!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author: (Unknown student traveler)
Date: March 28, 1996
Location: Xi'an, China
Activity: A friendly basketball game against a Chinese Middle School

Message:
Jump! Shoot! Pass! As the crowd cheered for both teams since both teams had
HKIS members. It didn't turn out the way ..... I planned it because I
thought it was going to be privately played, but instead we had no choice
but to face the pressure from the onlookers. Everyone was quite rough at
the beginning, but as time wore on people from both the Xi'an North West
Power Institute School and our school, HKIS, were more friendly and the new
fans seemed to enjoy the game of basketball more.
Chris tagged me as I yelled to him to do so to get into the stand. I came
over and gave Chris Yang a high-five and was off to play among the roaring
crowd. At first, it was very hard to get the ball I am short and didn't
have a feel for the basketball. Therefore, I was very nervous and was
afraid of upsetting my teammates. People passed some wonderful passes to
me, but unfortunately I missed almost all the shots. Things were going
wrong and thing were not on my side. Help was needed urgently and it had to
come to me no matter what. People started making beautiful shots and
wonderful dribbling skills. This was a big boost in my confidence because
my team was working so hard for making these tough shots while I am missing
these simple simple darn shots. I had no choice but to CHANGE, CHANGE,
CHANGE!!!!!!
Swoosh! I finally made shots and the crowd cheering for me! Gradually,
confidence arrived to me and I was starting to give much more effort for
the team. The scoreboard for our team was constantly rising and the
scoreboard came to an end of 17-8. What a proud win for us and our whole
team!
Overall, the most important from this game is that I had gained something
very important, which is friendship!!!
People on both teams for the Chinese and for us were only to win. We all
eliminated the height, the place, the appearance, but everybody on both
sides were concentrated on one goal which is to win! Champions!
--------------------------------------------------------------

KIDPROJ Information Contact: Patti Weeg pweeg@shore.intercom.net

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