I would like to thank the community for their support of my recent People to People trip to China. Many people helped support my fundraising events so I could afford to go on this once in a lifetime trip.
The trip went from July 9 to 25th. I went with a group of 47 student ambassadors and four chaperones. Our first stop was Beijing. Here we saw Tiananmen Square where students stood up against the government many years ago.
We also walked on the Great Wall. The Great Wall was amazing to see because every interval of climbing there was a watch tower.Our next stop was Xian which we took an overnight train to get there. We went to an opening ceremony into the town gates, like they used to do in the old days for the emperor.
Here we saw the terracotta warriors and learned about the history from one of the farmers who discovered them.
The government had paid farmers to dig for water during a drought and they started finding pieces of broken clay. They didn’t think much of it until they realized the pieces were forming into the shape of a human.
They called the government to examine what they were finding and the field of terracotta warriors was eventually uncovered. There are currently 2,000 uncovered, but there is a total of 8,000. We also had the opportunity to spend the night with a host Chinese family to be more immersed in their culture.
From there we went to Shanghai. This was an interesting city because the lights were so bright that even at night it felt like day time. We saw a huge TV tower that was very bright.
We also did some market shopping for elderly nursing home patients. We visited a school for people for disabilities and we played games with them and interacted with them.
We made our way from Shanghai to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong we went on a rail car up to the top of the mountain and when we got up there it was really neat because there was a another town at the top.
We also went on a house boat to talk to a captain in the shipping yard. We saw miles of shipping docks and we saw Jackie Chan’s house.
We came home following our visit to Hong Kong.
I would like to say thank you to the community for helping me go on this once in a life time trip.
A special thank you goes to the locals that helped me by eating at my chicken barbecue. This event helped me pay my final dues to go on the trip. I would like to say thanks to the Community Scholarship Fund, the North-wood’s Women’s Club, Kiwanis, and the Ladies Fire Department Auxiliary for their donations. They were greatly appreciated.
A special thanks to Bob Card for allowing me to use his property for my barbecue. I apologize if I have overlooked anyone. The generosity of so many people was something really special.
Bertrum Yuhasz, Forestport
People to People, Ambassador to China
