Daily Updates from Xiamen (Day 2)

After a good night’s rest, our day started at Jimei Primary School. It is situated in a district called the educational district. Besides the primary school, you can also find the middle school, high school, university, teacher’s college… it certainly is a massive place. And the man responsible for the development of such an impressive educational infrastructure is business philanthropist Mr Tan Kah Kee. A respected man who gave his heart to ensuring an equal opportunity for all to gain an education, he donated to several school building projects in Jimei. When he died, Chairman Mao personally penned a beautiful phrase for him, describing him as “The banner of overseas Chinese and the glory of the nation.”

After touring the memorial area and Mr Tan Kah Kee’s final resting ground, we were all hungry and proceeded to General Restaurant for lunch. By then, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it began to drizzle. After another feast, we boarded the bus to our next destination which was a tea appreciation session at a place called Dr Tea. China is famous for its tea and we were in for a real treat as we sampled 5 different kinds of tea. It seems there is more to the art of drinking tea than simply putting it in your mouth. We felt truly cultured sitting there sipping our Pu Er tea. Needless to say, the pupils gained great exposure to a wonderful piece of Chinese culture.

Our last destination was the Botanical Gardens. It is very different from the one in Singapore. Our bus wound up a mountain and when we got there, the weather was simply miserable. Still, we huddled into a hut and got an opportunity to get our hands on in Seed Art. The girls were truly creative! After that, we were taken on a tour through the Desert Garden and their Science Exhibition Hall. It was all very detailed and enriching but one wonders how much did the pupils absorb??

After the one hour tour, to say that we were ravenous was an understatement. Poor Megan was clutching her tummy and when we asked if she had a tummy ache, she responded candidly, “I’m hungry.”

It was a great second day and we can’t wait for tomorrow when we visit Quanzhou. Here are some photos for you to enjoy!

Some examples of our work:





Terisha Ann would like to show her parents these photos:


That's all we have for today's daily update. Remember to check us out tomorrow for another exciting update!