The rebellious bunch from WISS Shanghai found a little bit of “enlightenment” this past October on The Hutong’s excursion to Nanjing and Anhui. After an early morning bus ride from their Shanghai campus, they began to explore Nanjing, home of the renowned Taiping Rebellion, one of the most widespread insurrections in history.
With help from The Hutong’s Erin Henshaw and Jake Laband, WISS made friends with students of a local Nanjing high school, where they ate lunch with the students in their canteen, read English books together and competed in challenges including a chopstick marble race and tug of war with the teachers! Following the school exchange, WISS students learned about the ancient Chinese art of Bonzai with Mr. Xia, head engineer of Nanjing’s famed Zhanyuan gardens. Bonsai, in fact, originated in China and was later adopted by the Japanese. Students then hunted for Nanjing specialties such as osmanthus salted duck outside the vibrant Confucius Temple area.
Nanjing is famous for its city walls, so in the morning the group took a sunny walk alongside a portion of the wall with views of Xuan Yuan Park and the Zifeng Tower. Later in the day the group headed to the outskirts of Nanjing, where students visited an organic farm resort to learn about eco-tourism. Students got a first-hand look at community agriculture as they picked and washed their own vegetables for lunch, and cooked up some delicious dishes with the chefs on-site. To let out the students’ wild sides, lunch was followed by paddle boat rides and swimming.
After visiting Nanjing, The Hutong took students through winding mountain roads to a secluded monastery at the foot of Jiuhua Shan, one of the four holy mountains of Chinese Buddhism. Students learned a bit about appreciating the simple life as they lived in basic but comfortable accommodations in a functioning monastery, ate fresh vegetarian food and woke up in the mornings for manual labor and yoga. Friendly local monks led our young rebels through many activities such as tea picking and processing, hiking, dumpling-making, calligraphy and meditation, giving them a bit of insight into the path of meditative enlightenment. WISS students returned home safe and sound, but with a new appreciation for Chinese history, the art of Bonsai, Tea Culture, Buddhist ways – and even their vegetarian food – and rediscovered the comforts of the more modern lifestyle awaiting them in Shanghai.
The Hutong, ever expanding and improving its curricula, is now developing a trip in Anhui that explores Buddhist approaches to nature with modern examples of ecology and resource management.
