The first stop was the famous island – Gulangyu Island, known as “Island of Piano” and “Home to Music”. At the Piano Museum, the students were amazed by the various kinds of pianos.

We then visited the Haitian Tanggou Villa Complex, where students learnt about the different architectural styles of the world that were gathered and preserved there, due to their historical and geographic significance. This is why Gulangyu Island is also called the “Expo of World Architecture”.

We continued to visit the Quanzhou Maritime Museum. The students learnt from the various scale models and pictures why Quanzhou used to be the biggest oriental harbour. The students took a lot of photos of the Qingjing Mosque and The Temple of Guanyu and used the photos to compare their building and decoration styles. They were also able to make a comparison of different religions and had a deeper understanding of why Quanzhou is called “Religions Quanzhou”.

While enjoying the view of the city, we also visited the villages in the area and were able to explore the Hakka culture. Though it was made of wood, the Hakka Tolous survived hundreds of years of rain and storms and even earthquakes. This demonstration of Chinese traditional theory of Yinyang and Five-Elements, as well as mathematics concepts such as symmetry was a good example of practical application to what the students had learnt in the classroom.

EOTC is not just about visiting and learning, but more importantly it is about experiencing. By living in the Tolous, tasting Hakka cuisine and even making Hakka Ciba, a type of sticky rice cake, our students had a one-day Hakka experience.

Later our students visited the Nanjing Qujiang Middle School and socialised with the local students. Time flew by and we soon found the week had passed and we were back on the train heading home after a successful and enjoyable week of learning away from school.