Students often dream about one day traveling to another country and observing different cultures. For six students, The China Partnership allowed them to do just that and experience life in a Chinese home.

Over the past six years, First Flight High School has been involved with a China Partnership program, which partners our school with Mei Cun Senior High School of Jiangsu Province in Wuxi, China. It also allows students from Mei Cun to explore the United States for two weeks, including a visit to The Outer Banks.

On Feb. 24, English teacher Jane Shipman and six students planned to board a plane in Norfolk that took them to Shanghai China. The groups flight in Norfolk got delayed for two hours which caused them to miss the plane in Detroit that was originally going to take them to Shanghai. They ended up having to stay in Detroit over-night because the next flight wasn’t for another 24 hours. For ten days sophomores  Miranda Barker, Rachel Bell, Mary Margaret Warner, and seniors Charlie Shotton, Claire Thomas and Spencer Wilkinson experienced the first hand cultural and educational differences in China. Students got to observe the same courses they take in the U.S. taught in completely different ways. Sophomore Miranda Barker says education here is much easier than in China and we are allowed much more freedom.

“It is extremely different than schooling here. Most of the students attend boarding school and go to school for 12 hours a day,” said senior Claire Thomas. “The classes are intense and they spend majority of their free time studying. There’s a huge focus on education there.”

Earlier in the year students from Mei Cun Senior High School in China came to The Outer Banks for four nights to experience the way we live. The students involved in the China Partnership participated in many group activities together when the students from China were here, such as going to the aquarium and visiting the Wright Brothers Memorial and Jockey’s Ridge. Apart from group activities, their host took them to the beach, which was a completely new experience for the students from China.

“They had never seen the ocean before and they were speechless. One of the girls jumped into the ocean fully clothed.” said Thomas. “It was so interesting seeing the Outer Banks through their eyes. They were so fascinated by things we don’t think twice about.”

While in China, students got the opportunity to visit many different historic places such as Zhujiajiao, the Shanghai Museum, the Badaling Great Wall, the Changling Exhibition Hall of the Ming Tombs and the Temple of Heaven. Zhujiajiao, also known as the Venice of China, is a preserved riverside village located on the outskirts of Shanghai. The Changling Exhibition Hall of the Ming Tombs is well known for its architecture and is the home of 13 buried emperors of the Ming Dynasty.

“The gardens are gorgeous and the scenery is so different. It is pretty much what anyone would expect China to look like,” said Thomas.

Students also flew to Beijing, the capital of China, where the 2008 summer olympics took place. Beijing is one of the six most ancient cities of China and is known as a cultural, historical and educational city. It is known for its many historical and cultural sites including  temples, gardens, tombs and palaces. Students got to visit the world’s largest Tiananmen Square, the ancient Forbidden City and the Summer Palace.

“Beijing was a huge city and it was extremely populated. It reminded me of New York, only much more busy and the smog was really bad,” sophomore Miranda Barker said. “The people in China weren’t  used to seeing Americans there and would often ask to take pictures with us, which was different.”

The China trip is the only trip abroad that the school is directly involved in and Shipman says she would love to see more partnerships happening. All other trips students and teachers take together are not run through the school.

“I would really like to see an exchange program here where we had students from other countries in our school, I’d like to work with that,” Shipman says. “ I’d like that to be part of what I can do as an extension of the The China Partnership.”

For any upcoming freshman who may be interested, China partnership is open to all students. Fundraisers have been proven to be a great way to raise money for the expenses of the trip.

“For fundraising, we had a carwash, sold pizza kits, and went around asking local businesses for donations,” said Thomas. “I found that to be a great way to raise the money we needed; it was very helpful.”

Expenses for the trip include transportation costs, hotel costs, tour costs, money for food and recreational activities and travel insurance.

“Traveling to China was a great experience and it gave me a different outlook on life like how lucky we are to live in America,” said Barker. “It was very beneficial to see how other people live and have a totally different culture.”

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