This past spring break, 14 students, Ms. Xu, and Mr. Yeoh were fortunate enough to take a trip to Shanghai, Beijing, and Chengdu, China for nine days.

From March 13 to the 22 they embraced a new culture, practiced their Mandarin, and integrated with Chinese locals. They visited sites such as the Great Wall of China, Leshan Giant Buddha, and Shanghai’s beautiful skyline. Their pre-trip jitters quickly faded once they were in the country.

It was the first time we realized that we had nothing to lose when speaking Chinese. There was no boundary because of how friendly the people were. The students were so humbled by this trip, it was a wonderful experience to be comfortable with ourselves and learn a new culture. -Nick Martin ’16.

Beaver Mandarin teacher, Ms. Xu, planned the whole trip and even opened up her family’s home in Chengdu to the group for an evening. This was a great way to show the students normal day to day life with a family in China. She said, “I was really excited to plan this trip for Beaver students in hopes to help them connect to people and history and many others things that they have been learning about in Beaver classrooms.”

Watch a video from their exciting trip and see more photos here.