Teacher: Joshua

My Summer Story

When our family took a trip to China, I was 7 years old and in first grade of elementary school. My aunt and 3 cousins were on the trip with us. We took a two hour flight, it was my first time flying. 

The signs in China were interesting because they were in many languages: Mandarin Chinese, English, Korean and Japanese. There are many Korean people in China. They are students, travelers, or workers. Actually, many Chinese people were speaking Korean.

We stayed for one week in Shanghai and Beijing. The first city we visited was Shanghai. I like Shanghai more than Beijing. Shanghai is cleaner and has a big long river, where I saw people fishing even in the city.

We took another flight from Shanghai to Beijing. In Beijing, we visited the Great Wall. We walked around, took pictures, and had a picnic there. We rented a car to drive around the city, but there was a lot of traffic. 

We also traveled by bus in China. The cities we visited in China were always very crowded. There were also a lot of wonderful Buddhist temples. I bought a Chinese traditional doll in China.

I have heard that people in China eat many different animals such as cats, dogs, and monkeys. It is very strange that some people in China eat monkey brains and other parts. They eat scorpions in China, too. You might be surprised, but it was delicious! I also love to eat Beijing and Peking duck. It's yummy. But still, I think Korean food is better. I found Korean the food "Kimchi" in China, but it was very different, so I didn't eat it. The Chinese noodles were also delicious.

We celebrated the New Year in China. There was a festival and fireworks. It was a good show. I also saw a parade with traditional Chinese musical instruments, which are also different from Korean traditional instruments.

We looked at the Forbidden City where the king and his family used to live. We only stayed for ten minutes and took a picture. Also, Tiananmen Square was interesting to visit because of the famous picture of the protest in 1989.

There were huge buildings in Chinese cities: shopping malls and apartment buildings. Kids were practicing Kung-Fu in an academy. Kung-fu is like Taekwando in Korea. The weather in China was different from Korea. It was hotter. Traffic is dangerous in China because they don't follow the traffic lights or the rules.

I enjoyed a lot of China's culture, and I want to visit China one more time. I would go to different cities next time, for example, Guangzhou. Guangzhou has a famous football team which I know about.

Discussion questions:

Retell the story.

1. What country did they visit when Tom was 7 years old?

2. Which cities did they visit?

3. What food did they try? What is the most exotic food in China in your opinion?

4. Have you ever been to China? Where would you like to go in China?