It's the 2nd last day that we are staying in China!
Which is also the 9th day.
On this day, we went to XingZhi Primary School to have a look at how they study and what are they studying.


Students in XingZhi.


During the lessons.


Exchanging experiences about studying and living in each other's country.

Students reciting the poems.

We learnt some poems and songs during the lessons.
and we even tried to memorise them!
However, I had forgotten the poem when I came back to Singapore.
But, it was really a good experience as it had enriched my knowledge about the language.

After the lesson there, we went to walk around in the school to see other students studying and also to see the facilities there.


The new hostel! It will be finished by the end of this year.
Too bad we cannot use it.


Students having their music lessons or CCA (not so sure)


The child is so cute!


The children in kindergarten.


The beds are so cute!

After walking round the school, we went to the lilies garden.






The beautiful flowers.




This is the plant maze, in the middle of construction. For now it's relatively easy to find way around as there are no walls of plants obstructing the view.

The ducks! They are so cute!


Jumping into the pond



This is one of the poems, and we memorised it!

Soon, it was time to go to the farmers' house to have our lunch!


Walking to the farmers' house.


This was pasted in front of the door, probably a Chinese New Year decoration.


Someone's "marriage plaque". It should be similar to a certificate of marriage.

The well!


It looked deep, but, it was not very deep.
The water inside the well is very cold when we touched it.
However, during summer, the water will be very warm!


Some crops that the farmers grow.


Zhu Lao Zhi explaining.


The kitchen!


Haha! The farmer's son urination on the floor.


The food made by them! They look delicious and they taste delicious too!


Taken outside the farmers' house.


The chickens while we are heading back to the hostel to have our clothes changed.


Photo taking!

After changing and all, we all took buses to the tea plantation.


The pig. Somehow, it reminded me of Napoleon the pig in Animal Farm. And also, we thought pigs were fascinating because we never saw one before. At least, most of us.


The tea plantation is owned by Xingzhi Primary School to let both local and overseas students learn about tea and also tea plucking.

The tea plantation!






There are also people plucking them too! Upon interviewing them, they said that they come to this plantation everyday to pluck tea leaves.


The leaves that were plucked!


Zhu Lao Shi explaining how to pluck the leaves.






Trying to pluck the correct ones.


This is how the leaves that we plucked look like. We should pluck leaves that has a shoot and a leaf joined to it, like the picture above.


A bit too big.. haha.


Everyone's so patient at plucking tea leaves.

Plucking them.
Also, there is this insect that's fluffy, and it left bits of "cotton" around.

JIAJIA and WAIMEI!


HOW ATTENTIVE!


After plucking and collecting the leaves, the leaves that we plucked are all accumulated in a basket and was to be roasted on the day itself.


The "wok", used to roast the tea leaves.


The aunty who's roasting the leaves... and she has been doing this for 30 years. In addition, she has been roasting it with her bare hands.

The stove. The other aunty helps to watch the fire.




Roasting tea leaves needs years of experience, and also to prevent her hands from getting burnt, she touches only the tea leaves. Even so, her hands still gets burnt from carelessness. I really admire her!
It takes about 30 minutes to cook the leaves.


This step is to get all the moisture out of the leaves.




Meanwhile, Headmaster Zhang is having a karaoke session in this room.


We joined him!

After the leaves were roasted, it was stored in a stainless steel container and we brought back to Xingzhi.
After plucking the leaves on our own, it was also time to learn how to 品茶.




All the material and items for us to serve the tea, in short, it's a tea set!


Everyone's learning how to serve tea.

Serving the tea.




Tea was successfully served! It's tieguanyin tea!


The liquid was slightly above the brim...


...but it did not overflow. AMAZING!



After all these activities, our stomach began to growl.
Hence we proceed to the dining area to have our DINNER!


The food for the night.

Then Mr Yang, the principal came to gave us a talk on the history on Xingzhi Primary School.


Listening attentively.














XingZhi Primary School in 1981.












Mr Yang; the principal.




Their School's logo. It's a combination of Mr Tao Xingzhi's last altered name, "Tao Gan", and a lotus surrounding it.


Their auspicious picture.






Mr Ong giving his speech.

Exchanging gifts.


They're shaking their hands...

...so we're clapping our hands.


A gift for Headmaster Zhang.


Giving gift to Zhu Lao Shi


Zhang Zhu Ren

Then Mr Soon and Miss Chen let us see a Picture Slideshow.
It contained pictures that they took and had funny captions on it.

Reflections were done, and then LIGHTS OFF, for the day.