As part of the quest in making studying in WISE an interesting and efficient environment, there are lots of programs that are put in place every year including academics and other extra curriculum activities (learning and cooking Chinese food, Tea Times, and free Trips among others) Most of these programs are organized for students in WISE to interact with the faculty members aside classroom interactions.
The 2nd of December, WISE organized an amazing and interesting trip to Tulou in the Fujian province of China and which is about 3 hours from Xiamen. There are so many other Tulous in China but we had the opportunity to visit the one that has been awarded a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE. In total, we visited about 7 of them. Tulou is a Chinese word which simply means earthen building, made from earth or clay and lime.
Interestingly, most of these Tulous were built in the 1930s and 1960s but the oldest was built in 1306 during wars in China. The buildings are located around the mountainous areas, circular and squared in shape and they have been designed for defense during the war. The first Tulou we visited was built in the 1930s and was awarded the UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE in 2008 because of its history and beauty. Each of the buildings has about 3 to 4 floors and there are about 101 rooms on each floor. Furthermore, about 300 to 600 people live in one building and are mostly family members. One interesting thing is that, even when one decides to own a Tulou and live in each room per night, he would not have occupied all the rooms in a year, and this is just to tell you how big a Tulou is.
In addition, travelling to Tulou means driving on mountains and the view is so beautiful and natural. The first Tulou we visited is located about 700 to 800 meters above sea level. The people of Tulou are mostly farmers and they speak Hakas which was spoken in northern China thousand years ago, which is a living fossil of language as it is no longer spoken in northern China. Many visitors here are overseas Chinese who come back to China to trace their ancestors.
History makes life much more interesting as the saying goes and as we were educated on these stories, the history about China became even clearer and this made me appreciated the trip even more. We get the chance to know a little bit about the history of China in the classrooms, but to see things for myself makes it more appreciated.
The most interesting part of all was the case where we witnessed a wonderful traditional Chinese ‘wedding’ ceremony between one of my classmates and a beautiful lady from the village. It was an amazing atmosphere when my classmate was chosen by the lady who had covered her face with a veil and then threw " big-leaf hydrangea " to the crowd which was then caught by my classmate and he had to go up stage for the wedding. That was really fun!!
In conclusion, I would say that, a trip like this kind is just what we needed as international WISE students who always sit and sleep by our books! It made us very relaxed and we had the chance to communicate and interact with some of the faculty who joined us for the trip. It is definitely going to be a long and lasting memory after years and years of our lives. It is just great to be part of the WISE team because as we all know “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” and “all play and no work makes Jack a lazy boy”, so we are back to our books again.
(FUTUKPOR MARY-ANN, WISE)
