Encouraging your child to discover wonders of the world
Print Edition
Often, during our time in Shanghai, when we plan family holidays we tend to travel to far-flung places and forget that there are a whole host of incredible, diverse destinations to discover right here at home in China. In doing so, we’re missing out on the chance to broaden our children’s minds (and our own!), and to learn more about this remarkably vibrant country.
As the Global Citizenship Education coordinator at Yew Chung International School of Shanghai (YCIS), I get to see, first-hand, the enormous opportunities for learning that travel in China can offer. We run an Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) program at our school which allows our students to travel to different regions in China while making direct connections to their coursework at school. This year, we’ve taken our Gubei campus secondary students to Lin’an, Tonglu and Ninghai.
These trips offer so many benefits. They are allowed for confidence building and an experience of independence, particularly for our younger students who may be used to having their parents packing and preparing everything for them outside of school times. Also, the trips facilitate friendship building and even stronger bonds as a year group. Finally, these trips expose the children to ways of life far removed from their own. This builds their empathy, and they come to understand that life in China isn’t just what they’re experiencing in their urban life back in Shanghai.
For example, our Year 7 students spend a day in a very small village where they visit a local family’s house and help do jobs around the village, such as planting crops or building small structures. They then receive the local wage for their work — which, on average, is 8 yuan (US$1.27) per day. Later, they are given a food menu and have to decide what they can eat using that salary. It’s a massive eye-opener for them when they see how little they can really buy.
There are marvellous things to see all around China, and I would highly recommend staying the country for your next family trip and heading somewhere off the tourist trail. Right now you may be thinking, “I don’t know where to start in finding and selecting a rural place to visit!” One idea is to ask a Chinese friend or colleague for help in choosing a destination. Another is to look at tour companies who can help with the logistics — there has been a lot of growth in outdoor adventure and travel companies in Shanghai who would be perfect to help organize a special trip.
My personal recommendations are Moganshan if you’d like to stay somewhere close to home, Lin’an, where we went on a student trip, or the Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan. It’s so rich in culture and has ethnic minority people who all bring their own cultural colors to an already spectacularly vivid area of natural beauty.
Having made a shortlist of places, I would encourage you to sit down with your children and ask them where they want to go and have them help make decisions on the activities they want to do. This way, they’re not just passengers but active explorers who feel there’s a real purpose to the trip. Then, during the trip, it might be fun for everyone to keep a journal of the fantastic things they have seen and experiences they have — and to talk about how those are similar and different to their life in Shanghai! No matter what, taking the opportunity to see more of China will help everyone in your family learn more about their host country all while having fun and making memories that will last a lifetime.
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