This morning we arrived safely home in Australia. Here is a special performance we gave to a class of Grade 5s in Suzhou.

In episode #3 of the China Study Tour podcast, the students reflect on the weekend spent with their home stay families in Suzhou.

We spent today at Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and The Silk Market. We are about to go out for a special dinner.

For dinner in Beijing tonight, we had Peking Duck. Along with the Squirrel Fish in Suzhou, it would be our favourite dish of the tour.

Today we visited The Great Wall Of China. Great is an understatement!

Here we are in the capital city of China! We’ve arrived in Beijing last night. Looking forward to a very exciting day ahead: Summer Palace and the Great Wall of China. We will also finish the day with Peking duck dinner.

We have had the best weekend ever with our home stay families! This morning we had to say goodbye and are now on board the fast train to Beijing. The trip will take about 6 hours and the train goes as fast at 300km an hour.

Over the last week we have had so many wonderful experiences at school, including making masks, learning about the Suzhou Opera and taking part in arts lessons. We look forward to sharing all our new creative ideas with CPS and our families.

We have had such an amazing time at school this week and have loved catching up with old friends and make so many new ones. It is sad to say goodbye, but be can’t wait to stay with our home stay families over the weekend and explore Suzhou and all its culture.

On Wednesday afternoon we visited Panmen Gate with our homestay students and drew some postcards. Last night we found out that our story, along with a photo of Luke, was on the front page of the Suzhou newspaper!