Matylda, Year 8, Gubei Campus

In April, a group of Years 8 and 9 “Chinese as Additional Language Level 7” (CAL-7) students and two teachers went on a field trip to Guyi Garden to learn more about Chinese history and culture. When we arrived at our destination, we went through the gates of the Guyi Garden. Everyone was amazed! Gardeners were planting flowers, people were walking on the paths enjoying the day, and tourists were taking photos. When we went in, our teachers told us about the Guyi Garden. They told us that the garden was once owned by a wealthy Chinese merchant and he had lived inside it. When we walked on the path, we saw that there were statues of Chinese instruments and historical people.

When we walked around the garden, we crossed a bridge that had unique angles and in the middle there was an alter. We later went in another alter where the roof had only three corners, but long ago there had been four, each representing one direction. Later on, we saw two leveled altars that looked like a boat on water. We also saw corridors with glassless windows. This kind of windows had different types of stone patterns, such as lily pads and honeycombs, and I thought they were beautiful. There were also vase-shaped entrances in many places.

Close to the end of the field trip, we walked on different kinds of bridges and our two teachers talked about them to us. We came back to school on the school bus and were all very happy to have spent the whole morning learning more about Chinese history and culture at Guyi Garden!