Information For: Prospective Students | Alumni | Current Students | Faculty & Staff
mySCweb | Directions | Directory

Travel to Guangzhou

Hello and happy Memorial Day Weekend! We are all thinking of our friends and family often and can’t wait to share the longer version of our own individual journey. Today we started with breakfast at the YMCA where we ate quickly to prepare for our early departure to Guangzhou. We took a very important and special picture before leaving – our delegation in front of the YMCA sign! For those who don’t know, SC started as a training school for the YMCA in 1885 and has maintained a very strong connection ever since.

YMCAWe traveled to the Hong Kong train station to catch a 1 ¾ hour train ride to Guangzhou. Since the train took us to mainland China, we were required to show our passports and visa’s prior to being admitted. We carried our luggage on the train and were very lucky to have an entire car to ourselves. We enjoyed the ride very much; many played card games and relaxed together while sipping the instant coffee on board. The ride brought us through some very poor sections of the country which caught the attention of every delegate.

Once we arrived at the train station, we received a very warm welcome from good SC friend Mr. Jay He Jianghai. Mr. Jay is the Deputy Director of the Physical Education Department at Sun Yat-Sen University, where we are being hosted for the next three days. Springfield College has had a very strong relationship with the University for several years. A number of the faculty at the University have had some training at SC and several others have made multiple visits to our campus.

We were very excited to travel down the escalator to find Mr. Jay in an SC t-shirt and yelling “Welcome Springfield College!” We boarded the bus and got a brief introduction to Guangzhou by Mr. Jay. He explained that there are approximately 15 million residents in Guangzhou, many of whom work in the hospitality and tourism industry. The housing was again interesting, with very tall apartment buildings in almost every direction we could see. He also explained that Guangzhou is divided by the Pearl River, which hosts nighttime cruises and tours. Also, Guangzhou is the site of the 2009 Asian games, a special honor. The ride to Sun Yat-Sen was short. The temperature is warm, in the mid 80’s, with high humidity. Once we arrived we checked in to our hotel rooms and went immediately to lunch. Mr. Jay passed out our itinerary for the trip which looks excellent and will include lectures by the faculty in the area of Sports Medicine and a number of cultural and social activities. At lunch Mr. Jay had about 15 of his students sit with our students for lunch. This was a wonderful opportunity and our students were very excited to talk with their students, many of whom speak excellent English.

Lunch at SYS Lunch was exquisite. This is certainly some of the best food we have eaten yet, which included peppered beef, spicy chicken, Chinese cucumbers, Peking duck, and pumpkin cake for dessert.

After lunch we prepared for a visit to the Chen Jia Ci Temple. We boarded the bus and took a 30 minute ride to the Temple, where we spent about 1 ½ hours. This was a very impressive temple with woodwork that was truly unbelievable. There were a number of amazing wood, ivory, and brick carvings, along with gift shops.

Chen Jia Ci TempleNext we returned to the hotel to prepare for dinner with several distinguished administrators from the University. The food was again excellent and included fresh fish, beef, pork ribs, vegetables, and rice. We learned a lot about Chinese culture in terms of special dining. All of the members of the University were very gracious for our visit and expressed their deep thanks for our visit.

After dinner we had a social event for the faculty and students. This included a presentation by our students about the history of our College and a traditional song we sing at orientation. We were then treated to a number of musical and dance performances by the SYS University students. The performances were capped off by a remarkable Kung-Fu presentation by four of the University’s students.

Kung FuThe event ended with a couple of games that included a “human knot” and teamwork challenge. The human knot is created when 8-10 people get in a circle and join right hands with another person who is not next to them, then join left hands with a different person. The goal is then to “untie” the knot so that the students ended up back in a circle. The fastest group finished in 3 minutes!

Human Knot After a long evening we are all headed for some rest to prepare for tomorrow. Have a wonderful day!
Springfield College 263 Alden Street, Springfield, MA 01109-3797 413.748.3000
Page updated on: 05/23/2008 05/23/2008