Half of the excitement with this excursion was simply the fact that we were being let out, even if only for a day. It’s not that they’re excessively strict at the school, but being restricted to the boundaries of the school does feel rather, well, restrictive. I did appreciate having a break given the intensive schedule of the lessons at Mi Yun, but that said, it’s a lovely class and I’m enjoying the experience, so the main attraction was very much being let out for the day.

The weather was overcast, but unlike in the UK that’s actually a blessing. Chinese summers are hot enough without the sun! Our guide was showing us into the village; built over and around a series of rivers with traditional grey brick, it conjured up every stereotype of a ‘traditional Chinese town’, as suggested in the this title, right down to the curved bridges over rivers, willow trees along the banks and paddle boats weaving their way along. The roads meandered with perfect irregularity past small tourist-tat shops and restaurants. What was possibly more incredible is the fact that the entire thing was artificial: built as a tourist town by the government.

We essentially followed the trail from the entrance to the far end. Matt and Joe got married in traditional garb and we almost got the boat back to the start until they told us it was ¥120 per person (that would come to about £12 in the UK, but to set the scale water can be as little as ¥1 for a bottle of water, and you can easily get a meal for ¥15). By the time we reached a cafe for green tea and card games I’m fairly sure the marriage had dissolved and we were getting hungry.

For lunch we got pizza. I’ll be honest, by Western standards it was disappointing. No tomato sauce on the base! But I shouldn’t complain; there was plenty of cheese and some of every other possible pizza topping. By this stage the weather had improved, and since we’d already walked quite far we stayed put and played more card games. We were allowed to stop off at a supermarket before returning to the prison-like silhouette of the school (barbed wire-topped fences an’ all).

—TJC

Featured image: the Gubeikou section of the Great Wall from Gubei Village.