Our last few days here in Chongqing have been extremely busy, and filled with numerous activities. On Thursday afternoon, the international students and CTBU players competed in a basketball game. The competition was tough but in the end the international students’ team edged out a win against the CTBU players. Everyone even enjoyed a wonderful halftime performance by the beautiful CTBU cheerleading squad. The afternoon was fun filled and brought everyone together through friendly competition between the students.
On Friday, we visited the Dazu Stone Carvings. We had to get on a bus and travel over three hours until we reached the stone carvings site. We were accompanied by many CTBU student volunteers and two fabulous tour guides who provided historical information about the stone carvings as we saw them. The stone carvings were originally created to teach Daoism to the farmers in the area who were mostly illiterate. The officials in that area thought that the people would be able to understand better by using the “pictures” to explain some of the concepts involved with Daoism. The stone carvings were absolutely magnificent. There is such great detail shown in every ornate figure. Many even had traces of bright and vibrant colors that accentuated the stone carving. The Dazu Stone Carvings are an amazing piece of Chinese cultural history.
On Saturday, each student was sent on a home stay visit with a local Chongqing family. Many families were students and faculty members of CTBU. This would really give the students an opportunity to see a traditional Chinese family, home, cooking and activities. Many students were taken to historic places by their families, or taught to cook a traditional Chinese dish, like dumplings. Some people were even able to be taken to a wedding. This was an important exercise for the international students to be completely immersed into traditional Chinese culture. Although everyone had a different schedule, we can all agree it was an amazing experience.
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