CHINA – Great Wall Cultural Exchange
The Great Wall Cultural Exchange’s primary goal is to promote international collaboration, intercultural communication, language skills and cultural exchange between Australian and Chinese schools and students.
The program is supported by Government Departments and Schools, making it an extremely attractive way for your school to visit China, immersing yourself in a culture that dates back thousands of years and today stands as the most populous country in the World and the second biggest economy behind the USA.
The program is centred around a Cultural Exchange with a Chinese school were students will have the chance to spend time at a Chinese school, attend classes, learn entry level Mandarin language skills, interact with Chinese students, learn traditional Chinese arts and participate in sporting activities with your host schools.
Your school exchange will also provide the option of forging longer terms links and relationships between your schools.
The program is ideally targeted at students in Years 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Learning & Cultural Outcomes
• Interact with Chinese Students and Teachers
• Insight into the Chinese Education System
• Learn the basics of Mandarin
• Learn traditional Chinese arts, including Chinese calligraphy
• Chinese Imperial History
• Chinese Communist History
Visit UNESCO World Heritage sites:
o Great Wall of China
o Forbidden City
o Temple of Heaven
o Summer Palace
Sightseeing
The Great Wall Cultural Exchange includes time in the itinerary to visit China’s capital. During your visit to Beijing you will visit and experience one of the Wonders of the World – the Great Wall of China! You will have the chance to climb a section of the Wall, who’s earliest construction date is marked as the 7th Century BC.
The Forbidden City, a palace complex of 980 buildings that served as the seat of Imperial China for almost 500 years. Tiananmen Square, the square contains the Monument to the People’s Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. The Temple of Heaven, dating back to 1406 the complex contains was used by Ming and Qing Emperors to dedicate prayers to Heaven for good harvest.
There will also be the opportunity to enjoy shopping time to snapping up some bargains, as well as sampling some traditional Chinese cuisine, with some restaurant bookings included to enjoy Peking duck dinner and traditional dumpling restaurants.
cambodia
Your Service project will involve building traditional wooden Khmer-style houses for some of Cambodia’s poorest people. Based in Siem Reap, in Cambodia’s north-west, the homes built are in rural areas surrounding the popular tourist city. In many cases the housing is rudimentary at best and many homes are fragile structures with palm frond walls and dirt floors. Many do not survive the severe rainstorms.
In contrast, the houses you will build are solid and designed to last. The houses are four metres by five metres, with concrete footings, wooden sides and floorboards and a tin roof. They include one enclosed room and one room with open sides. The space underneath the house is often used as a daily living and cooking area. Each house takes approximately four days to build and on the fifth day a Khmer house blessing ceremony is held before the family moves into it.
The impacts of inadequate housing can take its toll on families. We see children who don’t go to school and many health problems through lack of sanitation or secure housing and sleeping arrangements.
We access the poorest families with the help of our social worker, who conducts thorough assessments of eligible families. The social worker liaises with village and commune chiefs and checks referrals from other NGOs. We require the families we support to own their own land and to be free of debt to ensure there is no chance they can be evicted by the landowner or have the house taken by debt collectors.
In addition to building homes, toilets and wells are additional building projects that are undertaken to improve the lives of selected families.
About 80 per cent of the Cambodian population lives in rural areas and UNICEF estimates only 16 per cent of them have access to adequate sanitation. A lack of clean drinking water is one of the most pressing issues facing Cambodians living in rural villages. Many source their drinking, cooking and bathing water from pools of standing water, streams or canals. The water is often contaminated with bacteria and pollutants and can lead to ongoing illness or, in extreme cases, death.
Purchasing travel insurance is highly recommended before undertaking international travel. If you don’t already have a policy, then you may choose to buy one through our partners, Cover-More Travel Insurance
