First day- Meet and Greet officials and tours of the Suzhou region

Monday October 24th
I could see why the hotel was labelled 4 star! If you like to indulge in eating breakfast, you could spend 2 hours here.

We were picked up in the lobby at 8:30 and transferred to a primary school in the new Suzhou development park as it's know.
This primary school was not only very modern on the outside but had state of the art equipment inside and was home to 8000 primary school children. Yes that is not a typo, 8000!

Here we were welcomed by many officials including our partner school coordinators such as the Director of the education bureau of Suzhou, the cultural and education representatives from the British council and members from the Chinese embassy. I heard how the city of Suzhou has increased its volume of students in education and how it has placed great importance on ensuring
That every child receives good quality compulsory education. Numbers on roll in primary to university has almost doubled since 2010 with over 124,000 on roll in primary to secondary alone.

I had plenty of time to meet and speak to my partner from Suzhou no. 1 middle school and discuss my activities in school for the next three days.
The next part of my busy day was to learn some Chinese calligraphy and to witness an expert in his craft. It's not as easy as it may seem as there is a real flow to the brush that requires practise and of course patience.

Partner school coordinator Ms Jenifer from Suzhou no 1 high school

This is one of the elements of Chinese culture that I intend to incorporate into the classroom through my international club at LSA.
Onwards to lunch which consisted of a wonderful array of hot and cold traditional Chinese dishes buffet style. There was even a chopstick dispenser! Something I could use at home! The food was served in the school canteen and I really enjoyed it.
After lunch we had a group photo with all partner school representatives and watches the primary children take part in their weekly in-line skating that they look forward to every week. How cool that would be to have that in U.K. schools.
In tithe afternoon we were take to the heart of beautiful Suzhou Industrial park to see how this region had developed in the short span of twenty years. I was amazed at the development and impressed at the level of technical innovation and growth that has occurred. It was awe inspiring. Everything was clean, enormous and totally modern. It was like stepping into the future.

Inside the development centre and on my way there by bus I was able to take a few photos of the colossal architecture of the city.

A lot if innovation and links to many universities at home and abroad.

From animation to innovation this centre showcased all aspects of development in Suzhou province.

Tea ceremony 

Kuojiatou Alley is where we had dinner. It was very picturesque with many bridges that cross over the many meandering canals in the city and this is why Suzhou is known as the "Venice of China". I had some free time so some of us went on to a lovely tea shop. It's great that I love tea so much and was very curious about flavours because we were invited to try some and had the experience of a true Chinese tea ceremony.
Our evening meal was in a nearby restaurant and was my favourite meal of the week. I had so many wonderful dishes to choose from and mostly vegetables - #foodheaven.
There was traditional Chinese opera music in the background performed by two very talented musicians.

And then there was the evening meal ...

And the traditional opera music...

The kitchen! 

Then to the wonderful master of nets garden where there were live performances from song and dance to live theatre.

The evening finished here and we were taken back to the hotel to prepare for our first day in school. I had an unforgettable experience this first day and had whet my appetite for the week to come.
And can you believe that was all in one day!