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FAIRYLAND KID'Z CAMP - ZHONGSHAN

Our Camp Quality companions always looks forward to taking our mainland campers to camp. It's always an exciting experience for our volunteers to get out of town, have some fun and bond with our mainland friends.

On the Friday evening, some of our CQ staff had already set off to the Sun Yat Sen hospital in Guangzhou where they are always given a family welcome. On early Saturday morning, the remaining companions and another member of staff set off to Zhongshan where we were to reunite with our mainland campers.

Zhongshan always offers us an endless possibilities for some very interesting visits, since it's one of the first places to develop tourism and build attractions. As our campers and companions reunite, first on the agenda was a visit to a tea plantation farm where we got to sample a variety of famous Chinese tea as well as the opportunity to see how tea is dried. Next it was back on the coach for a quick bus ride to a bee farm, followed by a visit to a local farmhouse complete with pony rides to amuse the kids.

The highlight of the afternoon was a visit to the Zhongshan Fairyland Open Air Hot Spring. This was one of the most famous and one of the largest hot spring parks in Zhongshan and the places is covered with trees and pavilions throughout the resort. There were 38 kinds of hot spring pools all dotted around the park, with names like "Milk Pool", "Ginseng Pool", "Peppermint Pool", "Coffee Pool" etc entice all the campers and companions to try each and everyone. The place truly had a combination of western and Chinese style simplicity and elegance and felt like we were in a holiday village.

After dinner, the evening's entertainment was put on at the Dragon Union Club Entertainment Complex in Zhuhai, approximately 40 minutes drive away however, all agreed afterwards it was definitely worth the bus journey. We were treated to a 2-hour spectacular show of Chinese acrobatics, beautiful Chinese ladies in costumes from around the world doing some very enticing belly dancing! We also had a multi-talented and multi-skilled MC who could impersonate and burst into song by every HK artist you could think of, we even had a Chinese opera mask changing magician performed his amazing tricks to the kids delight.

Next morning, after a delicious Chinese breakfast, we set off to the Zhan Garden, which is one of the largest private garden estates in Zhongshan and took 5 years to build. The style of the Garden was similar to a classic courtyard house built in ancient Beijing with huge garden and ponds. It was a most impressive place with plenty of trees, flowers and thousands of carps! At the Zhan garden, there was also another troupe of acrobats who performed more amazing feats.

Our last stop was the local Yiu Jai culture village, where our campers and companions were treated to a showcase of dance and ethnic traditions. Everyone took part in the village dances, which was an amazing way to end the two-day camp. Not only did the mainland campers had a great time, our companions also took home with them some very special and funny memories of their little friend.