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China Camp

We set off on the Saturday morning and as usual, the weather was pretty much unstable. A small group of us had already set off for Guangzhou on the Friday to attend to last minute preparations and to meet up with our mainland campers at the Sun Yat Sen hospital early Saturday morning.

The group traveled down to Zhongshan to meet up with the rest of us and be paired off with their companions who had traveled from the Sheung Wan Ferry Terminal to Zhongshan port, China.

Our first stop in Zhongshan was the very well kept and extremely large "Toyomoto Agriculture Fruit Farm". Here both the campers and companions were treated to an amazing 30minute acrobatic display by the children at the Farm. The Toyomoto Agriculture Farm had a wonderful display of exotic fruits, vegetables and flowers and we were all able to taste some of their fresh produce on the spot.

After lunch, we traveled an hour by coach to our next destination, Zhuahai. Our first stop there was the New Yuan Ming Palace. The New Yuan Ming Palace is a same sized replica of the famous "Yuan Ming Yuen" in Beijing and is located in Zhuhai City. The Palace is surrounded by mountains on three sides and features a huge lake in the middle. The palace is a rare imitation of an ancient tourist attraction with sights to stimulate the curiosity of both young and old.

We took the floating pagoda around the Fuhai Lake before moving on to watch a rather exaggerated and humorous play. The play enacts how the emperor gets to choose his concubines. This brought a lot of laughter and smiles to all our faces.

In the evening, we were treated to a large-scale epic entitled "Grand Qing" Dynasty. This was a full-length dance drama with China's history between 1661 and 1796 as the background to the epic show. Special effects and lighting along with beautiful costumes made the dance drama even more entertaining for our kids and companions.

Just east towards Zhuhai City was our holiday camp for the night, the 350,000 square meter "Zhuhai Holiday Resort Village". What a treat the campers and companions had with over 20 types of recreational facilities to suit kids of all ages. They included a huge pool, bowling lane, Go-Cart racing, billiard room, table tennis, water cycling and a big children's outdoor play area. With all this to entertain us, there was no need to go elsewhere. So on the Sunday, campers and companions had a morning of recreational activities and some quality time to get to know each other.

We were certainly impressed and touched by the way our companions took to their new mainland campers after a long spell of absence. The feeling was mutual as our mainland campers definitely felt a bond. The huge smiles and grins on the kids say it all with many campers asking their companions when we were coming back! ?

This trip certainly lit up the lives of many of our new mainland campers who rarely have the chance to do or see so much within a 48-hour period. It wasn't long before we had to say good bye again to our little friends. This part just gets a little more difficult every time!