Children's Day at the CCTV Playland

June 1st was Children's Day in China. The school celebrated by taking the kids to a Funworks-ish play land. It actually doubles as a TV set for CCTV. They film TV shows at this place, kinda cool. Can you imagine if they charged admission to let you play in the REAL Sesame Street in the US?


First we went to the "playground." Chinese people have a new tradition of taking exercise equipment, disguising it in bright paint, and calling it a children's playground. There was a climbing pyramid, a maze, a pirate ship, lots of ladders, and balancing courses.


Bruce and a few of the kids made it to the top of the pyramid. It was about 20 feet high, and so dangerously steep that it would never have passed US safety regulations.


As soon as I spotted the merry-go-round I told a few kids to hop on, and I began to spin them. A few minutes later we had about 10 kids trying to ride the merry-go-round so I enlisted a few other teachers to help spin them.


Bruce's student Jenny is walking across one of the 4 different types of balancing courses.


There was a science center in the park too. Little did Chase know that they were training him to be a public bus driver . . .


Further into the science house were some physics experiments.


Chase, Andy, and Jenny were testing their shooting skills. Notice how none of them know how to hold the gun. It is illegal to have a gun in China. Most policemen aren't even allowed guns (or if they are, they don't know how to properly use them). The kid in the white shirt holding the gun properly happens to be a South Korean.


Come to find out there was a hidden arcade! Kim is focused on a pinball machine.


This was a really funny game where you sit on a bull, and push the button on its horn to rope in other bulls on the video screen. These are Katie's girls playing.


There was a funny white metal box with two black pads on it. You punch or kick either of the pads as hard as you can, and it gives you a number. Bruce's student Sam is in the picture. The kids usually got between 8 and 12. Chinese teachers got in the 40s and 50s. Bruce got 82. Our head teacher's husband, Sam, got 112. The machine almost fell over, and his wrist hurt the next day.


This is Bruce's student Emma. We couldn't figure out what this was for. First we used it to measure our height. Then we tried to see how high a button we could push.


The Chinese teachers yelled for all of the students to line up, and they have to hold their arms out to ensure proper spacing. Bruce ran into the line-up of kids and played along, at the mercy of the Chinese teacher.


From left: Jenny, Kate, Jesse, and Ringo. This beach is actually part of the CCTV fun land.


Jesse found some live sea creatures! That's Katie's turquoise fingernail polish.


From left: Amy, Maia, and Kitty; all Katie's students. This photo catches how Chinese people squat. In the US we kneel down, or sit on our heels. In China they squat to relax and eat their lunch... and also to poop in the famous "squatter" toilets.


Ringo eating a cold hot dog for lunch. I threw mine away...


Jenny, Kaysee, and Zooey eating bread for lunch at the beach.