I received an email earlier this week reminding me of my participation in the upcoming JI – U of M treasure hunt. This was very interesting to me since I had no idea that I was even signed up to go on such a trip, but apparently it was part of our agenda here. The email said that the hunt would take place at the Oriental Green Boat amusement park. Naturally I assumed it was some kind of park with roller coasters in a cedar point sort of way… but I was completely wrong.
We arrived to the park and I quickly realized this was not an amusement park by the definition I was familiar with. It would be hard to exactly classify it as a park since I have never seen anything quite like it in the States.
As I walked into the entrace we were greeted by the following view:
(As an interesting side note: If you look closely you will see the world expo 2010 mascot Haibao… I told you he was everwhere)
After getting through the entrance we were told we were going to have to go to a waiting area while the volunteers went to the different sections of the park to set up. I was expecting to go to some grass field and wait… but I was wrong. We went under a bridge and then were treated to the following surprise:
The first thing we saw on our way to the waiting area.
A fake but life-sized aircraft carrier
We give about 40 mintues to explore the inside of the Aircraft carrier which had lots of lifesized planes, tanks, helicopters, and other military equipment you can see more of the pictures from the trip on my web album. We quickly learned that this park is also used for military training for teenagers and young adults (my guess ages 16-22 range). Apparently military training is mandatory for all Chinese people to particpate in at some point in their life. The military training seemed very different then what one might expect. Everything seemed to be really relaxed. The instructors which lead groups of about 20 or so people seemed to be only loosly keeping them in check, and there was lots of gigglying and joking around it seemed.
Girls making a joke during training
There was also a large group of what must have been elementary school children and we got the rock star treatment again. One student would see us and then they would quickly nudge their friends next to them and point. They seemed to be very entertained with the foreigners at hand. The 35 minutes was pretty fun and the ship had a lot of cool things to see. I also was able to make my mother proud by ordering a cold beer at 10:30 in the morning.
After our free time we met and were told the rules of the game.
We were split into teams of 5 students each. Each team had around 3 U of M students and 2 JI students. We were given a park map and a list of 8 areas that we had to visit. At each area there would be a student there waiting for us and we would have to pass a task. If we successfully passed the task we would get a gold token, and if not we would get a black token. The first two teams to successfully pass all of the challenges and make it back to the main gate first would win a prize.
Map of Oriental Green Boat Park (click for full size)
The challenges included the following items (in the order that my group did them)
- Wisdom Avenue: We were given a paper with pictures of statues. We had to find the statues from many different sculptures on the avenue and write down their names.
- Knowledge Seeking Island: Each group was given a number. They had to search the island for pieces of paper that had a trivial clue on it. Then they had to figure out what it was refering to.
- The Lawn: Where the groups ate a 20 minute Chinese lunch.
- Fun Bridges: (My favorite area.) There were many obsticle bridges that went from one side of moat to the other side with a net underneath. Each group had to get their team acroos various bridges without falling into the water. One group had a student that didn’t quite make it across the bridge and ended up getting soaked.
- Hero’s Road: (My second favorite area.) This was a very large obsticle course that the group had to pass. It included doing things like climbing over a large wooden wall with the aid of a rope.
- Maize Route: The group had to get through a maize made out of bushes.
- Super Market: The groups were given a sheet with a list of items on them. You then had to go into the market and find the price for each item.
- Chinese Restaurant: This part of the park had many different buliding that were named for a specific country. You were given a piece of paper with a specific countries building, then you had to find the building and take a picture of it.
View at the end of Wisdom Avenue
My group started off kind of casually, but as we arrived at lunch we met another group and a rivalry was created. We got more into the game as the day went on. Eventually we were jogging occasionally between events, and we always tried to do each task as quickly as possible.
I am not going to lie to you… I love scavenger hunts, and I got really into this one. This was probably my favorite activity of the trip thus far. It didn’t hurt that my group ended up winning the hunt, beating the group we met at lunch by about two or three minutes (out of a few hour scavenger hunt). Eventually all of the groups made it back to the start, while we waited we ate some dinner (McDonalds), and relaxed for a bit, and played hacky sack.
When the last group got back, we were given our prize which was a gift card for karaoke for 400 RMB (not bad considering my bike costs 200 RMB). We then had about three hours to go around the park on our own. I went back to the fun bridges and the hero’s road. There was a ton of bridges that I didn’t get a chance to do try when doing the treasure hunt. I wanted to make sure I did every single one. There was one bridge that I really thought I was going to end up in the water on, but was able to pull it off in the end. The second run of hero’s path was a lot fun also. We made sure to hit all of the obstacles and made some more up for ourselves that were probably not naturally intended to be part of the course. Then headed back to the main gate in rented bike carts having a race along the way.
Overall it was a great day. The park was absurdly gorgeous and it just had a lot of things to do. It was the kind of place that I think my brother, dad, myself, and Mallory would love. Some students didn’t seem to enjoy it as much, but I think it was really what you made of it. The only thing I can see being a problem was that the park was HUGE, and some of the tasks were pretty physically demanding. I think it pushed a lot of students pass the points that they normally go, and was a very good workout.
Most students fell asleep within the first five minutes of the trip back to campus
After we got back to campus, a group of us decided to use the card that we had just won and went to a Karyoke place. Apparently Karyoke is huge in China, and there are places to embarrass yourself singing everywhere. We had about 14 of us, got our own private room (as everyone does), a few drinks and started singing away. If you know me, you know I don’t sing, but last night everyone sung. It was just a nice cap to and awesome day. I also ended up making some Chinese friends there. It was a little rough since we both spoke basically none of the others language but it was a good time. (Check the web album for pics)
The start of the night... we were just getting warmed up.
