As we say farewell to the ‘Year of the Ox’ we look forward with anticipation to the ‘Year of the Tiger’. Before we broke up to begin our own Chinese New Year celebrations, all of our students were able to spend the final day celebrating with each other and their teachers. The theme of the day was a traditional Chinese Garden Party. The day began with some lovely traditional Chinese music as the children eagerly awaited the host of wonderful activities that had been prepared for them.

This year’s Garden Party was arranged using the geographical regions of China, it allowed the students to develop their own intercultural and global awareness as the students had the opportunity to find out about other areas of China they may never have heard of before.

The students had opportunities to explore a number of traditional Chinese activities from the North, South, East and West of China. In Secondary, students engaged in a combination of cross-curricular and amazing race style activities. Not only were these activities lots of fun and created smiles and laughter, but it was also a fantastic opportunity for our students and teachers to deepen their understanding of Chinese cultures and customs.

It wasn’t only activities that the students had the opportunity to try, they also experienced some traditional Chinese food, with individual sugar-coated ‘haws’, or sugar paintings and cotton candy that had been prepared for the students to enjoy! After completing an array of fun activities and experiencing some tasty food, the students left for the holidays with their own Chinese New Year gift bag.

YCIS Chongqing wishes all of our school community a very Happy New Year and good luck for the coming year!