We Went to Camp

After a string of holidays, breaks and one-day and three-day weekends, the school had its fall military training, something required of all students in public schools in China. Because we are international students, we did not participate in the regular military training, but instead, we were sent off to an alternative military camp, off campus in Dong Fang Luzhou.  The camp was called was called 东方绿舟, or Oriental Land. The stated goal was to improve our discipline and motivation.

We embarked on our training by bus in the peak of a typhoon. Due to the storm, many roads were either closed or flooded -- but somehow still open. When we arrived at camp, we saw many Chinese teens in yellow rain ponchos marching around miserably.  But as we entered the gate of where we would be staying, from the bus window we could see a gift shop, a bar, a giant chess set, and a cafeteria. The architecture behind the gates of Camp Oriental Land was diverse, ranging from southern plantation style, American colonial, something that looked like a Russian cathedral style house, and a modern structure.

 

 

My two NSLI-Y roommates checking out the scene.

They took us to a big lecture hall where we were issued our uniforms. The outfits were blue camo-pants and T-shirts with a weird design. All of the clothes were too big for everyone. The pants were XL and the shirts were XXL. They should have fit me because Chinese sizes are smaller than American sizes, but the uniforms were in American sizes and the shirt fell to almost below my knees.

After our fittings, we went to our hotel. We were told it was “camp” so we expected that we would be roughing it a bit. To our surprise, they boarded us at a four-star hotel with TV, AC, and hot water in every room. Each room also came with a supply of robes, which were a source of entertainment for a while.

Our first exercise was for everyone to make a triangle out of rope. Blindfolded. They organized us into groups and we would be in those groups for the duration of the training. Our group name was the “Tiger Group” and our motto was a Chinese nursery rhyme about tigers. I was the group leader.

Dinner at the cafeteria was as great, better than the food at school. The next morning we woke up to a delicious breakfast; there was toast and hardboiled eggs, and even orange juice (although the orange juice wasn’t very good). After breakfast we had marching instructions directed by a man who looked like a high ranking official based on his uniform.

After marching we had lunch. Lunch included fruit, which is always nice to see and something I miss about home. Next came teamwork games, including walking together with our ankles tied to another teammate’s leg, working together to get our team across a body of water, and lifting everyone over a 12-foot wall. And then dinner and bed.

 

 

Jenai's ankle shows the mark of the three-legged race. We won!

The next day was much of the same: breakfast, marching, lunch, teamwork games, and dinner. During dinner we were treated to a barbeque and team performances, including dances and songs. It was a late night.

 

Group photo.

The last day at Camp Oriental Land was promised to be the most fun day. It was fun. We had dragon boat races, “fun-bridges” which were  a series of ropes strewn across a stream that we had to traverse, and an obstacle course with little Chinese kids adding to the obstacles.

Sadly we had to go back to school, no more breaks or long/short weekends for a while.