2009 Inner City Kids in China Program

---- Photo Diary by Laoshi

From June 22 to July 6, 2009, the 4th Inner-city Kids in China program has once again brought 10 students and 3 teachers from Snowden International School to China. This travel-study program is a summer scholarship-based program funded by the Freeman Foundation and operated by the Phelex Foundation. The participants were selected from Chinese students attending Snowden. As the scholarship recipients, the 7 juniors, 2 sophomores and 1 freshman will share their life changing experience with the Snowden community in the fall.

Stepping out of Boston for some inner-city high school students is not an easy decision for they have never done so in the past. Some are afraid of flying and the unknown. They need to be convinced that going to China is such an opportunity that may change their life and they should not miss. Below is my photo diary that illustrates our valuable and exciting experiences.

June 22, 2009 Flying to China

Now these 10 students decide to take a chance. Here we are, in front of a mirror that has many "faces" at Logan Airport on June 18, four days before our actual departure date to get to know the place. We felt excited already.	On June 22, we all arrived at Logan by 7:00am to take the UA flight to Chicago then Beijing. We were assigned to "economy plus" seats--a lucky start! Dr. Coulter, our headmaster, parents and friends came to see us off. Leaving them behind made some of us in tears.

June 23, 2009 Arrived in Beijing

We arrived at Beijing International Airport at 2:45pm on June 23 after almost 17 hous of flying. Now we take the new transit train to get to the custom and pick up our luggage.	The new Beijing Airport is huge and pretty. It is said that it has the widest arch design of such a kind in the world. We were waiting for our ride.

June 24, 2009 Touring the center of Beijing

This is the newly renovated Qianmen (Front Gate) Street, which is only partly open to the public.	Today is a very hot day, and the temperature at Tiananmen Square is above 90F or 37C degrees.

In front of National History Museum	Mao Zedong Memorial where people line up to pay respect to him, the founder of People's Republic of China

Inside the newly painted Forbidden City, which was built in 1406, Ming Dynasty	These women from Hunan Province wanted to take a picture with our students inside the Forbidden City.

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