Year 10 Chinese excursion

On 10th May, both the Chinese Second Language (CSL) and Chinese Second Language Advanced (CSLA) students went on an excursion to Chinatown and visited the Chinese Museum in the city of Melbourne.  

Prior to going on the excursion, all students completed a 10-question questionnaire in Mandarin for interviewing people in the city. These questions were designed to find out their experiences in both Australia and China. Although there were not many people in the city that day, we still had a lot of varied and interesting answers. Afterwards, both classes worked on completing a scavenger hunt around Chinatown, with many interesting locations to explore and discover, including a temple along Little Bourke Street and many Mandarin speaking churches. Then we tasted delicious Chinese cuisine at a restaurant.  

Both classes then went to the Chinese Museum not far away from Chinatown. The tour really threw us into the unexpected challenges that Chinese migrants faced while starting up a new life in Australia. From this, we could identify those Chinese mining workers had a significant influence on culture in Australia, making it a very multicultural and diverse region. 

Whilst in the Chinese Museum, we also discovered ancient Chinese inventions and technologies of the Han dynasty that dated back thousands of years, some of which are toxic and must be kept in glass displays! 

However, our favourite part was walking along the beautiful Chinese dragon of Dai Loong, who took up 100 metres! The visit to the Australia Chinese Museum was the highlight of that day.   

This excursion helped us understand the significance of Chinese culture around Australia and allowed us to uncover it, revealing different stories behind many buildings and infrastructure around Melbourne. We were also inspired by those brave and strong spirits who strove for a diverse but united country, making Australia a better place to live. It was very well managed by the teachers, and we had a lot of fun!