'Shaoguan rocks!' was the opinion of one of the First Year students from Li Po Chun United World College, who have just returned from a visit to the city in northern Guangdong.
'I've had an amazing six days there and the experience is once-in-a-lifetime,' said student Karita Kan. 'I won't forget the fire crackers, the African dance, the army punches and kicks, ploughing the field and singing Head and Shoulders with kids from rural villages.'
The 130 students didn't go to admire the Forbidden City, climb the Great Wall or bask in the glitter of Shanghai. Instead they sampled life in China's factories and farms, military and schools, learning from workers, farmers, soldiers and students.
The trip centred on the sprawling city of Shaoguan where on the first morning students visited a state-owned steelworks, a city in itself with homes, shops and schools supporting about 10,000 workers.
The following day they visited a rural primary school and taught the children English phrases and games. There were no cultural barriers when a girl from Colombia was teaching a group of 10-year-old Chinese to do the Macarena, or when local pupils clapped in time to a song taught by a Spanish boy. Hospitality and the sharing of food is another cultural universal. Students were invited to share a meal in the modest farm houses.
'You are the first foreigners I have ever met,' a farmer said, and a friendship was sealed over lunch and a bowl of rice wine. Later the students went out to help harvest rice. Grasping rice stalks, cutting and wrapping into sheaves is an ancient rhythm of farm work and even a few hours of this allowed them to imagine a peasant's life of unremitting labour.