Dear friends and family,

The last few days we had quite some work; an overview:
Because of the closing ceremony on Saturday we held the race for the kids on Friday. There was a good wind and some kids showed nice sailing skills. The first one to cross the finish line was Bowen.



After the race we prepared all the boats for the sailing performance on Saturday and we also put new stickers of our sponsor ODICE on the sails.



On Saturday the closing ceremony started at 13:00 with the sailing performance at 14:00. The goal was to let over 60 kids sail within 90 minutes with 30 OPI's. It worked out smoothly.
After that there was a (crazy Chinese) photo shoot with ALL the kids and some speeches, under which Thomas Annicq was one of the speakers.



We closed off the ceremony with a traditional Chinese buffet.
Because the Chinese traditional food is quite different from the Belgian traditional food, we didn't eat that much... Luckily we were invited afterwards by Thomas in a nice restaurant in downtown Shanghai with a great view on the skyline.

After a short but good night rest we started to clean up the sailing area and store all the boats. We said goodbye to our beloved Dianshan lake and the local people who helped us a lot. Yesterday night we ate for the last time in the 'Canting' (Chinese restaurant where we ate the whole month) -HALLELUJA-!
Now we are packing our bags and we leave for downtown in just a couple of minutes... Our work is done here!

So about the rest of this week: we have our flight to Beijing tomorrow where we will visit things like The Great Wall, Tiananmen square, The Forbidden City, etc.
Then we fly back to Belgium Friday night with all that rests from this vacation are the memories of a beautiful time and an extraordinary stay here in China.

We would like to thank everyone that made this possible; RBSC, the Twaalfhoven family, NOCSP, CYBP, Price Waterhouse Coopers, the locals, the translators, Toni and especially our sponsor ODICE.

Thank YOU also for your interest in this magnificent program and we hope to write to you again next year!


Greets,

Pieter, Nicolas and Niels

all hell broke loose

After an exhausting trip to Qindao, we finally arrived at our beloved Dianshan Lake. We resumed the lessons in the afternoon as it seemed to be another beautiful day with the proper amount of wind. But all of a sudden all hell broke loose, in no time the wind came up till about 6 Bft. and when we saw the lightning, it really became a dangerous play. So we decided to bring the kids immediately into safety. It took roughly a quarter of an hour until the wind settled down and we were able to assemble all the boats, fortunately there was only little damage caused.



Today, we could finally sail with the kids in normal conditions. First we gave some theoretical lessons and than we could start the practical part. This afternoon was probably the hottest moment we had during our stay in China. It was about 38°C and on top of that there was almost no wind. So we held again a little water fight to get some refreshment.
As you can see now the weather here on the lake can be very unsettled and treacherous...


Greets,

The Flying Shanghai Team

Qindao International Regatta

About our weekend to Qindao...
After a delayed flight because of the typhoon we finally arrived Friday night in Qindao. We were staying at the CYBP office on the 21st floor with a nice view on the new Olympic harbour!


After meeting up with the Qindao trainers we hit the town and had a very good time.
Next day we visited the Olympic harbour and we saw all the boats coming in after the regatta, including Carolijn Brouwer and Sebbe Godefroid.



Saturday night we had a great western meal and had a lot of fun in some famous Qindao bars where we pretended to be Belgian coaches wich saved us a lot of money!
There wasn't much time to sleep because we still had to visit a lot next day... So we woke op a little bit drowsy and head off to Jimo Lu (a well known Qindao fake market). Afterwards we went to 'Computer City' and the famous Tsintao brewery.
Sunday night we kept it calm because we had to catch our flight early Monday morning...


Greets,

The Shanghai Team

24 sailors were born this week!

The last 2 days the kids were bothered by a strong and gusty wind but we enjoyed it a lot, when we went sailing on the Tirion yacht after the training!
Today the circumstances for a race were perfect. The weather for the moment is very unsettled, so we took our chances and started up a race. We’d only just got on the water when the weather started to change, the wind started to get stronger and a mass of clouds covered the clear sky. After a couple of minutes the wind was dropping to a moderated breeze, which was actually almost perfect for an exciting race. There were 5 boats that could break away from the pack, they won finally by a large margin, still it was a tense race for who would come in fifth.
Tonight we take the plane to Qindao where we will spend the weekend with other trainers from Belgium and the Netherlands. One of the plans is that we follow the sailing regatta that is part of the pre-Olympics, taking place in Qindao.
You’ll here from us soon with pictures of the weekend!


Stay tuned,

The Shanghai Team

Death calm

Today we needed a whole new approach because there wasn’t a breath of wind. To deal with this problem we had to give some more theoretical lessons, which is after a while quite tedious. Nevertheless we decided to take the kids on the water. After bobbing a time up and down on the water, we started a water fight. This was not only pure pleasure but it was a good ‘lesson’ as well for the kids to get used to the water and their boat.


In the afternoon the wind was again death calm. There was one kid who didn’t sail in the morning because she was only 6 years old and didn’t know how to swim. We thought it was too dangerous for her to take an OPI. So we took her on the rib and afterwards she got some private lessons together with one of the trainers.



At the end of the day the wind started to come up, it became a light breeze. We found it most regrettable because the circumstances were ideal to learn the tricks of the trade, but we had to come off because it was getting late.

Greets,
The Shanghai Team

Babyface

So about our weekend...
We left the Da Yuan Garden at noon on Saturday and head over to downtown Shanghai. It was raining like hell and we were soaked after 5 seconds so we were forced to go to a Mc Donald’s. We enjoyed our western meal very much!
After the rain came sunshine and so we went for a walk and visited Xintiandi. It's like a western neighbourhood with similar bars and restaurants. After a couple of drinks we were more than happy that we found a steakhouse!
Later on the evening we went to a typical Chinese club called Babyface where we had a great time with some locals.



Sunday at noon we visited old Shanghai and also the famous YuYuan Garden. There were like thousands of other people with the same idea and it was 35°C. We were sweating like hell. But it was definitely worth it, just look at the pictures!




After a short visit to a (crazy) black-market-cellular-phone-building we went to a Carrefour and bought everything we could lay our hands on that didn't look Chinese!
To close off our weekend in harmony we ate a good western pizza!

Go go Cheryl!

Because it was our last training day of the week we wanted to evaluate the improvement of the kids on the basis of a race. In spite of the fact that there was throughout the week a fierce wind forcing us to go on the inside lake, we could take the best sailors with us on the big lake, were they learned a lot.
Today the wind was less strong so we could do the race on the big lake. The track was an Olympic triangle. The kids sailed very well and it was an exciting race. The outcome of the race was 1: Cheryl, 2: Jackson and 3: Mark.

After cleaning up the sailing area we are now free for the rest of the weekend. Downtown Shanghai here we come!

Stay tuned, you'll here from us shortly!

The Shanghai team

Jackson the daredevil

This morning there was a moderated wind and a clear sky. For the first time we were able to see the bank from the other side of the lake, which is normally impossible due to the smog. The children are easy to get on with, so we could start on the large lake with an easy beam reach exercise. The wind started to get up but fortunately the kids are fast learners so they could handle some more wind. In the afternoon the kids were tired as a result of the intense training in the early afternoon and the moderated wind turned into a fierce wind as well. So these difficult conditions forced us to go back on the small lake where we practiced the close reach.

Soon the kids wanted to go back on shore because the wind had an exhausting effect on them. I saw the opportunity to pick out the most motivated trainee and defy together the ‘rough weather’. There was only one daredevil. I think he had the time of his life, he enjoyed every second of it until he capsized. Still this couldn’t end his moment of glory towards his buddy’s, who couldn’t dare to believe one’s eyes.

This was an ideal event to end a lovely day of sailing.

Greets,

The Shanghai team

Xingqiyi 06/08

Dear friends and family,

First we want to say sorry that we didn’t post anything last night but we were too tired from our trip. So Saturday we, the old and new trainers, left the house at 6 pm together with the kids, a bus came to pick them up and there were a few seats left. After a trip of 2 hours through the rush hour of Shanghai we arrived at People’s square. From there we went to our hotel and went into the city for a nice dinner. We were guided by Amena and her boyfriend, Amena takes care of everything for us here in Shanghai. They took us to a nice hot-pot restaurant, a typical Chinese restaurant. It was very good but we weren’t always sure of what we were eating, beef stomach for example. There Pauline and Evelien joined us after their flight from Xiamen. Afterwards we went for a walk on the Bund.

The next day the old trainers left early in the morning for their flight. The new trainers went into the city to discover it, we started with a nice breakfast of croissants at good old Starbucks. After we went back to the Bund to see the amazing skyline of Pudong (suburb of Shanghai) and took the psychedelic subway to Pudong. There we visited the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, with a height of 468m the biggest TV Tower of Asia. We went as high as possible (350m). Afterwards we went to an amazingly big mall where we went to a Mc Donalds for a very good lunch and did our shopping for the rest of the week.


Today was very exciting, it was our first training day and there were some new children as well. It was another hot day but in contrast with other days there was a stiff breeze in the afternoon. For us it was new to teach in English, but we took up the challenge. After a couple of minutes the worst part was behind us and the kids were listening attentive to our informative statements. In the afternoon we taught the kids how to swim, wich was a whole undertaking for the very reason that they didn’t wanted to admit that they couldn’t swim at all. After that we could finally go on the water for a first practical introduction to a fascinating new sport, which they liked a lot. But unfortunately the breeze became stiff with the result that we had to put an end to our sailing fun.


After a hard day of working we are very tired but we wanted to share our stories with you!

Greets,

The Shanghai team

Dear friends, families and interested people!

Today we organised a race for the kids, the sailing conditions were excellent: not too warm and around 2 Bft. It was a neck-to-neck race. The ranking was: 1. Jackson, 2. Anthony and 3. Tom

The kids had a great week and improved a lot their sailing skills!

In a couple of hours we go to downtown Shanghai for the weekend with all the trainers! Anne-Sophie, Laurent and Martijn will take their plane on sunday.

We'll post something sunday night and tell you all about our trip to Shanghai!

Greets,

The Shanghai team

The new Shanghai-team has arrived!

Thursday at 13.00 the new Shanghai team; Niels, Nicolas and Pieter left at Brussels Airport and flew to Beijing International Airport. Then they took a domestic flight to Shanghai and after one hour in the taxi, arrived friday at 13.00 at the house and the lake. There we were welcomed by Ann-Sophie, Martijn and Laurent. This afternoon we went an hour with them and the children on the water until a storm with thunder and lightning came and we had to come off. The children enjoyed their time on the water very much this afternoon. Tomorrow we will also attend the lessons with them; there will be a race among the children.
We‘ll keep you posted!


The new Shanghai-team

TSAI TSHIËN Mathieu and Alex

Dear friends,

Monday... a new week for Laurent and Anne-Sophie and the last day for Mathieu and Alex.

Like every Monday we gave the kids some explanation about rigging up the boats, where to sit in the boat, etc... After lunch we learned them how to capsize. The kids could try it by theirselfs.

In the afternoon Martijn, the trainer from Qingdao, arrived in Shanghai. He will help us this week with teaching the kids, because Mathieu and Alex went back to Belgium.

Because it was the last day for Mathieu and Alex, we organised a bbq with the whole team. It was a great evening!! Toni had a suprise for M&A. After some beers and tipsy translators we went to our beds.

Next morning M&A left us behind with broken glasses, a broken bed, a dirty bbq and a broken bike ;-) . Anyway, we hope that they had a nice trip to Belgium!

In the morning there wasn't a lot of wind, so we did a nice paddling race with the kids. Mr. Wang, the head of the teachers, invited us to visit his school. We had a lot of fun with acting like chinese students.

Later in the evening Mr.Wang invited us for a nice meal. It was very spicy, but with a lot of beer we were able to survive it.

Greets,

The Shanghai Team.

Peking duck

Dear friends and family,

After a great week we were ready to catch our train to Bejing. Hurry, hurry, hurry... . Tai, the local trainer brought us with Toni's car, a Lincoln, to a little city nearby were we could take a taxi to go to the railway station.

After running through the station to catch our train, we finally arrived in our cozy cabine.

We had a lot of fun that evening, it was a really nice experience!! Next morning we met our friends from Xiamen at the Dawan hotel. Again we couldn't lose a lot of time, because our lovely feminin guide, Sally, was waiting.

We spent the whole day with a nice group of foreigners, coming from whole over the world: Italy, US, Indonesia, New Zealand, ... . First of all we went to the Ming tombs. Afterwards we visited a jade factory. Unfortunately it was to expensive to buy a nice bracelet, a ring, ... .

Now we were ready to visit the chinese wall at Badaling!! We took a funny train to get on the wall. You have to be chinese to invent such a thing! Totally exhausted and after running for about forty minutes we finally reached the highest top, what a view!! We had to run the whole way back because Sally was waiting for us to leave towards the last spot of our daytrip, the Silk factory! There they give us a special price, 300 euros, for a three layer silk blanket.Unbelievable low price!

After a good shower, we went to a restaurant to have a Peking duck for meal. We took a special bike and motorcycle taxi to get to Hoihai where we had a good evening in some of the many bars lying around a lake.

Next day we went to the Tian'anmen square , in front of the big picture of Mao. We had never seen such a big square before. Afterwards we entered the forbidden city. It is so huge that you actually need a whole day to visit the city. We had just enough time to discover the most beautiful places.

A cheap Mcdo gave us the courage to make a trip by foot to the Temples of Heaven. A nice monument to finish our trip to Beijing.

We took the plane back home to Shanghai at 9 pm and arrived at 10h30 pm.

See you later,

The Shanghai Team