A tour of a lifetime for Sacred Heart travel club

For 38 students from Sacred Heart High School 10 days in 2013 will be stories for a lifetime.

The group left Yorkton March 29 for a tour of China that would take them on a worldwind adventure like they've never seen before.

First up was Beijing with its 21 million residents. The students marvelled at the amazing complex of buildings, well-manicured grounds and 400-year-old man-made lake that make up the Emperor's Summer Palace.

With the growing prosperity and a burgeoning middle class, much of the tourism in China is internal. Thousands of people from the interior of the country many of whom have never seen white people converge on same places as the SHHS group were visiting.

"There were many examples of culture shock while on tour, but it was here that our students first felt like rock stars," said teacher/chaperone Perry Enns.

"All of the girls were in high demand for pictures, especially the tall blonde girls. One of the Grade 12 boys had a baby thrust into his arms to hold for a picture."

Throughout the country, from visited Tiananmen Square to the Forbidden City to The Great Wall, every stop was a photo opp.

"Climbing the Great Wall is exhausting, but to stand on the wall and gaze out across the mountains was incredible," Enns said.

Another highlight of the tour was Xi'an (pronounced Shi-ahn) a city of only 8 million people where the students along the 3000-year-old city wall and attended the Tang Dynasty show which included a five course meal and live music with traditional dances.

Xi'an is also home to the Terracotta Warriors, which left the kids in awe.

It wasn't just an urban trip, though. Yangshuo gave the group a chance to experience rural China.

"It was a stark contrast to see the rice paddies and water buffaloes compared to the frantic pace of the large cities," Enns said.

"We spent the morning climbing over 800 steps up Moon Hill for some amazing views of the mountains and surrounding countryside.

Finally, the SHHS club wound up its trip in Shanghai where they enjoyed a night river cruise and marvelled at the impressive skyline of the city that only 20 years earlier had been farmers' fields.

The Sacred Heart Travel Club is already planning the next tour for Easter 2014. The Canadian Battlefields Tour includes stops in the Netherlands, Belgium and France to visit the sites of the battles of Passchendaele, Vimy Ridge and the D-Day landings at Normandy.