G6 Community Building Trip – 9 Kilometers Hiking Challenge

On September 11th at 8:00am, all THIS 6th graders headed to the Badachu Mountain parking lot to begin their hiking challenge. They started from Xishan Park, climbed all the way up the stairs, hiked 9 kilometers, and finally arrived at Xiangshan Park.

Xishan Mountain, a branch of Taihang Mountain, is known as the “Head of Taihang Mountain” and is also known as Little Qingliang Mountain. When you look down from the heights of Xishan Mountain, you can see the city of Beijing clearly. The poet Chen Zhitu once mentioned in “Xishan Mountain in Summer”: “I have stopped going and coming for the time being, but Xishan Mountain is a piece of forest. The withered roots drip from the springs, and the tender butterflies hold the flowers and sink. The cicadas are lazy in the afternoon, and the shaded couch is deep in the garden. The white clouds are like an intention, and the bamboo is accompanied by a clear voice”.

At 8:30 a.m., the students gathered with the leaders at the parking lot of Badachu. After listening attentively to the leaders’ self-introductions and warming up briefly, the students set off from the main gate of Xishan National Forest Park and hiked for about 2 hours to the classic Ghost Laughing Stone in Xishan Park. Climbing from Xishan Mountain to Ghost Smiling Stone is mostly hiking steps, students carried their backpacks all the way, talking and laughing, never stopping their steps. After a short break at the Ghost Smile Stone, the students took a group photo overlooking Beijing.

On that day, the sun shone brightly on the earth and everything seemed to be full of vitality. Looking into the distance from the Ghost Smile Stone, the vastness of the blue sky, the movement of the floating clouds, the scenery of the city, and the spirit of the mountains and the water were all visible to the eyes. Nature, a magical and vivid textbook of nature and humanities, inculcates the children’s senses and perceptions, so that the students learn to appreciate nature, respect life, and let their imaginations flourish in the hiking process.

After taking a group photo at the Ghost Smile Stone, the students restocked their hiking supplies at the resupply point, packed up, and continued on to their destination via the mountain fire trail. When hiking long distances in a mountainous environment, children always encounter difficulties, such as backpacks that are too heavy, difficult footsteps, and hasty meals, but the sixth graders never gave up when they encountered stumbling blocks. Backpacks are too heavy, a few people take turns to help carry them together, the footsteps are difficult to slow down on the sidelines to encourage and cheer to give support, eat in a hurry to take care of each other and improvise. ……

A day of hiking not only inspired the children’s curiosity of nature and the ability to take the initiative in exploring, so that the children harvested perseverance, endurance and courage, but also to let the children in the process of overcoming difficulties, communication and communication with each other, but also in the process of overcoming difficulties, the students were able to overcome the difficulties. In the process of overcoming difficulties, the children exchanged and communicated with each other, promoted the connection with teachers and classmates, enhanced their relationship, improved their physical fitness, and became a better version of themselves in their different aspects.

At around 1:40 pm, the students finally arrived at the destination of Xiangshan Park after passing through Guajia Pagoda. The long hike did not take away any of the smiles on their faces. The students followed the leaders’ stretching exercises with great vigor and set off back to school in an orderly manner.

The walk was a rewarding experience for the students, as William Hu, a 6th Grade Purple student, wrote in his notes: