Chinese Cultural Center

Today I went on a field trip with the oldest daughter's Second Grade class to the Chinese Cultural Center in Phoenix. It was a warm day and it was a sit and wait, listen and don't touch kind of field trip which was hard for the kids. We toured a Chinese Garden and an Oriental Grocery Store. We did learn some interesting tidbits about Chinese culture and we were treated to Chinese food at the end, which was very good.

The children were asked to "dress nicely" for this field trip. It was interesting to see the different interpretations of what "nicely" meant.


We learned that different things are carved on the roofs of the buildings to protect them. Here is a dragon that protects from evil spirits.

These are sea creatures that protect the buildings from fire.

These statues represent the things that we need in life. One has water and the other is holding a flower to represent beauty. There were other ones but I don't remember how many, perhaps 10. Some of the other needs were food, music, and education.

The circular doorway behind the statues is to walk through. The Chinese try to avoid sharp edges because they represent knives or death. I think it is called a moon gate maybe.

This pond was full of lots and lots of fish, great big ones and little, teeny tiny ones.

More statues. I think the first one represents an emperor and I'm not sure what the other ones represent.



The Chinese make their bridges crooked so that if an evil spirit is chasing you he will get confused and loose his way.


The gardens were very beautiful but the Second Graders and I would have enjoyed having some time to explore them a little more.

Here we are sitting outside the grocery store waiting for time for our tour. The books made good fans since it was very warm.

They also made good shields so we couldn't be seen when we got our pictures taken.


A few of us actually read them.

And finally we got to line up and go inside where it was air conditioned.

The most exciting part of the grocery store was the fresh fish swimming in tanks. There was quite the variety, but the smell was a little strong for some of us, especially the pregnant teacher. We also got to see 1,000 year old eggs and a large variety of beer in the cooler we waited in line for our food next too. We got our food from a food court in the grocery store. It was very interesting trying to help the students select fried rice or noodles and 2 entrees from a selection of items they couldn't recognize and that all looked a little strange. Most of the kids stuck with a type of chicken (like orange chicken without the sauce) and egg rolls. A few chose duck and really liked it. I wasn't that brave and stuck with my old favorite Sweet and Sour Pork and some green beans.

It is always fun to get out of the classroom and do something different, but I wouldn't say this was my favorite field trip of all time. I think I would like to go back sometime with the hubby and just check out some of the stores and visit the garden at a more leisurely pace. Oh, and buy a couple of those 1,000 year old eggs perhaps.