Grade 8 language trip brings the Middle School’s “Explorer” theme to life in China

Thirteen years ago, middle school teacher Chris Chen led the first group of Grade 8 Mandarin learners on a trip to (and around!) mainland China for a cultural immersion and language-learning trip. The tradition is still going strong in 2026, with our most recent cohort of 18 students just back from their own iteration of this transformative educational experience abroad. This year’s students enjoyed meeting local students at a Shaolin kung fu academy, challenged themselves with rewarding hikes, and ate quite a bit of excellent food.

Every year, says middle school world languages and cultures teacher Chris Chen (ASL 2011–present), hiking on the Great Wall is a highlight of the Grade 8 language trip to China. For about 90 percent of trip participants each year, Chris estimates, the experience means a student’s first time in China—and the Great Wall is not an experience to be missed.

Still, that doesn’t make it easy.

On this year’s China trip, which took place over the course of a week in mid-June and included 18 student participants and three chaperones, the group hiked a Beijing-area portion of the Great Wall on their second day in the country. 

“It was challenging for some of the group,” Chris admits. The air was humid and hot, the jetlag was persistent, and the walk was long and sometimes steep, even while scenic and fuelled by homemade scallion pancakes. “Some of the group were not sure they would be able to do the cave hike two days later—a lot of them had that self-doubt.” 

That cave hike, which meant a steep climb up some 1,500 uneven stone steps, would take the group up Henan’s famous Wuru Peak to visit Bodhidharma, or “Dharma Buddha,” cave, the sixth-century birthplace of Zen Buddhism. 

“As a group, we motivated each other, and every single one of us—including the adults who were feeling unsure—supported each other, and we all hiked up to the cave and to the top of the mountain,” Chris says. “Everyone did it at their own pace, but the beauty is that we all challenged ourselves, overcame the challenge, and proved to ourselves that you can put your self-doubt behind and just keep going.” 

The trip as a whole serves as an excellent chance for students to deepen their cultural and language learning journeys through overcoming challenge. Chris, who started the annual tradition back in 2013, describes it as “culturally immersive and language-intensive.” 

The group always makes the most of their time in China for language acquisition, but more importantly, Chris says, “it’s really about sparking interest in the culture and the language; students realizing, ‘Wow, this is what I learned in the classroom. And now I need to step outside my comfort zone and really push myself to communicate with locals. And guess what? Locals sort of understand me!’”

Chris teaches Mandarin at multiple grade levels in the Middle School, but has always offered the trip solely to Grade 8 Mandarin students—regardless of their language ability—in the weeks following the end of the school year. “In Chinese culture, at the end of your middle school years as well as at the end of your high school years, the whole grade will usually go on a ‘graduation trip’ to create that special memory before you embark on your next chapter,” says Chris. “I think this trip sort of serves that purpose for students; to create a special memory as they move on to their high school chapter.” 

Students agree: they tend to remember the trip fondly for years to come, thinking back on it as they carry on with their study of language, and sometimes, Chris says, stopping him in the hallways at school to say that their Grade 8 China trip was one of the most unforgettable trips they’ve done throughout their ASL experience. 

Roan, a rising Grade 9 student who recently returned from the trip, wrote, “The trip was an incredible experience throughout. Not only did I put my language learning to use, but I learned so much about culture in China. I would highly recommend this trip to anyone who is thinking of going.”

To prepare for the trip—and to give students who’ve opted out of the experience a chance to put their own language skills and cultural knowledge to the test in an authentic environment—Chris also has a “Chinatown project” tradition for his Grade 8 students each spring, in which their food unit’s summative assessment brings the classes to London’s very own Soho Chinatown so that students may practice ordering food in Mandarin at a Chinese restaurant. 

When in China, students experience a wide variety of regional Chinese cuisines, broadening their food horizons and often venturing outside what they previously knew as “Chinese food.” According to Chris, “under that umbrella of ‘culture,’ food is a huge part. So it’s a cultural as well as a foodie trip.” (This year’s journey involved a dessert dumpling-making workshop on night one, a scallion pancake lesson by longtime friend of the program Uncle Ge at the foot of the Great Wall, a meal featuring Xinjiang Uyghur cuisine, and a celebratory Peking duck dinner—among many other delicious meals.)

Each year, more attention to logistical details goes into the trip planning to ensure smooth execution. At the same time, one of the strengths of the program is how flexible and dynamic it remains, bringing students and chaperones to new parts of China each year. As one of two Mandarin teachers in the Middle School, Chris has generally gotten to know most of the a given year’s participants fairly well over years of teaching them, and as such, he tends to introduce new sites and activities each year to cater to the specific cohort’s interests.

“This year, I know the students are more active; they’re definitely into sports and so forth. So this year the group went to Shaolin, where Shaolin Kung Fu originated.” The group visited a local kung fu school, where local students, some of whom were the same age as our own Grade 8 students, practice intensive kung fu along with their academic studies every day. “It’s a lot of discipline—it’s a lifestyle,” Chris says. Seeing their peers engaged in that sort of structure “opened our students’ eyes,” he adds.

Another student wrote, “The trip was an incredible experience, and speaking and making friends with people from the kung fu school was the best part.”

Thinking about the ASL Portrait of a Learner trait of “Explorer,” which was one of the Middle School’s specific themes for the 2025–26 school year, Chris reflects that this trip truly exemplifies that characteristic. “It encourages students to step outside their comfort zones, embrace challenges, apply their learning to communicate in authentic contexts, and build meaningful connections with people from different cultures,” he says.

On their last night in China, after a day spent exploring Luoyang’s Longmen Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring a large collection of first-century Chinese Buddhist artworks, students celebrated with a final feast and a karaoke birthday party for one of the participants. Then came the long flight home.