China- a Country of Routines

China is a country that largely functions on routines, daily, weekly and so on. The school that I work in is no exception to this concept of Chinese life. The students begin their morning routine of waking up and having their breakfast before they are in the classroom at 7.00am. It is a long school day here in China, they return to their dormitories for a lunch break of around 2 hours, and then it is back to the classroom until 9 or 10pm.

The students at this school go home on a Friday afternoon and return to the school on Sunday evening. The road outside the school is often blocked for several hours each Friday and Sunday with parents arriving in their cars to pick up or drop off their sons and daughters. It is a chaotic situation that is repeated across many of China’s cities.

As well as studying the students do get some time outside the classroom for playing sports, the PE classes are a mixed bag of students happy to be away from the classroom for 40 minutes, and others that would prefer to stay inside. The favourite game to be played in Chinese schools is usually basketball, although here in Wuhan there are lots of students that like to play football (soccer). Other popular pastimes are ping pong (table tennis) or badminton.

The daily routine of study is interrupted each morning with an outdoor assembly on the sports field at 10.15. Each class is lined up at its designated spot with Monday morning being a flag raising ceremony, as the whole school will stand to attention and sing their national anthem as the flag is raised to begin another week. Other mornings the students will be assembled for morning exercises, usually stretching and other warm up routines before running twice around the track. The students also have prize giving ceremonies for the best performing students on a regular basis.

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