Mandarin House runs Chinese Culture event with Air France and KLM

Mandarin House was pleased to welcome staff from KLM and Air France to join us for half a day of traditional Chinese cultural activities, here in Shanghai. Over 30 attendees joined us for such classical Chinese past times as Taiqi, Chinese paper cutting and calligraphy.

The day started with Mandarin House taking the attendees for a walk down Nanjing East Road, Shanghai’s most famous Pedestrian Street, to The Bund. After long flights, from all over the world we wanted to ensure there was no jet lag in the group so we decided that 45 minutes of Tai Qi would be good for everyone. We arranged our teacher Wang to train the participants in 4 or 5 Tai Qi moves. All the KLM and Air France guys impressed us with their quick mastery of the moves and their willingness to give it a go. By the end of the lesson they were so good, they had their own audience.

After the Taiqi, everyone looked awake and invigorated, so we took another walk, this time along the historic Bund to Yu Yuan gardens. This is a famous area in Shanghai with lots of traditional, Chinese architecture, in stark contrast to the architectural styles found on both sides of the Huangpu River. Mandarin House arranged for the participants to spend the remainder of the morning in the famous, old teahouse in the centre of Yu Yuan gardens.

Our activities started with a lesson on Chinese tea, including descriptions of the main types of Chinese tea as well as explanations on how to prepare and drink it. After the tea drinking, we arranged both Chinese paper cutting and calligraphy exercises. Some of the calligraphy we saw from the participants was outstanding, with everyone able to produce excellent representations of their Chinese names. There were also some interesting interpretations of Chinese paper cutting with this traditional art form brought bang up to date with the incorporation of paper aero-plane designs.

We had a great day with the KLM and Air France guys. We hope that you all enjoyed yourselves and enjoyed being Mandarin House’s student of Chinese culture.

If you’d like to find out more about Mandarin House’s cultural activities or studying Mandarin Chinese with us, please contact us here.