This blog post brings together a series of fourteen other posts detailing a trip I recently took to China. I left on 3rd November 2023; pondering on what may lay ahead, I wrote this while waiting for my connecting flight: Confessions of a semi-itinerant, and this on 6th February 2024 while on my way back: Leaving China: Assorted musings from an airport lounge.

Every blog post is addressed to my 6-year-old nephew, Bertie. He will have received postcards, via his school, with URLs linking to each post. The first recipient will have been his class teacher, who may have been minded to look further before handing him the postcards.

Of course there was no obligation for his teacher to engage with any of the content. My intentions were never to hijack anyone’s class – teaching by stealth – rather it opened the opportunity to broaden the target audience if any of the themes correlated with what they were doing when each postcard was delivered. If they didn’t, and the postcards were simply handed over, they provide easy self-access materials for a boy who needs something to do on a wet Sunday afternoon.

As a collected body, they are fundamentally learning materials and can be repurposed for different age groups in a variety of different settings, i.e., older teenagers or adult learners.

Please be my guest and dive in, everything is free to download. There are videos from every place I visited – please excuse the quality – and a variety of fun activities. If you find anything to plug a hole in your lesson, I’ll be very happy.

Here is a list of each blog post and a description of what they offer:

• A postcard from the Great Wall of China
  • Video (10m 47).
  • Great Wall of China themed language dominoes.
  • Two Kahoot quizzes.
  • Activity to consolidate the theme of working together.

• A postcard from Beihai Park, Beijing
  • Video (8m 27s).
  • Snakes and ladders board game to consolidate some of the themes.
  • Build your own island activity.

• A postcard from Yonghe Temple, Beijing
  • Video (4m 28s).
  • Meditation activity.

• A postcard from the 798 Art Zone, Beijing
  • Video (5m 42s).
  • Create your own abstract expressionist drawing.
  • Task language to aid discussion.

• A postcard from the Temple of Heaven, Beijing
  • Video (4m 50s).
  • Grow your own potatoes activity.

• A postcard from the Liangma River, Beijing
  • Video (5m 13s).
  • Write a diamante poem.

• A postcard from Qianmen Street and Wangfujing Street, Beijing
  • Video (4m 06s).
  • Design your own pedestrianised shopping street.

• A postcard from the Forbidden City, Beijing
  • Video (09m 35s).
  • Design your own Forbidden City.

• A postcard from the Summer Palace, Beijing
  • Video (11m 31s).
  • Create your own Summer Palace themed dice.
  • Create your own dice.

• A postcard from the Olympic Park, Beijing
  • Video (07m 16s).
  • Table football/shove-ha’penny-esque activity with Olympic Games question cards.

• A postcard from Houhai, Beijing
  • Video (04m 52s).
  • Grid Game board game with winter phrases.

• A postcard from Shanghai
  • Two videos (10m 58s and 09m 20s).
  • Shanghai themed board game.

If you have been following this mini-project, thank you for your attention. I understood from the start that I wanted to at least document the things I was lucky enough to see. I’m fortunate to have had the opportunity to work and travel through my entire adult life but all I have to show are a few wonky photos and an anecdote or two. Let’s hope these blog posts go some way towards changing things. There are still adventures to be had, so watch this space for any updates!

Need a game for your next class? Click here: Games and board games