Newington Basketball toured China at the invitation of the Zhejiang Province School Basketball Association during the second week of school holidays. While the aim of the trip was for the boys to engage in a number of “friendly games” against Chinese high schools in the cities of Hangzhou and Linhui, the boys also got a rare cultural experience and gained invaluable insight into the life in schools and of boys their age in modern China.

During the trip the boys visited historical sites such as the Southern wall in Linhui of the Great Wall of China, tea farms in Hangzhou where they witnessed tea ceremonies and visited a one thousand year old Buddhist temple and prayer area and were shown remnants from the Cultural Revolution.

The boys were also given the unique opportunity to spend a day in a secondary school – Huipu High School – which had a student body of more than 7,500 students. The boys were treated like “rock stars” as they visited classrooms and interacted with their Chinese peers. Our boys were such a hit that the gym put up a full house sign early for that evening’s game and the crowd got behind our team as much as they did, the home team.

For the record, Newington had two wins and one loss while on tour. Our party of 25 travellers were both overwhelmed and humbled by the friendship and hospitality shown by our new Chinese friends.

Rex Nottage
Director of Basketball