Port Adelaide's Aboriginal AFL Academy is in China for a unique 10-day trip, which will involve cultural exchanges, a game against Team China and a trip to the Great Wall of China.

Academy graduate Anthony Stengle will give regular updates on his experiences.

Day 7
Another day and another early morning wake up for me and my Academy team mates.

It was our last morning in Guangzhou and we all had to get ourselves ready for a long train trip up to the north of China to the capital Beijing.

After the usual serving of breakfast we all jumped on a bus and arrived at the railway station for our 10.00am train trip.

The train was a bullet train and it was very modern and looked more like a space ship from the front.

We all jumped on board excited to be travelling on something completely different to what we are used to.

But I think we were all most excited that this train was going to travel at over 300 kilometres per hour.



Although it was an eight hour trip in total, the time passed quickly.

One of my hobbies is to muck around with a Rubik’s Cube and I like the challenge of trying to solve it as quickly as possible. I’ve practised for a while now and I have a technique that allows me to solve most combinations in a couple of minutes.

In between messing around with the Rubik’s Cube I really enjoyed checking out the countryside as the train headed toward Beijing. There were little villages scattered in the middle of nowhere all the way from Guangzhou to Beijing.



For the remainder of the trip I chilled out and listened to music and also grabbed myself a couple of hours sleep.

We arrived in Beijing at 6.00pm and we all instantly noticed how cold it was. It was freezing. We had gone from Guangzhou in the south of China which was in the low twenties and arrived in Beijing where it was -2 degrees.

The team got together and hurried to our bus for a transfer to the hotel.



After checking in we all sat down for a team dinner and had the traditional Chinese meal Peking Duck for dinner.

It tasted quite nice, a bit like Chicken or Turkey.

Following dinner, I and a few of the boys did a gym session at the hotel.

I was pretty tired by the end of our weights session so I headed upstairs to chill out before falling asleep.



Day 8
Today was our last full day in China ahead of our departure from Beijing at lunchtime tomorrow.

Even though it had been a packed schedule the boys were pretty pumped today because as part of our itinerary we were going to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Wall of China.



I was also really excited because our club CEO Keith Thomas was joining us this morning for the first time. I’m pretty close to KT and I call him my “bro” because he’s been very good to me over the last couple of years.

After breakfast our first stop was to a place called Tiananmen Square which I didn’t know too much about until I spoke to Uncle Norts (Daniel Norton – GM Media) who explained to me that it was a significant part of China’s history.

Not only is Tiananmen Square the central point of Beijing but in 1989 thousands of student protesters were killed there by the Chinese government.



Because of this it felt a bit weird walking around the square. Surrounding the square is their parliament house, a museum, the Emperor’s Palace, including the Forbidden City, and a place called the Mausoleum where their famous Chairman Mao was laid to rest.

It was really interesting and you could feel the history.

By the end of this tour we were all freezing cold. The temperature was around -4 degrees and we all couldn’t believe how much smog was around. We could hardly see more than 20 or 30 metres in front of us and you could really taste and smell it in the air. We later found out that today was a record day of air pollution in Beijing where the acceptable levels of pollution was over 24 times the recommended limit by the World Health Authority.



Luckily our next stop was indoors at the Beijing Silk Markets. The boys were pumped and couldn’t wait to snap up some bargains and buy some gifts for family and friends at home.

We were told by our tour guide to barter with the shop owners because they generally inflate the prices. They sell branded clothes and shoes such as Nike and Adidas but most of them are fakes.

For the next couple of hours the whole group had lots of fun shopping and bartering with the shop keepers. I was really happy with my bargains. I picked up some Adidas-branded tracksuit pants, an Adidas jumper, a couple of casual shirts and I bought some shirts for my little brother Tyson back home in Adelaide.



But my favourite purchase was the hover board. This is basically like a segue, sort of like an electric skateboard. I can’t wait to get it home and take it for a spin.

After our shopping spree we all jumped into our bus and headed toward an area around 90 minutes outside of Beijing called Badaling where we were going to climb part of the Great Wall.

On the way we stopped off for lunch and we all enjoyed a traditional Chinese buffet which was delicious.

Before we knew it we were back on the bus and heading for the Great Wall.



We were all excited as we had heard so much about this incredible manmade structure.

Our tour guide said that the Great Wall spans over 10,000 kilometres and it so big it can be seen from the moon.

We learnt it took more than 2000 years to build and protected China from its enemies.



When we arrived we couldn’t believe how big the wall was and how people could have built such a structure so many years ago.

It was unbelievable and we all felt so privileged to have the opportunity to climb it.

At the start of our climb we decided to perform our War Cry in our full Aboriginal SAASTA Academy playing kit, boots and all. This was such a proud moment. It was an amazing feeling to take our culture and dance to one of the world’s most special places. I felt just so lucky to be part of it.



We all climbed to the top of the Juyong Pass part of the Great Wall. It was a long, long way up and very steep at times. When we got to the top the views were spectacular. I took some great photos which will remind well into the future of this great experience.

We all carefully headed back down and before we left the boys bought some gifts from the souvenir shop. I bought my Nan and Poppa an ornament of the Great Wall which I know they’ll love. My Nan and Poppa have been looking after me in Adelaide over the last couple of years. I’m very close to them both and wanted to get them something special.



After our Great Wall visit we all jumped in the bus and headed to the Australian Embassy in Beijing for a special reception. We had a great time and we are all very grateful to the Australian Embassy for their hospitality.

When we got back to the hotel we held a special ceremony where the Academy players and staff exchanged gifts. We all individually selected someone and spoke about why they were important to us. I chose KT because, like I mentioned earlier, he has been such a huge support to me across my time at the Academy.



The ceremony was quite emotional because it was the last time we were going to be together as an Academy team. In saying that, we have all shared a great year together and we will definitely remain friends in the future.

This Academy experience has been great for my personal development. It has improved my leadership skills and made me review my goals and set the bar higher for the future. It also helped me focus on finishing my education and of course helped my football development because we all got access to the AFL resources at Port Adelaide.

As we finish our cultural exchange to China and our year in the Academy I want say thanks to SAASTA, Port Adelaide Football Club and EnergyAustralia for supporting this program, as well as UniSA and the Department for Prime Minister and Cabinet for making this trip to China a reality.