Hila City

At 8:00 we were waiting out by the fountain in front of Warner.  By 8:15 we had 7 vans full of kids ready to head to Tianjin to go to Hila City.  Hila City has 61 venues providing more than 100 occupations for children. Children can earn virtual money through their work. They can save this virtual money, use it to invest, or go shopping and enjoy the harvest received from hard work. 

Once at Hila City we were suppose to contact Ms. Yao.  Another parent had called last week to let her know a big group of Westerners would be at the museum.  She offered to give us a 20% discount.  I called her and a few minutes later she came.  Just then a huge bus pulled up full of kids.  That lady cut in front of us so they dealt with her first.  We were kind of ticked about that.  But as it turned out it would not have mattered.  It took us 30 minutes to pay.  Ms. Yao wanted us to pool all our money to give to her instead of each paying for their own kids.  That was impossible.  It was 176 rmb ($28) and no one had correct change.  Mom's had 1, 2, 3, or 4 kids.  Ms. Yao finally agreed to let each one of us pay.  Once we paid we couldn't get in the door because we didn't have a passport.  No one gave us one.  Back to the first counter.  Those people said we didn't need one.  Back to the door.  Again, the girl asked us for the passport.  By this time our voices were getting a little louder because we were very irritated.  It should not have been this hard or took 30 minutes to get inside a children's museum.  They finally just let us go and we were ready to explore.

Waiting for our whole group...24 kids and 11 adults.

Super cute Chinese New Year sign.

Cameron's girlfriend.

Cameron, Alejandro, Alfredo, Tobias, and Ainsley waiting patiently.

The big boys took off to the commando activity first.  It was sort of like laser tag but the boys were not impressed.  Each activity is suppose to be 45 minutes but some get over quicker than others.  But the activities only start at a certain time.  So the boys ran around trying to find an activity they to do.  The ones they wanted were full or started already. This went on until 2:00.  They would just find an activity and do it whether it was exciting or not.  They did:
1.  Commando

Alfredo, Ryley, and Cameron waiting to go to Commando.

All the groups had to go to the flag ceremony.  All of these kids except
the two Chinese were from TEDA.

Harper and Hadley watching.  Alejandro and
Ainsley were behind them.

Cute group of Chinese kids watching the Chinese flag being raised.

The boys dressed in camo.

I never want to see him dressed like this for real.
But he is cute as a soldier.

2.  UBS Delivery (instead of UPS)

Waiting for instructions.

Ryley and Cameron are making deliveries. 
The paint on their face is from commando.

The boys were great delivery people.

3.  Weather station

Waiting for the Weather station to open.

They had to put rain clothes on.

They gave Cameron tiny little boots and expected
them to fit.  He put them on as best he could.

Quite a let down.  They went in, it rained on them for
about 30 seconds, and they were done.  It took them longer
to get dressed and undressed than anything.

4.  Power Authority

They weren't too impressed with this one either.  They had to try
and make a circuit to make a light turn on.

5.  Hila Airport (Flight simulator)

I'm not sure I would feel safe if these were my pilots.

Hadley, Julia,Olivia, and Harper were the flight attendants. 
Todd was the photo bomber.

Trying to sleep before his flight.

After the activities the kids decided they wanted to drive Segway type vehicles.  They had the most fun on these.  It was 2:30 and everyone in our group was ready to leave.  Hindman's went home and us and Carrasco's went to lunch at Texas BBQ.  After lunch we went back to TEDA.  We watched the Super Bowl Commercials and then watched Like Mike. Then went to bed.

Cameron would love to have one of these.

Does anyone else think my kid looks huge?