Language, culture and adventure await 30 students from Carisbrooke College and the Island VI Form as they prepare to depart for China on a once in a lifetime MFL trip. The students – who all studied Mandarin Chinese at Carisbrooke – will spend 11 days in October travelling overland to four Chinese cities via key sites along the way.

Trip leader and Mandarin teacher Joe Briscoe said: "Schools have always brought a world of opportunity to their students, but it is now even more essential that those schools also take their students out into that world. Although this trip is designed to ensure our learners use their Mandarin skills to communicate, it has also been carefully constructed to offer a range of life experiences and provide first-hand knowledge to complement their studies in history, geography and RE."

Carisbrooke College, which last year won the School Travel Organiser's My Best School Trip award for their history trip to Vietnam, hopes to provide yet another life-changing experience for students this time. Students will visit the bustling, modern city of Shanghai, explore the ancient capital of Xi'an and the communist stronghold of Yan'an before finally ending up in Beijing. Rather than opting for internal flights, students will traverse the vast country using coaches and overnight sleeper trains, giving learners as many opportunities to use their language skills and experience the culture as possible.