I love the smell of paint in the morning.
Hey everyone, this will be my account of the paintballing event we held in Qingdao last weekend, I hope you enjoy!
We set the meeting time at a modest 12pm to try and adjust for hangovers, this did not work for everyone. Three people were out of the battle before it even begun, with Qingdaoās nightlife to blame. š
After a quick lunch and bus ride to the north of Qingdao, our merry band of 14 arrived in a mountain park to find the paintball arena.
Usually in the west, paintballing is held in the woods in a very cordoned off area with purpose built huts etc. But in Qingdao paintballing is more like a warzone, here an old derelict complex of 2 story buildings was usedā¦ Health and safety officials would cry! But it was AWESOME, looking just like a scene from a computer game!
After we got suited , booted and armed with 200 bullets we set off into the fray for the first game ā one team would go into the buildings and hide, the second team would attack.
I was heading up the attacking team.
Remembering all the good battle movies, I split my team up so that we could surround our adversaries and swarm through the buildings. Stalking through the rubble I edged closer to the enemy, hugging the walls and feeling very SWAT-like as I swung around corners and cleared areas. All was quiet and I could hear the defending players whispering in the distance. I could smell their fearā¦
Shots suddenly starting echoing through the complex followed immediately by screams of players being redecorated, I pressed on in a pincer movement looping around the back of the enemy to pounce. I found their stronghold, went prone and crawled in on my belly, firing one shot straight between the eyes of the first person who spotted me, the others still unaware of my presence I dived through an old window, parachute rolled and took out another opponent cracking 3 paintballs into his visor quickly grabbing his gun as it fell blindly from his graspā¦ Bang Bang, I stood in the doorway behind the rest, rattling off a cloud of bullets with both guns, paint covering the walls leaving man shaped silhouettes. With the smell of emulsion in my nostrils I had taken out 4 more, sparing no one in my wake ā¦ā¦. Ok OK, actually that wasnāt how the first game went down at allā¦
1 minute into the game I was ducking down below a window, rising up to take out a player with 2 shots to the torso.. then realizing it was one of my own team, amidst my apologies I got shot right in the forehead and was out of the gameā¦
For the rest of the day we rotated through the areas and played capture the flag, 2nd floor assault with shields and a Mexican standoff.
One of the interns was also celebrating his birthday so we organised a rat run for himā¦ he had to sprint from one end of the pitch to the other whilst we all stood in a row like a firing squad but with one bullet eachā¦ he was so fast he only got hit by one, lucky!
Battered and bruised we finished the day by going for a big hotpot meal with beer, comparing battle scars and telling tales of heroism and courage.
Thanks for a great day guys! Looking forward to going back again in summer with a new set of interns!
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InternChina has planned some amazing trips and activities in the past, so I figured the first activity I plan would have to be a pretty great one. The majority of the interns in Zhuhai at the moment are boys, so paintballing was a pretty obvious choice!
We all met up at 2pm and got on the bus that took us straight there. One of the best things about China is the fact that the 40 minute bus ride only cost us each 2 rmb.
Before the event, everyone seemed to be pretty excited, and having never done paintballing before I was super excited as well. I knew that it would hurt if you get hit, but other than that I didn’t know too much about the game. To be honest, part of me just thought that you stand around and shoot people; I definitely did not at all realize it was so strategic! We split up into teams and headed out for our captains to tell us the battle plan, the captains of course being Philippe, and āCaptain Morganā. The other team quickly snatched up the brown body suits, which at the time I was pretty happy with because I thought the blue ones were cooler, but on the field it was virtually impossible to see them, whereas our team stuck out like a tiger among lions.
The rules of the game were that if you get hit, youāre out, and the last man standing has the winning team. Easy enough, right? I was not at all prepared for how it is out in battle, I actually though I would be pretty badass and had a vision of me standing in victory on a hill with everyone defeated on the ground covered in paint. Turns out, not so much – the second I saw someone pop out from behind a giant pile of dirt and aim their gun at me I hid behind a tree, and pretty much stayed there for the rest of the game. Bullets were flying everywhere! I didnāt see much of the action, but I hear that some of the others were pretty amazing. Although our team won the first game, Morgan was able to shoot Philippe straight in the face (revenge much?) But fair enough, when else can you shoot your boss in the face? Philippe also was in the middle of the action the whole time, running and sliding left and right across the field.
The brown team owned the next two rounds, they virtually slaughtered us. I thought I would be a lot more help if I didn’t hide behind a tree, but within seconds of trying to run to the other side I was hit and got the benefit of watching the rest of the game from the sidelines. I want to blame this on the fact that my mask was completely fogged up and impossible to see out of, but everyone had the same advantage in that department. The blue team put up a good fight, but Iām sure the fact that the brown teamās leader is American had something to do with their victory, Morganās competitive nature and her ability to use real guns was clearly nothing we could compete with.
Towards the middle to end of the games everyone was complaining that they were running out of paintballs and they all had to go buy more. I, on the other hand, had to stand in the field and start firing at the trees when the games were officially over; I must have had over 100 paintballs left. Pathetic.
Afterwards we all had had some refreshments and snacks. Philippe told everyone that the InternChina record is to pick up four peanuts horizontally with your chopsticks belongs to a Brit, and very quickly that is all that seemed to matter to everyone for the next half an hour ā everyone was attempting to break the record. A couple were able to pick up three at once, so still the record stands for four peanuts!
The day overall was amazing, but holding the heavy gun and running around in all the gear tired everyone out pretty quickly, so by the time we got off the bus back in JiDa everyone was ready to eat and go relax at home.
Would you like to join the interns exciting activities next time and have a great time? Then apply now emailĀ info@internchina.com or directly on ourĀ website