Prologue

We had less than three weeks to get used to the idea that we were going to China !

We received a call from our good friend, Amanda Reichel, on June 26. She was working for Concordial University and their Global Language Village program. The GLV sends American citizens to sites around the world to tour and teach English to, primarily, children. For more information, please see the GLV website.  It turns out that Concordia had expanded the Chinese program at the last minute, and a couple of teachers had dropped out. The end result was that they were a few teachers short. For some reason, Amanda thought of us! Kathleen and I had already been planning on taking a vacation up to Virginia to attend the wedding of one of Kathleen's cousins. After speaking to Amanda on the phone, Kathleen called me at work. She wanted to say that she had had a change of plans and was planning on going to China... She hoped I would join her ! Luckily, we had current passports from our 2001 trip to Bali, so, it was just a matter of making the necessary arrangements with my work, arranging for someone to take care of the house and animals, applying for Chinese Visas and getting our shots. A fast and furious two weeks later, we were on our way to China !

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Day 1:
Flight to China: Houston/San Francisco/Shaghai Continental Airlines
Arrive Shanghai/Checkin to Zhong Ya Hotel

Day 2:
Tour with Tony Luce
Tony's apartment
'modern' market
Jiujiao Chang Road Market (Nan Feng Art & Craft building)
Nanjing Road (Ru PeiPei Perls)
Bund
Evening: Chinese acrobats (not with group)

Day 3:
Drive/Suzhou (Venice of the East)
Fisherman Net Garden
Silk Factory

Day 4:
Drive/Hangzhou
Boat Cruise on Xi Hu (West Lake)

Day 5:
Hangzhou
Six Harmonies Pagoda
Longjing Village Tea Plantation
Old Town area
Flight to Guangzhou
Welcome dinner with GLV staff & officials in Guangzhou

Day 6-19:
Teaching in Guangzhou
Yucai Kindergarten
One afternoon off to tour Guangzhou
-Chen's Clan Temple
-Sun Yat-sen's Memorial Hall
-Perl River
Afternoon excursions to:
-'alley markets'
-Qingping Market (Peace market)

Day 20:
Finish teaching
Closing reception at school
Closing Dinner at Baiyunshan (Mount White Clouds)

Day 21:
Shopping and dinner with Calvin

Day 22:
Flight home: Continental Airlines
Hangzhou/Hong Kong/San Francisco/Houston/College Station
(32 hour 'day')
 

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In trying to decide on how to organize this report of our Global Language Village trip to China, I have decided not to make it strictly a day-by-day account. Rather, I thought I would simply give a series of stories and general impressions. I hope you enjoy this account.

Touring in China:

Though our trip to China began with that fateful phone call from Amanda Reichel, the actual vacation started with a drive to Tomball, Texas. We spent the night before our plane left with Kathleen's folks. The next morning Jerry drove us down to Houston Intercontinental and we hopped a United Airlines jet for the first leg of our journey. We flew from Houston to San Francisco, Then, after a 4 hour layover, we flew on directly to Shanghai, China.

Arriving in Shanghai (with its population of 14 million souls), our lessons on foreign culture began early. For instance, did you know that you have to stick your card access room key into a slot in the wall inside your hotel room before any of the electric lights will function ? We stumbled around in  the dark for quite a while before discovering that ! Also, the Chinese believe that the ultimate in comfort is a good hard bed. Because they care enough to show foreigners wonderful hospitality, they offered us the best beds available... and they were hard as a sheet of plywood ! The hard beds bothered us quite a bit the first night, but after that we slept like babies. Whether this was because of the superior comfort of the Chinese hard beds, or simply because we were totally exhausted from or daily grind is still a topic of serious debate.

One of our first impressions of China was of a nation rushing headlong to Modernize & Westernize. I was amazed at the scale of the building going on in the Shanghai/Gaungzhou area. The new skyscrapers are beautiful architecture; however, it also seemed that the Chinese people are rushing to become just like Americans. Of course, we were traveling in areas of China most affected by commerce and trading with the outside world. More than just about any other area of China, these cities are exposed to Westerners & Western culture. Still, everything, from architecture to music videos, from TV commercial to clothing & fashion, were Western. Many models for billboards and TV commercial were Caucasian, and even statues (those not of historical figures) were often obviously Caucasian ! The Chinese even value lighter skin as more beautiful than dark, as such you see many women and even men who will not venture outside on a sunny day without an umbrella. It bothered me greatly to see China trying so hard to leave their own culture behind and embrace ours.

Our first full day in Shanghai we left the other GLV participants to their own touring and called Tony Luce. Tony is the son of a a fellow teacher at Kathleen's school and one of our neighbors in College Station. Tony has been living in Shanghai for a few years. He speaks excellent Mandarin and earns a living teaching English to Chinese students. We brought him a CARE package from his folks. It was composed of size 14 shoes (hard to find in China), Ro-tel Tomatoes and Velveeta Cheese ! I could tell from this that we were going to get along fabulously !

Tony took us to the Bund (Chinese Wall Street),  Jiujiao Chang Road Market and the Nan Feng Art & Craft building, Nanjing Road and a 'modern' street market (where you could buy watches, T-shirts and sneakers). It was great fun running around with someone who knew the city ! Comparing notes with the GLV group, we also saw just about everything they did... but we moved at a much slower pace and were able to do much more shopping ! We enjoyed the Jiujiao Chang Road Market area so much that after saying farewell to Tony around 1:00, Kathleen and I went back there for more souvenir shopping ! I'm glad we bought so much onour first day in China. This was by far the best suvenier shopping we had onour entire trip. We bought tea pots, wood carvings, jade 'nested' balls, paper dragon kites ! It was wonderful. On our flight over we also ask one of our stewardes if she know where we might find perls. She gave us the business card of a shop (Ru PeiPei Perls) on Nanjing Road. We ended up buying about six strands of perls !

Touring with Tony we experienced our first Chinese subway and found it clean and nice. We also took our first Chinese taxi. Now, for those of you not familiar with Chinese taxis, I can only say this, before entering one, it is a good idea to either have a few beers under your belt, or carry a blindfold ! Chinese roads are filled with taxis, trucks, bicycles and motorcycles... not to mention pedestrians, and they are all moving in a chaotic frenzy  ! Traffic Lanes painted on the roadways can only be seen as 'suggestions', and even stoplights and stop signs are seldom heeded. We often passed within inches of pedestrians or other vehicles. Though we only saw two accidents while in China, we always felt as though we were taking our lives in our hands when we climbed into a taxi.

Especially in Shanghai, everyone seems to be in a hurry. One thing we saw and liked was that they have large digital timers next to all the traffic lights. These timers tell you just how long you have to wait before the light changes from red to green !

After spending the day touring with Tony, Kathleen and I went back to the hotel for a shower and then took a taxi out to a Chinese Acrobat show. This was a little different than I had expected. It was a combination of an acrobatic show and a circus. There were 'clowns', trained dogs, even a lion taming act ! Very strange ! We were hoping to meet up with the rest of the GLV tour group, but they evidently went to a different show than we did.

We could have spent several days exploring Shanghai (even though it is not exactly renowned as a tourist spot), but instead, our second full day in China, we hopped on a bus with the rest of the Global Language Village American teachers and set out to the garden towns of Suzhou & Hangzhou.  An old Chinese saying claims, "Heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below". These were beautiful cities. Suzhou is known as the "Venice of the East" due to the many canals running through the city. In Suzhou we visited the beautiful Fisherman Net Garden and a government owned silk factory. My mother, who visited China about 10 years ago, said the working conditions had certainly improved from the factory they visited.

In Hangzhou we took a boat cruise on the West Lake (Xi Hu), visited the Six Harmonies Pagoda and, just outside of town, visited the Longjing Village Tea Plantation. This might be a good point to talk about tea.... Though my mother has been a fan of hot tea for years, I never did really enjoy it. You can, however, hardly visit China without drinking LOTS of hot tea... and it grows on you. Kathleen and I bought our own tea cups and would start each morning in the school with a mug of hot tea. We visited tea shops and participated in 'Tea Ceremonies', what the Chinese refer to jokingly as 'Kung-Fu Tea', because of all the ritual involved. In a real tea ceremony you have three tea pots, a bowl and several tiny cups. You heat the water in an electric teapot, poor the hot water into a second teapot filled with leaves. Then, once it has steeped for a minute or so, you poor the finished tea into the third teapot which is then used to serve the tea into the tiny cups. I learned that you never serve or drink the first steeping. This first batch is used to 'wash' the tea leaves (supposedly, it gets rid of a lot of the bitterness). You can also use this hot tea to warm the secondary pots and the tea cups. We not only enjoyed the Chinese green tea, but also the ritual surrounding it. We brought quite a bit of tea back (no real problem with U.S. customs), but the way we are running through it, I'm not sure how long it will last !

Our fourth day in China was the last of our touring with the group. We left the rest of the GLV teachers about noon and headed for the Hangzhou airport for the 3 hour flight into Guangzhou. We were met at the airport by a pair of very cute Chinese tour guides and taken directly to our hotel. We had time to unpack and wash up and Kris, our GLV 'Dean' was knocking at our door to inform us that it was time to go to a welcome dinner. The dinner was attended by all the GLV/Guangzhou American teachers as well as the dean of the  Yucai Kindergarten where we would be teaching, the Guangzhou school district superintendent and the head of the Guangzhou Communist Party. The meal was wonderful ! We had been told that Guangzhou (which was once known as Canton) was renowned for their wonderful food, and we were not disappointed.

As a rule, the food we were served in China was excellent. There was, of course, lots of rice and noodles, but we were also given sweet and sour fish, barbecued fish, barbecued pork ribs, hot peppers and Soy Sauce, duck and eggs, shrimp and prawns, chicken prepared a dozen different ways ! As a rule, there were at least 10-14 different dishes served at each formal meal. Most meals included at least one soup, several vegetable dishes and at least half a dozen meats. All this was served on a great Lazy Susan in the middle of a round table. People sat around the table and simply served themselves by spinning the Lazy Susan and making their selections. We were often served tea, and occasionally beer, with meals, but this seems to have been a concession to the Americans. Chinese that we met seldom had a drink with their meals. I thought it was interesting that as long as we were eating in 'tourist' areas (restaurants, hotels, etc...) we always used chopsticks. But, in the school cafeteria, everyone, including the Chinese teachers, used knife & fork.

Of course, there were a few items which were new to our American palettes. We were offered duck tongue, fish scales, eel, octopus, squid-on-a-stick, snails, snake, pig & chicken feet and fried bull penis ! One particular Sechzuan dinner was served at a table with a boiling pot of soup in the center. You picked up a selection of food, skewered on sticks like a shish kabob, and dropped these into the soup to cook. There were sticks of beef, pork, chicken, bread, mushrooms, vegetables... as well as many items we had trouble identifying ! We were many different kinds of entrails... we politely drew the line on those, saying, 'it is not our custom'. Each skewer cost 1 yuan (about 12 cents). Our entire dinner for three, including a Coke and two quarts of beer, came to just under $3/American.

And they are Off: The School

We returned home to the hotel after our get-aquainted dinner and were in bed by 10:30... 7:00 A.M. the following morning we were at the school for breakfast. We hit the ground running and never slowed down for the next 15 days ! Our normal daily schedule was to be at the school at 7:30 for breakfast. At 8:00 our first class began. Normally, we would write in our class journals, have a language lesson and a state visit (I'll explain these in a minute). We would wind up the morning at 11:30 when we broke for lunch. The American teachers were then off from 12:00-2:30. We returned at 2:30 and taught right up till 5:30 when we broke again for dinner. After dinner the teachers had a staff meeting and returned for an 'evening program that lasted until 8:30. As a rule, we were back in our hotel by 9:30.... and in bed by 10:00. Tis was a boarding school, so our students bathed and slept right in the school.

We were originally told that we would be teaching 6-7 year old children.... However, the one thing you have to be in China is flexible ! Between arriving in Guangzhou and beginning our first day's class, plans changed at least four times. We ended up teaching a class of 16 student. They ranged in age from 7 to 14 and in ability from those who could not speak a word of English to several who would have had no trouble in an American school. The youngsters were intimidated to be in a class with the older students, and the older guys were frustrated to be moving at the pace required by the young ones !

General Impressions:
 
 

2002	Shanghai, Guangzhou China
Touring: Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Guangzhou
	Shanghai: People will sleep anywhere. This couple was sound asleep between the stairs and glass wall in a train station.
	Shanghai: Traditional Chinese archetecture was side by side with modern high rises.
	Shanghai: Though he does not seem to be thought of as highly today as in the past, portraits and statues of Mao are still very much in evidence.
	Shanghai: On the lighter side: Street vendors proved that Capitalism, as well as humor is alive and well in China !
	Shanghai: A walk down the 'pedestrian mall' or Nanjing Road, shows how much China is rushing to "Westernize".
	Shanghai: Nanjing Road
	Shanghai: The Bund is the Chinese equivalent of Wall Street.
	Suzhou: The Garden City
	Suzhou: Characteristic of many Chinese gardens, Fisherman Net Garden is quite beautiful.
	Suzhou: We loved the traditional grass and stone patios.
	Suzhou: Fisherman Net Garden
	Suzhou: Fisherman Net Garden
	Suzhou: Fisherman Net Garden
	Suzhou:  Fisherman Net Garden
	Suzhou: Silk Factory The first step is to sort the cacoons.
	Suzhou: Silk Factory Then you must soak the cacoons in hot water.
	Suzhou:  Silk Factory Finally, you must find the end of the silk thread and unwind the cacoon onto a spindle.
	Suzhou:  Silk Factory
	Suzhou:  Silk Factory
	Suzhou:  Silk Factory
	New buildings use bamboo scafolding and are wrapped in tarps.
	Hangzhou:  Six Harmonies Pagoda
	Hangzhou:  Six Harmonies Pagoda
	Hangzhou:  Six Harmonies Pagoda
	Hangzhou:  Six Harmonies Pagoda
	Hangzhou: Tea Plantation
	Hangzhou: Tea Plantation
	Hangzhou: Tea Plantation
	Hangzhou: Tea Plantation
	Hangzhou: Tea Plantation Once the tea is picked, it must be dried in a giant wok over a wood fire.
	Hangzhou: Tea Plantation The statue is of the 'Master of the Tea'.
	Hangzhou: Tea Plantation Tea Tasting room. We learned many traditions which may, or may not, be true.
	Hangzhou: Tea Plantation I'm a little tea pot' ???!
	Hangzhou: Humorous Street signs.
	Hangzhou: Humorous Street signs.
	Hangzhou: American culture (and fast food) is everywhere. KFC, McDonald's, 7-11 were on every corner. Is this what the West has to offer China !?
	Hangzhou: Old Town pedestrian shopping area
	Hangzhou: We were told that these homes were for well to do farmers. Many looked like they had come straight out of Disneyland. Colors were beautiful.
	Guangzhou: Chen's Clan Temple
	Guangzhou: Chen's Clan Temple
	Guangzhou: Chen's Clan Temple Beautifully carved wooden door.
	Guangzhou: Chen's Clan Temple Fabulous Bonzai garden.
	Guangzhou: Chen's Clan Temple Ivory carvings The carved ball at the top had 43 layers.
	Guangzhou: Chen's Clan Temple Ivory carvings
	Guangzhou: Sun Yat-sen's Memorial Hall
	Guangzhou: Sun Yat-sen's Memorial Hall
	Guangzhou: Sun Yat-sen's Memorial Hall
	Guangzhou: Sun Yat-sen's Memorial Hall
	Guangzhou: Sun Yat-sen's Memorial Hall I photographed this beautiful little plaque in a formal garden. Later I was able to have it translated. It read: "Keep off the grass"
	Guangzhou: Night street market
	Guangzhou: Modern Street Market
	Guangzhou: More Street Markets
	Guangzhou: More Street Markets
	Guangzhou: More Street Markets
	Guangzhou: More Street Markets
	Guangzhou: Typical street vegetable market
	Guangzhou: Typical restaurant. You were often allowed to choose your own dinner from displays of live animals: eel, fish, snakes, lobster, crab, turtles, shellfish, shrimp & prawns, water beetles.
	Guangzhou: Typical restaurant.
	Guangzhou: Typical restaurant.
	Guangzhou: A 'typical' formal dinner, a round table and a lazy susan.
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market) You could buy both food and medicinals here. Things such as dried starfish, snake, scorpion and centipedes. You could by roots and spices. We could identify possibly 1/3 of these products. Many we couldn't even identify as to plant, animal or mineral !
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market) Dried snakes
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market)
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market)
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market)
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market)
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market)
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market)
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market)
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market)
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market)
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market)
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market)
	Guangzhou: Qingping Market (Peace market)
	Guangzhou: We realized that the blue-uniformed street sweepers were petty criminals doing their community service. This group was often caught taking an afternoon nap
	Guangzhou: Skyscrapers reached 'as far as the eye could see'. Of course, with the terrible air polution, that was not always very far.
	Guangzhou: Rooftoop gardens were very popular.
	Guangzhou: China was full of very modern, and very beautiful buildings.
	Guangzhou: China was full of very modern, and very beautiful buildings.
	Guangzhou: Raised highways bisected every large city.
	Guangzhou: But it still maintaned classic Chinese areas.
	Classic Chinese Style !
	Classic Chinese Style !
	Classic Chinese Style !
	China is an amazing combination of the Old & New.
The School: Yucai Kindergarten, Guangzhou
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages Closing Ceremony
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages Closing Ceremony
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages Closing Ceremony
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages Closing Ceremony
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages Closing Ceremony Kids are the same all over.
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages Closing Ceremony And so are their parents !
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages Closing Ceremony
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages Closing Ceremony
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages Closing Ceremony
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages Closing Ceremony
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages Closing Ceremony
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages Closing Ceremony
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten We intriduced the children to 'Crab Ball'... It was a hit.
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Crab ball... I thought we should have named it 'Calvin Ball' in honor of our Chinese teaching assistant, Calvin. (and in honor of the 'Calvin & Hobbes' comic strip)
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten The school grounds included a small 'petting zoo', two swimming pools, a castle (complete with maze), a koi pond, a computer & science building. In addition, a new 7 story building was under construction next door !
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten How many American kindergartens do you know with two pools ?
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Fabulous landscaping
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Many different types of playground equipment. This was definately a 'rich' showcase school.
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Our class: ages 7-14 !
GLV Participants: American Teachers
	Hangzhou: This is the entire GLV group who toured in the Shanghai area. The following afternoon we scattered to our respective sites.
	Guangzhou: This was the only picture I got of our entire American teaching staff.
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages closing ceremony
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Our Chinese teaching assistants:  Mini. Bob Brooks, Kathleen Brooks & Calvin
	Guangzhou: Yucai Kindergarten Concordia Global Language Villages closing ceremony Kathleen with the dean of the kindergarten
	Guangzhou: Our teaching assistant, Calvin and his cousin.
	Guangzhou: Kathleen, Calvin and his cousin.
	Guangzhou: Calvin and his cousin, along with their grandmother.