On the street where we live......

I think it must be time to talk about our luxurious retirement housing.  We live on campus in the University Faculty housing area in a gated community with a security guard 24/7.  The gate is really about serious security but not the kind of gated community that you were expecting. 

Chinese professors are expected to be accessible to students whenever they might need support so on-campus housing for staff and faculty is provided as part of a professor’s salary. We live in a one-bedroom apartment among families with two bedrooms and one child. It really does have that dormitory feel with a whopping 360 square feet of living space on the second floor of an eight-story building. 

 Master Bedroom

 Office area for both in one tiny room

 Living room, exceptionally comfortable furniture, even the two inch foam padding doesn't help.

 Kitchen table, love the bamboo, it has a college dorm appeal.

 Two burner stove and a bar sink completes the kitchen.

This sterilizes the dishes after they are washed in Guangzhou water.

 Shower

 Shower room that is equipped with a toilet and sink all in one tiny room, shower and faucet on the left.  

 Our water is delivered every week, never thought I would have my own water cooler.

 Double metal green security doors.

 Small capacity front load washer

 Mother nature built in dryer

 Yes, we do have air conditioning!

And a heater to plug in just incase we might get cold.

New golden brocade drapes and valance hanging on our sliding glass door.

We have garbage pick up twice daily, once early in the morning and once in the evening, I bet you can figure our why.

 All university employees are subject to the Chinese One-Child Policy so two bedrooms are the capacity of the family apartments.  I asked our Department Chair what would happen if a professor had two children how that would be accommodated.  Peter promptly told us if he had two children he would loose his job and his housing, and still be required to pay the hefty fine.  Government employees are expected to follow the rules and laws to the letter of the law, no exceptions! So really there will not be a need for a three-bedroom apartment for professors because they would no longer be professors! 

There are campus cafeterias called canteens for students and faculty, campus grocery stores, school supplies, bakery, pretty much everything a student would need could be found on campus.

 Long lines at the campus bakery every morning.

We are comfortable and love the Guangzhou weather now.  It has been in the 80s with lots of sun and clear skies.  I hope it lasts for six months! 

The streets on campus are packed with bicycles.  Students ride their bikes to class, students are not allowed to have cars, only faculty members drive cars on campus.  I confessed to my students last week that my biggest fear since arriving on campus was being hit by a bicycle.  They fly down the hill by our housing complex and it is dangerous to cross the street when you have to dodge the bicycles. Walking on campus at night is safe, except for bicycles, they do not have lights and they zoom past you within a few inches before you can hear they are approaching.  Pedestrians have no rights, we are at the bottom of the mobility list so bicyclists expect you to dodge around them and never slow down or stop.  Sidewalks are safe but crossing the street presents its own set of dangerous circumstances.  We see at least two bicycle crashes a day and hope and pray not to be come a bicycle statistic! 

And then there was one......

Just as the work part begins to get heavy duty our trusty MacBook Pro begins to blink, I mean really blink.  It was flashing lights and making sounds that could be considered an alien landing, then the screen went black.  Not a good sign, I am sure. I knew it was a risk to hope it would last for yet another year and Jessica dutifully warned me that it was beginning to show signs of "old age."  Ever the optimist I was hopeful that we could squeeze one more year out of it in China.  I did however make a new computer purchase just before we left for China on the outside chance that the MacBook Pro might not make it.  I was ready to admit defeat and limp along with one computer.  

Sunday night my nephew Keith called to say he would be in Hong Kong on business for a week.  We were excited for a good excuse to go to Hong Kong and Keith had just provided that for us. Craig and I both have clear schedules on Wednesday so we decided to take a quick trip to Hong Kong to see Keith.  On Monday night it occurred to me that there was an Apple Store in both Hong Kong and ShenZhen, I should make an effort to take my black computer screen to the Genius Bar to see if any magic could be done.  I made an attempt to schedule an appointment at the Genius Bar however, not being able to read Mandarin proved to be a stumbling block.  I was unable to schedule an appointment at either location.  We decided that ShenZhen would be less crowded than Hong Kong so Keith made arrangements to meet us there.  

Craig and I left Guangzhou on the train to Hong Kong with our computer and high hopes that a small miracle could be ours.  We dutifully filled out the departure cards from China and the arrival cards to Hong Kong, got the appropriate stamps on our passports then met Keith to hop on the metro for the Apple Store.  Interesting fact, the Apple Store in ShenZhen is designed exactly like all other Apples stores; the products are displayed in the same order the big difference being that the employees only speak Mandarin or Cantonese.  That's where Keith steps up to help massage the trauma, he skillfully explained the symptoms and before we knew it they were running a diagnostic on the MacBook Pro.  More that I had hoped for but that is a bonus! Through Keith’s skillful translation from the Apple employee to us, I am sure it looked like a tennis match back and forth English to Chinese, Chinese to English with lots of technical terminology being thrown around we left the computer to have them work on it for about two hours. 

Keith did try to improve our Chinese skills on the metro, we had a pen but not paper so immersion Chinese at its finest on Keith's hand would be the crash course we would get to navigate the day.

Lunch with Keith is always entertaining, however this lunch was better than most.  Keith picked a Japanese restaurant in the area, it was a delicious treat to say the least only to be surpassed by the conversation.  We had many questions about China and surviving, I am sure it was highly entertaining for Keith.  He is a great sport to take care of his senior relatives!

The phone call came before we had finished to pick up the computer.  We all raised our eyebrows about just what that could mean.  When we arrived at the Apple store they had installed snow leopard operating system on the computer and suddenly it was able to update all the programs that previously had been unable to update and a small miracle was ours! I opened the laptop, small problem, it was all written in Chinese! A few more quick tweaks and we are happy campers on our way to the metro with a working computer in tow.  Thank you Keith.

Let the Work Begin

Late September and early October are difficult times for education in China.  The holidays seem to run together and bump school and education right out of the formula.  Now, however, with the Moon Festival and Golden Week celebrating Chairman Mao are behind us, it is time to for the work of educating Chinese students to begin.

Craig and I both have seven scheduled classes of Master's candidates.  Two classes of 35+ students from the graduate school on Monday, one each on Tuesday, two on Thursday and two on Friday, approximately 250 students each.    Each class period is two hours long.  Students arrived at SCUT early in September to take the English Exam to determine their placement, the results of their exam would place them in either the "A" class or more advanced English,  or the "B"class would be intermediate English.  We were given the "A" students with the large numbers of students in the classes.  For many students this is their first experience to have a Foreign Teacher.  We have several students who have elected to add in as a audit student just to participate with a Foreign Teacher.  Each student will receive a grade at the end of this semester. Each class has cameras for monitoring not only the class but also the teacher, I am told they do that regularly with the Foreign Teachers.  You have to keep an eye on the Foreigners!

Attendance, tardies, behavior are never a problem.  Students arrive early and stay late just to have a conversation with you. They stand when speaking in class and respond respectfully to every question.  I have been able to make them laugh a few times but they are on the whole very serious students. Most of my students are engineering majors, with a wide range of engineering titles.  They understand that being able to speak English well will propel them automatically into a higher paying job category.  They all have a very impressive memorized vocabulary and read English well from a script so the part we have been working on is oral communication.  Giving directions, explaining, asking/answering questions, syntax and diction.  I have heard some very interesting pronunciation.

 I gave an assignment to watch an English movie  over the weekend, preferably without subtitles. They are able to purchase any mover, first run that are in theaters now or historical anytime on the street.   I put them in small groups to discuss their movie reviews or critiques.  It was great to listen to them and the impressions they have about America from the movies.  They also give oral reports on current events every day.  They have absolutely had a great time with the U.S. Government Shutdown at the expense of the U. S. Government.  Words like "ungovernable," "on the brink of disaster" and "U.S. losing creditably, no longer a super power" were in the newspaper everyday. Hard to defend ridiculous behavior internationally.

I have to say I love working with students, it has been a great experience to learn about the Chinese school system, listen to students explain the exam system and the ranking of students and universities that is done by the Chinese Government. I think Chinese students work very hard and are very appreciative of the opportunity to attend a university.  They are amazed at a smile or any small kindness or understanding gesture I have shared with them.

 Notice the one-to-one computer ratio in each classroom.  Every student has access to a computer at their desk.  They use headsets to communicate with students for two reasons, to keep the noise level down and to allow the teacher-student communication to be private to cut the risk of a student loosing face with an audible classroom answer.

Silk Road Trip

October 1st in China is a National Holiday celebrating the official creation of the Communist State by Mao Tse Tung.  Everything closes for seven days, similar to our National Holiday on July 4th.  Schools were all closed and the entire country travels during that week.  We took the opportunity to travel the Silk Road.
We flew to Urumqi in the northwest border of China, about 1,000 miles from Pakistan.  This area is 90% Chinese Muslim immigrants called Ughurs from the bordering countries.  It is easy to pick out the ethnic minorities, it hardly seemed like we were still in China, bright colors, middle eastern spices and smells and crowds everywhere.  The city is very modern, 9 million people, huge international airport and a city center that seems like any US city, lots of cars, banks and hotels.  There was a Communist square across the street from our hotel where people gather in the evening dancing

Tai Chi and just hanging out.  The evening was nice and cool but the daytime was hot, hot, hot.

Turpan was the next stop on the Silk Road.  Flamming Mountain, Jiaohe Ancient City, and the ancient underground irrigation system were the stops along the path.  This area is packed with history of establishing Buddhism and the travels of nomads from India to China, invasions and warring parties destroying each others establishments.  A donkey cart ride out to the ancient sights that were somehow preserved around the tribal conquests and the cultural revolution was the transportation for the day. The structures have a strong Islam influences with domes along with Buddha shrines inside.

The number one agricultural crop of grapes, purple, blue, green, seeds, no seeds any kind of grape you can think of is grown here.  The interesting twists however is that most of the grapes are dried into raisins, they have built drying houses for their fruit to keep them from direct exposure to the sun that splits the skin.  Raisin markets are on every corner in the village all run by the locals.

The adventure of the day however turned out to be an overnight sleeper train to Dunhaung.  I can now add that to my resume.  We arrived at the train station on our tour bus at about 9:30pm to board an 11:30pm train to arrive the next morning at 8:00am.  A Chinese sleeper train turned out to be a story to tell for another day.  TOO FUNNY TO TELL-TOO MUCH INFORMATION FOR NOW!

Dunhuang offered the Disneyland effect.  We were scheduled to see Sound Sand Mountain and the Mogao Grottos, which happens to be a UNESCO site, along with at least 2 million other tourists. The Buudha history comes alive when the huge collection of over 1,000 Buddhas and their survival story is related.  Interestingly the majority of the Buddhas again have been preserved predominantly because they are so remote and removed from any access outside the Silk Road.  Some were stolen or purchased by Russians, Germans and Italians much before the value of this site was realized. The constant struggle between the Muslims and Buddhism is demonstrated on the walls of the Mogao Grottos.  Clearly this is a world renown discovery.

Who would not want to take a camel ride?  There were a few brave souls that stepped forward to ride camels on the sand dunes that hot afternoon after spending the morning inside the cool Mogao Grottos.  Somehow it really did begin to seem like Disneyland, parking was an absolute nightmare, our bus actually had a fender bender in the parking lot.  The National Holiday really did step up the tourism and the traffic.  It was most demonstrated in the camel ride, it was merely get on the camel, get in the camel line and follow along for the prescribed ride as the camels seem to tromp along the beaten path.  I had never noticed how big camels feet are until I watched them in the sand.  They need to have huge feet to keep their footing in the sand.  The sand is constantly on the move even along the beaten path.

To date almost every site has tied into the Asian Folklore story of "The Monkey King."  I am still a little unclear about the line between fact and fantasy on this, however we are told there have been movies made, books written and all Chinese children understand the folklore about Monkey King. Our tour guide related the story several times, each with a different perspective as it related to the site we were visiting.  I need to do some research on this event and I hope to begin tomorrow with my students to see what their understanding of  "The Monkey King" is and how it all fits together. I really would like to purchase a book about "The Monkey King. "

Save the best for last was exactly what happened on this trip, last stop Xi'an,  home of the Terra Cotta Warriors. The is beyond belief, Emporer Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unify China in 221 BC created an entire army of 7,000 warriors, their armor, chariots and horses to be placed in his tomb upon his death. Those life size pieces were discovered in 1974 and excavation began in 1976.  An entire site of acres is preserved with the continuing excavation work for this site.  It is overwhelming to see the before, present and yet to be discovered as this work in progress portrays the power of a ruling emperor. 

 It is an amazing experience to observe the parallels between ancient societies. We have been fortunate to see ancient ruins in Israel, Italy, Mexico, South America and now China, all different continents but historically linked through the history of their preserved historical religious history. Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hinduism all play out on the world stage at the same time but in different places.  I was very curious to understand  the use of AD ad BC time declarations in a Buddhist/Hindu dominated country.  But there it was and clearly stated in the historical information, archives dated AD and BC.The parallels are very strong as all rising civilizations all around the world struggled to establish their own religious dominance.