The National Holiday at the White Swan Hotel

The 66^th Anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the People’s Government of Guangdong Province held their celebration at the fourth floor Grand Ballroom in the White Swan Hotel. We were fortunate enough to receive an invitation. 

 

Located on the historical Shamian Island, overlooking the famed Pearl River and facing the White Swan Pool, the White Swan Hotel remains an oasis of tranquility from the hustle and bustle of this busy city.

 The main building has the height of 34 stories. The exquisitely beautiful Atrium lobby is an indoor microcosm of the famed landscapes of Southern China. Here waters abound, with a veil-like cascade and a spectacular rockery. Atop the rockery sits an elegant Chinese pavilion, octagon-shaped, with its richly ornate gold top, and a profusion of luxuriant vegetation and flowers.

White Swan Hotel own 843 guest rooms involved standard rooms, deluxe suites and executive floor. Any of them been designed with full consideration to let our customers feel the thoughtful and comfortable during the stay.

Restaurants in White Swan Hotel offering a wonderful variety of Chinese and Western food spread over the public areas from the first floor to the third floor. The Jade River Restaurant, Banquet Hall, Coffee Shop, Grill Room, Provincial Restaurant and Japanese Restaurant serve excellent dishes in an elegant ambience with river view. The International Convention Center is equipped with sound and recording facilities as well as simultaneous translation equipment. This is the ideal venue for international conferences, meetings, receptions and exhibitions. The hotel also offers a chain of hardware and services from laundry to the entertainment.

White Swan Hotel keeps the constant international standard high level service from the very beginning till now, that makes hotel become the first choice for the customers no matter with business or leisure in Canton.

Since opening on February 6, 1983, the Guangzhou White Swan Hotel has received over 40 heads of state and government, including Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, President Bush of the United States, and Chancellor Kohl of Germany.^[1]

The hotel closed down for renovations during three years and reopened on July 15, 2015.

All of the hotel's 520 rooms and suites are equipped with full-size desks, color televisions, refrigerators, and individual climate controls.

The White Swan's Jade River Restaurant, with its garden decor, is noted for its Cantonese cuisine.

Many American families who adopt children from China stay at the White Swan while in Guangzhou awaiting visa paperwork. A children's story book THE WHITE SWAN EXPRESS is based on this.

The hotel was accepted as a member of "The Leading Hotels of the World" on July 1, 1985, and awarded five stars by the Chinese Government in February 1990.

The White Swan Hotel topped "China's 50 best hotels" in 1996. It was named "China's best well-known hotel' in 2008.

 Lobby Decor

 Lobby

  Ice sculptures in the ball room

 Official  Chinese Government Delegation

Guangzhou Experiences

We are fortunate to have two other couples sharing this experience at University Housing with us at South China University of Technology. Sue and Rick Parker are from Pocatello, ID and Michelle and Larry Cooke are from Laramie, WY.  Both couples are fun and ready for this adventure.  We have dragged them around the city this weekend to experience all the sights and sounds of what 15 million people look like in one location. Not one of us can speak much more that ten words of Mandarin but we are able to navigate the metro, the bus system and the streets to get where we set out to go.  That is not to say it is without incident and many “charades” to entertain the local Chinese population! We did lose The Cookes the first day on the metro; Larry’s arm got caught in the subway door as it slammed shut.  Thankfully he was able to back out and not be dragged down the track.  He did complain later about his fingernails.  Larry is a classical guitarist and takes very good care of his fingers.  He chipped a nail on his first trip on the subway, so we spent the next day trying to find a salon he trusted to repair the chip so he could continue to play his guitar and mandolin, both of which he hand carried to China!

We are in for an interesting experience again this year.  I have to say it is the people you march along with that have the impact on your experience. 

 Rick and Sue Parker, Michelle and Larry Cooke

 Shamian Island Concert in the Park

 Canton Tower between the Guangzhou Opera House

Former Students

   

Thank you Gary and Michael

 

 

 

As we started our exercise routine, a 3.5-mile walk around the lake in the middle of the campus we ran into several of our students from 2013-14.  It was great fun to see them and hear about their academic success.  In China it takes three years to complete a Master’s Degree.  First year was the year we worked with in 2013-14, they have classes scheduled all day long, second year they are required to spend seven hours every day in the lab with their research, third year they use to actually write their thesis based on the course work and the results of their laboratory evidence.  The students we worked with in 2013 are now in their third year beginning to assimilate their research into a thesis document. Some are madly trying to finalize their research, some are writing and some are in the last phase of submission to their Master’s Committee. 

They will begin the job interview process in late November.  They are beginning to realize that they could become employed by early spring.  Gary, one of my students wants to continue his education and is applying to university in the U.S and U.K. for a PhD. Michael hopes to get a government job close to Guangzhou.

Michael and Gary took us to the university faculty canteen for Cantonese Saturday Dim Sum.  It was really quite delightful.  We were told to just order what we liked, so we browsed through the offerings and returned to the table with six steam baskets.  Michael promptly got up and went back to pick up two more baskets, one his personal Dim Sum favorite, chicken feet and a second one we didn’t ask about.  Just the appearance made me think I didn’t want to know what it was. 

What a great way to begin 2015, our classes begin on Monday!

A Return to China -2015

When the question came to us in January 2015, would we consider returning to China, I think we were so flattered that we would be asked to return we hastily committed to one semester at South China University of Technology.  It didn’t take but a couple of weeks to begin questioning our decision! We quickly moved from “we can do this” to “what were we thinking!”  We spent the spring and summer preparing both emotionally and physically to return to China. 

There is a certain advantage and confidence knowing when you arrive you can get water, ramen noodles, watermelon, and saltine crackers. Guangzhou, China is a mere 15 million people and navigating the metro is a fete to accomplish, we already have that down! Recognizing the faculty and staff at SCUT is a huge advantage. We are ready to hit the ground running!

In the process we discovered that we would be assigned the same faculty apartment of 350 square feet, two burners plus a microwave, beautiful yellow brocade drapes in each room, a small washer that takes at least two hours to wash a load and no dryer, 90 degrees with 88% humidity! What’s not to like about that?

With experience under our belts this time the packing process was quite different!  We made several Costco runs and for the first time really appreciated the large quantities we were able to purchase.  Microwave popcorn, protein bars, hot chocolate, almonds, cashews, Nutella, beef jerky, Acai berries (dried), all the goods that we could think of for a luxurious China experience. This time one whole 50-pound suitcase was devoted to food.  Life will be better this time around.

Lhasa, Base Camp Mt. Everest, Kathmandu......

The Kennedy International Center offered the China Teachers an opportunity to take a trip at the end of second semester to Lhasa, Tibet, the base camp of Mt. Everest and Kathmandu, Nepal. It was hard hard to pass up an opportunity like that, so we signed up, applied for our permit and took advantage of this opportunity.  Now we can say we are so glad we went and survived the trip and it is most definitely a trip not a vacation, not for the weak or faint hearted! 

Our guide picked us up at the Lhasa airport on Friday, June 20; our flight was three hours late arriving after two false starts and a one-hour delay on the runway in Guangzhou.  Interestingly enough no one mentioned passenger rights as we sat on the runway.

It was very exhausting, the elevation was 17,322 feet or 5280 meters at the summit.  I wish I had a calculation of the oxygen or lack there of.  It seemed that we were moving in slow motion all the time.  It took such a long time to climb, one foot in front of the other- step by step.  The least amount of over exertion resulted in a killer headache.  Slow and steady was the pace. 

Our hotel offered oxygen bottles on the dresser as we checked in, we decided to take it easy the first night in Lhasa, get a good nights rest and see what we felt like on the second day.  Fortunately we were able to sleep on the hard Chinese beds without additional oxygen so the second day started well, not the case with Jim and Karen Fisher our upstairs traveling friends.  Karen was physically ill from the second day through the eighth day when we reached a lower elevation. 

We walked slowly from our hotel to the Jokhang Temple and walked Barkhor Street in the morning.  Probably the most notable event was the religious pilgrims delivering the Yak butter in liter thermos containers to be burned in the Temple.  The floors were slippery, the stairs were slippery; everything was coated in Yak butter. The pilgrims walk clockwise around the Buddha stupa every morning and evening 108 times with Buddha beads to keep track of the number of times they circle the temple.  Several pilgrims prostrate before the temple to demonstrate their devoutness.  It reminded me of jumping jacks to watch them stand up, keel down, prostrate their position on the ground then get up again.  Try 108 of those each morning and night, no wonder they can walk and not be weary and not faint!

The Potala Palace was the highlight of the stop.  We spent the whole day hiking and climbing the stairs up and down.  We are allowed into the Dali Lama’s residence and the Buddha Stupa that holds the ashes of several deceased Lamas.  This palace has been added on by each Lama including the current 14^th now in exile.  Each wall was at least six feet thick and by some miracle was preserved from the Great Cultural Revolution. It has a dormant feeling when you are inside.  Although there are Monks who still live there, there is not a feeling of activity or life that was present in other palaces or temples. Our guide’s explanation of the exile of the 14^th Dali Lama has had an impact on the remaining Monks.  They can be seen playing video games on their phones and doing daily routines without much purpose.  It is sad to see what has happened without their Dali Lama. 

We left Lhasa to our next destination Mt. Everest Base Camp along the Tibetan Border.  We got up from our hotel in Shigatze at 5:30AM so we could be in position to see Mt. Everest as the sun broke on the peaks.  It was absolutely breathtaking to witness.  The Himalayas were completely snow covered with glaciers in the crevices as the sun came up.  We live in a beautiful world and this was a sight to behold indeed. Once we were off the Friendship Highway on the dirt road, it was a 4-hour drive to get to the Tourist Base Camp.  The road was dirty, washboard ruts, very narrow, so much so that when we did meet a vehicle coming down the mountain, one vehicle must stop and pull as far to the side as possible to allow passage.  Very scary drops on the roadside at that elevation. The highest speed topped out at about 25 MPH.  It was a good thing we left early because this would take us all day! After a very tense dirty four hours we arrived at the Base Camp.  I have heard stories about this location but could never have imagined what it was really like.  There were mini hotels in a circle make of Yak Hair tents for people to stay in; food was prepared either by the individual hotel-tents or in groups of hotels.  I am not talking about gourmet hotel food, Yak burgers and Yak Tea were the delicacies on most menus. 

The next passage was only permitted by bus, so we slowly boarded the bus; this is where the climb really slowed down.  The bus dropped us off at a point where we would begin our own hike to the top elevation.  We arrived at the top just as the clouds moved from the peak, amazing view and some great photos.  There we were clear view of the peak 5280 meters above sea level.  It is unbelievable that human beings actually summit this peak, beyond words to describe is about the best I can say.  The ride back down the washboard road to The Friendship Highway was as arduous as the trip up, stiff muscles just to stay in the seat belted in and tense muscles for another four hours. 

Once we were on the highway again we opted to keep going directly to the border city of Zhangmu to get down to 2,000 feet and position ourselves to cross the border into Nepal.  That decision made for a 16 hour day, however we had the easy part, I have to admire our driver to take that expedition.

Crossing the Chinese border is always a treat but the Nepal border presented some new twists.  They thoroughly examined our passports because they had never seen so many entrances and exits into China in one year. Finally when we explained we were teachers crossing the boarders their suspicion of drug dealers lowered considerably. Finally we were allowed to cross and met the new guide from Nepal who promptly walked us through getting our Nepal Visa. 

 

Border bridges and river for crossing from Tibet to Nepal

 

Nepal Side of the bridge

  

Chinese side of the bridge

Nepal and China have an interesting political arrangement.  Tibetans are not allowed to leave Chinese borders so everything must be brought in to Tibet.  We passed about 150 huge trucks from Nepal loaded with goods to be delivered to warehouses in Zhangmu.  The trucks begin to arrive around 6:00PM on a windy narrow muddy road.  Once they begin to climb that mountain road there is no way to pass or get down the road.  We were caught in the one-way traffic going the wrong way.  We were trying to get down the mountain to Nepal and the Nepal trucks were trying to get up the mountain to deliver their goods.  Of course we moved aside waited for the 150 trucks to pass with a half inch of my window then continued down the mountain.  We made it to our hotel before the trucks off loaded and went back to the boarder crossing to wait and sleep until morning when they would be allowed to cross back into Nepal with the load of Chinese goods to deliver to Nepal.   The road was treacherous to say the least but this truck delivery of goods across the Chinese Tibet boarder to Nepal is a lifestyle they are accustomed to implementing daily, except on Saturday with is their Sabbath. 

There is a stark geography difference along this boarder.  We moved from dry dusty no trees to misty, low level clouds, green foliage and tree all down high mountains to a gorge that the river provided a natural boundary between the two countries.  I can honestly say I felt the difference of oppression being lifted as we entered the streets of Nepal.  The eyes and the attitude of the people reflect freedom.

We saw many Hindu Temples and Buddha Stupas through out Kathmandu. I came away with a much better understanding of those two religions and the people who practice them.  They are very devout, praying, offering everything they have to the Buddha or to the Temple early in the morning and late at night.  I saw more poverty, yet more religious commitment than anywhere I have ever been.  I wonder if Hinduism and Buddhism enable poverty and the caste system.  Food for thought and many more discussions.  On the last day in Kathmandu we visited the Buddhanikantha Temple on the holy day, Saturday.  None of us realized that we were going to witness an actual body cremation.  We stood across the river and the oldest son brought the dead body to the funeral pyre circled three time with the body, put water from the river in the mouth of the dead person then started the fire for the cremation in the dead person’s mouth, all part of the ritual narrated by our guide.  There were five bodies cremated while we stood there and watched on Saturday afternoon.  Absolutely overwhelming to intellectually or emotionally understanding.  Hindu women are not allowed to attend the cremation ceremony, however Buddhist women are allowed to attend, we witnessed some of both.  They are very emotional wrenching events. 

We left Kathmandu at 11:30PM for Guangzhou arriving at 5:30AM.  The last event of the last trip surfaced at the airport.  Our travel guide and the University both had examined our passports and Chinese Visas before we were allowed to apply for a permit to travel to Tibet.  It seemed that all was in order, however we were stopped at immigration with the border patrol claiming that our Visa’s had expired and we were not going to be allowed back into the country.  No questions, no if, ans, or buts, no exceptions.  We were distraught, we only needed to get our belongings from the University then we could actually leave China no problem.  They would not budge or even consider any options we suggested.  Blessings poured our way, by a stroke of genius we remembered the new legislation for 72 hour Visas.  We asked if we could apply for the newly passed 72 hour temporary Visa.  We needed to prove that we actually had airline reservations with in 72 hours so back to the airport transfer gate to get a copy of our flight reservation for July 1 to LAX.   Suddenly the issue dissolved, we were allowed to complete the paperwork at the immigration office, they stamped our passports, we picked up our luggage and we were on the Guangzhou Metro by 7:30AM.  Miracles do happen I am sure. 

English Corner

A student organization at SCUT to facilitate students engaging with Foreign Teachers and Foreign Students is established on Tuesday and Thursday evening from 6:00PM-7:00PM.   The official dinner hour for students in daily from 5:00PM-7:00PM.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays students have the opportunity to eat dinner at 5:00 then attend English Corner for one hour just before their evening classes begin at 7:00PM.  It is scheduled outside Teaching Building #31 regardless of the weather conditions.  On some evenings it has been cold and rainy so we have moved under the entry canopy of the building but we are never allowed to gather inside the building. 

There are two students that are responsible to chair this student activity, a boy Chen and a girl, Dreamer. They are both undergraduates and have done an outstanding job of preparing topics and events for us to have informal casual conversations weekly.  Generally the topics are great to generate initial conversations, however students quickly become comfortable and begin asking questions about America and how students there live, what they like to study, what they do in there spare time, why do they always seem so happy?  Most Chinese students admire American students and their lifestyle but cannot comprehend how it all works together. All would go to America given the chance but few will ever get that opportunity.  We have become the window to that vicarious experience for them.  Needless to say there has never been a time this whole year when I wondered what we would talk about next.  There are plenty of questions about the smallest of details of things they perceive American students do and say.  

In February after students returned to campus after Chinese New Year someone had seen "So You Think you can Dance" and wanted to learn to dance.  Tuesday evening became dance night.  Craig and I used some of our Hi Tech equipment we had purchased in Guangzhou, downloaded some tunes and spent Tuesday evenings for second semester teaching students American Dances. I taught the dances while Craig managed the music and speakers.  Students learned several line dances, the Cha-Cha, the Waltz, and Circle Dance and the traditional American Cotton Eye Joe and The Virginia Reel.  After I started the dance lessons on Tuesday I would often hear students on campus  during the week and in class yell "Hey Cha-Cha"  they loved to learn to dance, an opportunity they had never had before. One Tuesday the crowd of students was large and the music was loud to enable all students to hear the music and my call,  the security guard marched over to take the speaker away and waved at us to leave. The CCP does not allow large unauthorized groups to gather on campus.  I thought we were through for the evening and possibly the semester until I watched Chen step up and handle the situation expertly.  We continued to dance until classes began at seven and every Tuesday night for the remaining semester.  I think we will read about Chen later on as a leader in China.

Chen and Dreamer organized a farewell party for us on the last Thursday evening we were scheduled to participate.  We had games, speeches from the Foreign Teachers (we were surprised to be part of the program), refreshments and gift presentations.  I have to say that I will miss the informal conversations and opportunities to explain what life in UT, my family and students daily activities are like.  The Chinese students have been superb, very curious and eager to learn on every level.  I am sure I will miss talking to them. 

 

 Those are not cherries on top of the cake, they are tomatoes.  A new treat for us!

Tibet

It is official; we received our signed, sealed, red ink permit that allows us to visit Tibet Tuesday, June 17th, delivered by messenger just in the nick of time.  We have already made our airline reservations for Friday, June 20 just after the last day of classes. 

The information on the Website was very clear that the permit was the most important part of traveling to Tibet.  If you did not have the official government authorized permit when you went to the airport you would not be given a boarding pass. We submitted the pile of paperwork for our permit, our passport, Chinese Visa, letter of invitation from the CCP and SCUT verification that we were residing in China and working at the University.  We were told last Friday that it was approved and would be sent by messenger to arrive either Saturday or Sunday; by Tuesday when no permit had arrived we were beginning to panic.  A few phone calls and tracking the delivery trail miraculously the messenger shows up with the permit in hand.  What a huge relief. 

We feel very fortunate to be able to travel to Tibet, we have learned about Tibet, and the political and religious struggles that have plagued the area for about 20 years.  We will leave on Friday, June 20 from Guangzhou directly to Lhasa, then to the Everest base camp and last to Katmandu, Nepal.  I don’t expect this to be a restful trip but rather lots of hiking and walking with not much western food available to provide strength and encouragement.  We will not have communication with phones or email so it will be a remote exciting adventure.