Class [Marsha]

The classes have been going well. Most of the students are participating with encouragement. I still have to do a military "voluntarism" some of the time. But more and more they seem to be enjoying expressing their thoughts. Sometimes when I ask them to compare what I am describing to the Chinese system, they seem hesitant. But they are getting better. I have been giving "GSU presents" to them on a random variable schedule. They seem to get a kick out of that. At least they giggle. The magnetic clips and the mugs intrigued them the most.

I tried showing a video in class on negotiating style of an American with an Asian supplier, but I did not have it on DVD. It was on the Internet, and I could bring it up on my computer at the apartment on campus, but not on the classroom computer. That was disappointing. It was an interactive video and I am sure it would have generated more discussion than normal. Luckily I did have another DVD but it wasn't quite as good as that one. As another teacher told me before I left, when teaching overseas always have multiple backups. Well this time, my backup system wasn't perfect. The second video was OK but not as good.

The campus where we live is called Dong Feng. It is in the center of the city. The surrounding area is a typical Chinese city. However, we teach on the Long Dong campus which is in the suburbs. There is more space and greenery. They share the space with several campuses, but there are fences between the campuses. The air is somewhat cleaner and it is definitely prettier.
Here are some pictures of the classroom building and from the balcony of the classroom building .












Classroom building.




























View from classroom balcony.

Wholesale clothing center

Near the Shahe campus is the wholesale clothing center. The center services the multitude of clothes shops in Guangzhou but will also sell to off the street customers. On Saturday we went shopping with Dong Mei. It is good to have an interpreter and someone who can haggle in the native language. Haggling tends to reduce the price 5-15%.

The center had eight to ten rows of shops extending three city streets deep. Each store had around 12' - 15' frontage, about the width of a very narrow store in the States. A wild guess is over 1,000 stores! Each store is manned by 2-6 people. The last time I saw anything this big was the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. There is no comparable area in the States. These are successful business people who have moved up the food chain. They probably started as street vendors, then got a local small store and now supply the stores.

The center has clothes from socks to dress pants. What it did not have was men's suits, formal dresses and shoes.

Nearly all the goods were displayed nicely on hangers. One specimen of each item they sold. When you selected something they went for the correct size out of boxes around the side. If they did not have it there, they climbed a ladder into their storage area on the second floor of the store. Watch out, a box will be thrown out of the ceiling!

Marsha and I had trouble finding stuff as our size is well above the Chinese norm. So I only bought 5 golf shirts. Marsha got 2 fancy tees, a beautiful blouse and 2 pairs of pants. We must have stopped in over 100 stores. Our total cost in USD, $75. Our guess for U.S. price on sale in a store like Sears is over $300.

Some other oddities:
1. There are no cash registers.
2. No credit cards or checks are accepted.
3. There are also no receipts.
4. There are no names on the stores.
5. Cash is thrown into an unlocked draw. Change is searched for in the draw, no partitions.

I am certain none of the merchants claim earnings over 120,000 Yuan a year. The level for the rich man income tax in China.

Hong Kong I

On April 21 we took the fast train from Guangzhou to Kowloon. The maximum train speed was just upgraded to 200 km/hr. The trip took one hour and forty-five minutes. Add a half-hour for customs, a half-hour queuing for a taxi and a half-hour to get to the tunnel to Hong Kong Island. In all, it does not matter that the train gets there 15 minutes sooner than before.

The train ride was up to European standards. Our first class soft seats were equivalent to first class seats. Service included complimentary tea/coffee and peanuts. For sale they have beer, soft drinks and dinner. Both English and Chinese is spoken by all serving people.

Hong Kong is treated like a separate country. You have to go through customs. The first step is a health screening. In reality unless your look sick, this just means going through a bug bomb to make certain you are not bringing Avian Flu into Hong Kong. Then a perfunctory immigration step where you get a visitors visa.

Our hotel was in the Wan Chai area of Hong Kong. Wan Chai is about equivalent to the South Loop in relation to downtown, e.g. a dozen blocks from the Ritz and Hilton. Prices are around 50% higher than Chicago. The hotel room was nice but nothing special.

The first afternoon we took the local bus from the hotel to near the Victoria Peak tram. Along the way our bus was delayed by a demonstration. At first we thought it was a parade as it had marching bands in full uniform but towards the front of the parade were the protest signs. Around 1,000 people were demonstrating. The demonstration did not make the evening news or the next days' newspaper.

1. Note they had police protection and the women at the lower right has her small child with her.
   
   
   The tram to Victoria Peak is a tourist scam (Marsha: I disagree, it obviously is for tourists, but scam is to strong a term: maybe tourist trap). Later on, we found a city bus which would have been 1/10 the price. But, it gives a good feeling of how Hong Kong Island is basically a small mountain or large hill. Nothing in the Central area of the city is flat. The pitch is greater than the streets of San Francisco. At the Peak there is an observation area on top of a shopping mall. On each floor the escalator for the next floor is on the other side of the mall. They make sure you see every store. Besides gift shops, antique stores and local restaurants there is a MacDonald's and a Bubba Gump restaurant.
   
   On the other side of the Peak is the older shopping mall. They have the same types of stores plus: Haagen-Dazs, Burger King, Starbucks and the local supermarket chain, Park and Shop.
   The view is worth the trip. Looking down the cascading skyscrapers to Hong Kong Bayis a fantastic sight. Because of fog, we only got occasional views of Kowloon and the New Territory across the Bay.
   Here are some views:

Clockwise: north view, normal size apartment building and east view.

Looking south, there is a lot of park land.

After riding the Tram back to the higher end of Central area, we hiked down to the Bay. The roads and walkways are horrendous. To get across most major streets, you have to walk on an overpass or down under a subway. Good for the leg muscles and cardio-vascular system. After a while you get smart, and start looking for an escalator in a hotel, office building or shopping center which will lead to the overpass. You usually can't jaywalk because they have fences in the middle of many streets.

To end the day, we ate in a local Chinese restaurant. It’s food tasted closer to the Cantonese food we get in Chicago and New York.

Finally, the view from our hotel window at night.

Hong Kong II

Our only full day in Hong Kong was devoted to exploring the downtown area and visiting the Aberdeen Fishing Village. Taking a sampan ride was high on my list, so we did that first.
The Hotel staff always told us to take a taxi. We usually preferred taking the buses. You see a lot more and save money, a good combination. So after refusing to tell Marsha, they did tell me which bus to take. They were almost correct. We did pass Aberdeen but should not have gone to the last stop (which they told me to do).

The good news was that we got to walk around the Chinese area of Sai Wan Ho. The apartment buildings look like the apartment buildings in Budapest which were built during the communist period, very utilitarian and bland. The ones we saw were 8-10 stories high. Unlike the main area of Hong Kong, the clothes were hanging from the balcony, i.e. no clothes dryer. This area was served by small supermarkets and we passed through a traditional wet market [live chicken, fish and turtles waiting to be chosen].

A short cab ride got us back to Aberdeen. Aberdeen is much more prosperous. With just a little bargaining, the sampan ride was reduced from 100 HKD to 50 HKD per person (8 HKD = 1 USD).
They charge a per person rate regardless of the number of people in your party. We had a private ride. Our "captain" was Thomas. He had a sign in the front of his sampan with his name in Hebrew. An Israeli wrote it for him.
The ride took us through the busy harbor area which is loaded with fishing boats.

Most of the fishing boats go out to the South Sea for twenty days of fishing. They come in for off-loading and to get provisions for twenty-four hours and then head back to sea.
Some smaller boats are outfitted for night fishing.

A large fish sorting area is near the entrance to the harbor.

Getting brave, we asked some local people how to get back to the Central area. They told us which subway (under the road passage way) to take to get the bus back into town. [Each bus has its own fare schedule. Fares range from $2.8 HK to $4.6. Exact change only. Having coins was important. Sometimes I had to give more than the requested fare. At 12.5 cents US per HKD I did not mind.]

Downtown we walked around some more. This time including the area around the Expo Center. To Marsha’s great surprise, the toilets had Western fixtures. The photo is from the harbor side of the Expo Center. The barges are working at extending the landfill.

The highlight of the afternoon was lunch. We stopped in a small fast food place. I had a BBQ combo plate and Marsha had a chicken rice dish. As space was limited, we shared a table with a Hong Kong couple. It is a small world, the gentleman is the Executive Director of Harvard Business Research. His group developes Asian cases for Harvard.

After a siesta, we visited the botanical garden and zoo. The prettiest thing is this fountain.

And a couple of the flowers.

We did walk some significant hills. It is pretty easy on the way down. We kept walking to downtown.

By dinner time we were ready to crash. We could not find a restaurant with a seafood menu before our legs gave out. So we had another local fast food meal. It was very good. By 8 PM we were in our room.

Hong Kong III

Our last day, we slept in. We had breakfast just before the Hotel stopped serving.
We took the Star ferry over to Kowloon. The ferry, which holds around 500 people, is just a 10-15 minute ride from the Wan Chai dock to Kowloon. The fare is under $3 US. Of course less expensive rates are available for commuters. The distance seemed equivalent to the distance between NY and NJ.
On shore, we took our last good view of Hong Kong Island. Between getting lost going from the dock to the train station, we went to the wrong stop on the Metro. [Leading to another adventure, riding the Hong Kong subway train.] We stopped at a large shopping mall. And attempting, but failing, to get back to the harbor area, we wasted the afternoon.

At least we had some excellent seafood for lunch, which satisfied my last desire.

The ride to Guangzhou was uneventful. Train left on time at 5:55 PM. After the ride, customs and the local Metro, we arrived home before 9 PM.

A photo of the Kowloon Clock Tower with the convention center in the background.

Miscelleneous

This Sunday we went to dinner with Hans and Mary one of our neighbors and a visiting former student of theirs. They are Canadian from the Mississauga area (a suburb of Toronto). I used to go to Mississauga every month when I worked for Halo Lighting. Mary's father was a German speaking tobacco farmer. Hans met her when he migrated from Germany and was hired on as a cheap non-resident laborer. He literally stole the farmer's daughter. They are around 10 years older than us and have worked at GDUT for seven months a year for the last five years. We had dinner at a "hot pot" restaurant. Their former student, the only one who knows Chinese, did the ordering, based on our requests.

A 'hot pot' restaurant has a recessed wok in the center of the table. They start off by heating the meat stock and bones. As an appetizer you drink some of the soup and suck on the meat bones. Plastic gloves are supplied for your hands and straws are supplied to drink the marrow out of the bones. For dinner we had thin slices of beef, lamb, potatoes, mushrooms, greens and corn. Each item is brought to the table raw. You put in the longer cooking items: potatoes, corn and greens first. You only put a little bit of the meat in at a time, as it cooks very quickly. Dinner is catch as catch can. You put your chopsticks into the mix and grab out what you can. Both the food and the company were good. [The corn is on the cob, but cut into 1 inch pieces. You eat it with your chopsticks.]

After dinner we got answers to several points that have been confusing us. It was good to learn from their experience.

Yesterday, Wednesday, we research the Guangzhou East Train Depot. We are going to Hong Kong this weekend and wanted to know where we have to go before we have to rush for a train. Our research was successful. Outside the depot is a modern park, complete with gardens, walks and water features. Unfortunately the water features were being maintained.

In the park we were accosted by a very persistent beggar. When smiles, saying 'no' in Chinese did not work and he kept invading our personal space, I had to resort to intimidation, I got up, looked angry and pointed him to leave. After several words, which we were probably better not knowing, he took the hint. The number of beggars has been low for a downtown area, but they appear less regulated than in Chicago.

Finally on this adventure, we found an Ikea store. We got some softer cushions for our wood couch and a couple of canvas chairs for our dinner table. The stools were getting too hard for my soft butt. To get the best price, we had to join the Ikea Family club. The school will be receiving mail from Ikea for years. {The application is all in Chinese. A kind clerk helped us.}

[Photos.]

Crystal Falls

Finding the Pearl River

Saturday, Dong Mei and I (Marsha) went looking for the Pearl River. I told Dong Mei the story of why the river was called the Pearl River. She never heard the story. The story goes that some fisherman coming in from the South Sea saw this huge rock in the middle of the River which looked so round and smooth that it resembled a giant Pearl. Hence the name. According to my students, the River is a sight which should be seen at night. But I wanted to scout out tour boats for cruising and I thought it would be easier during the day.

We went to the Metro station and she asked the ticket agent which station to get off at. When we got to the station, we went out the first exit we saw. Then she asked how to get to the Pearl River. We passed a park, and we eventually found the River. She said it was very polluted but I saw some fish in the water. There was a nice river walk and we saw many people. Several were walking their dogs. That was the first time I’ve seen evidence of people owning pets. We also saw several people fishing. One man caught five fish in a net.
We found two locations where they sold river cruises. We will take a cruise in the near future. The first was fairly close to the Metro. Then we walked further just to enjoy the day.

Another day some people were taking pictures of me taking a picture of Mel and a sculpture in a shopping center. So we asked them to allow us to take their picture with Mel.

City Tour

On Saturday we took the normal city tour you can take in most cities around the world. Not so normal here. Their are no Gray Line type bus tours, even though they exist in Beijing and Hong Kong. We had a heck of a time finding any tour. After three days of searching and asking our Foreign Affairs expert, we finally found a tour out of the local Marriott hotel. A 10 passenger van and an English speaking independent contractor led us to the sites.

First, we visited the Nanyue Kingdom Tomb Museum. The museum is unique. It is built around the site of King Wen's tomb which was discovered in 1983 when a local contractor was attempting to build an apartment house on the site. King Wen was emperor of the Southern region around 120 BC, during the Han dynasty. The tomb was buried under 60 feet of soil and there is evidence that the tomb has been flooded three times. The tomb is 35' x 39'. Besides all the goods excavated from the tomb, one actually gets to walk though the tomb. The rooms are relatively spacious and the ceiling is 7' or 8' high. Fortunately or unfortunately this is the one area where China believes in the sanctity of copy write laws, no photography is allowed.

Next we went back to Yuexiu Park. This time we actually saw the Five Ram Statue!

The two gentlemen in black are from Argentina. They just arrived in Guangzhou for the 101st Canton Trade Fair. The trade fair is so big, the city added 1,000 new taxicabs for the show.

The last highlight for the morning was the 1,000 year old Six Banyan Temple. The Buddhist temple had many versions of Buddha. Please excuse my ignorance, I did not know there are different Buddha's with specialized areas for helping people. Here are some pictures of the Buddha's and of people praying. The wooden Buddha is the oldest one at the Temple.

For lunch they took us to a place that we had purposely avoided, the Brazil Steakhouse. It is not the best example of Brazil or China, but gauchos with Chinese faces is amusing. Only the 2nd meal we had in China with fork and knife.

In the afternoon, we visited two exceptional sites. The Chen Clan Academy and the Hualin Temple.

The Chen Clan Academy was started by the Chen family in the 1900's. It's mission was to train individuals (members of the Clan) for the exam to become government workers. To be a government worker meant high prestige and high income. The Academy closed down with the Communist takeover. It is now a Museum for Folk Art. Our guide, Sylvia, is a design student, so she was very good at explaining the exhibits.

(Picture on left is a roof decoration.)
(Below is a bird tapestry.)

Below is peacock needle point. All the art pictures are only a portion of the artist's work. Hopefully I have made a respectful choice and the artist will approve.

To the right is a sand painting. Everything done with grains of sand. My picture does not show the delicateness of Johnson's work. Finally, we have Marsha interacting with some sculptures. Guess which of the women are 30 years old.

The final meaningful stop of the day was Hualin Temple. A Taoist Temple known for it's five hundred golden Buddhist saints. {From a photography viewpoint, the Temple is a disaster. It has very limited fluorescent lighting, my shots are hand held with exposure times between 1/3 and 1/2 of a second. Finally a shot of Sylvia trying to answer one of Marsha's questions.

Chicken and Frog are almost the same

We had a late lunch with Dong Mei at a local restaurant which was literally a hole in the wall. It is a place we would never go in on our own, a student type restaurant down Rhino Drive. Dong Mei had never eaten there before, but there were not many restaurants open at that hour. [Smaller places, which are not on a main drag, still take a siesta hour or two.]

As I said previously, Mi is not a local and Cantonese is not her native language. This is not usually a problem because all teaching from grade 1 up is in Mandarin. Well at this restaurant, it was an opportunity. Mi ordered pepper chicken, a mushroom dish and beef noodle soup for the three of us. The food was quite good, but the chicken came out as frog. Just the slightest different in tone between chicken and frog, so frog we got. Marsha was very hungry, I think I saw her hopping away from the table.

All meals are served family style. You each get a bowl of steamed rice. You pick the food up piece by piece with your chopsticks. Even though the Chinese are very health conscious, they see nothing unhealthy about everyone repeatedly dipping into each dish with the chopsticks. From your mouth directly to the communal plate. [Maybe we are the hypocrites, did any guy ever refuse a kiss?] {A Swiss watch advertises on TV as a healthy watch.}

We are getting to be experienced shoppers. I was even able to figure out what we paid for after coming home from the supermarket, Park and Shop. Here is a sample of prices in Guangzhou. Each Yuan is worth 12.9 cents.
Fresh pineapple 11.4 ($1.47)
Whole watermelon 14.1
lb of tomatoes 2.2
5 bananas 5.1
Can of Coke 1.9
bottle of water 1.0
Snicker bar 2.1
Paper towels, 2 small rolls 9.9 [not used by locals]
8 oz. of fresh beef 8.6
8 oz. of chicken breast 7.6
Lays potato chip 2 oz. 3.4

Money buys a lot when we are shopping, especially for items which the locals use.

Saturday part I - Yuexiu Park.

On Saturday we visited Yuexiu Park in central west Guangzhou. We were accompanied by a student, Dong Mei, who works for the Foreign Affairs Office of the University (GDUT). As is the custom in China, the family name is listed first followed by the first name. Mei is not a native of Guangzdong province. She has been in Guangzhou for only six months. She has never been to this park before.

We took an express bus for around 25 minutes to reach the park. As in any major city, first you pass the beggars and street musians before reaching the entrance. The street musian is playing a very ancient string instrument, but he applifies the sound. Note he wrote his licence number on the wall.

The park is large, larger than Grant Park and and a lot more hilly. On all four sides it is surrounded by high rise buildings. Within the park is a "small" soccer/ track and field stadium with 30,000 seats. We have not found the "large" stadiums yet! In the center of the park is museum described in Part II. Otherwise, the park is nicely green, with three lakes, and several pagodas and statues. There is even a memorial for the soldiers killed in the First Opium War.

Here are some views:

The lakes.

Kicking games, badminton, Tai Chi and dancing is done throughout the park.

And other scenes.