Move to Shanghai

We left Guilin this morning for Shanghai. This is a city of 20 million and is not the largest city in China! The largest city is Chongqing with a population of 30 million. Those numbers are just staggering to me! I discovered there are two airports here. We flew into the old airport, but will fly out of the new airport, Pudon International Airport on Saturday. It took us 30 minutes to get to our hotel which is amaxingly elegant, by the way.  Our local guide said that the same trip would have taken 4 hours 15 years ago when their were few bridges and no superhighways.  Actually I was sorry to leave Guilin. Needed more time to explore this area.  We flew South China airlines. One new experience for me was right before landing they switched the broadcast system to a set of Tai Chi exercises to re-energize our bodies after the flight experience. Very cool.  Tonight we sampled the Shanghai cuisine which is sweeter than what we have been accustomed to in our other locations. After dinner we attended a Chinese acrobat show which was pretty amazing. Then back to the Jinjiang Hotel which is rather European in décor. I guess many dignitaries have stayed here over the years. Presidents Carter, Nixon, and Reagan were among the famous people listed.

Chinese Education System

Thought I’d write a few things about the Chinese education system that we have learned to this point.  China has nine years of compulsory education, grades 1-9. Many parents send their kids to preschool and kindergarten if they can afford it. It seems that the Chinese people are very conscious of the need for education.  After they complete the ninth grade, they have two choices: High School or Vocational School. A few do not go on, but it sounds like the vast majority select one of these options, which parents do have to pay for. Our guide said that there is a problem with the compulsory education system in that there are many things that are not paid for some families find the expenses a real burden and can’t always send their children. Parents are very concerned about how their child ranks in the classes. If they are ranked lower on a continuous basis, they often take them out of school. They feel it is “losing face”. The special needs stduents go to separate schools and they do not have gifted programs. Those who are considered gifted go right on to the university. They seem to find it odd that we do this differently.  

In the urban areas, the elementary teachers teach only one subject in the elementary grades. They feel the teacher can better prepare with the single focus.  In rural areas, teachers maay teach multiple subjects. The required subjects in all Chinese schools are Chinese, English, and Mathematics.  They do not have as much time devoted to science as these subjects. From the teachers we have been able to ask it sounds like science is taught anywhere from 3-5 times per week depending on the school. They do have a strong emphasis on science starting in middle school. Middle school students have 1 years of physical science, one of chemistry and 2 of biology before high school. In high school all students have 3 years of physics, 2 of biology and 1 of chemistry before graduation. 

I have include a couple photos from our visit yesterday to a rural school  in Tanxia Town Center School. That visit was a highlight of my trip to date. There were 48 4^th grade students in this class!! I will write more about that in another post.

School Lunches

My grandson wondered what Chinese students had for school lunches, so here is what I found out. Students may bring lunch from home, purchase lunch in the dining hall or go home for lunch if they are within walking distance. If they bring their lunches from home, common items include pot stickers, rice noodles with vegetables such as eggplant, lotus stems, broccoli, and carrots. They would usually have fresh fruit such as watermelon, dragon fruit, bananas, papaya. Common school lunches would include fired rice, or rice and a meat such as pork or duck, rice noodles, and fruit. 

Visit to Middle School & High School

Outside the school, which was built in 2001 with only a couple hundred students

Signage to remind students of important school values. 

These signs were placed throughout the campus.

This morning we visited Guilin Experiemental School Affiliated to Capital Normal University in the city of Guilin. This was our first time to visit a middle school and high school setting. The school is in a beautiful natural setting and serves 2100 students in grades 7-12. They have 42 classes and 140 teachers. We heard the principal speak about their philosophy which I found very interesting. They seem to emphasize things like manners and the responsibility to take care of themselves, their families, their society and nature. They believe students should have a good command of knowledge so that the knowledge can be applied in real life. It is important to them that their students represent the school in a positive manner and that they develop as a world citizen. I have noted that there is significant emphasis on the affective in the schools we have visited. I guess I expected the emphasis to be more on content and knowledge development.  The faculty at this school seemed concerned about the students’ mental health. The students are very stressed as there is a great deal of pressure on them to do well.  They go to school 5 days, but most students take additional special classes in the evenings and weekends to  be competitive. Many teachers supplement their income by teaching these special classes. The scores they earn on the college entrance exams determine which schools they can attend.  This was a private boarding school, so parents pay all expenses to send their children here. If students come from a distance they stay in dorms for many weeks without going home. Guilin students go home on the weekends. Teachers have living quarters on campus.  

Students were very welcoming and wanted to interact with us. They seemed very much like our teenagers. They want us to take their pictures. Even at this level, they take about a 10 minute exercise outdoors between classes.

One of the high school boys showing us his basketball moves.
His friends were off to the side and giving him a bit of good-hearted teasing. 

Xia Yan School

We also made a short school visit. We visited Xia Yan School on the way back to Guilin. This is a school sponsored by People to People. It is in a very poor area attended mostly by one of the Chinese minorities. This was a very different experience from the previous school we visited in Beijing. Classes were large, 40-45, and resources few. The kids were expecting us and VERY excited to have visitors. They all wanted their pictures taken. See photos!

Yangshou

Fishing Boats in Yangshou

Fisherman with his trained fisher cormorants; fisherman have trained the cormorants to fish for them.

Root system of Banyon tree

River Cruise

Sunday, October 17

Today we were again on a cultural day. That means we behave like tourists!.  We got up early, had a Western style breakfast and headed to the bus for a 30 minute ride to the Li River for a 4-5 hour cruise on one of the most scenic rivers in the world. Guilin to Yangshou – 52 miles. The shallow river winds through a mystical landscape with tall karst peaks on both sides of the river. The limestone formations have been weathered into very spectacular shapes. This is the area that inspired the set of Avatar and you can really see the similarity.  The cruise included a buffet lunch, but I stuck to rice and noodles. I have been healthy thus far and didn’t want to test myself with the boat food.

By the way, they openly charge more for the cruise to foreign tourists. They even have different boats for foreign and domestic tourists. The weather was a bit steamy. It is a rather tropical feel here compared to the weather in Beijing which was much like Iowa fall. We disembarked in Yangshou, which was a very interesting resort/fishing village. The area is changing very fast and what used to be a rather primitive fishing village is now developing as a tourist attraction.

Fisherman float on river using bamboo rafts.

Water buffalo "grazing" from the river

Phoenix bamboo trees - there are thousands of varieties of bamboo - this is only one