International Vegetable Fair

April 26, 2009 - Visiting the International Vegetable Fair in Shouguang, Shandong

On our way home from Weifang, we stopped to visit Shouguang, where they were having a big veggie fair. A city known for its vegetable production in Shandong Province, China, Shouguang is holding its "Shouguang Vegetable Fair 2009" from April 20 to May 20. The fair aims to exhibit vegetable cultivating/processing technologies, new vegetable varieties and achievements made in vegetable production, develop technological cooperation and exchanges, and promote vegetable industry upgrading.

There were literally thousands of people at the Fair. Every pavillion has lines of at least 20-30 minutes. Since a lot of people didn't queue in, it seemed to take even longer. The varities of vegetables were amazing. But the most amazing thing was the children and their parents. When they saw foreigners they all wanted to have pictures. Elwin and the other "foreigners" had photo opts everywhere they went. They certainly were the celebrities of the Fair.

Parents taking pictures of their children with foreigners, Elwin et al

Kite festival at Weifang, Shandong

kite in the sky

April 25, 26, 2009

The Foreign Teachers Association of Shandong University took us on a trip to visit Weifang, Shandong. Weifang is about 2 1/2 hours east of Jinan with population of 8 million, and areas slightly larger than Jinan. All 8 BYU China Teachers and several other foreign teachers from the US, Russia, Japan and Israel participated. The tour bus came to our bus stop to pick us up. The meals, admission tickets and English tour guide were provided. The 2 Japanese teachers had a private tour guide. We stayed at a 4-star hotel, called Fanhai Ocean Hotel. Excel for the hard mattress, it was a very nice hotel. The dinner was very good, but the breakfast buffet was fabulous. We each paid 150 yuan for the trip and SDU picked up the rest for us.

A team from Beijing preparing their kite for the competition

The kingdom of kite in China - Weifang, Shandong is well-known all over the world because the kite sports are held from 20th to 25th April every year since 1984, which attracts thousands of Kite Flyers from all over China and kite enthusiasts from around the world. This year, 2009, about 110 teams and 900 people participated in this International Kites Competition.

Hidden talents?

I have a special love for Chinese brush painting. You can imagine my excitement when one of the young American China teachers here introduced me to her art teacher, Mrs. Zhang. Mrs. Zhang became my art teacher and I have been taking art lessons from her weekly since November of last year. Wednesday becomes the highlight of my week when I go to the Zhang's 5th floor apartment to take lessons.

Mrs. Zhang taught me how to do the regular brush painting. Then she started teaching me a special technique called "gong bi hua". It has been a fun experience. Below are my first 2 paintings.

Flying Tiger Museum

April 2, 2009

While we were in Chongqing, we had the privilege of visiting the Flying Tiger Museum. Chinese people have a special place in their hearts for this group of volunteers from the US during World War II. It was also special for me because my uncle, Shih Tze Pu, was a young Chinese Air Force pilot from Yunnan Province in Southwestern China, fighting the Japanese with the aid of Flying Tigers during this time.

American Volunteer Group - the Flying Tigers

A brief introduction from Wikipedia:

Flying Tigers was the popular name of the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force in 1941-1942. Arguably, the group was a private military contractor, and the volunteers have also been called mercenaries. They were former United States Army (USAAF), Navy (USN), and Marine Corps (USMC) pilots and ground crew, recruited under Presidential sanction and commanded by Claire Lee Chennault. The group consisted of three fighter squadrons with about 20 aircraft each. It trained in Burma before the American entry into World War II with the intention of defending China against Japanese forces.

Slideshow of our visit to the Flying Tigers Museum in Chongqing on April 2, 2009

Three Gorges Dam

April 2-6, 2009

From Wikipedia: The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric river dam that spans the Yangtze River in Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei, China. It is the largest hydroelectric power station in the world. Except for a planned ship lift, all the original plan of the project was completed on October 30, 2008, when the 26th generator was brought to commercial operation. Six additional generators in the underground power plant are being installed, with the dam thus not expected to become fully operational until around 2011. By April 2009, it had generated 300 TWh of electricity, covering 30% its project cost.

Elwin and I joined 50-plus BYU China Teachers aboard the Victoria Cruise down the Yangtze River from Chongqing to Yichang, Hebei, a 500 mile trek. Along the way, we saw the 3 beautiful gorges, a very beautiful Lesser gorge and new villages for part of the 1.3 millions people who were relocated because of the project. Part of the amazing part was the water depth; originally, the water was 3' to 6' deep. After the dam was built, the water was about 250' deep, and the walls of the gorges were still steep, lush with greenery and shrouded in mist and broken clouds.
Once we reached the five locks, we waited until enough ships were prepared to pass through. Ours went in first on the right hand side; the wall was so close that we reached out and touched it. A large barge pulled in along our port side, and four additional ships came in behind us and the barge next to us. It took 4 hours for us to pass through the five locks; fortunately, it was at night so we were only awake for passing through the first two.

Enjoy the slideshow below. We highly recommend this trip. It was absolutely beautiful!

Chongqing, China

April 2-6, 2009 - Chinese Tomb Sweeping Holidays

Taking advantage of the holidays, we signed up with the BYU China Teachers group to tour Chongqing and take a boat down the Yangtze River to visit the 3 gorges. The Forbes came with us from Jinan. We left Jinan at 4:30 PM and arrived in Chongqing at around 7 PM. A tour guide with BYU sign welcomed us at the airport and took us on a short tour of the area and took us to the hotel downtown.

Chongqing is the largest and most populous of the People's Republic of China's four provincial-level municipalities, and has a registered population of 31,442,300 (2005). In fact, it is the largest city in the world today. We visited the Great Hall and the big dance floor where lots of people were dancing.

See the slides below of this lovely city.

A Private School in China

Our dear friends in Suzhou took us to their son's school for a visit while we were there. We looked at this school in total amazement. The name of the school is "Suzhou Foreign Language School", a private school, serving children from pre-school to 12th grade. The school has around 3000 students, who came from all over the world. There are children from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the US, some Europeans, and of course, the local Chinese who can afford the tuition (a whopping 50,000 RMB/year). The lower grades (pre-school to grade 5) have around 25 students in each class with an English speaking teacher and 2 Chinese teachers.

Suzhou foreign language school is seeking 2 foreign teachers for the new term in Sept 1,2009

Salary for ESL teachers for international classes : 10000RMB (1500 USD) per month for 20 classes/week,offices hrs required . from 8:30am-4:30pm

X Return air flight up to 10000RMB (on completion of a years contract)
X Private apartment on campus or housing allowance
X Free Internet access, feel utility and meals
X Maximum teaching hours of about 20 per week , 2days off per week , working hrs : 8:30am-5:30pm , Monday-Friday
X School will provide full working resident card and Z visa
X School will pay for full insurance
Minimum qualifications and experience required:
• Bachelor degree mandatory, .
• internationally recognised TEFL qualification preferable
• 1-2 years relevant experience in English language training
• Native speaker of English from USA/UK/CANADA

Requirements:
2 certificated teachers for Primary Grade One Immersion Program.
Teaching experience prefered.
References and photo album are available.

Please feel free to contact me at lilyzhou44@yahoo.com.cn

2. Sept.2007 -- 1 year contract, renewable
12,000RMB a month
Flexible schedule, fixed number of hours per week.
Excellent new furnished housing.
Paid return airfare. Over one month paid holidays.
Visa provided.

Requirements:
1 certificated Physics or Chemistry teacher and 1 certificated Math or Business Study teacher for A Level
curriculum.
Teaching experience prefered.
References and photo album are available.

a note: Please google this school and review the comments before committing.