Month: July 2015 (Page 2 of 2)

July 19th – Sight Seeing Day 2 & Planning

Today we had our second sight seeing day. We headed off to the see the  Great Wall. There are three sections of the Great Wall still in tact. It is a common myth that the Great Wall is the only man made object that can been seen from space with the naked eye. The parts that we were on were very impressive (especially for their time), but the road ways that we build now are wider. Thus, the new roadways would be easier to see from space.

We went to the section that is closest to Beijing. This was an impressive experience. After we arrived, we were given a couple of hours to explore the Wall. Some of us decided to climb the Wall. The steps are step and very inconsistent in height. This made walking up the Wall quite a challenge. The first section was very crowded (like all of Beijing). The higher were climbed, the less crowded the Wall became. A group of us went to the highest point of the Wall. It was quite the climb. We didn’t have time to circle around the other side (just in front of the highest point, Beacon Tower 13, is a fork in the Wall. This allows one to continue on the Wall around the mountain.

After that, we had a quick visit to the Olympic Stadium area. I didn’t spend much time there as I was hungry and ate lunch. We did walk down to see the Bird’s Nest. Interestingly, we have had to run our bags through a scanner when entering certain national monument areas, but they’ve never checked our pockets or had us walk through a scanner.

Next up was the transition to the new hotel and planning. Using the knowledge of the first round of training in another area, the group has made some adjustments to the schedule. We got the daily schedule set. One of the decisions was to interview the participants and ask some basic questions in order to group them efficiently. The idea is largely to group them based on what they are teaching next year.

I had the opportunity to interview six teachers. This was a terrific experience. It seems to be pretty universal that teachers are some of the best people in the world. There was a mix of students with varied English abilities. The group consisted of teachers of third grade up to the teachers of high school. Unfortunately, not all of the participants showed up for the interviews. Thus, we pulled back together for a planning session again. We made some quick adjustments as to how we would conduct the interviews. We tweaked the daily schedule (from lessons learned from the first group) and worked out our nightly teaching schedule.

I was completely exhausted by the time. I headed off to sleep.

July 18th – Sight Seeing Day 1

Today we had a sight seeing day. We went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Pearl Market and an acrobatic show.

The day started with a breakfast buffet. The buffet was very different than an American breakfast, but the food was good. There were hard boiled eggs, which was a positive, along with lots of dumpling type items. There was juice, but no coffee. Bummer for me since I usually have cup of coffee in the morning.

Next we were off to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was previously the Emperor’s Palace. Tiananmen Square is massive. It is nearly impossible to convey the scale of the Tiananmen Square. Forbidden City was beautiful. There are three rings in the Forbidden City. The common area, the outer ring and the inner ring. The outer area was where the Emperor would meet visitors. The inner area was where the Emperor lived and worked. The beauty of this area is tough to relate. We learned that the court area of the inner ring has no trees in it due to the idea that there should be nothing above the head of the Emperor.

Next we went over to the Pearl Market. This is essentially an indoor shopping mall. Instead of being filled with large name brand stores, the entire building is populated with booths of various sellers. We started on the fourth floor. First up was a view of a Taoist Temple. Next, the stores on the fourth floor. These are the most authentic. These include stores to buy real ocean pearls (which are apparently very expensive). We were free to roam after that. It was explained to us that the third floor was more pearls, but a lot less expensive (thus, lower quality). The second floor was filled with watches, handbags and wallets. It is very widely acknowledged that the materials aren’t genuine. The first floor is filled with electronics and toys.

Lastely, we headed over to see an acrobatic show. The show was incredible. The amount of power, balance and movement was extremely impressive. I lost count of the number of times the audience audibly gasped. The show was so good that it kept me awake even though I was sitting in a comfortable chair in a dark room.

China July 17th – Arrival

The plane trip was in two sections. The first was a flight from Detroit to Boston. There was a long layover in Boston. A five hour layover that gave us time to chat and have lunch. The flight was over 13 hours long. I had a middle seat, so sleeping was very difficult . The airline provided warm towels, which really felt good.

We made it through the passport lane, picked up our luggage and then went to Customs. We were waved through Customs, so that was one concern that was unwarranted. I had heard tales of things being confiscated in Customs.

There was a nice young lady waiting with a sign for us. She was also waiting for another person (who turned out to be on our plane as well). After lots of chatting with a taxi driver, Andy and I were put into a Taxi and sent on our way. We got just a little bit nervous when the driver seemed to stop and ask for directions, but ultimately we ended up in the correct place.