Advertisement
Published: December 28th 2008
Apartment growth
Everywhere we look around, clumps of apartments are being constructed, yet so many are virtually empty.It must be that as you get older, time flies. Here we are writing our final Blog from Yancheng. We arrived here on 24 March 2008, and will leave Yancheng shortly, on 9 January 2009. It doesn’t seem like we have been here for that long, yet we are about to leave to return home.
Even though we were based in Yancheng, we have seen parts of China and will be off to visit Beijing, Harbin and finally Shanghai, before boarding our plane home. Whilst here, we have visited Xuzhou in the north of Jiangsu Province, an ancient Han Dynasty capital; Nanjing several times, the current capital of this Province and also an ancient national capital; Nantong, which is the city on the north of the Yangtze River in the south east corner of Jiangsu Province - predominately a seaside and harbour settlement; Suzhou, the supposedly scenic town west of Shanghai; Wuxi, a lovely town between Nanjing and Suzhou; Dingshan and Yixing, the home of pottery and teapots in China; and we cannot forget our trip to central China to visit Luoyang, the home of the World Heritage listed Longmen Grottoes. In the middle of the year, we had an
Harvest time
It doesn't matter what is being harvested - wheat, canola, beans or rice, the roads are covered with drying bushes, pods or grains. opportunity to teach English at a private academy in Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province, which is south-west of Jiangsu Province. We have published Travel Blogs on our experiences and sights from each of these places. When we get back home, we will publish a blog covering our Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai trip.
When we meet locals in China, they ask us three questions: Do you like China; Do you like Chinese food; and, Can you use chopsticks. These questions are important to them. When we talk to people from back home, they ask: What do you think of China; Can you speak Chinese, and, Do you like teaching in China. The questions are quite different, but none, other than “can we use chopsticks”, are easy to answer. Oh yes, we can use chopsticks and now much better than before we came to China, naturally. Knives, forks and spoons are a rarity, unless you buy them and use them in your apartment. We have learnt numerous words in Chinese which have helped us get around, and have had little difficulty in communicating - simplified language, translators and sign language help.
China has been interesting. In many ways, the
Workshop
Many itinerants set up shop on a street corner to make a few Jiao for their work. mystery of this country has been abolished and a lot of dreams and myths of the country, the people and the expanding and emerging world power, have been exposed and destroyed by what we see and find. The Chinese have excuses - ‘We are a developing country’, or ‘We have too many people’. Mitigation of circumstances, maybe, but excuses, we don’t think so. It is where the government chooses to spend their money, not the lack of money.
In many ways, the treatment of the community by the authorities is atrocious, if not downright inhumane, and the rule of law intermittently and vigorously enforced. The divide between the wealthy and the poor is huge. Do the wealthy flaunt it - yes. Do the poor complain or worry about their lot in life - not that we have seen or heard. Complainers and dissidents still get locked up or sent for re-training. Overall, the Chinese people are accepting of what they are told, given, or allowed to do. Everyone appears to look out for themselves, with little or no regard for others. They seem to have a philosophy, ‘It doesn’t matter what I do, as it is someone else’s job
Canal pollution
Many canals are now no longer used to ply product around, so they become, overgrown, blocked and polluted. to clean up after me or fix it when I’m gone’. There is a real Y-gen feel about the people - it is all about me, and now.
The people can be pushy, rude, ignorant and selfish - yet we have met some of the most wonderful individuals you would ever hope to meet and we hope that we remain friends long after we are out of here.
Lying and cheating is ok, if it helps you “save face”. They spend billions of Yuan on rail infrastructure, yet the basics of, how you book a ticket, or keeping the toilets clean at the stations or on the trains, is ignored. Having a lot of people, or being a developing country, in our mind is no excuse for bad behaviour, uncleanliness and lack of respect by any one in authority for anyone seen to be “lower” than them in society’s people structure. This in the Chinese we definitely don’t like.
The teaching has been interesting. We enjoy what we do and some of the students really make your efforts seem worthwhile, yet in a public college where fees are paid by struggling families trying to get a better
Transport carts
You have to laugh when you see what and how various items are carted around town. How accidents don't happen amaze us. education for their child/ren than they had the opportunity themselves to get, we find the treatment of the students to be almost barbaric. There is no regard for the students or teachers. There is little or no forward planning, everyone is expected to do whatever is asked at the last minute, irrespective of what else you may have planned or been doing. The infrastructure is appalling for a modern-day school where adult students are being churned out as professionals in a modern-day China. Many students don’t even want to be trained in the field they are studying, yet they go through with it, as this is their one and only chance at further education and a chance for a job. Change streams - no way. Take it or leave it.
Many students really do try their best, but it is hard to learn when your heart is not in it. The responsibility to pass at school is not vested in the students, but in the teachers. We find this a major flaw in the education system here - if the students don’t pass their exams, it’s the teachers fault. The hours the students are expected to put in, 7
Cotton harvest
No easy way to do this, as the cotton is grown in small pockets along the roadsides. days a week, are hideous. They learn by ‘rote’ but have no comprehension of what they are learning and little long term retention.
In our view, China will never be a so-called ‘world power’ until they change their basic philosophy of how to treat people and how they do things. We won’t even talk about the building or safety standards, or apparent lack of quality control. We see buildings here which we thought may be 30 or 40 years old, but when we check on Google earth, they weren’t even on the 2003 photos. A lack of care and maintenance, added to the poor building standards and the very poor air quality, prematurely age the infrastructure. There is no lack of money for basic infrastructure such as roads, rail and housing, but there is little or no knowledge or expertise on how to get the longest life from these assets. It appears that re-development occurs about every 10 years - out with the old and in with the new. People are just moved out and the building bulldozed to make way for new high-rise apartment blocks.
When you see people throw a tarp over a pile of bricks,
Fresh produce
We loved the availability of fresh cut or picked produce, and the sellers set up where they could to make a living. stick a couple of planks on one end, and that is their home on the side of the road, it is sad. Winters here are cold, the lack of sanitation, clean drinking water and the seeming ability of some in the community to use anything they can scrounge, is not a good sight and will leave a lasting impression on us.
Would we come back to China? Maybe. Would we teach again here? Maybe, but not in the northern part of China - we would head to the warmer southern provinces and brave the typhoons. Have we enjoyed out time here? Yes and no. We have met some wonderful people from numerous countries. We have made friends with some special Chinese, whom we would welcome in our home at any time. The overall experience of our time here has impacted our views - on life, of what we want, on where we are headed, and on China.
What will we miss? The bright smiling faces of very young “20 year old” students looking up at us. The wonderful comradeship of the other foreigners, and the food - we will miss real Chinese food. Of course we will miss
Fresh is best
You can collect a live hen and they will prepare it for you on the spot - remind you of anything? the very comical happenings and the fireworks going off every night somewhere in the city.
What won’t we miss? The cold, bleak apartment, the disgusting air, and the stares (and the stairs everywhere). We will have memories of some of the poorest people eking out a living in the most appalling circumstances. Will we donate to any charity for China again? Not on your life. We have seen and read of what is happening in Sichuan, and it is not part of our charity dollar.
We still have a couple of days staying in Yancheng, and it will be hard saying goodbye to some very special people. We have made some lasting friendships and will willingly open our home for them, should they travel to Australia.
The bags are nearly packed - the Beijing and Harbin photos will have to wait until we get back home, but we will post a final farewell from China.
Best wishes from us in China,
Graeme & Betty-Anne
Advertisement
Tot: 0.093s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0551s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
