Unbelievable.....

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Photos:

…..it's the last YYW for this (school) year. Ten months in this city, with a history of about 2500 years that includes a period where it was one of China's richest & most influential cities. During the Han and Tang dynasties, Yangzhou was titled “the most prosperous city in the whole world”. The construction of the Grand Canal during the reign of Emperor Suiyang made the ancient Yangzhou commercial centre. During the middle period of the Qing Dynasty, Yangzhou, as the biggest salt distribution centre in China at that time, it became one of the 10 biggest cities in the world with a population of above 500 thousand. I'm walking in the steps of Marco Polo, who lived for 16 years in China where he was employed for several years by Kublai Khan including a period as Governor of Yangzhou.....

…..the last week here is a winding down as students have gone home for the summer holidays & foreign teachers are leaving, either permanently or until the next term starts in August. Still, for some unaccountable reason, Angel, the chief administrator of Foreign Teachers, has asked for teachers to volunteer for eighteen (yes, 18) lessons, short ones admittedly, but just after everyone has left or is preparing to go & there are no students left at the school..... They want to film them for display on the Internet. They are paying well (so they should). Paul, Peter & I are the only ones left so I guess it will be us. I hope I'm left with time to pack my bags.....

…..Xu Xuan (Julie) one of the very nicest students of all (& from the very worst class of all, 3/9), has invited several teachers to her birthday party. Peter & I are invited, partly because I am her English teacher & it is assumed the two of us can perform a song. Peter is not sure whether to go but I tell him if he hasn't been to a tenth birthday party in China he should. He is suitably impressed, no, staggered, by being driven in a new Audi to the huge, plush restaurant, the giant arches of balloons reaching to the ceiling, the large & obviously professional photo shots of Julie all around the room, the usual procession of gourmet dishes. Of course we grade three teachers have seen it all before. They enjoy Paul Kelly's “To her door” even though everyone is clapping out of time.....

.....this will be the last YYW, at least for this school year. Thanks you to all of you who have read the weekly news from China & in many cases told me your week would not been complete without it. It has been worthwhile for me to write some some of the less credible experiences down straightaway as I might not have believed them myself later.

.....the figures that spill out of China, on population, pollution, economic growth, internet useage & a hundred other things are as empty as rows of astronomical zeros until you are swept down the stairs & onto the platform of Nanjing railway station by the heaving mass of travellers on the October National Day holiday or watch the dull, red circle of the sun high in the sky disappear behind the smog haze, hours before the appointed sunset. Counting the cranes on building sites where huge clusters of 16 or 20 storey apartment blocks are rising, in yet another city of 4, 6, 8 or 10 million or sitting in a bar in Nantong where the jukebox is a computer hooked to the mp3s on the Chinese search engine Baidu. China is more than just another developing country. It is in a league of its own.....

.....it's not all frenetic activity. Often it's slow & determined There is a couple packing up the remaining watermelons on their truck at 11pm after trading on the street all day, in front of a hairdressing shop closed just half an hour before.....

....the other thing the figures can't convey is the sheer, unstoppable inertia of China. In an attempt to give the people virtually every freedom except political choice the rich are getting richer & poor are struggling in their wake. Kilometre after kilometre of elevated highways & railways radiate out of Shanghai & colossal rows of apartment blocks spring up everywhere but there is no universal health care system. Parents & grandparents whose lives were pulled apart by the Cultural Revolution are now watching their children & grandchildren cope with the very different pressures of the new China.....

.....I hope Miss Peng, the student I met a couple of months ago, recovering from a nervous breakdown brought on by the punishing regime of study, has regained her sunny smile.....

.....there are plenty of things to put off a would be visitor, the overwhelming crowds & traffic, appalling air quality & spitting in the street but, if braced for the inevitable negatives, the positives will outweigh them. The friendly, curious, open nature of the people, the depth of history & culture, amazing ingenuity in everything from loading a bicycle to pictures of incredible intricacy cut from a sheet of paper with a pair of scissors.....

.....I know some of you would hate to be in China, even for a day. You have told me that the YYW is the best way to experience it from the comfort of your own home. Some would like to visit & maybe see the Forbidden City & the Great Wall then return to familiar comforts. I also know a few have become very curious since reading the YYW & a few of those are intending to visit next year.....

.....like it or not what happens in China affects most of our lives. To see it firsthand is, almost literally, unbelievable.....

再见 zài jiàn (again meet or, in a more Australian translation, see you later)

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