Weifang! It's Way Fun!

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April 1st 2007

Published: April 1st 2007

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dawninshenzhen

Welcome to Weifang - Kite Capital of the World!

The dragon kite is the symbol of Weifang.

I went on a business trip to Weifang, Shandong Province, the Kite Capital of the World! "Weifang! It's Way Fun" is not the official slogan, but I think it's kind of catchy.

CTLC has been asked to supply 25 teachers to Weifang No. 1 Middle School this summer for an English camp. My task? To check out the campus and facilities and make sure they are up to our standards. I appreciate the difference between our two beautiful cultures; but, foreign teachers do not want to live in the standard Chinese teacher housing. Standard Chinese teacher housing is: 2 teachers in a dorm-style room, squatting toilet, hard-as-a-piece-of-plywood mattress, no internet or phone, no TV. Now, before anyone starts scolding me for being a demanding foreigner who doesn't want to adapt to Chinese ways, I just want to ask you: Would you come live in a foreign country for a year knowing you'd never be able to sit on a toilet? If you answered "Yes," that's wonderful, you're in the minority, and you should start searching the TEFL job boards for independent job listings. If you answered "No," then you should consider finding a job through an organization like CTLC

Lunch in the botanic gardens

My Chinese collegues and I. We had lunch at a restuarant inside a botanic garden. It was lovely. Notice how I'm the only one without a proper dress coat. Weifang was cold and they turn off the heat in March!

that negotiates a certain standard of living for you. China currently has an insanely high demand for foreign teachers, and as long as that demand remains high, schools will need to renovate housing and facilities to entice enough foreigners.

Back to the story...So, I flew to Beijing (again) and then took a 6-hour train to Weifang with three Chinese colleagues. The train left Beijing at 11:30 p.m. That means it arrived in Weifang at 5:30 a.m. The Chinese company paying for the trip did not spring for soft-sleeper tickets, only hard-sleeper. I did not sleep well. When we arrived in Weifang, someone from the company's local office met us and said to me, "Isn't the train station beautiful? It looks like a kite!" My unspoken response was, "It's 5:30 in the morning! I don't care! Just get me to the hotel so I can sleep!" They did take us to the hotel and we were able to sleep for 2 hours before being whisked away to breakfast, meetings, tour of the school, lunch, tour of local Weifang Kite Museum, dinner, karaoke and disco-dancing, and finally, sleep again. The next morning was breakfast, meetings, lunch, and then back on the

Beautiful Kites

Some of the kites on display at the Weifang Kite Museum.

train to return to Beijing.

The school was very concerned about impressing me and so they kept feeding me and plying me with alcohol. There is an aspect of Chinese culture that says your hospitality is reflected by how full your guest's glass is. This translates to: your guest must drink a lot. Luckily, I convinced them that I could only drink beer rather than Chinese baijiu (rice liquor, similar to sake, but not nearly as tasty). The highlight of my hosts' hospitality was when they said, "You should go take a nap now, because tonight we want you to drink alcohol."

All in all it was a wonderful trip. The school campus is amazing - the most beautiful middle school campus I've seen in China. My hosts were very hospitable and we had a great time. I think they especially loved to hear me sing "Desperado" at karaoke. And they definitely loved my attempts at singing a couple of Chinese songs. ("Mouse Loves Rice" and "The Moon Represents My Heart.") I won them over with my Midwest charm and my sweet smile.

The Weifang International Kite Festival is April 20. If you're in the area, I