Page 7 of RedWiseacre Travel Blog Posts


Asia » China » Shanxi » Taiyuan July 15th 2010

Today we visited several schools in Shanxi...we went into the mountains, visited a village where Chairman Mao stayed for 1 night and visited the room where he slept...the houses are built in caves in the side of the mountains...out of stone, tiles, or a type of mud or shale that is part of this region's terrain. The government is engaged in a national initiative to create schools and to educate the children, particularly in the rural areas so we visited several recently constructed schools in rural villages outside Shilou. It was quite instructive to meet the directors and speak with the teachers who teach primary and middle school English. We are now trying to think about how to structure the training program for these teachers, whose English proficiency, educational background, and experience vary so greatly. This ... read more

Asia » China » Shanxi » Taiyuan July 14th 2010

We arrived yesterday at the hotel in Shilou. We are sponsored by Zigen a private organization hat supports education in rural areas. There are 2 American board Chinese volunteers from California, and 3 young Chinese women from Beijing and Judy Manton founder of the program and me. We went to the middle school where we will be teaching today to try to set up our materials and start the training session for the volunteers only to discover that othe materials are locked up...plan B. We did a quick orientation to ESL/EFL -- second language acquisitoin and befgan to look at the textbook on teaching and learning a second language. Then we visited 2 primary schools and met some English teacherrs and got copies of the textbooks that are used here in China. It's been a wonderful ... read more

Asia » China » Shanghai July 11th 2010

Shanghai Museum of Art, Saturday, July 10, 2010 today we were met here at the Radisson by a friend of Judy's ShuHwa, a retired bank employee, whom Judy met on vacation here in China some years before. She generously offered to show us around Shanghai on Saturday so when she arrived we all went down for breakfast here in the hotel and together roughly planned out a day's trip. First site, the Shanghai Museum. We took the metro again, back on the #11 line to the #2 line and then to the stop (?) that is central to a lot of the downtown activity -- the Hong Kong Shopping Center, the Yuyuan Gardens, and the Shanghai Museum. As we exited the metro women were selling umbrellas -- I should have taken that as a sign because ... read more

Asia » China » Shanghai July 10th 2010

Finally, after spending about 7.5 hours in the airport waiting for my colleague whose flight was delayed, I decided to take the metro to the hotel. I was told that it would take over an hour but that it was relatively simple and a lot cheaper than a taxi. Of course, that sounded ideal so I made my way out of the terminal to the metro gates. We had to send our bags through an x-ray machine and buy tickets from a vending machine. Just as I approached the line of machines, everyone of them changed to 'coins only.' I raced to get to the last one that would take a bill and with someone's help I managed to buy a ticket. It's a little like the DC subway -- you type in your destination and ... read more

Asia » China » Shanghai July 10th 2010

Just arrived at the Shanghai Airport about 1:30 pm on July 10, 2010...great airport and very friendly young people greeted me at the Vodaphone booth in the airport. We had a very long discussion and they were quite helpful and welcoming. Four brilliant young university students are 'manning' the booth, handing out bags as souvenirs and information about changing money, phone cards, hotels, etc. It was lovely speaking with these 4 young people -- all very bright, very ambitious, very sincere, very polite and very respectful. I love that.... read more




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