# 7 Retiring Teacher preparing to teach in China (First impressions)

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Let me comment on some additional impressions:
All streets were very clean, though it will take some time for the waterways and canals to be cleaned from hundreds of years of pollution and neglect. Travelling through the country-side between Nanjing-Suzhou-Shanghai, in Jiangsu Province, I noticed an immense amount of tree-planting. An enormous, noticeably- enormous, amount of young trees are beeing added to the trees, that have survived a turbulent Chinese history. When one is poor and cold, both, man and nature suffer.
The road and super-highway-system, and super-bridge-structures made an intense impression on me. Trucks and Commerce are thriving 24/7. Airport-structures and train-stations are massive and of stunning architecture and busy with travellers. But what was most obvious, was the unbelievable amount of construction of housing and industry. I saw the re-construction of Berlin after re-unification. That one scene repeated itself in China from city to city and from town to town I visited. I could not believe so many cranes existed in this world. The forests of construction-cranes became a common sight. If I only had stock in Cement 😊
The streets are clean of cigarette-butts, but cigarettes play an important role in Chinese everyday life. I am still a smoker 😞 and I found myself back in the glory-days of American-Cigarette-History of the 50's, 60's and 70's. During dinner, smokes are exchanged customarely as part of socializing, and packs of cigarettes are gratefully accepted as gifts.
This habit is mostly male-dominent, and I saw no women or younger girls smoke. The ladies around the table all accepted this custom as routine. Time and education will moderate this habit, but not in my life-time. As a point of interest, cigarettes are very expensive and a
"good" brand will cost more than 80 yuans (over $10.00), a tidy sum, per day, for a worker.
The stores I saw were stacked with products of all kinds, from things for the home to technology. Food is available every-where and $20.00 will fill a table with food for four, including a private room, 3-4 waiters, beer and wine.

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Photos

my new friends
Mrs. Katherine Lee, me, and Emma Lee

Comments

[maru]

i'm going to miss you
i'm going to miss you Mr. Schneider, but i know u are going to make many kids happy with ur funny jokes and storytelling. wish you the best of luck. your student