Chinese Administrator Exchange

These are photos from our first day in China.  Pictures include the Beijing airport, Chinese advertisments and vending machines.  Interesting to see similar soft drinks with a different label.  There are also pictures of our hotel room at the Ramada Bell Tower.  The design of the room uses space very resourcefully with moving walls around the bathroom area, mirrors to make the room appear more spacious and energy conservation by using your room card to turn on the electricity.

These pictures feature the sites of the Xian city wall, the hot pot lunch we enjoyed downtown, the Xian History Museum, Big Goose Pagoda tour and the dumpling banquet and Tang Dynasty music and dancing show.  The photos appear on the website in reverse order from the last events of the day appearing first (due to the way in which the pictures are uploaded).  Marvelous city with much to see!

Many pictures featured today from our trip to a terra cotta factory, the Terra Cotta Warrior museum, the folkart museum, our wonderful meals, a beautiful water fountain show and night-time streetlife in Xian.

Today's pictures include a trip to the village of PangLiu where our guide Richard grew up.  We toured a brick building business and visited a school which Richard has been instrumental in bringing financial aid to make improvments.  After our school visit we enjoyed lunch in the homes of two of the village residents.  Like America, there is nothing better than home cooking.  Our meals were fabulous and you could clearly see that they were very proud to be serving us in their homes.  What a tremendous experience for us!  In the afternoon we visited a very beautiful jade store which has been visited by many US dignitaries.  This was followed by a trip to a chinese muslim neighborhood where we saw the largest Muslim mosque in Xian which happens to also be in the heart of the market areas.  After shopping in a very busy market place we dined at a muslim restaurant in the neighborhood with some traditional chinese muslim foods which included a meat dish made from the head of the goat (thank goodness I didn't know this until after I ate it).  Those of us wishing to attend a Christian Easter service went to mass at a Catholic cathedral.  Another tremendous day!

This was our last morning in Xian.  A few of us went back to the muslim market with Richard (I went to take more pictures of course).  Much of our day was spent traveling to and from airports in a flight back to Beijing.  We are once again staying at a very nice hotel in Beijing with excellent accomodations.  The hotel is in the heart of the city so we are within walking distance of many places to see.  The Wisconsin group has now split apart from the Ohio/New England group as others joined our group from the states today.  The Badgers went for a walk into the local neighborhood.  Got down to Mao's tomb on the square where the changing of the guard was taking place.  We walked back into the back streets to see the daily life of the people.  Traveling off the beaten path is often the most interesting and insightful.  Much like in America, we see many people trying to make a living, very kind to strangers (or intrigued to see Americans) and wanting a good life for their children.  We dined in a local restaurant which seemed pretty upscale with many of the same dishes we have seen previously.  There was a local fish on the menu which appeared to be cooked whole and covered in a sweet sauce.  Tasted like most other fish I've eaten.  Dinner was followed by a night walk to downtown Beijing's shopping district and alley markets.  We found the prized scorpions on a stick which Randy Refsland (Clinton) bravely ate and likened to eating popcorn.  There were many seafood options on skewers in the market.  Once again, the people are not aggressive sellers which is more comfortable. I definitely got a sense of a "newer" city without the ambience of the ancient history in Xian.  The traffic here is very orderly and there is a greater police presence maintaining order.  Interestingly I encountered more spitters here than in Xian-go figure.

These photos include our visit to the Great Wall of China which was originally 10,000km but is now only 6,000km long.  The wall was built by prisoners and young boys from the provinces along the path of the wall.  If you were a worker and died while working on the wall, your remains became a part of the wall.  I took a gondola up to the top of the wall rather than walking up the stairs.  The view from the top is incredible.  We hiked through five or six towers which are very steep with many steps.  We tried to imagine how hard life must have been for the men building the wall and the soldiers assigned to walk on the wall.  Winters in China are very cold and the wall is built along the highest points so staying alive in such conditions would be difficult at best.  The building of the Great Wall was the idea of the emperor during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-207 BC) so the wall is thousands of years old.

After leaving the Great Wall we traveled back into Beijing to take a quick picture stop near the Olympic village where we viewed the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube before traveling on to the oldest hutong in Beijing.  We rode on bicycle rickshaws through the hutong neighborhoods.  Hutongs, which originated during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 AD) are a series of living quarters constructed with small alleys.  Many hutongs have been demolished through the years to make way for new construction and roads but there are a few left in Beijing.  In preparation for the 2008 Olympics, the govt. had the oldest hutong made over as a tourist area with living quarters rented out to Olympic visitors.  There are about 100 hutongs left after the demolition of these neighborhoods leading up to the Olympics.  Individual quarters have rooms built on all four sides in a square shape with a courtyard in the middle.  In keeping with feng shui (art of balance of energies), the north room is the best room and is used by the elders of the family.  The south room would be used for the servants, storage or guests.  The east rooms were for the boys and the west rooms for the girls.  Young people in China do not like living in a hutong because there is no parking for cars and no toilets (must use a public toilet).  During the Olympics, the hutongs rented for 3,500 yuan per night (which is about $560 based on today's value).  Now hutongs are rented out like a bed and breakfast and cost about 240 yuan per night (about $38). 

Following another large dinner (I am getting pretty good with chopsticks) we walked to the downtown shopping district of Beijing which is Wangfujing Street.  This area is closed off to cars which makes it easy to walk to both sides of the street.  Tonight a fellow superintendent (Joe Stutting) and I decided that we would try the fried scorpion on a stick.  As you will see in the pictures, the scorpions are live on the stick and then quickly cooked on a hot grill and seasoned.  While very crunchy, it is much like eating the crispy skin of a cooked turkey except with the spiky legs and tail.  I can now say that I have eaten scorpion and goat brains!  I followed that crispy snack with a Chinese ice cream treat.

Today was our last day in Beijing before leaving by bus to Shijiazhuang.  We ended our stay with a trip to Tian'anmen Square.  The square is bordered by four major buildings-the National Museum of China, Mao's Tomb, the People's Assembly Hall and the entrance to the Forbidden City (where the emporers used to live).  There were literally tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world in the square.  Our guide told us that hundreds of visitors come each day to stand in line to go into Mao's tomb to see his body.  She said that for the Chinese people coming to the square to see the tomb and visit the Forbidden City is of great importance and would be a great vacation for many people.  As expected the square has many guards and is closely monitored by cameras. 

We then entered the Forbidden City.  There are seven bridges leading into the Forbidden City.  One for the emporer, two for the royal family, two for the high ranking officials and two which were added when the buildings were opened to the public in 1925.  The Forbidden City covers 72 hectares of land and has 8703 rooms inside.  It took 40 years and 2 million workers to build the city.  There are many buildings within the city walls which all have significant meaning.  In addition, much of the architecture also has significant meanings.  The intricacies of the designs on the buildings is amazing.  But what was most stunning for all of us was to see the thousands of visitors who come in to see the Forbidden City everyday.  It is difficult to describe the massive crowds.  Unfortunately, narrow areas such as the gardens were difficult to enjoy and view due to the number of people.  Again, the guide shared that the Forbidden City has a great deal of meaning to the Chinese people and also to nearby countries which is why there are so many visitors each day. 

Following these two tours, we left by bus for Shijiazhuang which is a four hour journey.  We stopped at a rest area along the way which was similar to a truck stop in the US.  There were bathrooms (yes, squat toilets again), a small restaurant and a convenience store with snacks.  Upon arriving at our hotel, we quickly changed to go to a welcome dinner hosted by Mr. Hou, the Director of the Hebei Provincial Education Department.  Our dinner took place at a well known restaurant known for its excellent peking duck.  Meetings of this nature are very important in China.  In the Chinese culture, school administrators are considered high ranking members of society so there are many formalities that are observed.  One of the most important formalities is the exchanging of business cards.  This exchange serves as the beginning of a friendship or partnership.  The cards are exchanged standing face to face and each person presenting their cards with their index fingers holding the corners with the name facing the other person (so they can read the name when given the card).  I noticed after exchanging the cards, that the deputy director sitting at our table laid the cards out near the edge of the table in the order that we were sitting so he could refer to us by name.  Once again, we were served a superb meal with many courses.  (The Wisconsin administrators have a hard time walking away from the table with so much food left.  We are always asking what will be done with it as we have been raised not to waste food.)

Today's schedule included a morning meeting at the Hebei Provincial Education Department and an afternoon visit to No. 1 High School of Shijiazhuang.  Our morning meeting began with a presentation speech by Mr. Li Qiang, Vice-Director of Basic Education Division.  He spoke to us about the education in Hebei, reform and future developments.  The Hebei Province is home to 70 million people.  Educational reform in China begain in about 1978.  The Chinese govt. now provides 9 years of compulsory education from grades 1-9.  In Hebei this is about 8.8 million students.  Parents also send their children to preschool before first grade.  Preschools can be public or private schools.  Mr. Li shared a number of statistics about the education system and was very proud of the fact that females go to school almost equivalent to males in grades 1-9. 

Mr Li shared two goals for education in China.  The first is to find ways to handle students who drop out of school too early.  The second goal is to provide equity in the quality of schools across the Hebei Province.  He stated that the government funding is not adequate to provide for all students to attend school.  The schools are slowly improving as the govt. spends money to update building and technology.  Mr. Li shared that there is a big gap in the quality of education between the urban and rural schools.  They don't have enough teachers wishing to teach in the rural schools and finding English teachers for these schools is very difficult. 

At the Senior High School level there are two types of schools; vocational and general.  Students in vocational high schools learn skills for employment after high school.  Students in general high schools are intending to go to the university after graduation.  Most senior high schools in Hebei are 3,000 to 4,000 students. 

China also has preschool education which is not paid for by the government but is offered for parents to pay.  There are public preschools and private preschools.  Children can go to preschool from age 3 to 6.  There are too few public kindergartens which is a problem in offering affordable preschool to all children.  Preschool is most often play based along with learning letters and numbers.  Mr. Li expressed concern about the curriculum moving lower and preschool children being forced to have less play in the curriculum.  (Similar to the United States)

He next spoke of educational reform in China which began after 1978.  This was a time when economic development happened rapidly in Chinas.  During the 1990's, funding was not always guaranteed to schools and many teachers could not rely on a regular salary.  Now funding is provided from the central govt and also the county govt. but Mr. Li said that it is still not enough to educate all the millions of children.  The central govt. decides how many teachers each school should have.  Any extra teachers must come from other sources such as the county govt level.  Teachers hired by the central govt. are guaranteed a pretty good job for life.  Education jobs are very difficult to get and are highly respected acros the country. 

Curriculum reform in China began in the early 2000's and Senior High reform began in 2009.  Professional development began with learning about teaching methods, student learning and content.  Mr. Li shared that the content mandated by the central govt. is very specific and requires a great deal of rote memorization.  He also expressed that there are too many subjects to study in preparation for the examination.  Mr. Li believes that there is too much emphasis put on the examination to get into the university system and not enough discussions and critical thinking skills taught.  He said it is very hard to change traditional thinking but also noted that some of the traditions are very strong such as math and basic chinese language skills.

China is also struggling to find ways to deal with the "floating" population.  These are the students and families that travel between the rural villages and the cities.  Because there is little or no work in the rural villages, many parents travel to the city to find work.  They often must bring their children with them while they work.  There is not enough room in the urban schools to support all of the rural children.  Most classrooms already have 50-60 students from the city.  Some rural schools do offer boarding schools for kids to stay in while the parents come to work in the city all week.

The final part of his speech touched on the examination system in China.  Students are routinely given exams throughout their school years.  Their performance determines which schools they will get into at each level (elementary, middle, high, university).  If a child doesn't score high enough for a particular school, the parents can pay tuition to get their child into the school.  The test consists of chinese language skills, english skills, math, science and liberal arts sections.  The students spend a great deal of time studyiing for this test including at night time and on weekends.  Senior high schools will good test scores and many students going on to the university are favored by the govt.  This is a sign of great honor and prestige for the principal and the school. 

I asked Mr. Li what his ideal school would look like and what message would he like us to take back to our schools and communities about Hebei.  First, he said his ideal school would be a place where teachers love their careers and students love learning.  He expressed that when he was a younger teacher he thought the way to teach was to be strict and severe to the students but now as he has gotten older and seen more schools he changed his mind and believes it is much better for the students and teachers to have a good relationship.  The message that he would like to send back to the United States is that Hebei is a place of traditional chinese culture where the people are honest, have down to earth sttitudes, have warm hearts and a loving spirit toward others.  His summary of this province also matches what we have experienced in this country.  We have been shown great hospitality and kindness at each place we have visited.  I hope that people in the US will extend the same generosity next fall when the Chinese administrators visit Wisconsin. 

Following our lunch, we visited No. 1 High School (all high schools are named by numbers).  No. 1 is a very good high school in Hebei Province which is based on how well the students perform on the test and go to the university.   There are over 3,000 students at No. 1 high school.  The students were very friendly and seemed happy but you will see from the pictures that there are about 50-60 students in each classroom.  Students are assigned to a classroom and stay there all day except for going to their specials classes.  The teachers move from room to room to teach their lessons.  Each class period is 40 minutes long.  There is a 10 minute break between the first two classes and 20 minutes between the second and third class and then back to a 10 minutes break between the third and fourth class.  Students break for a two hour lunch at about 11am.  There is a cafeteria for students who live in the dorms or those who don't want to go home during the break.  During this two hours, students and teachers are free to leave the building grounds.  Afternoon classes begin between 1pm and 2pm and then finish at 5:30pm.  The last two hours of the day are for specials classes or study hall.  We saw a few students in the specials classes such as dance, soccer, track and music.  There wasn't necessarily a teacher assigned to these specials classes and it appeared that most students just worked amongst themselves without an adult.  Clearly a majority of the students were in the study halls working out of workbooks, practicing test questions and reviewing problems.  I have included some pictures of the booklets they use for this preparation. 

One of the exchange leaders, Ryan, lived in China for seven years before returning to the US.  He worked as an English professor but also spent two years with a large company in Shanghai as an economics researcher.  Ryan serves as our American intrepreter and attends all of these meetings with us.  He shared with me after our visit to the No. 1 school and seeing students crammed into a classroom with their heads bent in homework that the problem in China is that the students know how to do the math problems but they don't know how to apply them to real life.  He said that his company wasn't able to find any chinese graduates that were able to do the economics work they needed done because they couldn't transfer their knowledge to the thinking needed for the workplace.  He said that if you gave them a math problem and showed them the formula they could figure out the math quickly and accurately but problem solving out of this context was not how they have been taught to think.  I think this is why the graduates from China who come to the United States keep trying to tell the US educators and lawmakers that they don't want an education system like China.