Sea Worm Jello

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Here is a great lunch. Sea worms in a gelatin with soy sauce and wasabe. That and some fish ball soup was some good eatin'!

Aviary

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There is a nice aviary with a wonderful variety of exotic birds living without fear of being eaten. The high point was a performance by cockatoos and parrots. We only caught the end of the show, but we saw the birds fly out into the crowd and collect money. They are taught to differentiate between denominations. People were instructed to hold up a one yuan note and one of greater value. The birds always grabbed the big ones! They only had them do it a few times. Had I been the trainers, I would have continued this until the rubes had been cleaned out.

Sunlight Rock

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Sunlight Rock is the highest point on Gulangyu Island. It offers a breathtaking view and is an excellent way to enjoy the holiday crowd. We took a tram across, then queued up along with a couple of thousand others to take the slow ascent to the top. Fortunately there were soldiers and police officers that keep things orderly and moving along.

Xiamen

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Xiamen is located on an island in the province of Fujian. Since tons of information is available I'm not going to get redundant so you can read about it here.

It shares some similarities with my home city in that they are both are seaside cities that have similar climates, but the differences were more pronounced. The biggest difference is that Xiamen is much better looking. It has been rated the cleanest city in China by the Chinese government for several years. There is a big effort by all to make it this way. There are public service ads encouraging civic pride and cleanliness. Motorcycles have been all but banned (a big source of air and noise pollution). There is a large foreign population, estimated at around 5,000 due to its big port, its proximity to Taiwan, and the presence of many foreign firms. So it is a fairly wealthy city. Most of the buildings I saw were newer and in good shape. Streets and sidewalks are wide and in excellent repair. Lovely parks abound.

One of the nicest features I found were the lack of blaring horns. There is a 50 RMB fine for honking your horn. This has not seemed to have handicapped the local drivers at all and they seem to be able to get from home to their destination without the need of this vital driving tool that is so essential to the Zhanjiang driving population.

We stayed with an old college friend of mine at his place across from the beach. The beach is small, and covered at high tide, but there is a boardwalk along much of it, although it suffered in a recent typhoon. There is an outdoor theater, with traditional shows nightly. We enjoyed a nice opera performance, although I had no idea what was going on, not unlike western operas.

The locals enjoy a better standard of living than most, with good wages and reasonable housing costs. They have a laid back attitude, and have a great pride in where they live. After a few days in Xiamen, I found I could envision myself living there too.

Sleeper Bus

Guangdong people can sleep anywhere.

We need more crab in the hold!

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Sleeper buses are a conveyance here in China that give the impression that when you book one, you will be reclining in comfort, and then sleeping in a prone position during the night, rather than upright getting a kink in your neck. Having taken these beasts before on an 8 hour trip, I knew this not to be true but we booked one anyway on our trip to Xiamen, since we knew that it would be a minimum 12 hour trip (plus there are no other direct buses).

Sleeper buses have three rows of two tiered bunks running the length of their rather tall selves. You get a blanket and pillow, and a little rack to put your personal belongings on. You remove your shoes upon entering and place them in a plastic bag which conveniently hangs on the little knob on the rack. There is a restroom with a squatty potty in the rear, and video screens for entertainment.

I understand the beds are quite comfortable if you are under five and a half feet tall and weigh less than 100 lbs, otherwise you don't quite fit on the 66 inch by 20 inch platform. You also need bound feet in order to fit them under the little gear platform. It's not completely hopeless if you are 6 feet tall since you can curl up on your side, or lie on your back with knees raised. You can also use your blanket for extra padding in order to sit semi upright. It's something akin to laying down in the back seat of a Corolla. It's not bad if you want to read or watch a movie, although most of the offerings are Chinese, so it's best to bring your own on a laptop.

I knew the 12 hour trip would take longer since this was a major holiday, National Day, but they managed to exceed my wildest expectations in this matter. The bus left promptly at its announced time of 11:45 am, and immediately detoured from the normal freeway route to take the more scenic coastal drive. This enabled the bus to stop frequently to wait 20 minutes for late passengers in every farming berg and to take on cargo too. The novelty of the various rural bus stops and quaint stations wore off after about the tenth stop, and no one was ever on time. After about four hours, we were only about 120km down the road, when we finally got on the freeway, although they did manage a couple of more stops to stuff some more cargo into the holds. I had to admire the way they maximized profits on this trip.

We had a dinner stop at 5, then on to Xiamen, ETA now 6 am. After about 10:30 or so I managed to fall asleep. However, passengers soon began to get off at other obscure stops which were announced by the chubby, shirtless "conductor" who used his foghorn voice to inform the entire bus of whatever cow town or toll station a certain passenger needed to get off at. They would often be replaced by another, who then was yelled at by the "conductor" until he or she figured out what space they were supposed to occupy. This, combined with the cramped bed, gave a night's rest somewhat akin to to that of parents of a croupy infant.

The trip back home a few days later was similar, although they brought on more passengers and less cargo. These unfortunates got to sit on the floor, and one guy got to sit in front of the bathroom so he got to get up every time somebody wanted to use it, enabling him to keep from getting too cramped. Our "conductor" was the same guy as on the previous trip, but he decided he needed some help keeping everyone awake, and played at loud volume some very shitty Chinese cartoons, and old comedies that featured shrill voices from nearly every character, shrill voices being an integral part of bad Chinese comedy. He kept this crap going until about 11:30, and I found that my earplugs did little more than prevent damage from excessive volume.

The only thing that made this trip more tolerable, was the fact that it only took 16 and half hours instead of 18.

Sleeper bus is a bit of an oxymoron, but in our case it was the quickest way, other than flying, for us to get to our destination. If you are short, have earplugs, liquor and Vicodin this is not a bad way to travel. You are intimate with your traveling companions, and you develop a great appreciation for just about anything that isn't cramped.

Best and Brightest

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I am back in the classrooms with a vengeance. My first series of lessons have been pronunciation of the "ARRRRR" sound, idioms, and a presentation on American high schools. The high school talk stresses the many differences in the two systems, and always gets me thinking about what each country could emulate from the other to improve what they have.

One of the things China does differently is to rank its schools. I teach at the #1 Middle School. It's called that because it is the top school, and has the top students in the region. Kids come from all over and live in the dorms here. Competition is fierce, and the workload is staggering. They are motivated by each other, family, teachers and the desire to do well in life. They are divided into classes according to test scores, and remain in that particular class for the school year. There are 39 classes of about 50-55 students in the sophomore class. Virtually all of their lessons are held in these classrooms. Here, the teacher is homeless, we go to the students. They develop a bond with their classmates, and each becomes its own unique community. Each student has their own desk, a place to study and keep their piles of books. The rooms soon become cluttered with plastic bins, since the desks aren't big enough to hold all these learning materials.

The advantage of this system is obvious. Your elite students are all together getting the best education they can get. They are all motivated, they compete, they help each other, and they have access to the best resources available. It's a giant nerdfest, without the disruptive lowlifes that can make life miserable for the brainy kids.

Having a set classroom creates a sense of community and family in what would otherwise be an isolating environment.

The schools here, even the elite ones don't come close to having the resources that American schools have. The classes are huge, they lack labs, computers, music, arts, and many of the creature comforts. The fun factor is very low. There are definite weaknesses in areas like creativity and self confidence, but they are very strong in math and the sciences, better than the US.

I read an interesting opinion piece last month that talked about the lack of motivation in too many American high school students, and how maybe the schools are not completely to blame.

Americans could do a much better job in encouraging bright students to do their best, and it might not be a bad idea to consider starting regional schools for its best and brightest kids. Too many are languishing.

Mid Autumn Festival

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Mid Autumn Festival is coming up this week. We are already eating lots of moon cake. It falls on the full moon, which is Wednesday. It's a genuine traditional holiday, and virtually everyone outside of retail and hospitality industries take the day off. We also get an additional two days off from school, and many get the same thing from work.

But here's the rub:

Most of us have to work on Sunday and next Saturday to make up for the extra two days off! Basically they move your days off around and call them a "holiday". This doesn't seem to bother most people, just us spoiled foreigners. We are planning to go to our favorite beach so we can get a room and enjoy the full moon by the sea. Unfortunately, there is a typhoon coming into the region the day before. The moon may be a little scarce, and the crab shack may blow down again.