Bright Light in China

Small Work Space

2010-05-11T18:22:00.003+08:00

We came across this money changer whose work space brings a whole new meaning to the idea of a less than ideal work space. Between the back wall and the glass is less than 24 inches! The width of the room was no more than 6 ft. She had a exit door under the counter out to the street only. Her perch was a formica ledge about 6 inches wide attached to the wall. I asked her if the sun came in the window and she said it did but I noted that she did have a small AC unit. She said, "Yes but it doesn't work!" Maybe just over 10 square feet to be in on display behind a glass wall on the street. She was all smiles though.

Hong Kong for a Day

2010-02-20T19:52:00.012+08:00

Chinese Money Man

There are many of these butchers everywhere.

Hollywood Road is very popular and has many antique shops.

Crossing the street

Boxes to hold sweets

Major discussion

Who knew that a Polaroid would be worth $500 US

Rubber Mask

Looking straight up

Tim at U of HK

Bev and I spent a day in Hong Kong just for fun. We wanted to do a day of Art Galleries and Antiques. It was fun but many places were closed due to it being the Chinese New Year. These are a few pics from the day. Some in B & W which just seemed to fit.

UNSHAKEN

2010-02-10T13:39:00.007+08:00

Michelle and her wonderful idea!

The Poster Michelle designed, FYI about 6 foot tall!

We work with the most amazing students ever. One of our secondary girls wanted to do something for the victims of the recent Haitian disaster. She came up with an idea. Went on to research the feasibility. Used her own money to develop a add campaign and is now selling her product with 100% of all profits going directly to the Hatian Red Cross.

So Michelle designed a simple wrist band. The title says it all UNSHAKEN and on the backside in just a relief is HAITI 2010. She found a company that could quickly produce her product and had it approved to be sold in the school.

She used her camera and designed a poster that has pics students wearing the samples that she had made. The poster was printed and hangs in our secondary building. To keep sales high and costs low the wrist bands sell for just 5 rmb or about $ .73 each with $ .60 being applied as a donation.

Amazing Kids.

BTW my friend Howard's daughter is the eyes at the top of the poster.

Tensions Rise

2010-02-02T19:41:00.004+08:00

We have not experienced any observed changes but we continue to hear quite a bit via some of the unblocked media routes. It does seem a little bit tenser at times. Our hope is that some of this settles down as China is all about retaliation.

Some of the latest headlines.

US-CHINA TENSIONS

Google - China denies being behind an alleged cyber attack on the US search engine

Taiwan - a US sale of $6.4bn (£4bn) of defensive arms to Taiwan angers Beijing

Tibet - China says a US meeting with the Dalai Lama would "undermine relations"

Trade - rows over imports and exports of meat, media, car tyres and raw materials strain ties

Dog

2010-01-26T18:12:00.004+08:00

So as we are in the dead of Winter which means it is Dog season. According to the Chinese eating dog will help you stay warm during the winter cold. So along with the other the other drying carcasses dog is hanging in front of many Chinese restaurants. I talked to one Chinese waitress who thought it was curious that foreigners wanted to take pictures of the hanging dog. I am skipping the dog this year. The temperature has not dipped below 50 F.

Fruit

2010-01-26T17:44:00.002+08:00

Fresh Fruit

It is nice being able to purchase fresh fruit locally grown. We bought this on the way home last night after going out to eat. 1 small pineapple, 2 mangos, 3 larger tangerines, 2 apples. a small number of strawberries, 2 bananas (1 already eaten) bought right down the street. The prices have increased but still this was a little over $4.50 US. A grande size latte at Starbucks will be about the same price.

Si Hai Park, Shekou, Shenzhen

2010-01-25T23:15:00.013+08:00

This is the park that is directly across from the Fenghua QSI secondary campus.
I took this phot last week from the 25th floor of an apartment building next to the park.
One of our teachers and his family live on the 10 floor of this building.

Many Grandparents watch young children and take them to the park daily.
The open pants are standard and make for convience and less laundry!

Lots of games are played in the park especially by older people.

This is the park Bull, it is giant size and can be seen from many upper floors of buildings in Shekou.

This little boy was quite curious and watched this musical performance.

Wonderful and different foilage is everywhere.

Still Blocked

2010-01-25T11:24:00.003+08:00

The difficulty in viewing news and other content generated outside of China continues. Many get around this by using proxy and vpn services. But it is still difficult to get information and make informed decisions. I started using a VPN so that I could post to my blog. It works for now.

China says Internet controls here to stay

By Chris Buckley Chris Buckley – Monday Jan. 25

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has every right to punish citizens using the Internet to challenge Communist Party power and ethnic policies, a senior official said Monday, pressing Beijing's counter-offensive against Google Inc.

The defense of China's curbs on the Internet came nearly two weeks after the world's biggest search engine provider said it wanted to stop censoring its Chinese Google.cn website and was alarmed by online hacking attacks from within China.

The dispute has stoked friction between Beijing and Washington, two global economic heavyweights already wrestling with tensions over trade, U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan and human rights.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week urged China and other authoritarian governments to pull down Internet censorship, drawing a sharp rebuke from Beijing.

In the latest volley, a spokesperson for China's State Council Information Office said the country "bans using the Internet to subvert state power and wreck national unity, to incite ethnic hatred and division, to promote cults and to distribute content that is pornographic, salacious, violent or terrorist."

The comments from the unnamed spokesperson showed scant room for compromise with Google and Washington on censorship policy. They were issued on the central government's website (http://www.gov.cn).

"China has an ample legal basis for punishing such harmful content, and there is no room for doubting this. This is completely different from so-called restriction of Internet freedom," the spokesperson added.

INTERNET CONTROLS

The State Council Information Office is the cabinet arm of China's propaganda apparatus, which is steered by the Communist Party, and is one of several agencies that shape Internet policy.

The latest comments from China made no direct mention of Google or Clinton.

They appeared intended to shore up the government's case that its Internet controls are for it alone to decide, and that even expression of non-violent views online can amount to a crime in China.

China has prosecuted dissidents and advocates of self-rule in Tibet who have used the Internet to challenge Communist Party policies.

Late last year the country's most prominent dissident, Liu Xiaobo, was jailed for 11 years on charges of "inciting subversion," largely through several essays he published on overseas Internet sites.

In recent days, Beijing has raised the pitch of its criticism of U.S. pressure over the Internet.

Sunday, the People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, accused the United States of exploiting social media, such as Twitter and Youtube to foment unrest in Iran.

China has blocked Youtube since March, the anniversary of uprisings in Tibet, and Twitter since June 2009, just before the 20th anniversary of a crackdown on protestors in and near Tiananmen Square. Facebook has been down since early July.

China also uses a "Great Firewall" of content filtering to deter citizens from viewing banned content on overseas sites.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

Big Buddah

2010-01-21T16:51:00.008+08:00

One long span between support towers!

A very big Budah at the top of the same island that has the HK airport and HK Disneyland.

Yes even after the cable car ride you still have to climb the stairs to the top.

Bev under the watchful eye of the Budah.

The worlds largest bronze seated Budah in the world is on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It took 10 years and 70 million dollars to construct this Budah. It is 34 meters tall, weighs in at 250 tons, and is made of a steel framework with a one centimeter skin sculpture and also contains 1614 kilograms of Gold!

Bev and I visited on a beatuiful Sunday just two weeks ago.

The cable car ride to get up the mountain was fabulous and just a little scary. It was a about 15 min ride and changed directions 3 times with additional power stations.

Seoul Foreign School <---click to see

2010-01-15T18:33:00.005+08:00

We will be leaving China in June and embarking on a new adventure in August. After much thought and discussion we have decided to accept positions at Seoul Foreign School in Seoul, Korea. Bev will be a High School Counselor, Tim will be a Computer Technology Integration Specialist helping Middle School teachers use technology in their classrooms. Check the website out by clicking on the title and then click on the picture to see a slide show that gives some idea of what this school is about.

From Beijing

2009-10-19T11:08:00.014+08:00

Deng Deng's Family in Nanning

Old Man at Summer Palace

In the Forbidden City

For our fall break, we took a trip to Beijing and later to a very small village town (3 million) called Nanning. Nanning is not a tourist town in any way but we had been invited to attend a traditional Chinese country wedding. A former AYI (domestic helper 23 yr old) of ours was getting married in her hometown. We got tickets for our trips and made all necessary reservations. The week before we left the wedding date was changed and no longer fit into our plans. Why change the date? They told us it turned out that it was a bad day to get married. The mother-n-law gets to choose the date. We are not sure that was the real reason as many people were getting married on the original date, if fact there were at least three different weddings that evening in our hotel.

We were able to see places that few foreigners have ever been. This was evident by the number of stares that we got. Also the number of pics taken of us by the few that had a camera. Many Chinese believe it is good luck to have a picture taken with a foreigner or to touch a foreigner.

So the pics here are of the two families that we visited and of the area around Nanning, which is close to the Vietnam border, only maybe 60 miles but we were told about a 8 hour trip!

19 Floors Up

2009-10-13T20:10:00.005+08:00

The neighbors are having a new AC unit installed.

Taken from my 19th floor deck the window to the left is our kitchen.

I hope the guy in the window holds tight!

That is a long way down.

We were having breakfast Sunday morning when we heard noise outside the kitchen window. We looked out to see this guy hanging on and disconnecting the AC unit outside the building. Yes we are on the 19th floor and no there is no net, place to stand, or anything but the wall and the unit bolted to the wall. He later carried it off through the window!

Dragon Boat Festival

2009-05-28T19:06:00.000+08:00

We had school today. But few businesses were open. This is a national holiday so most businesses close. No I saw no Dragon Boats or races. Parent did come to school to have special lunches with their children. My Blog and all blogs are currently being blocked by the gov. I am able to post this via a proxy but I can not post pictures or do much else. Hopefully will be able to add to the blog soon.

Tim

Lao Children

2009-05-06T13:15:00.010+08:00

We took a three hour boat ride to get to this Lao H-mong village
Few foreigners have been to it
These first 4 pics are all from that all day journey

BTW we took books and school supplies to the village teacher
but only spent about 30 min. due to the heat and humidity

This girl was so sad

Hmong girl from a hill village up the Mekong river
She was beautiful

Another girl same village

And a young boy

This is at a school we visited by van outside Luang Prabang, Laos

Peeking

School break time

Protection from the sun

These girls were in a talent show which is why the were
dressed up in the traditional Lao clothing and hair styles

We saw this hair adornment quite often on
women that were dressed up

Grandma was watching this little one while she sat in her small corner store
The orange boxes in the back are Beerlao plastic bins

I was infatuated with the Lao children. Their smiles, demeanor and innocence captured my heart. This has not happened often and I will treasure the memory of those faces I saw and a few that I was able to photograph. I had some shyness but generally if I asked to take a pic they said yes or their parents encouraged them. Let me know if you also see something special with these children.

Dinner with David Greenburg

2009-04-20T12:56:00.015+08:00

Tim Bev and David Greenburg go out to Dinner

David talking to the Secondary students

Autographs were popular

We had Goose as part of out dinner

We had a great time taking David out to Dinner

Bev was a co-team leader for Book Week this past week at our School. As such she had many tasks. (Book Week is a big deal). With every teacher making a display and many daily activities. One activity was to host a visiting author. David Greenburg is from the Portland area. He is a well renowned children's poet and has most recently written a novel about Civil Rights. His father was Jack Greenburg noted defense attorney for NAACP and Martin Luther King. Besides being very entertaining he was absolutely delightful to talk with and kept ourselves and our students mesmerized. We had the privilege to take Mr. Greenburg out to Dinner. Here are some pictures of David and a candid interview that Bev conducted with him.

This week is Earth Week. The week before Book Week it was spring Spirit Week, The week before that was Strawberry Tea, big talent show etc. The school has many activities, so many that they sometimes overlap and compete for students, everyone's time, and talent. Students and parents get much more than just a full educational experience.

Here is an Interview that Bev conducted while having Dinner with David.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID GREENBERG

Mr. David Greenberg visited QSI during Book Week as our guest author. Interviewed by Bev Wnterfeld here are his answers to a few questions about being an author.

BW: Tell us a little bit about yourself?

DG: I am here by myself, and have a 19-year-old son who is going to school in Scotland.

My dog and girlfriend are at home in Portland, Oregon.

BW: How many books have you authored, and what’s your favorite thing to write about?

DG: I ‘ve authored 16 books, there are more coming that are not yet published. I love kids so I have written mostly kids books, but my heart is with poetry.

BW: What brought you to QSI in Shekou?

DG :I received an email from Mr. Brantley, and started corresponding with him. Now, I’m here and going to other QSI schools. It just started by my answering an email.

BW: What inspired you to become an author?

DG: My mother was a teacher, and my father used to read poetry to me as a kid.

BW: Are any of your books translated into other languages?

DG: Yes, some of my books are in other languages, Korean being one of them.

BW: What trends are you seeing with children’s books, and literacy?

DG: With the economy book sales are down in the U. S., but it’s interesting because I offer a summer workshop on “Authoring Children’s Books” and the demand is more than ever. You can find information, to register on my website. It’s very popular with kids.

BW: Having visited a bookstore in China, what did you notice?

DG: In the children’s reading section, there are ample amounts, and the culture is hungry for literacy. People are spending money on books, desiring to read.

BW: What other things do you like to do?

DG: I like to spend time on outdoor sports, travel, eat and one of my favorite places to visit is a bookstore. I also love my dog.

BW: Can you give kids some advice about writing?

DG: Writing is hard work, requiring practice and it’s good to write about observations of normal things. I’m always making notes because writing is my passion.

BW: Tell us about the novel you authored?

DG: My novel A Tugging String challenged me, took a long time to write, but it’s good to challenge yourself.

BW: Do you make a lot of money being an author?

DG: No! Not necessarily, because you must pay the costs of the publisher and illustrator. I have to sell lots of books to make very much money.

BW: Was it hard to get started as an author?

DG: I wrote a book, and got 111 rejections, before the 112th publishing company offered to publish my book at the age of 28. It is hard work to be a writer; sometimes it takes month or years to finish a book.

BW: Would you like to return again to China?

DG: I like it very much, and would love to spend more time here on my next trip.

Fenghua Computer Lab

2009-04-18T18:05:00.005+08:00

The Deck off my Computer Lab, far right of pic above (Staff only on this one)

Computer Lab at Fenghua our New QSI Secondary School. This is where I spend a good part of my time. Computers are a major part of the QSI school.

Great Air Conditioning

2009-04-15T17:09:00.003+08:00

Click on the pic to get the "whole" story

Having a broken AC unit in Southern China is not fun. My classroom unit has not worked for the past three days and it has been warm with the typical high humidity. Thinking about how warm the day could prove to be as I was walking to work this morning and following this young guy, I was thinking how nice it must be to open and cool.

Both the way this child is being carried, (everyone has a built-in baby carrier) and the split pants are very typical in China for boys and girls up to about this age or so. It proves to be very convenient as you can squat any time and take care of business. Yes you must watch where you step. Little puddles on the sidewalk are not spilled tea!

From on Top of 21st Floor

2009-04-11T11:52:00.007+08:00

We live in Shekou

QSI Fenghua Secondary School and track

No ladders, no kidding!

Tim is facing the school, you can see his apartment in the background

Next door, Some secondary teachers live in this building

The view from there.

My friend Howard's Sat. morning community kids soccer program

These were taken on Sat. (day before Easter) from a apartment building near the new QSI Fenghua Secondary School in Shekou. This gives a little of the idea of what this part of Shenzhen is like. It is the very small (village) part of Shenzhen, but still has more than a million residents. I don't know what the exact area is but I doubt it is much more than a few square miles. These are just a few shots to give you a feel for the density of the buildings. I takes me about 20 min. to walk from the school you see here to my apartment shown in the pic of me. About 5 min. by bike, which could be stolen, so I usually only ride on the weekend when I can take the bike into the building, or between 10-20 min. by bus depending on how long you wait and time of day.

Arm and Hatchet

2009-04-09T20:41:00.004+08:00

Click to see a close up view

This is a friend of ours Howard from Washington D C

China version of a popular American product. We see this kind of thing all the time. It always brings a smile to our face.

Dropping in at Starbucks

2009-04-09T20:27:00.004+08:00

I was sitting at Starbucks having a coffee and look up to see this guy dropping down sitting on his board. He had been washing the windows and dropped down to the ground.

Strawberry Tea

2009-04-06T13:32:00.012+08:00

Cake and Ice Cream

Baskets to bid on

Anxiously awaiting, we're next....

Lets get those steps right

Ready to Serve

One half of the gym for one of the two shows

All for a good cause

A QSI traditional yearly Spring event is what is called the "Strawberry Tea." Although it sounds innocuous enough it is actually a very large fund raising event for Liu Tan our schools adopted Chinese village and service project. Strawberry Tea has little to do with Tea, and Strawberries are only used in a slightly decorative way. It does involve tickets, some cake and ice cream and a large talent show that allows students and some staff to show what the've got. This year there were two different shows this past Saturday. Many students participated and many parents and friends enjoyed the afternoon. Here are some pictures from the event. Oh, a big hats off to Abbe DeWitt for a fantastic job organizing over 50 volunteers, running a large committee and pulling this event off.

Ping Ping

2009-03-30T22:29:00.007+08:00

While we were in Yangshuo we had a full time guide to help us make the most of our time. Ping Ping was awesome. We did so many things in just 2 and 1/2 days, it was amazing. Ping Ping got us the best seats the best and most direct route into venues. We saw more things that interested us than we could have imagined. If you ever to to Yangshuo you need Ping Ping she was sweet and arranged all our transporation needs as well as our hotel. We had a driver even when we arrived at the airport at almost midnight. If your interested here is her e-mail.

pingping1982@163.com

Balloon over Yangshuo

2009-03-25T21:17:00.010+08:00

They are waiting on us to decide if we want to go up, I am just taking pics.

Bev and Shirley wave goodbye

Gail

Another Balloon

That is a lot of flame

Coming down, had dropped the line and gone up a little

After the flight

The End

Gail and Tim were able to take a one hour Balloon ride over the beautiful karst limestone formations of Yangshuo. While we were riding around on our bikes ,we came across this basket being taken out of the back of a truck, we had previously inquired with Ping Ping our guide about taking a hot air balloon ride. The weather was perfect, air was clear and we were there. The company looked competent, professional,and they were all dressed in red. We decided to go upright then. A quick trip to the weeds before the flight, a kiss to the wives and we were on our way.

Awesome, beautiful, breathtaking and not as scary as I thought it might be. The basket is a little low and seemed to be made for people a little shorter than Gail and I. We tried to not rock the basket. Space was limited with our pilot and another Chinese couple that went up with us. We burned up two of the four propane tanks in the hour ride. Each tank looked to be 12 -15 gallons. I had to flip my hat around to keep from burning my neck when the burners were switched on. We traveled up almost 1000 meters high at one point, (over 3,000 feet). These are some of the pics from our trip.

Guilin / Yangshuo

2009-03-16T15:13:00.020+08:00

Wet peddler

Show pic (click for larger view)

One of Bev's one rmb payoff

Tim and Bev enjoy a great coffee at coffee house right down the street from our hotel.

Our little electric scooter

Friday rain from under my umbrella

Carved Bone and horn trinkets

Shantin pomelo

Li River

Karst mountains

Two hour river ride

In one ethnic group girls throw these balls to boys the like

Bicycle repair shop

In front of the Tribe Bar our hotel

This past three day weekend we took a trip to Yangshuo, China. This has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world.

We went with are very good friends from the Valley, Gail and Shirley Puryear. We flew to Guilin on Thursday night and were picked up at the airport and taken to our hotel in Yangshuo, China. They waited up to let us into our rooms at the Tribe Bar. We had rooms with balconies that faced the Li River. Friday it rained hard and was cold. After meeting our wonderful guide and having breakfast everyone but Tim decided to tour one of the many caves created in the same way as the topography. Due to the wearing away of the very thick layer of limestone. Tim walked around town in the rain and took photographs until early afternoon. He also discovered a great little cafe that served fantastic lattes and deserts. In the afternoon we toured a village that had many examples of Chinese ethnic minority living with culture. Bev and Tim did the full body massage that evening while Gail and Shirley scouted out great evening establishments serving two for one refreshment until 11:00 pm!

On Saturday we rented electric motor bikes and did a all day ride around the countryside. While out we came upon a team setting up a hot air balloon. After much discussion Gail and Tim decided to take a one hour ride. It was awesome, some pics are on the next blog post. That evening we went to the world famous Liu Sanjie Impressions lightshow. This is a spectacular must see performance that uses over 600 performers many from the local Zhuang minority group with much of the acting singing and dancing taking place on the Li River.

Sunday morning we toured a open market that was 25 k. from our town. It was huge and only happens twice a month. Bev was handing out money while Ping Ping asked permission for Tim to take pictures. This was a lot of fun. We also toured a very old village before going back to town for our trip back to the airport in Guilin and Shenzhen.

Visit this site for more information

Yangshuo China Info

And this for info on the Light Show.

Liu Sanjie

Tim

Yearbook Staff

2009-02-23T11:23:00.004+08:00

Sumana S., Wendy X., Valeria W., Ji Eun R., Ga Hye P., Tim W.

These are the wonderful girls that I am working with to create a yearbook.

Local Chinese Restaurant

2009-02-19T09:37:00.005+08:00

Just a pic of one restaurant up the block from the new secondary school. I pass by this daily. It is one of at least four similar restaurants in that block. They all look about the same and every block has 3 to 5 of them. The Chinese characters (in red) of this one say they sell Rice, Dumplings, Noodles, (no kidding, that is a surprise), they make most items with lots of cheap hand labor. Many people grab a chair and sit on the sidewalk to eat.

Singing Valentines

2009-02-16T14:41:00.004+08:00

Laura, Rachel, Annie, Merlin, and John on Sax

Here is a pic of some of the students that did singing Valentines last Thursday and Friday at the Sec. School.

PD14

2009-02-16T13:06:00.011+08:00

Tim Presents at the PD 14 Day on Computer Technology

All staff members attend the PD14 day

Saturday Feb. 14 th was a half day professional development day for our school. All teachers attended professional workshops that were designed, organized, created, and led by a team of teachers on a committee which I chaired. Lots of work to put that together in China. Every step is much more complex than it would be in the states. Overall it was a well received day and if the evaluation sheets are any indication of direction, we will probably have more of the same very soon. Here are some pics from the day and this a link to some of the presentations that were given that day.

Lantern Festival

2009-02-10T16:30:00.000+08:00

February 9th, the 15th day of the 1st lunar month is the Chinese Lantern Festival and is marked with the first full moon after the Chinese New Year. This is the next day of celebration in China. It kind of signifies an end to the Chinese New Year Spring Festival. The date changes every year. The day is also called Yuan Xiao Festival in China. Children carry around small lanterns on a stick that are about the size of a oatmeal box. There are many fireworks and you must eat these small round yuanxiao (glutinous rice ball) that are very, very sweet.

Bev and I went down to the Seaworld Plaza, one block from home, to have a coffee at Starbucks and people watch. Here are a few photos that I took from 8:00 to 9:00 P.M. The fireworks went off all night long but this does mark an end to the guaranteed all night long fireworks we have had for weeks now. The fireworks are to keep the bad spirits away for the coming year.

Lunar New Year Celebrations

2009-02-02T21:02:00.004+08:00

We did spend time in Hong Kong for Chinese New Year.

These are some shots of what we experienced. We spent three hours waiting in our little sidewalk spot to see the parade but were somewhat disappointed by a good but not spectacular parade. It was very dark, (nightime) and that made it difficult to see and photograph much, but most floats were lit-up.

It is the year of the Ox and in know to be a bad year as far as economic terms are known. The Hong Kong mayor shook a fortune telling stick out of a can of about 100 sticks and it was to predict the future for the year. It was the worst stick in the entire can.

Chinese New Year

2009-01-22T12:02:00.006+08:00

It is time for the Chinese New Year Celebrations.

Our School has a number of student related performances. Every student from 2 year olds through Secondary IV's participate. These our some pics of this years performance.

New QSI Secondary Fenghua (Fen Wah) School

2009-01-15T11:37:00.006+08:00

It was not long ago that I posted pics of what appeared to be the middle stages of construction on our new QSI Shekou Secondary School. Well construction happens fast here in China and that school is done, just 4 weeks later! The number of people that work on a project, and also live on site is huge. I think there must have been over 120 people on this little project. The landscaping is not yet done and the furniture is not all built and installed yet but that and cleaning will happen in about one week. Which coincidentally is when we start to move in. This is a pretty neat building with 4 floors and some great inside and outside spaces. It formally was a restaurant, somewhat famous bar hangout, and a number of very small retail shops. That was last Summer now it is a newly remodeled school. Major remodeling with the addition of 2 floors and much more.

Happy New Year

2009-01-04T10:58:00.002+08:00

This is hoping that your New Year is all you hope and wish for. If not well just do a little planning and it will be.

Seoul, South Korea

2009-01-04T10:42:00.007+08:00

Tim and Bev in a Antique Shop in Seoul,
They took our picture because they would not let us take their
picture even though we purchased some antiques from them.

Lots of stuff for sale everywhere

Checking out the latest Magazine

Sweet Potatoes for sale as well as many other delicacies

This toilet in our Hotel was awesome, heated seat and great wash options.
I am told that they have these in many homes also.

Same characters different styles

In front of one of the old Royal Palaces, Bev is on the right

Bowls

These boxes are made from stiff cardboard and paper
covered and are sold at many places, not inexpensive!

On the subway

Korean traditional dance we watched

Great special tea we had made

Tea pots

Yup more stuff for sale

We spent 5 days in Seoul prior to Christmas, it was cold but lots of fun, I will add more pics soon.

Fenghua

2008-12-11T13:00:00.003+08:00

QSI Shekou will have a new Secondary School soon. I have been visiting the new site and taking some photos of the construction. The new school is slated to be finished by the end of February! Construction in China is very different. There is a lot of sand involved and some fairly crude techniques. Few tools other than hand tools, a welder, (no face shield), and a drill. That pretty much is it. This building has at least 120 on site workers. They live sleep and eat at the job site.

The name of the School is to be Fenghua which means... Well the jury is out on that one. Our director says it means Brilliant Dragon. But I have had Chinese tell me that it does not. I have heard everything from Rising Dragon, but really that is Funghua to Wind Dragon, to Wind something to Elegance, Talent, and Grace. The last one makes some kind of sense since it is also the name of the Theater next door that is getting remodeled at the same time.

This building was a few stores, I bought something in a sports shop there, and it had a large round restaurant on the first floor. The rest seemed to be empty.

Ax of Murder

2008-12-05T15:11:00.006+08:00

Our secondary school had their Fall play production the past two nights. It was a play based on a cast and crew working in a theater that had a murder in it. With a Sergent trying his best to determine who of a the cast and crew had committed the crime. The students were awesome and the play was a resounding success. Here are a few pics.

BTW Tim was in charge of the Lights and the Production of the program that was handed out to attendees.

Merry Christmas From China

2008-12-05T15:04:00.002+08:00

Tim and Bev wish you a very Merry Christmas. Our Christmas plans this year include a trip back to the US to visit friends and family, with a short stop in Seoul, Korea to rest and rejuvinate on the way. We hope that you can count your blessings and be thankful for all the wonderful relationships, friends and family that surround you.

Elements Mall

2008-12-05T13:09:00.017+08:00

Elements, Hong Kong

Mikmoto Pearls

Bev takes a rest

New upscale housing tower

One route we take to Hong Kong involves taking a bus (#19) from our nearby border crossing and traveling to the drop off point called Elements. Elements is a upscale mall in the heart of Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is primarily upscale shopping (List of Shops) but also has a lot of upscale housing as well as the mandatory ice rink, full cinema etc. It has a primary location on the water and straight across from the central part of Hong Kong.

We love this place as it also contains all major forms of transportation; rail, bus, taxi, and is an underground metro stop that can get you anywhere in Hong Kong quickly and swiftly. It also has a grocery store, the 360, which is the closest thing to a Whole Foods that I have seen in Asia.

Elements is a million square foot mall themed after the five Chinese elements. The pics will give you a sense of what this mall is about, but don't be fooled into thinking no one is shopping. I carefully timed these shots to include few people. While I wouldn't say it was packed it was busy.

Elements Christmas Decor

About the Mall

Thanksgiving Dinner

2008-11-27T21:41:00.005+08:00

This year we have two Thanksgiving dinners to attend. Thursday is a regular work day for us as is Friday. This Saturday our school is having a Thanksgiving dinner for any staff that would like to attend. Tonight (Thanksgiving) we went to a local restaurant for a Chicago style (the owner is from Chicago) Thanksgiving Dinner. We went with some of our friends.

Just Kids

2008-11-27T14:04:00.002+08:00

Picture of some School Kids lined up by a wall and being silly while their teacher was away. Click on the Pic to get a larger picture.

Grocery Store

2008-11-22T17:03:00.006+08:00

Ren Ren Le is a department store with the grocery area all underground

We like this store because it is pretty clean and many items are packaged

Rice

Complete soups in melamine bowls

Picking out a fish

Lots of dried stuff

Lots of baby things!

On our counter at home, this is what we bought today

Ren Ren Le, (Everyone Happy, loosley translated) grocery and department store is one of our favorite places to get food items. Tim and Bev did a early morning shopping run on Saturday. Total time including 15 min. bus ride each way was 2 hours. You can see what we were able to buy for $32.20 US dollar equivalent. We both go as we have to carry it home.

I had to take pics kind of undercover as no photographs are allowed.

Fish Market

2008-11-16T13:46:00.005+08:00

This is a typical fishing boat

Our apartment would be a little to the left of this picture

This lone fisherman had made a hat out of umbrella parts and duct tape

Most fish is offloaded from the boats in pans like this which are then drug around the dock area

Buying and Selling fish

Sorting

Weighing

Transaction completed

Taking away the purchase

Ice blocks coming down out of the ice house

Ice being chipped and put into the hull of the fishing boat

I did a little bike ride this Sunday morning and ended up where many of the fishing boats come in to sell there catch. Watched the ice being loaded into trucks and being chipped for the fishing boats. Also watched the dickering and sale of fish to the local buyers as one boat was being offloaded of the weeks catch. Very fun to watch.

Visitors from Afar

2008-11-13T09:40:00.008+08:00

A group of tourist in Hong Kong on Friday

Tourist in Macau, Tim, Bev, Karen, Tom, Ben, Karen in Macau on Saturday

Karen and Tom take a break after climbing a pretty good set of stairs

Karen enjoys the Hot and Spicy soup

Ben finds a Casino Girl that is almost as tall as he is but has much better looking legs

Jan and Ben, Jan is my friend Howard's cook, Ben is a little taller

Teppanyaki dinner at a local restaurant in Shekou

In Front of St. Pauls facade (all that is left after the fire) in Macau
More Info on this ruin, click here

On a second floor of a Tram in Hong Kong taking in the sites

Dinner at Angelo's in Hong Kong

We had visitors from the United States. Yahooo...

Tom and Karen and Ben and Karen did a one month China tour. They covered a lot of ground from Bejing to Guilin and finally at the end of the trip spent 5 days with us in Shekou/Shenzhen. We were able to have a great visit with them and show them a little of what our part of the world is like. After doing the mandatory Red Lantern meal and then foot massage the first evening we let them explore while we went back to work. We sent them out for two days via taxi to enjoy some of our fun spots like Splendid China and the Artist Village. They kept coming back early and ending up at the massage place for some reason. We had Friday off due to our conference schedule. So on Friday we went to Hong Kong and on Saturday we took a day trip to Macau. We ate a lot of great meals and had a lot of laughs. They left by bus to Guangzhou to catch their early Monday morning plane back to Seattle. These are a few pics of our time together.

Halloween Fun

2008-11-03T00:03:00.005+08:00

Marilynn Monroe

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Ghandi

Crocodile Dundee and his wife.

Steve Jobs

Hillary Clinton

Well another Halloween has come and gone.
The Chinese do not celebrate Halloween in any way and most are not even aware of what it is. Bev and I did attend a party put on by a previous (last year) staff member. It was lots of fun. Here are pictures of a few of the people that attended. Our host are the John and Yoko couple. So very nice of them to have this party. Thanks Kate we love you.

QSI College Fair

2008-10-23T15:06:00.005+08:00

Justin the secondary college counselor presents

Big crowd ask lots of questions about different colleges

Julie presents IB (International Baccalaureate) program information,
after two other staff members give a translation.
IB info

Rick and Tim point out the great U of O pennet
They both graduated from University of Oregon

Each year, QSI hosts a College Fair to help student learn about programs at the school and tell them about college opportunities in the US and abroad. This years even was particularly well attended. There was also information about the possibility of a future IB program at our school. One interesting aspect was when information was presented in a large group setting it was then translated to two more languages! This is the first time I have seen that.

Zhuhai, Antiques Quest

2008-10-14T14:44:00.010+08:00

Monica and Bev on the Ferry

Stained glass sceens

Beautiful old screens

Chair getting a re-make

Bev at factory

Refinishing a piece that was at the factory

Warehouse bowsing

Factory owner and our new piece 100 yr old bureau

One of many shops like this

Misc. other stuff to buy

Bev and Monica take a break in some very old Chinese chairs

Some very old clocks

Lots of this kind of stuff was also available

Our 50 yr old Tibet piece

Monica sporting a Mask that I later that day bought

This past Saturday we took a day trip to visit some of the antique furniture shops that are close to the town called Zhuhai. In Zhuhai there are perhaps a dozen Chinese antique furniture malls. These are shopping centers solely selling Chinese furniture. Each shopping center has dozens and dozens of small vendor shop stalls. Some of the shop/stalls are 2-3 stories but very narrow, perhaps 15-20’ across. In many cases the family of the shop lives in part of the shop, usually on the second or third floor. To help us get around and negotiate prices we asked Monica, one of the Chinese parapros to come along. She did and that made all the difference in the world.

The ferry ride from Shekou to Zhuhai takes about one hour. Zhuhai is the city that is on the mainland right across from Macau. Then the taxi ride takes about 30 minutes. We asked to see some very old pieces that have just come in. We went to a factory, which was not running as it was Sat., and got to see the process used to transform very old, weathered, broken pieces into useful refinished furniture. We ended up purchasing a piece that was in the warehouse.

The piece is a little over 100 years old. We were given information about the area of China is came from. It is to be delivered to our house in a few days. It is a chest and has some great hand-carved Chinese reliefs. We liked the fact that it did not have a thick coat of lacquer that most of the refinished pieces sport. Later that day we found a piece with lots of color from Tibet. It had not been repainted or refinished, as many pieces have, but is not as old, only about 50 years. We both liked it and so we bought it also. It will be shipped with the other piece and delivered to our home from about 75 miles or so away. Total cost of delivery is under $15.00 US!

I don’t know if we will bring all this stuff back with us but it is fun buying and decorating our apartment.

Halong Bay

2008-10-07T23:03:00.006+08:00

Tim Bev Carolyn David

Some of the Cooks artwork

Halong Bay

The Lagoon Explorer II, our boat and one of the smallest of this companies fleet of seven junks
The one that is smaller has a crew of 4 and takes one couple as passengers.

The town is right up against the limestone rock

This very young man stopped his rowing to give us a wave

Our friend David checks on a students work

Tim and Bev enjoy the view from our deck lounge chairs

Fishing boats

Our vietnamese boat paddler

We had all our meals out on deck

Halong Bay is one of the most magnificant natural splendours of Asia. We visited this beautiful site while on fall vacation in Vietnam. The boat we spent two days on board was a Chinese junk style boat. It included six crew members to cook, navigate, clean and take care of its six passengers. Our fabulous experience included swimmingoff the boat, relaxing on the sun deck kayaking from the boat, top-notch seven course meals expertly prepared from fresh seafood, fruits and signature vietnamese dishes. The pleasurable experience came with an elegant en-suite cabin, complete with yellow sails. We had the rare opportunity to tour sea caves, discovered in 1999, until then used only by fishermen. Halong Bay is home to a floating village of vietnamee families that are fishermen and make their living on boats along the bay.

We were allowed the rare opportunity of touring a houseboat floating school complete with a teacher and children. They row their boats to and from school each day . We were ushered into the floating village by a young vietnamese woman rowing a typical long boat. It carried all four of us, through the protected village among the rocks, safe from storms and typhoons. The supply boat carries groceries and household goods from house to house that families buy each week. The fishermen were twisiting and reeling their nets, children were playing, and uniquely every house had a dog for protection. The Bay is full of freshwater fish, oyster farms, and more. The only way to access this city is by boat, for medical or other needs the children learn at a very early age the necessary skill of rowing a boat. Each housboat was a differentpastel color, had beautiful specilized decorations, and the daily tasks of life like washing was evident on our short trip through town.

There are over 3,000 limestone islands jutting out of emerald green water. There are secluded coves, coral beaches, and hidden lagoons in Halong Bay. Our very brief glimpse begs us to someday return for an unlimited amount of time to this world heritage site

Sapa, Vietnam

2008-10-06T22:56:00.014+08:00

Young boy had been playing with his top.

Wearing traditional clothing we were greeted very early, 7:00 a.m. by female members of the Black H'mong ethnic group. Each one show us there goods just a foot away on the other side of the window of the cafe. "The sweet "Buy from me" chant was grating by the end of the day.

To get to Sapa we traveled by train. Almost the only way to get to Sapa, 223 miles northwest of Hanoi is to board a late night 8:30 p.m. train and get a soft sleeper with Air Conditioning. Ariving in La Cai at 5:30 a.m. we found a mini van with a guide and driver. In the dark we thought we were leaving town for Sapa but found ourselves at a very dark and closed gas station. After waking the sleeping guard, who woke the neigboring owner, who was able to turn on the pump, we got our 2 liters of gas to bring us right off of empty and proceed up the mountain to Sapa, which has lied forgotten for over half a century and was re-discoved in the early 1990's.

Originally French Sapa is the home to the tourist trade that travel to see some of the 5 ethnic groups that live close to town: Black H'mong 52%, Rwd Dao 25%, Tay 5%, Giay 2% and a small number of Xa Pho. Each of these ethnic groups is distinct in clothing, customs, and dialect. The things that they sell and the general facial features are unique by group. The groups do not mix and generally marry within there group. We found that the men tend the rice patties when needed and drive motorcyles. Some men stayed home with the children the day we visited because the weather had kept them out of the fields. The women take care of the children and they have many starting as young as 13-14, as well as make and sell goods primarily cloth based items. All the people we encountered were women or children. They all could speak English fairly well. Bev and I walked about 2 hours through the Black H'mong's hillside and community, despite the poor weather.

Destination Vietnam

2008-10-05T23:39:00.012+08:00

David, Carolyn, Bev, Tim in Sapa, Vietnam on a misty rainy day.

Pineapple for sale

Pedicabs, Bev and I did one of these together,
which put a real strain on the skinny peddler.

Our Grilled Fish

David and Carolyn on a cool morning in
Sapa waiting for our coffee after an all night train ride.

Procedure to make the conical hats which you can purchase for about $1. US

Just down the street from our hotel sat this gentleman having a morning drink

Everything is moved by moped, this is a very typical biker

The rumble of a million motorbikes, the cries of hawkers and the buzz of business transactions are as ever-present as the tinkle of the past in the pagodas, and the swish of the scythe in the rice paddies in Vietnam.

Bev and I traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam this last week for a vacation during the Chinese Fall Festival celebration. We traveled with one other couple, David and Carolyn from New Zealand and met another couple also from the school.

We had an amazing week and I will share some of the pictures during the next week on the blog.

Modern Asia meets medieval Asia and, in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, the two become one, this where we stayed while in Hanoi. Every corner, shop and street business was a photograph waiting to be taken.

For culinary adventurers, Vietnam is a treasure trove of more than 500 different dishes.
It’s a wonderful world of pungent herbs and secret spices. Dip delicate spring rolls in nuoc
mam, a fish sauce that is as compulsory as ketchup for the Vietnamese. Bev and Carolyn took a 3 hour cooking class at a local restaurant. We ate at the up and coming Bobby Chinn's world famous restaurant as well as having lunch at allegedy the oldest restaurant in Hanoi on Cha Ca Street dating back to 1871. Cha Ca Va Vong serves only one set meal the cha ca (grilled fish) cooked at your table, by you, on a clay brazier, with noodles, herbs and peanuts. Very tasty.

It was hard for me to believe that 35 years ago I was scared to death that I would be sent off to Nam, and extremely thankful when my lottery number was so high that it would never come into play in the draft for more American soldiers.

For us it was hard to believe our senses, as we discovered one of the most enriching, enlivening and exotic countries on earth, the sights, sounds and smells were very different from any other Asian country.

Destination Vietnam

IE Park Lesson

2008-09-26T14:16:00.005+08:00

This is my class of students and me giving instructions.

This is right across the street from our school

This last Friday I took my IE (Intensive English) class outside to gather adjectives for a poetry writing lesson. Tough duty. Actually it was quite warm, some would say hot, outside.

International Brunch

2008-09-15T10:50:00.017+08:00

Tim and Bev with the only USA garb we have

One of 20 tables of food

Cute Japanese girl

Sumana from India, one of Tim's students

Little Chinese boy

Some Japanese Girls

Japanese Girl eating an American Hot Dog

Juliana from Brazil

Korean Girl

Yes 100% USA

Each year as school gets underway. We celebrate the diversity of our school with a brunch attended by all the students and parents. Everyone - Brings their favorite food dish that represents their country. Parents and students are encouraged to dress in native costume. This years celebration was held in our Main building this past Saturday. Here are some pictures from this years event.

OCT Overseas Chinese Town

2008-09-14T22:49:00.018+08:00

Click on a picture to see a larger version

The very beautiful Interlaken Hotel, Rooms start at $500 a night US!
Bev in the Hotel lobby, yes that is water flowing down the tubes,
and those are all real orchids, flowers etc. marble is everywhere.

Bev and a Korean xiao chou, (see ow cho, long o) or clown

We watched a very beautiful show that was at least partially connected to the topic of Tea

Eating the Chicken head is suppose to bring you good luck,
My Chinese friend Monica tells me she used to eat them but it is more
symbolic today and few people eat them but they still serve them!

These girls are selling tea, which is pretty expensive, there were many stands like this

A small part of the OCT East, called Interlaken, This is were the Hotel and Spa are located.

Tim and a flower girl

Tim grabbing the statues ear

Monday was a national Holiday here in China it is the Moon Day Festival, Fall Full Moon. One of the traditions is to give what are called Moon Cakes to your friends, employeer and family. The moon cakes are made with lots of eggs and contain various flavors most of which are not very tasty to Americans. In fact I don't know an American that likes them.

We took advantage of an opportunity to do a one day trip to a new area in Shenzhen called OCT East. The OCT is another area of Shenzhen not far from us that has a amuzement park many upscale shopping spots and lots of housing built in the 70's and 80's. The original idea of the OCT was to attract Chinese citizens that had moved abroad to come back to China by providing new housing and an upscale place to live. The original OCT in Shenzhen is about a 35 min. bus ride from our house, and also an area we frequent because it is were our dentist's (Dr. Jeff) office is located.

The OCT East is much farther away. It is very close to the water and on the other end of Shenzhen. The OCT group acquired some property up a mountain that is very different from most of Shenzhen. It is very green and beautiful. In addition it has a amusement development that is less than a year old. Very nice and modeled after the Interlaken area of Switzerland. One area of the many acres is devoted to understanding the production and drinking of tea. We also attended a special celebration day due to it being the final weekend day prior to the Moon Festival. We also attended a wonderful show that was well done with lots of acrobatics.

Here is some information provided by the OCT Overseas Chinese Town web site
OCT EAST

OCT East resort, a 3.5-billon-yuan investment supported by OCT group, is located at DaMeiSha, Shenzhen. Occupying about 9 square kilometers, OCT East, the national ecological resort featuring tourism culture, aims at providing visitors with an opportunity to escape from the bustle of city life and return to the nature,
Elaborately designed along the mountain and the sea, OCT East resort has three major theme parks: Knight Valley, Tea Stream Valley and Wind Valley. It has many culture travel functions like ecological tourism, vacation, outdoor sports etc., indicating the harmony relationship between human and the nature.
Phase I of the resort opened on Jul. 28th 2007, offering a vast array of attractions to the public. Tea Stream Valley, a combination of western and eastern cultures, has been constructed based on many fundamental elements such as tea, Buddhism, follower and bamboo etc. Wind Valley features Olympic and golf sports, the Interlaken OCT Hotel, The Interlaken Spa, and the Tea Show. The second phase of the project, Knight Valley, will open in 2008 . This park will distinguish itself by forests, rivers and outer space, Red Wine Town and the Statue of Guanyin Sitting in a Lotus Throne.

We Love Hong Kong

2008-09-07T21:33:00.017+08:00

HK Our City Asia's World City

View from a Mall Window

The red eggs that have been burried in the ground!

Olympic re-runs are very popular

Street Tea Dispenser

Entrance to the ELEMENTS Mall

Photo and copies store

Bowls for sale

Wow, A Chelan Apple Box!

HK Starbucks in Elements Mall

Typical Street vendor

Always the Peace Sign

Eggs for Sale

Egg salesman has lunch

Street Graphitti

Crowded Metro for the ride home

We did just a single day in Hong Kong since our return. We had to purchase a new laptop computer power supply after ours was destroyed by the electrical surge in our apartment. We did a little shopping and a lot of enjoying the city. These are a few of the things we saw. We always love our time in Hong Kong. What a great city.

Bev's New Classroom

2008-09-02T21:20:00.015+08:00

QSI Middle School Grades 11-13, Opened August 28, 2008

First drawing of the front of the building, yes it was to be upper elementary.

During Construction June 2008
Final Look August 2008

The back side from the alley

Construction in June

Final Look September 2008

No they do not wear any harness!

Wiring

Bev's Future room, but who knew!

And a Fridge and Microwave too!

Thank you Paul and Jeannette for the printer!

Last Spring, a decision was made to remodel an apartment/unused store building at the far corner from our current building as a new intermediate school. It was an on again/ off again project for much of the school year. The government here, and the company that owns the school, plus all the local politicians make re-purposing a building quite a challenge! Enough said. Anyway, in the end the major part of the building was given the go ahead in about March to be remodeled into an elementary school.

The plan was to house the 9-11 year old students, and teachers went over at the end of the school year and picked out there rooms. Schedules were built,. around a new library, computer lab, and music room etc. There was no gym or space for one to be built. But alternate plans were devised for P.E. classes.

One week before school was to open this Fall the local fire inspector decided, and this is not adequate after many inspections and major modifications of our Main Building, therefore, China would not let some lower grade levels above the 4th floor of the main building. Long story, a major change had to occur, so with just five days before the arrival of students it was decided to move the 11-13 yr old students into the building. Bev is a 12 yr. old teacher, so she had to move ,and did so just a few days prior to the opening day. All 30 classrooms were moved lock, stock and barrel after only one phone call from the inspector.

Things were very complicated with schedules and staff members that cross teach, or did, between both age levels.( 12-13 yr old's and the Secondary students.) Everything, eventually worked out in the end with major adjustments by most of the teachers. Here are some pics. showing the plan and final implementation. I took these pics just a few days before we left for the summer and I had no idea that the room I photographed would end up being Bev's classroom!

Hot Electricity

2008-09-01T23:11:00.005+08:00

This is a flash shot in almost total darknesss. They got to the problem very qickly.

In the apartment until almost midnight.

Working on one of the AC units.

Well as you may know the electricity over here is hot. Everything is pretty much 220. That means appliances run faster, toasters heat quicker, microwaves even cheap ones are quick, even batteries seem to charge up much faster.

Well last Monday is when this took place. Well it has taken a week to recover and get this post up, we had a electrical incident in our apartment. As I was sitting and working on the computer, the lights flickered. Well that is not a uncommon experience so I did not think much about it. The next think I know the lights and AC and everything is off, then on, then dim, then super bright. I jump up and go to the electric panel and start switching things off. As I look around I can see that some things are smoking and very hot. Well long story short, I know not really short but, it took the guards, a repair man and then a bunch of repairman over the next few day to get things repaired. AC was out for three days but lights worked. We stayed in a hotel for one night to get some much needed sleep. Well after a week and many repair guys, lots of coordination and new purchases, we now have AC, all other appliances work or we have had to purchase new. Anything that was plugged in like small transformers burned out as well as any electronic stuff. My laptop survived but the power supply did not! What fun, not really.

Oh, the collective wisdom on what happened was that one of our AC units, we have three, shorted and caused a spike on the line which burned out some pretty thick ground wires in the electrical box. Why did the circut breakers not cut the power. They seem to be more like switches then actual breakers. We have no insurance to cover such occurances nor is it even available, and no, the landlord bears no legal responsibility!

34 Years of Marriage

2008-08-24T20:49:00.006+08:00

This was just a couple of days ago,
Just before we left out the door for our first day of school with students.

Bev and I have been married Thirty-four years today. This is a picture of us as we left for the first day of school here at QSI in Shekou, China taken just three days ago. We hope to have thirty-four more.

A better picture of Bev a couple of days earlier on her way home from school.

Olympics say Goodbye in a Very Big Way

2008-08-24T20:36:00.005+08:00

About 30 Chinese and two Americans watch the last Basketball game between the US and Spain. The Chinese were cheering for the Spainards my friend Howard (standing by my bike) and I were of course shouting for USA, which was not a problem.

This kind of scene could be seen every day everywhere you went.

The closing ceremonies for the Olympic Games were amazing. China has set the bar very high for all future games. I think it will be very hard for any other country to put forth such a huge effort. China put a huge level of the countries resources into these games and it proved to make this the best Olympics ever. Living here I see the level of national interest in the Olympics on a daily basis. Everything from the TV's on the street and in every business tuned to the Olympics to the proud smiles on the faces of every Chinese when they talk about what has happened this year in Beijing. Even though I did not attend the games I have a feeling of national pride along with the Chinese. What a great Success and Outstanding, Spectacle the Chinese have presented.

Typhoon Nuri

2008-08-22T11:34:00.004+08:00

August 22, 2008, 11:00 a.m. Storm approaching

We have a Typhoon on the way. We did not have one all of last year. I hear that there was one this Summer that blew through quite quickly. We received a call from our director last night that school would be called off today. The word "typhoon" comes from the Chinese 颱風(T) / 台风(S) (pinyin: tái fēng; Jyutping: toi fung, according to wikipedia. The name of this Typhoon is Nuri (Karen). They started stacking sand bags everywhere yesterday. So I think the expectation is for a lot of rain. Here is a pic of what it looks like right now.

Typhoon Nuri barrels into Hong Kong

Agence France-Presse

HONG KONG - Typhoon Nuri lashed Hong Kong with heavy rain and strong winds on Friday, sparking major flight delays, disruption to public transport and a halt to trade on the city's financial markets.

Many offices in the southern Chinese territory were closed, and ferry services suspended as meteorologists issued the level-eight storm signal, signifying the likelihood of gale-force winds.

At 11:00 am, the typhoon was centered about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east-southeast of Hong Kong and was moving towards the city at a speed of about 14 kilometers an hour.

"Nuri will be rather close to Hong Kong this afternoon and tonight with a chance of a direct hit," a spokesman for the Hong Kong Observatory said.

Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific and its sister company Dragonair announced that all flights would be cancelled for 12 hours starting at 2:00 pm (0600 GMT).

Organizers of the Olympic equestrian events staged in the city breathed a sigh of relief, as the competition ended Thursday with the show-jumping final.

Seven people were killed when Nuri (Philippine codename: Karen) slammed into the northern Philippines on Wednesday, packing maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers an hour and gusts of up to 170 kilometers per hour.

August is Hong Kong's hottest month and typhoons can often force the entire city to close down -- as happened three days before the start of the Olympic Games, when Severe Tropical Storm Kammuri delayed the arrival of some horses.

Summer in the States

2008-08-22T11:31:00.010+08:00

Braden and Tyler in Disneyland June of 2008

Braden and Tyler in Seaworld, San Diego, CA

Tara, Tyler, and Jacob in Colorado

Tyler in Colorado

Tim and Kylee

Just before we left Washington State, Braden and Kylee in Lynnwood, WA

Tim and Makayla, in Henderson, NV

Makayla

We were able to see our very good friends, from QSI, Rob and Anne in Nampa, Idaho

Wow, What a Summer. Lots of time with family and friends. A big highlight was spending time with grandkids and especially our time with the grandsons. Here are some pics. The little Red Car did get right at 8000 miles added to the odometer this Summer! Bev does not want to drive it so. Zoom Zoom.

Sculpture in Shenzhen

2008-06-25T21:52:00.007+08:00

Near Moonbay Park

OTC

At the OTC Area

On the street

On the building!

Right Next door

Also within a block

At Moon Bay Park, close by Shekou

Sculpture is everywhere. China really trys to add sculpture to many areas besides park areas. I have been very impressed with the design and quality of the art work that is displayed. These are just a very few examples of what can be found.

International Shenzhen Auto Show

2008-06-09T07:16:00.010+08:00

My future car, assuming it runs on some fuel other than gasoline. Much smaller than the Mazda 3!
Rob where are you we need to take a test drive.

One shot of a small area of the display floor.

I have not hear the final count but some say daily attendance is over 30,000!
The crush at times felt like a million. We left by early afternoon.

Lambo's for any with the money to buy, (Imports are about 25-30% more expensive than US!
I don't know where you could drive this though not on China roads.

Future Model

My Friend Brad

My friend Brad and I went to the Auto show here on Sunday. Wow lots of interest in cars over here. This was by far the largest car show I have ever seen. I don't know what to compare it to in size, nothing I know comes even close. the above pic is about one fourth of one of 10 huge areas. The Shenzhen Exhibition Hall is at least 2 by 3 city blocks in size. This show had all the glitz of a European car show introducing new models although the only new models were cute and young. Each manufacturer had lots of floor space, lots of lights, lots of girls, lots of brochures, super loud music and a few cars. We had a good time, we really couldn't see much of the cars except when they had a model attached then we took pictures along with 1-200 other people. Many of the areas of the high end cars had glass walls to keep you away from the cars. Look but don't touch held true in most cases!

2008 QSI Shekou Graduates

2008-06-06T21:32:00.006+08:00

Britt the director handing out a diploma while Robb the Sec. principal calls names.

The Grads

Tim and Jocie Valedictorian

Tim and the ten Grads

QSI had its 2nd ever graduation program this Friday. It was fun with 10 seniors graduating, Here are some pics from todays program which was very nicely done. All 10 have been accepted at Major Universities around the world.

Line Up

2008-06-04T21:49:00.009+08:00

Me Do is one of the massage places that we go to.
They line up for over 10 minutes and have a number of songs and dance they
do no matter how much street noise they have to compete with.

This Tappanyaki is where you sit at a grill and have many kinds of great Japanese style food
cooked for you and served hot. Typical ingredients used for teppanyaki are beef, shrimp, scallops, lobster, chicken etc. and assorted vegetables. Bev and I have eaten here many times with friends.

Both of these businesses are within a very short distance, maybe no more than 2-3 blocks from our home.

Almost every retail type of company will do this line up prior to the beginning of the shift. I have seen this at virtually ever kind of business but especially in the service sector. So usually everyone has to be in uniform and in there spot in the line-up, roll is called then announcements are made and singing and chanting proceed. The singing is rather nice sometimes it is just one song other times it is a medley also there are almost always hand and leg actions that go with the song. It is fun to watch this happen. It is almost always outside the front door of the business. I rarely see it with small retail businesses that do not have many employees. If anyone has any other insight I would like to hear about it.

New Ikea in Shenzhen

2008-06-03T20:23:00.010+08:00

Still a construction site, but open

55m square could be a whole apartment,
ours is over 100.

Watched a lot of people that were looking at this display, interested in upgrading to this kind of kitchen

Lunch too

Everyone over here loves IKEA. They have great products, almost all of which are made in China. It is less expensive than many other choices. It is one stop shopping and a great place for young families, singles and expats, all of which Shenzhen has in abundance.

When we came we traveled 4 or more hours each direction to spend 2 or 3 hours buying things to set-up our apartment, at IKEA. Now we have an IKEA that is only a cab ride or a bus away. Bev and I got directions to the new store and visited after her dental appointment as it is in the same general area, known as the OT.

Well it is a huge IKEA, three floors with all the same crazy stuff and the same follow these yellow arrow pathway through the store, with the large warehouse area at the end just before the checkouts.

This is going to make life much easier for the new staff joining us next year. They also take local bank cards and VISA etc. The restaurant has fewer choices than some and the Swedish food area is small but still fantastic with some great choices, unattainable elsewhere.

In addition there will be next door to the IKEA an outdoors store and a home improvement store. Smaller versions of these stores are available closer to Shekou, but it is nice to have one at a one stop shopping complex.

Chengdu QSI School

2008-05-29T21:55:00.004+08:00

QSI Has a School in Chengdu. This is a message Karin Hall, the director, just sent out about the events that happened the day of the earthquake and after at the school and in Chengdu.

Earthquake in Chengdu

Karin

After School Activities had just begun and students were spreading out around the school to play sports or practice their music when at 2:28 pm the ground began to shake. At first students and teachers thought it might be a huge dump truck with a heavy load bumping over the speed bumps outside the school, but when the shaking went on they all realized what it was.

Although I have been through many earthquakes (Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Egypt) this was by far the longest. One of our teachers timed the quake at almost 3 minutes! While a 40 second quake seems like it lasts forever, a 3 minute quake seemed like an eternity. Every time you thought it was over, it started up again.

I was in the office with a student, teacher and the office staff. The first thing I heard was the familiar rumble of the earth as it begins to shift. As we are close to the outside I told everyone in the office to go out to the street. The movement of the earth was so great that although no poles, buildings or balconies were coming down it was impossible to stand up.

Watching the earthquake in Cairo I was able to see the soccer fields undulate. It is almost something that your eyes cannot quite take in, or your eyes take it in but your brain cannot process it. In the Chengdu earthquake the glass in the front windows of the school were rippling. It is a fascinating phenomenon.

As soon as the quake stopped I walked back into the building to check on where the other students and teachers were and if they were safe. Teachers who were walking their students to their after school activity had them on the lawn, away from the building, sitting down. Another group was in the computer lab under the tables and when the quake ended they headed for the open playground as well. At the back of the school the sports teams were sitting in the field. All the students, teachers and parents were calm, quiet and attentive to what should be done next. What a wonderful sight to see everyone safe and sound.

Ron Noll, our science guy, gave a quick overview of what happens in an earthquake and what they could expect over the next day and weeks to come. The students, as usual, were curious, inquisitive and happy to have some information to work with. The day we returned to school we had an assembly to discuss the type of earthquake and what to expect over the next weeks.

My next goal was to move all the students to one safe location. Teachers took students two at a time around and through the building to the front playground where there was easy access to the buses and cars. We immediately got on the phones to determine where the buses were and the status of the roads. The issue became: a city of 11 million people and a region of 20 million just had an earthquake and EVERYONE is using their cell phones to find out if their loved ones are safe. The phones were down. We would have to wait for the buses to return to school to find out what the city was like.

Notifying parents that their children were safe was our next mission. We knew landlines worked, but no one would be inside their houses at this point in time – cell phones were still not working. We had to wait. Some parents came immediately to pick up their children, others without cars were waiting for the children to come by bus. From parents we learned that although Chengdu is a city of high rise buildings there was no visible damage to buildings. Roads were very congested with people who had streamed out of office and apartment buildings, but they were calm. Also waiting.

Our first buses to return to school reported the same things: lots of people but buildings were standing and people were fairly calm. We decided to send the students back to their homes with the understanding that if parents were not there to pick them up they would be brought back to school, as is our usual policy. Students were all picked up by their anxious parents, relieved to know they were safe. Once students were home we had the staff taken into town and dropped off where they could find out if any damage had occurred in their homes. One student’s parents could not get a taxi, could not contact the school and arrived on a borrowed bike about 6 pm that evening.

QSI Chengdu closed for two days at the request of the government. The building was inspected the day of the quake by an NGO and the day after the quake by the US Consulate. It took the government longer to get to us but they also assured us that the building was safe. There is a bit of plaster coming off the walls but that will be repaired this summer along with a paint job.

The last major earthquake in the region had been 70 years ago so people really did not know what to do. Most buildings in Chengdu are high rise and since inspectors wanted to get in and check them before people came back in there were lots of people out on the street. Restaurants were not open for the most part so the ones that were open were packed. People were bringing food and blankets out onto the street to sleep for the night and one of our teachers described her experience that night, staying on one of the university campus as a cross between a rock concert and a refugee camp. Two weeks after the quake there were still people living in tents in parks, along side the roads and in open areas – not because their buildings were not safe, but because they were still afraid to sleep inside.

While most people in Chengdu lost a picture frame or a vase sitting on a shelf, many of our apartments were untouched. I have to say many of us were pleasantly surprised with how Chinese construction of high rise buildings withstood the quake. However, outside of the city 60-90 km there was major devastation. Almost immediately the NGO’s in Chengdu kicked into action and began gathering donations and supplies for the villages we heard were flattened. Food, water, blankets and tents were soon gone from every store.

Over the next week the city continued to move with constant aftershocks. Some people were evacuated to Chengdu from the epicenter, some companies evacuated their families out of Chengdu but most people in Chengdu stayed put. Aftershocks are disconcerting and cause the heart to beat just a bit faster until you realize that each day they are further apart and lessen in severity – for the most part! There continued to be aftershocks and if this is a typical earthquake, they will last for many more weeks!

QSI directors, teachers and former directors from all over the world donated over $2000 toward the relief effort. The money was donated to medical supplies and toward rebuilding people’s homes. This will be a long term rebuilding effort by the Chinese government, local citizens and the world! QSI Chengdu’s Roots and Shoots group donated the money they had toward first aide kits and the Secondary students gave the money they had raised for a party to buy medical supplies.

The true nature of people surfaces in a crisis and it was a proud moment for QSI Chengdu when the calm and caring nature of our educational community showed its best during the Chengdu earthquake. QSI Chengdu continues to accept donations to help people rebuild their homes and lives outside of Chengdu.

Yangtze River Cruise

2008-05-28T20:55:00.009+08:00

Bev just before we decended the 100 steps down to the rivers edge.
Our boat is the one you see there is another one docked to it on the other side.

Dragons greated as as we embarked.

Part of one of the gorge areas. The high water line is from one of the previouse bad floods.

More pics soon, I have to get some sleep!!!

The last part of our trip and the high point was a cruise down the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River is the 3rd largest river in the world only superseded by the Nile and the Amazon. It begins in the center of China and flows all the way to Shanghai. Our cruise was from Chongqing to Wuhan, downstream. A major middle portion but less than 1/3 of the navigable river. This is the way to travel if you have less time. Three days on the river and you cover well over 1000 miles. Going upstream takes one day longer for the same distance.

Cruise Ship and Tour Link

Each day we had one major shore excursion. The ship is long and has a flat bottom. It is one of three sister ships on the river all made by a German company powered by three diesel engines at over 1000 hp each. It could carry up to 300 or so passengers . We had 250 for most of the trip. Most were Chinese, but we did have our group of about 50 that had our own tour guide, Howard, who spoke very good English. The 50 were not all Americans but could understand and speak English.

Our first afternoon and night we were docked on the river. We left the next morning. We were worried that we were going to have some very heavy dense clouds that were almost like fog for the whole trip. But that was primarily the first day. When we entered the gorges areas it was very clear and sunny.

1st Cruise Day Shore excursion to Fengdu Ghost City.
2nd Cruise Day Shore excursion to Shennong Stream by smaller vessels, Peapod boats also.
3rd Cruise Day Shore excursion to Three Gorges Dam site after passing through an amazing lock system.

After the cruise we were bussed to the airport for our 2 hour flight back to Shenhzen, we had a pickup scheduled and were home just an hour after that. Wow what a great trip. It was even more fun to travel with friends from school. There were six of us and then we were joined by another couple for the cruise portion of the trip.

I felt fortunate to see what we did as much has been flooded due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam project. The largest Day in the world. It is still filling and will continue to do so for two more years. Around six million people have been displaced by the construction of the dam. The dam is suppose to provide 10% of all the electric power used in China. That would be a lot!

Three Gorges Dam Project info Click Here.

New Post

2008-05-28T14:22:00.002+08:00

My new post today is new to the blog but actually is back on May 15th. Pics of the train ride from Chengdu to Chongxing.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

2008-05-25T23:16:00.005+08:00

The office is in an alley

The Dr. and Tim, She is standing Tim is sitting.
She is an amazing women, reminds me of my Grandma Hannah
She was so happy to take this pic with me.
I gave her one that hangs in the office now.

Tim is 14 on the list of patients for the day, notice no one is patient 13!
This was a day I was able to get there just about an hour after they opened.
Patients add their name when they arrive.

The Dr. is consulting with a patient at the reception desk,
notice the x-ray viewer and the patient in the foreground.

This is the view from where that patient was sitting.
I was able to take these kind of undercover shots as it was not busy yet.
Note the heat lamp that warms you to the core.
Yes men and women lay half undressed next to each other for this part.

Well I knew it would happen at some point and it did. My back tightened up and kind of went out. Carrying suitcases on vacation didn't help nor does carrying around a camera bag and well you get the idea. So I was at the point that going to work was questionable. I managed and one of my colleagues told me about a Chinese traditional Doctor.

Well it took a few attempts but I finally got to see her. She was not sure that she was going to treat me. But I used my persuasive powers to convince her to work on me. That is not as easy as it might sound. She did not understand a word of English and my Chinese will not get me far.

Anyway she saw me for two weeks a total of 8 treatments. I have a number of stories but the main thing is it is a one room Dr. Office. The reception area, exam/treatment area, well all things are done in the one room. I have been there when over 25 people were in the 15 x 25 foot room. She is suppose to be a very famous Doctor in Shenhzen. I was told this by at least 4 different people.

She uses a combination of infared heat, massage and a little bit of chiropractic as well as Chinese herbs, acupunture, and a lot of talk. A typical treatment takes an hour and a half. But the whole event will take between 2 1/5 to 4 hours. It really isn't an appointment as you don't have an appointment.

When it is your turn you lay down on the wood bench convered with a thin pad and a sheet. The sheet gets changed daily, I think. Anyway if you are modest you might not make it as your examination is conducted with many onlookers. They don't just look, they comment or ask questions about their own personal needs. They were quite interested to view the American.

Well after 2 weeks I am a new man. Well I feel pretty good. In fact very good. Oh the total cost including Chinese medicine etc. was about $60 for all 8 treatments.