OCT Overseas Chinese Town

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.