Sculpture in Shenzhen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.