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Welcome
to Jesseon Chang's China Trip of 2007
Supporting
Server Granted for Personal Use by Scrammble.com
Created
by Father and Son While Traveling in China
(Also see Shanghai Trip
and Inner Mongolia Trip)
Jesseon and Ifay spent
five weeks in Beijing, China this Summer; while Jesseon was
enrolled in a Chinese language study, Ifay was paying
attention to the education system in China. This web site
collects the notes and photos they have taken during their
stay in Beijing.
The following paragraphs
were written after they returned to Somers. The China trip was
very enjoyable (see photos and comments in the following
pages). A few notes about The Chinese language study and
Chinese education were inserted here first:
Because of a national
college placement test (essentially determining your college
opportunity and career path to follow by one test score),
people are in general very serious about education. They start
as early as pre-school setting goals to achieve academic
results. At the high school level, those who did not fare well
in academics seem to be settled in trade schools or training
pretty early. Although there are night school opportunities
for education enhancement, but they don't compare well
with the elite university graduates.
The provincial
governments provide teachers training for K-12 teachers. In
Beijing during the summer, many such trainings taking place,
some via universities and some through dedicated training
institutes. Ifay was invited to attend a class as a Chinese
language teacher, He was impressed by the class of nearly 50
with their enthusiasm) We met Art (Jesseon's cousin) who
is a US born and US university graduate, married a girl from
Califonia now with two kids and they are both English
teachers getting trained in Chinese language. They both
accepted a teaching job at a Chinese university in a west
province of China. Asking them what made them to decide to do
that, their response was teaching Chinese students were just a
pleasure to them and they really enjoy living there and the
respect they receive as teachers.
Ifay investigated a
bit on how they teach Chinese language to people
with mother tongue not being Chinese. He found out
as he expected, the teaching material is very important and
the teaching methods must be tailored for students
(children vs adults). Ifay has discussed with one non-profit
organization providing funding for promoting the teaching of
Chinese language. We have been offered literature
especially teaching text books in terms of teacher's
text, student's text and workbooks for K through 12. We
managed to bring them all back (over 30 pounds of books and
CDs) to share with anyone who is interested. Several school
districts in Westchester are exploring the possibilities of
including Chinese language in their curricula. Perhaps Somers
should explore as well.
We did not visit any Olympic construction sites although
billions of dollars of investment are committed to the games.
Beijing is expecting an influx of 3 million people during the
2008 Olympics. The city is considering letting some
organizations (including schools) to take one month vacation,
reducing 30% vehicle usage in the city, limiting influx of
people from other provinces and mobilizing hundreds of
thousands of volunteers (mostly college kids) to assist the
visitors. For more info about the Olympics, please visit the
official Olympics web site at http://en.beijing2008.cn/
It was a nice experience
to live in an energized city full of people and activities.
The city is very safe (no crime and few police were seen).
People are mobile with transportation and communication (It
seems everyone has a cell phone and everywhere has web access.
With a magnetic card you can ride around the city for less
than a $1, 5 cents per ride. The citizens especially the
students have tremendous pride, hope and positive attitudes
towards their future... When Ifay read an article in the
Buffalo
News, Studying China, See How Chinese Students Learn (It
touched upon comparing the differences: the Chinese students
are studying too hard but have too little sports program. The
elite students are bilingual, even starting from elementary
school...), We were glad that we had made this China trip and
created this web site so to stimulate more discussions on the
topic of bilingual education and education in general. Please
feel free to contact ifay and Jesseon through
scrammble@scrammble.com,
they will be happy to respond to and post your comments.
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6/30/2007/Description
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Photo/6/30/2007
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The following photos are taken at Mutiangyu, one better
preserved fortress of the Great Wall near Beijing. Great
Wall of course is very long (data to be researched).
Mutiangyu, is the most visited section but still a quite
challenging hike as a one day trip. BLCU arranged this
Saturday excursion consisting of 2.5 hours bus ride and
3.5 hours of hiking: thousands of high steps (high leg
muscle stress), many more number of shallow steps (low
muscle stress) plus miles of walking up or down on the
Great Wall (counting cost energy, so most people give up
counting). You can walk a longer or shorter journey on the
wall depending on your ambition, just remember you have a
return trip to the base. For $4.5/one way, you can take a
cable car up or down). This 1st photo is taken from the
bus, after we went through the city and entering the
mountain roads.
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This is the entrance to Mutianyu Gate where you need to
purchase a ticket to enter the Great Wall. Almost all
sight-seeing spots in Beijing require tickets. The tickets
are not expensive by international standards but they go a
long way to help maintaining these spots. Sometimes, we
feel that they should raise the price of the tickets and
reduce the number of visitors to preserve the national
treasure better and offer a more enjoyable tour to the
visitors.
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The Chinese characters for 'Mutianyu Gate' carved on a
rock. Ifay probably should not climb up the slope, if
everyone does, it would be flattened in no time.
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It was a day of light rain in Beijing hence it was
misty at the nearby Great Wall with occasional Sun ray
(not so much light!) piercing through the clouds. A famous
poet, Su Dong Pou, once visited and wrote about the famous
West Lake in China, "Her beauty appeals no matter
whether it is under a sunshine or under raindrops'.
Visiting the Great Wall under similar weather, we might
say that the Great Wall, like a giant dragon, flexes his
muscles to show his masculinity, stronger and mightier
under a brighter and hotter sun (Visitors sweat!) and
hides his long tail, more shy and reserved in a more misty
and rainy day. (Visitors caresses his skin
frequently!).
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As the sky is clearing up, we begin to see the dragon
tail, endless in sight.
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The more sun breaks through, the mightier the dragon
appears. Those thousands of stone steps are indeed a
challenge to young and old. The hidden tail woken by the
sun humbles everyone: 'Oh, My. Perhaps it is time for us
to turn back!'
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