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Peter Vanderlans, 2004

Peter Vanderlans

Cycling in China

Email from the Road

Part 6

Copyright © Peter Vanderlans, 2005.

 


School

I had been invited to visit a private school in Guangzhou by a friend who teaches there. So I arrived at this school in the suburbs of this big town. I am not sure if it was really the suburbs but at least it was some 10 kilometers out of the center of Guangzhou. My friend, Dianne, picked me up in the school building. We talked for a while before she introduced me in her class.

I introduced myself and told something about my travels on the bicycle. The class was about 25 kids of an age of 15 or 16 years old. They asked some questions and after about one hour Dianne asked me to stay in the class to follow her lesson.

When she started it was as if a sparkle went through in the classroom. All of the kids were hanging on her lips. But Dianne said was a lesson in English, was more a performance. She didn't sing or dance but the whole thing was very powerful. She let the class repeat certain words but not in a boring way. Some words were specifically explained and similar words were written on the blackboard. Those words could have similar meanings but sometimes similar spelling too.

I realized her way of teaching must have a lot of preparation.

The lesson took two hours and after Dianne looked very tired. I wasn' SIZE="2">t surprised because her way of teaching costs a lot of energy. But she asked me to stay and have some dinner with me. We talked about her way of teaching and she told me how she actually got this job.

The school, she explained was one of the best, maybe the best in China. It was quite difficult to get a job here and you were never certain for how long you would get it. As a teacher in Kunming she had obtained for the job here was in the beginning rejected. Still, half year later she was invited for an interview, got a class to do for fellow teachers and later on additional course in Beijing.

Apparently her English was not good enough to start her job in teaching although that was hard to believe for me. Three years ago I had met her in Lijiang and had been impressed by her knowledge and her lack of accent. She spoke fluent English at that time and her accent was almost nothing.

lijang.jpg (39679 bytes)

Lijiang

She got the job, as she described it, because of her knowledge of English, her presentation and the fact she was a good-looking woman. This was all told without any form of arrogance.

With what I had seen that afternoon I knew she was talking the truth and had said nothing too much. The pure pleasure in her way of teaching was another thing that had impressed me. But while we ate she asked me if I was interested to join her for she had to give a speech for university students somewhere here in Guangzhou. It seemed to me I would not have many opportunities like this and I agreed.

So after dinner she and me plus two other teachers who would speak, were picked up by a big black car with a military driver. We drove through the whole town and finally ended up in a military camp. This was not what I had expected but it seemed to be the right place.

We walked into the auditorium and found there about 1000 students English in military uniform. The army has it's own university and this was the audience my friend has to speak to. Just before the start of the speeches I was asked if I was willing to answer a few questions on stage on which I agreed.

The show started with a military man who told the audience how much the three speakers earned for their presence here. Apparently it was a lot of money according to the reaction of the audience. The show started with John. It was indeed a show. John was a natural born entertainer, who could bring his message easy with making jokes, singing and hold the attention of the audience without problems. In his performance I was asked on stage for answering a few questions.

His subject was the pronunciation of English, which he could do perfect. Although part of his show was in Chinese I could understand it quite easy.

The next speaker was Dianne. She performed in the way as in the afternoon but it seemed a bit more on the automatic pilot. Later she would admit she had been very tired and didn't enjoyed it as much as the lesson in the afternoon. Still, she was like John a very good performer. In Holland they would be able to have there own theatre show.

The third speaker was speaking in Chinese about the necessity of English in business (as was later explained to me. He too made the audience laugh, got some people on stage to help him out with a few 'problems'.

It was an impressive performance by those three teachers. Dianne told me they did this more often and it was clear they had a lot of experience. After the show we all were invited to join 'them' for a little after dinner. We were transported to an expensive restaurant. Apart of me everyone was decent dressed since I had not expect to be in such an environment at all. Dishes as pig brain, cow stomach and the according to Chinese people very delicious chicken feet were served. I have to admit that pig brain and stomach were excellent. Chicken feet I had before and didn't like very much.

The restaurant was quite far out of the center were I had my hotel but I was brought back by the military taxi. I had an amazing day and was dead tired. And that was the life my friend lived day in, day out! She was far more tired then me. I wonder for how long she will be able to live that way.

Water and business in Yangshuo

The whole of China suffers from heavy rains and storms. This is normal for the time of the year. Recently Shanghai was attacked by a typhoon and another one seems to be on the way to Japan and the East Coast. People were killed by the storm and the water problems.

Here in Yangshuo it did rain too. When I arrived from my journey from Hezhou it started to rain the shits out. Although it did rain for not too long, the amount of water was considerable.

In the next days every now and then it did rain heavily. One morning I woke up around 5 a.m. and heard the rain coming down. Fortunately I didn't have plans to go out anyway but some people had too. Under their umbrella's I saw them leaving West Street.

That specific morning it did rain so much that when I went to the market in the afternoon I found the market empty. It seemed a newly formed lake at the market square. Since I had to send a fax I had to cross the square and found that the water was knee deep! It had of course a lot to do that the square in a slightly lower area then the surrounding streets and a lot of water ran into the square. But the restaurants and market stalls on the market were all closed and many stalls had water in their area.

I walked with a friend to the Li-river. There too the water was very high. That day it had been impossible for boats from Guilin to ship passengers to Yangshuo. Even the island in the middle of the river was now completely under water.

Not only for the boats, there are more then 100 boats that do the trip from Guilin to Yangshuo, also for the market at the Li-river it self (which is different from the central market area, had problems. No tourist coming means no income that day and many stalls were empty now.

Still, tourist came to Yangshuo by bus and many wanted to see how high the river was. Therefore it was quite busy at the riverside.

But it wasn't only the water that caused problems. Because of the heavy rains and wind there had been landslides and one landslide had made the road from Wuzhou to Yangshuo partly destroyed. The destruction had been enough to made bus rides between Wuzhou and Yangshuo impossible. Travelers who wanted to do this journey of 255 km were transported to Liuzhou or Guilin and from there they had to find transport further to Yangshuo.

The word had been spread out that even the road from Guilin to Yangshuo was under water but nothing was further from the truth. Sure, many of the fields were under water but the road was still ok.

The next week after this morning it did occasionally rain a bit. A few drops here and there and if one was willing he could even count them all. So the water lowered quickly and things came back to normal. This also meant many Chinese tourists arrived in the afternoon to see Foreigners Street or as West Street is known by the Chinese.

In fact West Street or Foreigners Street is a walking zoo. Especially in the evenings people walk by and look into the cafe's and the people sitting in the cafe's look back. Both sides are curious to each other.

West Street is like many places in the west. The Leidseplein in Amsterdam is no different from the West Street but in China there are only few places like West Street. So for Chinese tourists this is a place where they can see what foreigner cafe's are like.

Of course West Street is by no means a typical Chinese street. There are the already mentioned cafes but also typical tourist shops. The strange thing in some ways is that all these shops do exactly the same thing. There are shops that sell paintings, shoes or CDs (yes, one of the few places in China were you can western CDs). T-shirts and other "typical" Chinese clothes can be bought here too.

It seems that everybody thinks they can make easy money out of the tourists. But something strange, though isn't it really strange?, is going on. The tourist shops are there basically for foreigners. Not many of the Chinese tourists do buy in these shops. Still, more shops are being set up. Near the bus station a whole new street is nearly completed. The expectation is that here too will come typical western styled tourist shops. How they will make money is unsure.

The owners of the buildings here rent the stores out. It's clear how much confidence they have in an eventual success as the tenant have to pay 3 years rent in advance!

In the last years there has been more travelers/tourist from the west been seen in Yangshuo. Still, when walking around, some of the shops are always empty as the restaurants! A few restaurants have always people around but some seems to have none every night. How can one expect to survive without customers.

The restaurants too have some difficulties since Chinese tourists usually do not eat here but go to the market or visit Chinese restaurants. The restaurants in West Street have western styled menus with pizza, chocolate cakes and apple crumble. The served dishes are boneless and the menus do not contain dishes as rat, snake or dog. These animals however can be eaten in many of the restaurants when one asks. At the market the menus are in Chinese language and of course here are dog, rat and snake on the menu. Chinese people do not feel any hesitation to eat them. The idea of pets you don't eat is alien to them. To me it makes sense. For Chinese people pets are not just dogs or cats. They have chicken, cows and pigs as pets too. It all depends on the view you use. (besides, rat, snake or dog are tasty too)

But that day the market square was under water and the market restaurants could not set up their business, some the Chinese people decided to eat at the western restaurants in West Street. That night one could see a lot of Chinese tasting the western styled Chinese foods. I was told that most of them do not really like this kind of Chinese food so the next night it was as usual, the cafes were filled up with westerners.

In the future it will be more difficult for many of the shops and restaurants here to earn enough money because of the competition. Who knows who will survive?

The only good business it seems are the foreign language schools. And they are like fountains these days. There is a need for private schools were one can improve their knowledge of English, especially spoken English. People from other cities are recruited to study here because there are many foreigners to practice! And indeed, some students actually dare to talk with the foreigners! But many too keep the distance and are too shy. So doing business in Yangshuo? I don't really know at this moment. Of course I can say a lot more about this subject but I will leave it here. Maybe next time another chapter.

Next: Part 7


Peter Vanderlans - Cycling in China: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 |


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