Chengdu

Happy Holiday and New Years. I just got back from Chengdu, China which is why I have been out of contact with most people. Chengdu is in central China and is the last city before Tibet, often times people stop off in Chengdu before they enter Tibet. Because the city is in such close proximity to Tibet and Xinjiang (a Muslim state controlled by China) Chengdu's make-up and vibe is much different from the Coast. Chengdu itself is a very cool town. The people are relaxed and laid-back, the weather is mild (no snow), but most importantly the food is wicked-awesome. Smack dab in the middle of Sichuan province (Szechuan) most of the food was mind-numbingly hot, but extremely good. Sichuanese food is know for hotpot and barbecue, both are both to eat in a group. In both cases you order a whole bunch of different meats and veggies on a stick, you cook the food yourself, and once the food is done you go to town. Hot pot houses and barbecues vendor, or as I like to call them 'street meat', can be found everywhere. I was walk back to my hotel on night and found an ally of just 'street meat'. I end up spending only $1 US for a tray full of grilled meats and veggies.

Hotpot of Death


















Lamb 'street meat'


















Tibetan food


















Beyond the food Chengdu is know for its temples and pandas. There are a few temples in town that have been converted to national sites and the surrounding streets have been made to look they way they would have had hundreds of years ago. A few milds up north is the Panda research facilities. There the Chinese are working hard to keep alive one of their national treasures. On the outside it looks like nothing more than a glorified zoo for pandas but the Chinese Government has successfully been able to breed captured pandas. If you go south there is a small town call Leshan which houses the largest statue of Buddha. There you can scale the cliffs and take pictures next to a giant Buddha.


















Overall Chengdu has been one of the best cities I've visited in China. I can't over state how nice the people are and how awesome the food was. When I was there it seemed like there was a lot of fog but most of the Chinese say its fog from the mountains. I dont know its hard to really tell the difference in China.

Here are some more http://picasaweb.google.com/dankhuon/Chengdu

Grading test

Here is one of my 7th grade students answer to a short answer question.

"What set Mohenjo-Daro apart was that there was a lot more technology. Its' like shanghai suddenly being cyber-technized on a major. Like suddenly having 20 robot slaves for every citizen"

Yeah he's getting full points

Coffee incident

Holy crap this is what happened to me when I tried to make coffee this morning. I went to turn off the gas on my stove-top coffee make and it exploded in my face. Let this be a warning to all coffee lovers. First do not cram as much coffee and water into a coffee maker and second do not crank the heat up to high. I'm going to have to pay the maid extra to clean this.

Pu Dong

Shanghai is divided into two parts: Puxi and Pu dong. Pu xi, the old part of Shanghai, is anything west of the Huangpu river and Pudong, the newer part, is anything east of it. I live in the Xuhui district, which is in the South west part of Pu xi. All the shopping, eating and fun can all be done in Pu xi. Some people find Pu Dong boring but I honestly think the pace over there is a little nicer. Everything is newer and there is certainly not as many people crowing the streets. The financial district is nothing to write home about but Century park is beautiful and the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum is a nice way to fill up an afternoon. However the biggest attraction for Pu dong is the Oriental Pearl Tower. Build in 1996 it rises about 1,535 and give you a nice view of downtown Shanghai. For only 100 yuan you can take an elevator to the top.



















I still amazes me how far Shanghai and China has progress according to Western standards. One fun fact that a lot of the Shanghaiese like to throw out is that the majority of the buildings and edifices are less than 20 years old. Shanghai's subway system is only 4 years old and it is more efficient and runs more lines than the Chicago L. It frightens me to think what Shanghai and China will look like in the future because if it only took Shanghai 20 years to reach this point what will it look like in another 20 years.

Beijing

I've finally have enough time to actually update everyone on my last trip. Beijing was worth the three days I spent there but any more time and I would have ended up annoyed with the place. Since it was my first time there I had to go to the standard tourist sights: Tiananmen, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall. My buddy and I wanted to check out Mao but his mausoleum was closed for the weekend. Rumor has it that Mao’s body is not looking as fresh as it use to. Surprisingly all three places were not that exciting. Tiananmen is just a huge square with a lot of foreigners and peddlers, the Forbidden City has even more foreigners and peddlers, and the Great Wall is completely comprised of foreigners and peddlers. I’m glad I went to these places; it really is a must if you have never been, but I cannot see myself going back to these places anytime soon.































One difference I notice between Shanghai and Beijing is that the air pollution is actually worse in Beijing then it is in Shanghai. I don't know how this is because after a day of walking outside in Shanghai I feel like I've smoked a pack of cigarettes, however in Beijing it feels like a thick layer of death is constantly covering every part of your skin. Visibility poor at best and I don't think is going to get any better before the Olympic Games. Some people are even speculating that Beijing might lose the games if enough events are canceled and if they are it could spell disaster and humiliation for China.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/6934955.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7061253.stm

Another problem was the traffic. I’ve been stuck on the 94/Dan Ryan in Chicago during rush hour but nothing compares to the traffic congestion that is Beijing. We were coming back from the Great Wall at 3 in the afternoon and there was bumper to bumper traffic for mile. It took us 2 hours to get into the center of town. I don’t thing there’s anyway I’ll attempt to go the Olympic Games; I’d rather enjoy them from the luxury of my apartment.

Beyond the smog and the traffic I had a good time in Beijing. The food was amazing, the people were mostly friendly and it’s cheaper than in Shanghai. I really enjoyed going to all the places the locals went to instead of being trapped in some tourist joint. If you’re ever in Beijing just get on the Metro line 5 and get off at Huixinxiqiao, amazing food and night life with very few foreigners. My friend, on the other hand, kept on getting ripped off by the peddlers. At one point he ended up paying 120 yuan, $15, for a pair of AA batteries. I guess that’s what happens when you look like a stereotypical American, you end up being an ATM to these people.

http://picasaweb.google.com/dankhuon/Beijing

My mornings

Each morning I get woken up to the wonderful sounds of a Chinese man's voice shouting fitness instructions out to the local Chinese students, none of which are my students, at 6:30 in the morning. I have nothing against daily fitness, in fact I think America needs to institutionalize mandatory exercise because we're becoming one amazingly fat country, but if you're going to wake me up at the crack of dawn to do workouts i beg that you actually do something challenging. I stayed up once to see the kind of things these kids do and for the pictures its not much. From the little bits and pieces i can translate from the "Drill Sargent's" instructions the school is basically having the students raise their hands up and down. I don't want to sound judgmental but I think these are the same exercise used to teach kindergarten students how to raise their hands in class. Now IF i was in charge of national fitness in China these kids would be in ridiculous shape. I'd hire Barry Bonds as my nutrition expert, require Puma track suits as their official uniforms, and have Kanye's work out plan on constant repeat. Hmmmmmm I might be on to something here. . .

ARRG WORK

WOW I’ve been utterly atrocious the last few weeks updating. This is probably the direct result of Midterms. No I’m not taking them I get the give them, which isn’t as great as it sounds. Shanghai High School has to be one of the most test oriented schools I’ve ever witnesses. Every student’s grades are dictated by tests. At last weeks meeting, which I never pay attention in, the administrations was telling us that all test would be worth 70% of the final grade and homework should be worth no more than 10% if that. That includes everyone, high school students to students in the primary school. Can you imagine a 7 year old taking a midterm and final!!! It utterly preposterous. So what ends up happening is students don’t give a rat’s ass about general performance and only worry about how they do on their test. Most of my students are very smart but I’ve never met a bunch of lazier children in my life. I should not that the majority of my kids are rich foreign students who’s parents are working is Shanghai so the majority of them really don’t care. There was a brief moment today where I almost lost it because a Chinese teacher asked me to write list of students who don’t do their home. Granted I should not have gotten pissed off at her but I think it’s completely ludicrous for me to point the students out who do not turn in their homework when we don’t even make homework worth a significant percentage of their grades. Then there is what we call Optional classes, name for because the work for the class is optional. There classes are designed to give student breath in their learning but in an enjoyable setting. Students have a large selection of classes to choice from. Some of the classes include American movies, English Movies, English conversation, creative writing, and my Personal relationships class. If these classes sound like a joke its because they are. None of the student's optional grades get factored into their GPA. So if I wanted to give everyone a failing grade no one would really care because the grade does not affect their GPA so it’s like it never existed. Heck if I wanted to I could give my students the grade ‘banana’ and no one would notice the difference. *ARGGG* I think my frustration stems from my realization that I’m nothing more than an over glorified test-facilitator/babysitter.