Forbidden City and Grand Opening

It has been three weeks since I wrote last and a lot has happened in those 3 weeks. None of them were ‘normal’ weeks, but what is normal about living in China? The Grand Opening of the school on Monday marked this past week. We had lots of distinguished guests from Canada including the new NB Minister of Education, Kelly Lamrock, an Ontario MP, a Canadian senator and Canada’s most famous musical export to China, Chairman George. The focus was really on the VIP’s and the VVIP’s. Teachers and students spent an hour on Friday practicing lining the students up for their group picture and herding them through the school for their roles as extras in the grand pageant that was the Opening. Fortunately it all came off on Monday relatively smoothly – it is not easy lining up 350 people for a photo! Then we herded them all into the theatre for the speeches by the politicians and performances by students and Chairman George. That lasted about 2 hours in the hot balcony – luckily we were pretty well out of view by the VIP’s as the students were restless and sleepy.

As we were leaving for the day, the message was passed around that we were invited to dinner with all the VIP’s. Well some teachers were so grumpy by this time that they didn’t go, but we did and were treated to an expensive seafood dinner at a very expensive restaurant across the street from the school. The routine at these events is that guests go around to each table making flowery toasts. There is wine and bijo, a very strong liquor, and it is de rigueur to drink to the toast. The result is that most people were pretty well oiled before the dinner even began. Brenda drank her favourite – Sprite – and I kept away from the bijo. The meal was very fancy – lobster, crab and various types of fish. The dishes just kept coming. I tried everything including the deep fried chicken feet, but really there wasn’t much to sink your teeth into and by the time we were done I was thinking about a cheeseburger. Francis and most of the Pangs got quite drunk and the after party was at a karaoke bar, which we skipped – after all we had to teach the next day.

As I write, we are settling in for winter; the high temperatures have been ranging from 42 to 54 degrees. We had a snow shower on Saturday morning and most of the trees have shed their leaves. The willow trees on the avenue are stubbornly holding onto theirs, but as we walked in Chaoyang Park on Sunday, we were shuffling through piles of leaves. Ever optimistic, I bought a set of Callaway Fusion golf clubs last week; we are hoping to have a match against our sister school, Beijing Concord College this Sunday. Whether it comes off or not is questionable; it pretty much depends on the weather. The price for the clubs including putter and rescue club, bag, travel bag, umbrella, hat, towel, sleeve of balls, glove and hat - $225. Are they fakes? Yes, but pretty good fakes and they might fool many people. What they will play like, I don’t know!

Last week we went to see a Kung Fu show. It was part Broadway musical and part martial arts show and purported to tell the story of the Buddhist monk who invented the art. There was lots of dancing, flipping, slashing the air and smashing of wood and bricks. There were even some women dancers – the monk apparently struggled with temptations of the flesh at various times and this was told very poetically as the couple swung from the rafters on long curtains! One of the big stunts was when they hoist the monk onto a trident sort of skewer, which was inserted into his belly button and then they spun him around on top of it! It looked quite uncomfortable! We saw the same stunt done at the Opening dinner the following week. The odd thing about going to the show was that we thought we were going to see the Chinese acrobats. It was arranged by the school and as we were getting into the vans to go, the organizer said, “Oh, by the way, you are going to see the King Fu show, which many people feel is even better than the acrobats.” Strange things like that happen a lot, but hey, it’s China!

Friday was Terry Fox Day at the school and all the students turned out to walk around the school several times. It was quite brisk and bright and the walking was a fun time as we laughed and joked with the students. Friday night we hosted a party for the teachers from Beijing Concord College. Later we went out to dinner with Don and Eve who teach there. We decided to meet on Saturday and finally tour the Forbidden City. Fred, a new teacher who has only been in China for 10 days or so joined us. We were dressed quite warmly but it was still cold. Our guide, Grace, patiently showed us through the immense structure. It is really pretty awe inspiring with lots of impressive buildings, courtyards and bridges. If you have seen the movie, “The Last Emperor”, you have a good idea what it looks like. Later, we had dinner together at a cozy restaurant called the Den and then went to Yashow market to introduce Fred to the wonders of shopping in the markets. Fred picked up 5 dress shirts for about $35, so he is a quick study!
First Posted November 28, 2006