In Beijing

Well, we are finally here. We have had an exciting week. We arrived mid-afternoon on Tuesday, August 22 and managed to stay up until 10 so jet lag has not been a big problem. There was lots to do; our school is not ready, nor is our residence finished. So we are staying temporarily on the Beijing Concord College of Sino-Canada campus at Tuanli (pronounced Twarli) on the outskirts of Beijing. There is a big difference between Tuanli and downtown Beijing where our campus is located. Tuanli is what is referred to as a village (although it has 30,000 residents) and in the immediate vicinity of the school there are many large apartment blocks. Still Tuanli is in the countryside and there are lots of farms around and several informal markets, one quite near the gates of the school. You see lots of things different from home and not many people outside the school speak much English. So our conversations with local people, merchants and taxi drivers involves a lot of gesture. Why is it when you don’t understand, people just repeat it but LOUDER?

We have been well treated by all. The permanent school staff met us at the airport, guided us through the obligatory medical exam - required of all visitors and including ECG, X-ray and blood test. We have been taken on tours and provided with lots of hand-holding to get over the newbie fear. Interestingly, some of our best resources have been the teachers at our school who taught last year at Concord College. They are mostly quite a bit younger; in fact, about the same age as our children. Nevertheless, they have really gone out of their way to make us feel comfortable. So now after a week we are feeling confident enough to strike out on our own and see China. Well, maybe not totally confident - we both bought cell phones yesterday and immediately plugged in the numbers of all our new friends so we could call in an emergency!

Our new school - Canadian International School of Beijing - is magnificent! It is by far the nicest school we have ever taught in. It is almost finished...really! Looking at the pictures you will see a lot of dirt and chaos, but I honestly feel that it will be finished by this Sunday when we have our big Open House. The school’s classrooms are large, bright and air-conditioned (important because it is hot here - over 30 degrees most days). Each classroom has a SmartBoard and a ceiling-mounted projector. Every teacher has a laptop and a desktop computer. The school has 2 pools, 2 theatres (600+ and 300+ seats), 2 gyms, dance and fitness studios, 2 libraries, a soccer field, 2 cafeterias, a school nurse, doctor and dentist, and its own putting green!!! Brenda and I will be teaching on the same corridor. I actually have 2 classrooms beside each other - 1 for Tech and 1 for English. Our classrooms are located about 50 meters from our apartment building. The whole school is surrounded by a wall and a guard salutes you at the gate and each of the entrances. We are noticing many differences from the Canadian public system. We not only have a Principal and Vice-Principal, but the school has its own Finance Department and HR Department. We have talked with Dr. Francis Pang several times and are very impressed with the man and his vision for the school. Also the business side seems to be more evident here; we realize that there is a big investment and the school needs to succeed.

We have done some sightseeing, most notably Ho Hai or Back Lake which is a lake surrounded by bars and restaurants. It makes a pleasant stroll on a warm evening. We ate dinner at Hutong Pizza, a famous pizza restaurant located in a hutong (alleyway) near the lake. Our other visit was to the Great Wall at Simitai. The wall at this location is less restored than in some areas. It is very rugged and you get some spectacular views of the wall snaking over the mountains. Unfortunately, the day was smoggy - yes, even here 3.5 hours from Beijing it is smoggy - but the views were still wonderful. The climb to the wall is not for the fain-hearted. I took the cable car and then the mini-train to get about 80% of the way up and it was still tough. One of the oddest things is that as you struggle up the uneven stairs, little Chinese or perhaps Mongolian women, called sherpas, try to help you and fan you all they way. Try to imagine a 200 pound, red-faced white guy being fanned by a 90 pound Chinese woman! Despite the arduous climb, one of our companions, who is training for the Beijing Marathon, ran up and back down. Thankfully, he did confess to being tired when he finished!

We have noticed lots of things different about China, some good and some bad. One thing is the price of things - almost everything is cheaper than in Canada and some things are remarkably cheaper. We ate a huge meal on our first night here with 3 or 4 beers each and the cost was less than $2.50 Can per person. Of course, in Beijing you can pay much more, especially if you want western food, but still generally things are much cheaper than in Canada and the food has been great. We haven’t done much shopping yet but will report on that later. Another difference is the environment. It has been very hot, but we haven’t really seen much of the sun; it has been hidden by the smog as you’ll see in some of the pictures. Consequently (I think), the area tends to be dusty; it must be a housekeeper’s nightmare. Another thing is the traffic - there is lots of it and it seems only vaguely familiar with the traffic laws. They say the traffic is much better now and that now Beijing drivers will stop at a red light, but stop signs seem to be ignored. Pedestrians take their chances and on our drive to Simitai our bus was passed on both sides simultaneously several times.
First Posted August 28, 2006