June 30, 2005
YY ‘s company sent me back to campus this morning. I had an appointment with one of the students (LW) who wanted to show me his project. He was one of the students in my last year’s class. I was very impressed by his maturity, ambition and hard work. We had kept in touch. During the last year he had been working on his natural language search engine project, which he showed me a prototype. Given that he was the only one working on this project, what he had accomplished was a great deal.
If his prediction was right this could be big. I would like to help him succeed. I told him that he needed to write some research papers and submit them to conferences. This way he could let people know what he was doing and perhaps get some help and guidance from experts. Applying for patent could also be a good idea.
LY the student who went swimming with me last time wanted to swim once more. Another student also wanted to join. We decided to go right after the class so that I could go to a dinner appointment with my university classmates. Unfortunately it rained cats and dogs so we had to give up the idea of going swimming.
In the evening Xinan drove me to meet with CJ, LZ and TZL. Xinan was the person who invited me to teach here. We were all classmates in university. The meeting was held at a restaurant that specified in food in Hubei province where the university was located in. It was nice to see very one and to hear about the updates. CJ really cared about my being single and would like to introduce a girl to me. Unfortunately I had to leave tomorrow.
June 29, 2005
YY sent her company’s car to pick me up. This evening was the only time I had to meet her before my departure. She wanted me to bring with me a couple of gifts she bought for her family when I would see them in a couple of weeks. She also bought some popular DVDs for me. I’d like to open a banking account with her bank. When I got there, she was already at the counter with the branch manager waiting for me. The service I received was nothing short of first class.
We went to a restaurant featured food from northwestern region of China Xingjiang province. It was my first time to try cow tails. I did not like it that much. In addition to food, there were three girls who performed XingJiang dances. Some audience joined them on the state and danced with them. One guy, who must have had too much to drink, looked awful. But another guy and a girl looked very professional. You could tell they were from that region.
YY booked a hotel room for me in her office building overlooking Hong Kong, Shenzhen Bay and a golf course. This way, I did not have to go back to the campus. I still did not feel perfect. Dick wrote in his email that I seemed to continue to play hard. I guess my body now was telling me to slow down and it needed rest. Sensing that I did not feel well, YY left me around 9. I went straightly to bed.
June 28, 2005
I do not feel too well today. I figure this was the cost of having all that fun in the last two days I have to pay. I met with CC, my high school classmate, in the evening. She insisted to treat me for dinner once more before my departure. We had a good visit. Too bad I was not myself because of my illness. She took me to a pharmacy and bought some cold medicine. I had to go back because my uncomfortableness grew stronger.
One of few accomplishments today was that we managed to find another long lost high school classmate SJ in Beijing via SW a classmate in Shiyan who knew and cared for everyone. She (SW) is one of the best and warmest women I have ever met. She always makes us feel comfortable and shows that she cares. She treats us as if she was our big sister. I can say with confidence that we all love her.
June 27, 2005
The banquet continued from last night to this evening. One of the classmates ZZP could not make back from Kunming last night. He wanted to see us. So everyone but Mr. Wang showed up. It was fun. But due to the law of diminishing marginal returns it was not as much as yesterday. I did get a chance to discuss some serious issues facing China with ZZP. For example, tonight’s dinner was paid for again by another third party who’d like to be on the best side of the government official. This type of corruption was due to the power monopoly. The government controlled all important resources. In order to obtain them, enterprisers had to do what they could. This situation may not change for the next fifty years when all the resources were distributed and all sectors with “violent” profit margins were occupied. Another issue was about income disparity between haves and have-nots. The poorest and most powerless group of people in China was the farmers. There were so many of them that they could work for less than $50 a month. The majority of the growth of the Chinese economics was supported by them and foreign direct investment (FDI). On day when they demanded more compensation and the neighbor countries improved their investment environment, FDI would flow out and the economy would slow. Another bottleneck was political reform. Current politicians in power would not like to take risks. To them stability was the utmost. Only when next a couple of generations grew up things may change. The youth did not have to worry about their live-hoods as much as their parents because by then China would be rich enough. They could afford to worry about human rights, environment, and what’s good for the society. China for now is still rapid changing and people are seeking for their positions. It is almost like the gold rush period in the US. Everything goes.
June 26, 2005
Some of my classmates in the graduate school in Wuhan University met these evening. We had not met since the graduation in 1986. ZW, LK, YF, XD, YTC. and WHL were present. Now they all worked and lived in Shenzhen. Some were government officials, some top management and some jobless. No matter what, it was so nice to see everyone after almost 20 years. We talked about those good ol’ days, what changed among us, and our plans for the future. Just by the amount of Chinese liquor we consumed you could tell how much fun we had. 7 of us all together drank 4 bottles of a famous Chinese wine of 130 proofs. Next day Dingbo and Kewei confessed that they did not know how they got home and one of them was driving. I was surprised that I could drink so much.
Guess who footed the bill? The owner of the restaurant. This was a rather luxury establishment. We had our own dinning room which was huge. It was equipped with its own first class bathroom. Three servers were there at our service. We could see a waterfall from a gigantic window. Since one of our classmates worked for the government, the owner wanted to be on the best side of him. This looked very much like a bribe but was very normal in China.
6/25/2005
“There is a new doctor in the house,” wrote Frank. I was wondering what he meant by that while reading. Were we getting more patients that warranted a new hire? After finished reading the whole email, I wanted to offer my sincere congratulations to Dr. Kathy. A job well done or phinally done (Ph.D.)!
I went to Macau early morning by boat to get my visa extension. I had to pass the immigration to exit and then reenter the country to get a 60 day extension on my visa. I had applied for a double entry visa before leaving the States. While waiting in line, I noticed that the immigration officers were polite and sometimes with smiles. This was the same when we passed the custom in Beijing. I remembered just a few years ago their faces were quite stern and cold. To me this change shows a sign of the national confidence.
While on the boat, I observed that the water was very muddy and rather different from that I saw last Saturday at the resort. At first, I thought it was due to pollution. Then I saw a lot of tree branches and debris on the surface in some the areas. It reminded me of the recent flood in southern China.
It was my first time in Macau. Macau is a SAR (special administrative region) of China. It was a Portuguese colony until in 1999 when reversed back to China. The population there is most Chinese and three currencies (HK$, Macau $ and RMB) are accepted in most of the establishments. I originally planed a “come and go” strategy. That was to catch the early boat at 8:15am and leave on next return boat at 2:00pm. After the day was over, this strategy seemed too ambitious. I ended up spending a whole day there. At first, I saw the old Macau near the pier and it was old and ragged. I walked on the street, wandered in small alleys, saw various markets and tried different foods. My path took me to the city central where the prosperous Macau showed its glimpse. Gambling was the main business and there were more than 10 casinos on this tiny island. Around the casinos there were many money exchange stores and bails (right word?) where gamblers can exchange their physically possessions for cash. The purpose was obvious. Sands in Las Vegas opened their casinos here not long ago. Along the seashore a few new ones were under construction. I visited Casino Lisboa as a representative. There I saw entire three floors were packed with people. There were all kinds of games available such as Baccarat, bingo, blackjack, mahjong, roulette, stud poker, 3-card poker, and slot machine. I played as an observer. It was very interesting to see players’ expressions of excitements, despairs, and hopes.
Up to now my feet have stepped on the soil of the greater China coving Hong Kong, Macau, the Mainland and Taiwan.
6/24/2005
In order to watch the game 7 of the NBA finals, students wanted to change the morning class to the evening. I “reluctantly” obligated. The game was exciting but the result was not what I hoped for. After the game I chatted with Kevin, a student at DUFE and big Pistons fan, and he was too sad to know what to say. He said all he had to do now was to wait for three months until the new season.
In the evening, I met with CC, my high school classmate. We had had not seen each other for more than 20 years. It was amazing that we met in Shenzhen while growing up in a small town. After all these years we were now quite different from what we used to be. We had changed from innocent teenagers to adults full of marks left by time and experiences. We looked quite different as well. She was the prettiest and cutest girl in my eyes. If there had been one girl I liked in high school it would have been her. But I did not have courage to tell her then. Now I had a chance to clear my conscious and we laughed it off. After dinner, we walked to her apartment where she showed me some of our old pictures with some of the classmates. They sure brought back memories. When looking at how we looked then and now I couldn’t help but admire and worship the power of time and nature. For only thing, I had much less hair now than before.
6/23/2005
Good news comes in threesome. I received notices that some of our previously submitted papers have been accepted or published by Information Resources Management Journal (IMRJ), International Journal of Internet Enterprise Management (IJIEM) and Journal of Information Technology & Information Management (JIT&IM).
6/22/2005
I have been thinking about two different money management systems in China and the US. Yesterday evening‘s swimming outing was a trigger. The fee for using the pool was 15 Yuan. I wanted to pay for both of us but I did not the exact change requested by the receptionist. So Yun paid for me. I wanted to give him my share but he refused. I was rather embarrassed but he said I could treat him next time. This reminded me of a few times in Dalian when Dick, Karin and I treated Cliff and some of our Chinese students. Each time after a meal we divided the total check and figured out a share for each among us three. This may have looked silly in a Chinese’s eyes for the so-called AA or Go Dutch system is not common. But I believed that it was a good thing for them to be exposed to the American system. The popular system here is that one pays for everything this time and another pays next time. This can be looked at as a revised AA system. It works well for a group of stable friends but not so well for short term visitors like us. Under such a system we promised many times and over that we would treat them in the US when they came.
6/21/2005
It had been raining the whole day. I couldn’t go to the office because of it. Fortunately I had internet access in my apartment.
After the class and dinner, Liu Yun and I went swimming. The pool was in a hotel out of the campus. There were no cabs or buses. We planed to walk there before we saw Xinan who was just about to get in his car. I asked him for a ride and he reluctantly agreed for he was rather busy. It took about 5 minutes to get there. Then I found out I was not prepared. I had been spoiled by full service before so I only brought swimming gears but not a towel or sandals. The water was not too bad but the shape of the pool was irregular. For example, the length was 23 meters. I swam about 1500 meters before it became so full that I had to get out. By the way, Yun was not a competition. In fact, he did not know how to swim properly. But we had a good time chatting and getting to know each other. We had to walk back because there was no other way. It was not too bad because it took us only about 15 minutes.
6/20/2005
I met my class today. I was told that because it was already the final exams week and many students already had enough credits to graduate very few students perhaps less than 10 would take the course. To my surprise, about 20 showed up. As a result I did not have enough material copied for everyone.
When I told the class that I enjoyed swimming during the self introduction sessions, one of the students (Liu Yun) challenged me to a race. I could not do anything else but obligate.
I hoped this class was as much fun as the one in Dalian.
In the evening, YY and I went to a health center of the Shenzhen Traditional Medicine Hospital to get massages. What being performed here was different from other places. I first soaked myself in a big round tub filled with hot water mixed with Chinese herbs. Then Chinese style massage TueNa was done. At the end a hot rod filled with Chinese herbs was moved up and down my body. It felt really good. We wanted to get foot massages as well but were told that we had to wait for another 40 minutes. We left because we were too hungry to wait.
6/19/2005
I was waked up by YY’s phone call asking me whether I wanted to have breakfast. I wanted to sleep more but breakfast was important as well. So we met in the dinning room downstairs and had a nice Cantonese style breakfast. Afterward we decided to go swimming in the sea. It was cloudy and water was relatively calm. The swimming area was circled by lines. The distance for the shore to the deepest area was about 100 meters. I decided to swim across and back. I was not much of an ocean swimmer but I enjoyed this outing. It was so quite that I felt there were just me and the sea. A wave after another seemed to welcome and embrace me. Every stroke of mine was greeted by the warmth of the water. But it was definitely more tiring than in swimming pools. But I could not resist but to swim another round trip later.
After treating me a nice lunch at a roof top restaurant in the building where YY worked, she asked her driver to take me to the university (the Graduate School of Peking University at Shenzhen) where I was supposed to teach for the next two weeks. It was not easy to find the place because of its remote location. The contact in the university told me that it was near the zoo of wild animals (Ed would have loved the place). I joked that I was arranged to live in the zoo. We managed to get there after a couple of turn-around. They left me after helping move my luggage into my apartment, which looked similar to the one in Dalian but a little older and not as nice. I called Xinan my classmate now the Dean of the School of Information and Engineering and he told me that he was playing tennis downstairs. I went there and joined them. I again played some. These first couple of days in Shenzhen looked very much like back to the past by inducing me to play my old sports.
In the evening I scrambled to get my lesson plan done for tomorrow morning’s class.
6/18/2005
It took nearly 4 hours to fly from Shenyang to Shenzhen. It was definitely the longest flight I had ever taken within China. I requested an emergency exit row seat while checking in and luckily my wish was granted. With plenty of leg room to work with, I found the flight was not so much of a torture. I passed time by reading Genome, a book I borrowed from Jeff K. before I left the US, taking naps, eating and drinking.
My cousin YY met me at the airport. The last time we saw each other was ten years ago. When we were kids we lived in two cities that were not too far from each other. We visited each other frequently during school breaks. I thought her family was the coolest one on earth and wished I could have lived with them. Now we’re both grow ups. She is now in charge of a branch office of one of the four largest commercial banks. When I first saw her at the airport I was struck by how much she resembled her mother. Later she told me that how much I now looked like my father. I guess the admiration was mutual. J
She and some of the staff in her office booked the bank’s seaside resort a.k.a. the training center for their weekend outing. She booked a room on the top floor with water view for me as well. I was given a title Big Boss Jing. After changing the clothes, we headed to the beach. Some of the staff was already there playing volleyball. Volleyball used to be one of my favorite sports of all time and I played regularly. After a few injuries I had to switch tennis, after which came swimming. At first I was going to just watch but I couldn’t resist the repeated invitations. So I joined them. To my surprise I did well. I even blocked one smash.
After the volleyball games, they wanted to play beach soccer. Again I played but as a goalie to save all that running. I did not expect it at all to come to a beach and play so much sport after a long flight. But what a hack you only lived one.
In the evening the staff put up some performance. Since I did not know most of them I decided to stay in my room to rest and watch the Chinese Youth Team play Panama for their third and last group game. After the show, YY and I went to the beach and walked along the seashore. It was time for us to catch up with each other after a long time absence. We talked about her family, marriage, work and life. We also discussed why I was still single. It was almost 1:00am when we said goodnight and went to sleep.
6/17/2005
I watched the Pistons rout the Spurs 102-71 in the morning, went to the residence of General Zhang Xueliang and his family in the afternoon, tried various Shenyang foods for dinner and swam 2000 meters in the evening.
I’ve been thinking about why there are so few auto accidents on the road in China while none follows traffic rules. I’ve come to a conclusion that may be surprising. Chinese people are considerate and care about others. You may argue that how could it true since drivers cut in and out lanes without paying much attention to other moving vehicles. The manner by which drivers drive here would have caused uncountable accidents in a country in which people follow rules. True. But if you look at the matter not from the point of view of driver of the vehicle you are in but from other drivers’, you may understand what I mean. A driver would pay attention to other drivers around him and yield the right of way when necessary. In the US when a driver has the right of way he would expect others to respect such a right and shall not yield unless he chooses to. These are two extremes. In China no one follows rules but people create random rules on spot. In US, there are well established rules and most people follow them. It is hard to conclude which one is better than another. Each works well within its cultural boundary.
I noticed another thing in the park. While resting in hanging bed I saw a young boy put a candy into his mouth and threw the plastic wrapper to the ground. I wanted very much to tell him to pick it up but he was with his family. I thought it would be the adults’ responsibility to tell him. None of the family members said anything. I was thinking to myself that if the behavior had been corrected from early on the little boy would perhaps not repeat it.
There are encouraging signs about environment protection. I saw many solar panels on sale and TV commercials for them. Also Jorge from Ecuador in whose home I went dancing tango in Beijing was doing wind energy research in China. He told me that while the current percentage of wind energy was still low the goal was to increase it to 10% in ten years.
6/16/2005
I felt good this morning. I guess by not swimming too much last night helped. Karin was right as always. After breakfast Cool Er and I went to Shenyang Garden of Plants. It was amazing that Shenyang is only one hour away from Beijing by air and yet the weather was much cooler. It was nice to be outside. We saw many kinds of Peonies, which are the national flower. I took some pictures and will show them to Karin. I knew she would have enjoyed here.
In the afternoon my stomach started to act up. We had to rush our cab driver to get us back in the hotel so that I could go to the bathroom. We bought and brought some picnic foods from Carrefour to the garden. Perhaps that was why. I just laid low for the rest of the afternoon and evening hoping my stomach will endure yet another test.
I need to be extremely careful with what I eat.
6/15/2005
Yesterday I met Li Lin, Xu Dingbo and Fu Guoqun in Perking University. Dinbo and Guoqun were my classmates in Wuda graduate school and Li Lin is Dingbo’s wife. They are now quite well off professors. Dingbo teaches in Sino-Europe School of Business in Shanghai, Guoqun is a marketing professor in GongHua School of Business in BeiDa, and Li Lin runs the Institute of Chinese Economy Studies in Beida. I met Dingbo last year in Shanghai but had not seen either Guoqun or Li Lin for many years. It was amazing that after this long time of absence we were just like old friends joking and kidding around. Guoqun also introduced me to one of MIS professors for possible future research collaboration.
While we three Dingbo Guoqun and I were having dinner, Zhao Lichen my undergraduate classmate came in at 8pm to meet me. We invited him to join us. It turned out one of his colleagues took Dingbo’s class before. What a small world.
Dinner was interrupted once more time when a sister of a colleague of Dingbo’s dropped in. The purpose of her visit was matchmaking. Would you care to guess for whom?
After dinner, we went to a café to drink tea. I ordered a cup of tea called worry-me-not thinking it was herb tea. To my dismay I found out it was tea based when I couldn’t sleep later. I had to watch on TV the Chinese U20 soccer team beat Ukraine in the world youth championship. I slept for about just two hours before getting up to go to the airport to catch my flight to Shenyang.
My friend Cool Er met me in Shenyang airport. She had a rather busy schedule planned for me. After resting for a while, we headed to Forbidden City Shenyang Style. Much smaller than Beijing’s, it was built by the first two Manchurian emperors of Qing dynasty, the last dynasty in China. The good thing about this one was that there were far less people here than in Beijing so we could see the history at our leisure.
Two best things about this hotel I’m staying: a swimming pool and free broadband internet access. I swam 1000 meters today, half of what I wanted to do per Karin’s suggestion so that I wouldn’t get the same reaction I got when swimming in Dalian last time. We’ll wait and see tomorrow.
6/14/2004
I just returned from the airport to see the gang off. I feel both sad and relieved. In the last three weeks, we have formed a strong bond. It is amazing to see how well you can get to know someone when traveling together for an extended period of time. I feel fortunate to get to know each of them on individual basis. I will forever remember Cristina’s fear of insects, Dave’s kindness and sensitivity, Erik’s unusual wits, Luke’s determination, Matt’s innocence and Tyler’s dry sense of humor. They are a good bunch. I look forward to hearing from them while remaining in China and seeing some of them when I return.
I feel relieved because this trip has been successful no matter how you measure it. Given that this was our inauguration journey, we did not know how to expect. At the end, everything has worked out like a charm. Obviously Yao Hong’s work in the background has made everything possible. My job has been rather easy because of her thoughtfulness.
Another relief was that Erik and Luke are going home for their illnesses did not improve overnight. I hope they will survive the long journey and get well soon.
6/13/2005
Our last day in Beijing and China except for me. We went shopping in the morning. I was not too much interested for I had a long way to go before returning to the States and I didn’t drag luggage along. I observed how game was played between buyers and sellers. Their strategies and rules were intricate. Normally buyers asked for a ridiculously high price for foreigners. Since we were pre warned, we could offer 10% to 20% of the asking price initially. Most of the sales were done at about 30%. Even so, Erik and Tyler spent all their monies and more.
We went to QuanJuDe for the famous Peking Duck. We all had two missions to complete in Beijing: the great wall and the duck. Anything else would be just a welcoming extra. J The meal tasted really good but to the oily side. An interesting thing was that each duck served was individually numbered. We were given four certificates for the ducks we had. The numbers were in billions.
Erik and Luke got sick. Luke had suffered stomach illness since arrived in Beijing. We went to a Pharmacy to buy him some medicine. The pharmacist wanted to sell him three different drugs. We thought it was on over kill so he decided to get just one. Later when I went to Erik’s room to watch the tape of interviewing the Miss International Tourism, he threw up in the bathroom. He sounded really bad in there. We felt terribly sorry for him. I guess it is time for our kids to return home.
6/12/2005
Finally we had had a free morning since arriving in Beijing. We just used the time to relax and catch up. In the afternoon, we toured Capital Steel, Co., which was the 3rd largest steel producer in China. We saw how ores were turned into iron and iron into steel. The processes were rather impressive. Even more impressively, the entire production was to cease after 2007. This was Beijing city government’s determination to reduce air pollution and be ready for the 2008 games. After the relocation more than 60,000 out of about 80,000 current employees will lose their jobs. The company will retrain them for other job or buy out their contracts. No matter what they will get government pensions for life.
In the evening we went to see an acrobatics show. We were all taken away by the performance. Most of moves were impossible for ordinary men and mind boggling. One of the little girls who performed one act came out and promoted their DVD. She was so cute that three of us bought the product. Nomsa asked her for her autograph and she reluctantly obligated. Her name was Xu Yanru and 10-year old. When walking around, many people asked her to take pictures with them.
6/11/2005
We visited Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, the Silk Market and the Summer Palace today. It was really hot and the sun was brutal. The crowd was too big. By the end of day everyone was totally exhausted.
The highlight of the day was that I went a milonga (tango party) hosted at Jorge’s home. I called Felicia after arriving in Beijing and she informed me of this event. She was the organizer of Beijing tango. I met her tow years when I was here. Two tango teachers Jamie and Shorey from Seattle and Portland were here conducting workshops. They’ll be going to Dalian on 6/20 and it was nice to meet them beforehand. Finding the place was a challenge. The directions I got from Felicia perhaps made perfect sense to locals but made no sense to me. I had to make a few phone calls before finding the place. It was already 10. To my surprise most of the people were expatriates. There were more Chinese two years ago than now. I think this is a problem for tango in China: not too many Chinese were interested. Another thing both Jamie and I agree was that Chinese tango is in a desperate need for local residence teachers who can systematically and consistently teach students. I believe this is the reason for the success in Taipei where Daniel and Stacy did a great job there.
Dance level was low as expected. But I really enjoyed dancing with Shorey. Dancing with her was the dancing I would have done anywhere in the States. It was really good to feel this way on the other side of the big pond.
6/10/2005
We went to the Great Wall in the morning. The structure was just breathtaking. Fortunately it was cloudy day. Chairman Mao said once before he who does not reach to the great wall is not a true man. Here we were on top of the wall proudly proclaiming our true manhood.
On our way to the Ming tomb, we stopped at a restaurant where we stumped into the Miss International Tourism participants. They were first spotted by the Hoffmans. Eric and I purposely walked through their dinner area seemingly innocently. Eric and Tyler later pretended as new reporters from WXZL of Washington DC and interviewed a few contestants (They will show the tape to you for a small nominal fee). The best response was from Miss Estonia (Karin’s home country) when asked what she did today. She said she went to a big wall.
After coming back from the big wall, we had about an hour and half to ourselves before our next meeting. I decided to check out a place near a hospital where blind people give massages. I was glad that I did. The massage was really good. I did not even have to take off my clothes.
We were treated by Michael with a dumplings dinner. Again, it was excellent.
6/9/2005
The overnight train was not too bad at all. We occupied two compartments of four soft sleepers except for me because we had nine in total. The train was clean and air conditioned. Not long after the train moved out of the station did I fall asleep.
I woke up when the train completely stopped at the Beijing station. I saw people move toward the exits and I had to hurry and catch up. When I walked out of my compartment, Michael Wang our contact in Beijing was already on the train helping us with our luggage. Without him being there, our job would have been much harder.
When we got to the hotel, Michael wanted us to rest for the morning. Dave wanted to go to a tailor to get a suit made. After breakfast, off we went to a place recommended by Michael with Tyler tagged along. Over there, Dave exercised all his charm to cut the price for making a jacket and pants to $60. The price was so attractive that Tyler couldn’t resist. He first wanted nothing, then just a top and at end decided to have a whole set made. On our way back the cab driver couldn’t find our hotel. He had to stop five times to ask for directions.
We toured Beida in the afternoon and visited Yao Hong’s old dorm. In the evening we had Chongqing style hot pot in which we dropped thinly cut fresh meats and veggies into a boiling pot for a short time and ate. Everyone had a good time doing and eating this way.
After dinner Ed, Nomsa and I decided to have foot massage. As usual it was good. Ed even paid for me for taking them here. That was nice of him.
6/8/2005
Today was the day to say goodbye. The DUFE students came in and out trying to bid farewell and gave us presents. It was hard to image in such short period of time we became so close. When two groups of people with such different backgrounds met, ordinarily it would take a long time just for warming up for each other. This time was rather different. Both groups were excellent, open and adaptive. I would make a bold assertion that they were not typical Americans or Chinese, respectively. The American side changed their Chinese counterparts’ perceptions of Americans and the Chinese side changed their American counterparts’ perceptions of Chinese. One of the DUFE students said she thought sometimes the SU students were not Americans. This summarized the unique experience the best.
While packing, I entertained some of students in my room Vivian, Tracy, Biscuit, Sharon, and Jessie who came over and gave me some nice gifts. Sharon wrote me a note and asked me to read it during the train ride. Later, Rose, Cui and Michael also dropped by. They made my packing more fun. I normally don’t enjoy packing.
The DUFE students helped us load the bus and nearly all of the class came over to say goodbye. Cliff, Tammy and Wesley who came to airport to pick us up were also there to see us off. It took a while for us to hug each other. About 15 of them including Cliff, Tammy and Wesley came with us to the train station. Without their help, dragging our luggage to the train was near impossible. After loading our compartments, they were ready to leave. Again, another round of hugs. While saying goodbye Jessica gave me her uncle’s phone number in Beijing in case of emergence. What a nice gesture! They really did all they could to help us.
Just a few minutes after they left, we started to miss them already.
6/7/2005
Dick got paid today and troubles began. The school paid him in the Chinese currency and he wanted to convert it to dollars. We went to a Bank of China branch just outside the campus and were told that we had to go to another district branch. When there, we were told again that we needed to go to a downtown branch for they only dealt with Chinese nationals. Off we went. It took us a while to get to the office, but we again were told that we couldn’t do it because Dick needed to have a foreign expert certificate. Three strikes we were out.
Ed and Nomsa did not get much luck either regarding their flight from Shenyang to Beijing. Due to bad weather, the flight was delayed for four hours. Ed joked that Nomsa was the bad luck as far as the Chinese domestic flights were concerned. It was nice to see that they were dealing with the adversaries with a sense of humor.
The SIB helped Dick change the money.
6/6/2005
I can’t believe this! I just finished writing this entry a while ago but Sharon came over and wanted to change something. In the process she did not save the file. Now I have to redo everything. I want to kill her. I guess I have the right since I rescued her once before. J
I did not sleep well last night because of the reaction I had after swimming. I woke and felt better. I must have had something in canteen that was not easy to digest. I felt gassed up. For lunch I learn my lesson. I ordered two light dishes mainly with vegetables. In the afternoon my stomach felt better. For the first time I felt hungry before dinner since I arrived in China.
One of the missions for me in China is to find potential research projects. Dean Wang of the SIB recommended me to see Dr.Yang Qing the Dean of the e-Learning School of DUFE. This is an independent branch of the university that enjoys high autonomy. He showed the entire process from content making to course delivery. I think they have done an impressive job. Given SU and UMS are interested in distant learning, I think we can learn from their model. I see potential of collaboration for research as well. E-learning is a special form of e-commerce. By studying their model could provide many interesting areas of study. We both agreed to pursue this opportunity by starting small. A case study of their operation would be a good starting point.
Ed called a few times during the class. He wanted to let me know their day went well and they hired a car to go to their next stop Shenyang. Originally they would take the train but they had done quite a bit shopping since they got to Dalian. It would be hard to drag their luggage on and off the train.
We had a party in our dorms after the class and invited all the students to come. Karin improvised some typical American finger foods such as chess and crackers, fruits, hot dogs and chips. The SU students prepared beers (no kegs) and drinks. We wanted to showcase a little American culture to our Chinese students. They also wanted to know how we lived and how we partied. Since we did not have a common area to hold the party, we had to hold it in three different areas of the building where our apts are located. Around 6:30 the students started to pull in. There was no slight awkwardness. Instantly conversations were started, laughs were generated and games were played. The party was a total success and far beyond my expectation. The DUFE students showed their interests in the way how Americans hold their parties. The SU students bought gifts for their counterparts. Michael of DUFE had a gift individual made for each of us including Hillary and Joanne. The SU students bought him a NFL jersey (before today he always wore NY Giant jersey) that brought tears in his eyes. Rose got a stem of rose from Tyler. Karin went the opposite by showing some Chinese students how to tie Chinese knots. Overall everyone had a good time. Bottom down, we are all the same no matter where we are from. As long as everyone is open and sincere, we will have a good company.
In merely two weeks, friendships and bonds have been forged among us. I am sure some of them will last our life time. We share many silly stories, laughs and tears together. We all hate the fact that time flies. But with persistence, sincerity and efforts from each of us I believe our friendships will survive time and distance, and thrive.
6/2/2005
We visited Dalian Zoo and newly built safari. Everyone seemed to have a good time. But it took longer than originally planned. We got to a well-known hot pot restaurant around 2:00pm. I thought the food was one of the best. I was sure my hunger had something to do with it. Also, for the first time, some of us had dog meat but I won’t name names here.
I called Maggie when coming back from the trip. I would like to know more about what had been done in preparation for the visit of two American teachers. Due to an email I sent her this morning informing her I would have a free afternoon, she had been waiting for my call since noon. Over the phone, Mr. Song briefed me about what he had in mind. I thought they had done a good job. I would like to get DUFE involved as well but needed to find a right contact. Maggie told me that after we left yesterday two female severs approached her to ask more about tango. They must have learnt this from our conversation while bring in the food. This was a good indication regarding the market potential for tango.
Finally I got to swim. Vivian found this place called Empire of the Sea multipurpose entertainment center. Six of us Cristina, Jessie, Luke, Sharon, Vivian and I went. When we walked in, I was drawn to an Olympic size pool instantly. From two floors above, the pool looked really big and inviting. But before we were able to swim, there were other things to take care. It was not just a swimming place. It provided full scale of services including shower, jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, resting room equipped with sofa chairs with individual TV sets, and massage. We were ushered into the separate locker rooms (M/F) and instructed to take clothes off. I could feel Luke’s uncomfortable-ness so we put on our swimming trunks. Cristina later commented that she had never been surrounded by so many naked people. This was a sharp unconventional contrast between these two cultures. On the surface eastern culture seems more closed and conservative than its western counterpart. What we observed and experienced was just the opposite. Chinese people feel rather comfortable with their bodies while Americans felt uneasy. Of course, perceptions of privacy also have something to do with it.
We were required to wear caps before going to the pool. We did not bring any so we had to wait in the washing area while a waiter went out to buy for us. Luke and I tried stream room, sauna and jacuzzi while waiting. Finally we walked out toward to the pool. The girls were already in the pool waiting for us. We jumped in and to my surprise the water was salty. It was sea water. Soon we started to swim. The pool was self regulated and swimmers needed to find free lanes to swim. It was very much like the land traffic in China. It seems like a disorder but not too many accidents actually occurred. The best term to use to describe is “chaos” – order in disorder.
Cristina was a good swimmer and swam fast. Luke and Vivian knew how to swim but were out of practice. Sharon was struggling while Jessie did not know how at all. I felt comfortable in the water and kept swimming. I did 2000 meters before cramps on both of my calves stopped me from going any further.
There was a “hero rescues beauty” story worth mentioning. In the beginning of swimming Sharon said that she did not know much about swimming. While resting at one end of the pool after a few laps, I saw her swim toward the center of the pool. I did not feel comfortable that she swam by herself and I swam behind her just in case. Just when she was near the center of the pool she started to call out “I’m so tired, I’m so tired.” I tried to support her by pulling her back upward while turning around facing the shallow area. After a few meters she started to sink. I had to put my right hand around her waist trying to make her float while using my remaining hand and legs to swim to the shore. At certain moment the struggle became intense and I doubted if we could reach the end. But by the end we survive.
I showed this to Sharon and she agreed me to publish this story as long as I would mentioned that she swam a few laps on her own after this exciting episode.
6/1/2005
We had a second sever thunderstorm this morning. The sky was dark in late morning. It rained dogs and cats. I would have to go out and meet Beibei’s parents to discuss setting up a tango school in Dalian. This came about by pure accident just few weeks before I came to China when my friend Rachel forwarded an email requesting help about introducing tango to Dalian. Since I was going to be in Dalian and I always desired to populate tango to China, this would present a perfect opportunity.
Because of the weather, I couldn’t get a cab to pick me up in front of my building. I had to borrow a umbrella from a building guard and braved the rain. Cabs were all over the street but the road was crowded. We had to navigate the car through a deep water pond in one of the sections. While chatting with me, the cab driver told me that today was the international Children’s Day and many schools were off but poor children could not do anything.
I managed to get to the best seafood restaurant in Dalian a little late. They were not there obviously affected by the weather. I did not know their cell phone and couldn’t call. Nor did I know their full names. So I could not confirm if we had a reservation here. I decided to wait it out by sitting down and writing my blog on my notebook. A few moments later, a very distinguished middle aged gentleman walked in and asked me whether I was Jim. I stood up and acknowledged him. A warm and kind woman appeared and apologized repeatedly for being late. There was also a young gentleman accompanied them. His name was Zhigong and he was a general manager of a software company in Dalian. Beibei and her parents thought that it would be good for us to meet because we both were in IT field. That was really considerate of them.
Beibei’s mother, Maggie, ordered some really nice seafood dishes. While the servers brought up the dishes, Zhigong and I discussed some IT related subjects. He told me that his company of 24 was a SAP partner and focused on financial software small to medium companies. He invited me and the students to visit his company. I thought it was a good idea for us to see how a real Chinese company was run, needed to check with our schedule which was already too full.
Gradually the conversation was turned to Argentine tango. We all agreed that there was huge potential for tango in China. Some work had to be done. Beibei invited an American couple from San Francisco to be in Dalian to do some exhibitions to introducing this form of dance. They did not remember their names. We also talked about how tango was different from other forms of ballroom dancing. Tango was an emotional dance full of feelings. It was a reaction to the music, partner and yourself at any particular moment during a song. As a result, tango was rather unstructured and impromptu. We also talked two ways of dancing tango: open and closed embraces. I thought open style would be good to start with in China for the conservative traditional cultural reason. They joked that I was out of touch with times in China.
Pat gave a talk on the US legal system. I was quite impressed by how knowledgeable the DUFE students knew about the subject matter.
