Also See:
Quote of the Month
This Month's Quote
|
Images copyright Michael A. Scott. Click to enlarge.
Beijing,
Day 1 | Tiashan | Ji'nan | Qufu
| The Great Wall | Beijing
return
Ji'nan
|
Ji'nan is a city of 9.5 million, about the population of metropolitan
New York. Capital of Shandong province, it is a fascinating city
nestled among limestone hills, with habitation beginning 4000 years
ago. We are staying at the Gui You Hotel, a new, modern, fairly
western styled hotel, the only 4 star hotel in Ji'nan I am told.
This is the scene looking out the window from the hotel, downtown
to the left. You can see a part of the wide boulevard, 4 lanes with
lanes on either side for bicycle and cart traffic.
|
|
The hotel was quite a way from downtown. As you can
see, the towers and construction cranes signify a growing, thriving
city. There was wide boulevards chock full of Volkswagens and Mercedes,
as well as street vendors and shops everywhere, a contrast of the
haves and the have-nots. |
To work! Our first session was with the writers of the Information
Technology texts. We listened to experts from the university, who
were very knowledgeable about the subject of computer and networking
education.
My presentations followed, I talked about technological literacy,
student-driven project based learning, problem solving techniques,
assessment and evaluation philosophy, etc. It was a hot day, but
we had a great lunch with the company president, and left with a
feeling of acomplishment. |
|
|
The day was followed by dinner at what I was told was a very famous
seafood restaurant. What a time! Incredible food, liberal doses of
Chinese liquor and beer. There were toasts every few minutes it seemed.
"Cheers! was the cry all night long. It was a wonderful night,
with great people. Mr Zhou was like a brother to me. |
That night George, Xing and I went for a walk along the boulevard.
It was again a surreal place, dusty street windows of hole-in-the-wall
shops, bicycles and carts passing by in the dark, street vendors
selling every conceivable item. The food vendors were pretty interesting...the
crawling crawfish and "spider babies" weren't exactly
appetizing to me! This is truly a strange place. |
|
|
The next day it was back to work, this time with
the General Technology team. We first listened to the expert from
the National Ministry of Education, she was very knowledgable about
current international trends. She wore the school board pin I gave
to everyone, I was honoured. It was again a very hot but productive
day. |
The next day we went to Qufu, a few hours outside
Ji'nan (next page). When we returned, we went to the Baotu Springs,
famous for centuries as a source of hundreds of springs and a destination
of emporers and other famous people. Most fascinating were pictures
of famous visitors including Chairman Mao, and steles and temples
from hundreds of years ago. There was a building with dioramas of
Ji'nan's famous poet as well, Li Quingzhao (born 1084), a beautiful
display, (but you can't take pictures). |
|
|
Across from the springs was the city center, a huge, broad plaza
dominated by a gigantic structure. Behind the sculpture was an incredibly
long stone carving illustrating the history of Ji'nan; an entrance
to an underground plaza; an Italian style piazza and a huge TV screen
that is pretty popular with the residents during soccer games, and
movie nights.
After we left the plaza, it was back to the hotel, another fabulous
dinner, and a deep sleep. |
The next day it was time to return to Beijing. We stopped off
at the company headquarters downtown to pick up some folks to bring
back with us. Here Mr. Zhou and I stand before the building. I understand
that most of the employees that work at the company live in the
company's apartment building down the road. While this is common,
the government is now encouraging people to own their own housing
into the future.
It takes a long time to drive the several kilometers to get out
of town, and into the rural areas again.
|
|
| Next:
Qufu |
Pictures were taken by a 5MP Pentax Optio 550, and
were processed with ACDSee v. 3.1, and reduced to 1024X768 by Shortcut's
S-Spline v. 2.2 for the web. Thumbnails were created by S-Spline as
well. |
|
