Yanshan University President and I exchange greetings.
After only about 4 hours sleep and an elaborate breakfast, we attended a meeting with the president of the university, numerous vice presidents, administrators from Yanshan University Attachment School, and officials from the Qinghuangdao Economic Zone. Gifts and compliments were exchanged liberally. There were photographers and videographers capturing the event.
Jarin and I spent the rest of the morning visiting a local elementary school (grades 1-6) and a private kindergarten. The buildings are colorfully decorated with student artwork and typical educational bulletin boards. References to the 2008 Olymics are everywhere. One bulletin board displaying important generals since the time of independence stood out-- we typically don't display/celebrate military figures in our elementary schools.
Jarin and I spent the rest of the morning visiting a local elementary school (grades 1-6) and a private kindergarten. The buildings are colorfully decorated with student artwork and typical educational bulletin boards. References to the 2008 Olymics are everywhere. One bulletin board displaying important generals since the time of independence stood out-- we typically don't display/celebrate military figures in our elementary schools. The students were cheerful and excited to see visitors. Jarin brought giggles when he gamely used some of his recently acquired rudimentary Chinese language skills to greet the children.
Children begin learning to do papercuts as early as 7 or 8 years old. They work together, tracing over elaborate designs with exacto knives. The work is very precise and slow and the children work very quietly. Examples of very complicated papercuts hang throughout the school with award winning pieces hung in a special display (alongside large photos of regional economic development zone and school officials).
Students in this classroom are practicing caligraphy. They work with fine point ink pens on very small grid paper copying Chinese characters from the board. There is another double row of students to the right of this photo, making the class size about 36 students. Students practice their caligraphy 3 times a week for 40 minutes. They take exercise daily in the plaza in front of the school.
We were also taken to visit "Baby Care" one of the new private kindergartens that has been opened in the area. The children were happy and eager to perform for the visitors. The one song we recognized was "If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands"-- in Chinese, of course. The students were learning English-- the Roman alphabet was on the bulletin boards and the steps were also numbered using Arabic numbers. All students-- here study English from kindergarten through high school study English.
Our day ended with a tour of the beginning of the Great Wall, the "Head of the Dragon."
