Dear family and friends,
Happy New Year from Beijing! We saw the New Year in at a Karaoke Bar near our hotel! Our students love karaoke and Jonathan was persuaded to participate, to great acclaim and amusement. I sat aside nursing a sore throat!
The People's Republic of China has been both a surprise and a revelation to us all. We knew little or nothing before coming, and we have been pleasantly surprised in a multitude of ways. It is a vast and complex country, with many positive as well as negative aspects. We have a wonderful guide, who is open, frank, and a truly splendid young man, who is not afraid to both praise and criticize his country. And there is much to praise. Sometimes we feel we are in NY, London, or other western capitals, as the infrastructure and level of retail, financial and commercial sectors are so developed. Cities in China are so much more developed than those in India, for example. I fear that my beloved India doesn't stand a chance if it were to be compared with China in many ways, except, of course, for that one major fact-democracy! China still has a long way to go regarding many of the things we take for granted re: human rights, and the rule of law, rather than the rule of man. Nevertheless, it is clear from what we have seen, and what we have heard from many people, that things are changing, gradually, slowly, slowly, in China's own way of accommodating to the overwhelming influences surrounding them. People seem cheerful and hopeful, and have been very welcoming to us, and curious to get to know us.
It has been bitterly cold, here, with temperatures never rising above freezing, and mostly well below. Since we have been spending most of our time outside, walking vast distances over the huge squares, boulevards, etc, we have been really tested re: stamina and resisting colds and such like. We have done all the tourist things, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, The Great Wall, etc. etc, so I won't pursue that, except to say that everything here is so HUGE. I am hoping that our students will put together a good photograph album for Jonathan and me, as I haven't been taking photos at all. There is just too much to see with one's own eyes, rather than behind the camera!
The other night we were invited to the home of an old St. Olaf student, Jonathan Stromseth, and his wife and daughters. They are living here in Beijing, he is in charge of an NGO, the Asia Foundation, which works throughout Asia, and his wife works for the UN on Women's Issues in China. They were generous to a fault, providing all of us with a delicious meal, and an extended talk and discussion on working in China on their particular projects. It has been a catalyst for our students to re-think what direction they might take after graduating!!
Tomorrow, we are off to Seoul, S. Korea, on the last leg of our adventure, and I must try and pack all the extras we have bought, so this is a brief and not very exciting missive, but I wanted to get out at least a wish for you all to have a VERY Happy New Year.
With love from us both,
Barbara and Jonathan.
Happy New Year from Beijing! We saw the New Year in at a Karaoke Bar near our hotel! Our students love karaoke and Jonathan was persuaded to participate, to great acclaim and amusement. I sat aside nursing a sore throat!
The People's Republic of China has been both a surprise and a revelation to us all. We knew little or nothing before coming, and we have been pleasantly surprised in a multitude of ways. It is a vast and complex country, with many positive as well as negative aspects. We have a wonderful guide, who is open, frank, and a truly splendid young man, who is not afraid to both praise and criticize his country. And there is much to praise. Sometimes we feel we are in NY, London, or other western capitals, as the infrastructure and level of retail, financial and commercial sectors are so developed. Cities in China are so much more developed than those in India, for example. I fear that my beloved India doesn't stand a chance if it were to be compared with China in many ways, except, of course, for that one major fact-democracy! China still has a long way to go regarding many of the things we take for granted re: human rights, and the rule of law, rather than the rule of man. Nevertheless, it is clear from what we have seen, and what we have heard from many people, that things are changing, gradually, slowly, slowly, in China's own way of accommodating to the overwhelming influences surrounding them. People seem cheerful and hopeful, and have been very welcoming to us, and curious to get to know us.
It has been bitterly cold, here, with temperatures never rising above freezing, and mostly well below. Since we have been spending most of our time outside, walking vast distances over the huge squares, boulevards, etc, we have been really tested re: stamina and resisting colds and such like. We have done all the tourist things, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, The Great Wall, etc. etc, so I won't pursue that, except to say that everything here is so HUGE. I am hoping that our students will put together a good photograph album for Jonathan and me, as I haven't been taking photos at all. There is just too much to see with one's own eyes, rather than behind the camera!
The other night we were invited to the home of an old St. Olaf student, Jonathan Stromseth, and his wife and daughters. They are living here in Beijing, he is in charge of an NGO, the Asia Foundation, which works throughout Asia, and his wife works for the UN on Women's Issues in China. They were generous to a fault, providing all of us with a delicious meal, and an extended talk and discussion on working in China on their particular projects. It has been a catalyst for our students to re-think what direction they might take after graduating!!
Tomorrow, we are off to Seoul, S. Korea, on the last leg of our adventure, and I must try and pack all the extras we have bought, so this is a brief and not very exciting missive, but I wanted to get out at least a wish for you all to have a VERY Happy New Year.
With love from us both,
Barbara and Jonathan.