Chongqing Is The Hottest Place In China In July. My Armpits Told Me So Or Maybe It Was The Hotpot . . .

Once upon a time there was a teacher who had been traveling about China for two weeks.  She was onto her next destination by plane.  She went with her fellow teachers to an airport to catch a flight.  Only flights often change in China with absolutely no warning.  This happened numerous times.  The explanation given was always the same.  "Flight exercises of the Chinese military."

Our flight was off finally and I dozed off.  I opened my eyes to hear people around me laughing.  What I saw when I looked up at the television monitor was a series of cat videos.  Cats of all kinds acting crazy as could be.  They do love a cat video in China.

Even before landing, as far as the eye could see were huge buildings, most of them high rise apartment like structures.  It looked crowded.  And there was a reason for this.

Chongqing is located in Southwestern China.  It is one of the five national central cities of China, and is one of four direct controlled municipalities.  This means it is under direct control of the Chinese government.  I would liken it to being something like a state in the US or a province in Canada in terms of government administration.  Municipalities are the highest-ranked cities in the Peoples Republic of China.  Then come prefecture level cities and then county level cities.

As of the 2010 census, the population of this municipality is over 28 million people.  It is the largest municipality in China.  The area we were in is home to about 7 million people.  So really, it is comparable to the population of the entire state of Texas.

Chongqing is a city that is built on hills and is the place where two of China's large rivers meet, the Jialing River and the Yangtze River.  The city has a lot of islands and more bridges than I have ever seen in one spot.  Over 55 bridges can be found here and many are architectural marvels.

We climbed aboard a night cruise down the muddy Yangtze River.  Getting onto the boat made me nervous because I am a chicken.  Or maybe it was the way the bridge was swaying as we walked across it.   It could have been because of how fast the river was moving.  I remember looking down the river and seeing a bunch of moorings in the water and thinking to myself that if I fell in the speed of the water would pin me immediately to them in a matter of seconds.   I would certainly drown.  I made a video to show my bestie Jenny.

It was fun cruising up and down the river that evening.  The air was thick with humidity the entire time we were there.  I sweat standing, I sweat sitting, I sweat sleeping.  I sweat the entire time.  I have never had such good skin in my life as there were no toxins left in my body.  The amount of water I drank was incredible but was always served warm.  This was not so refreshing and I believe it made me sweat even more.  I used to have a fear of armpit sweat rings.  China crushed that fear.  I no longer care.  

The Dongshuimen Cable-stayed Bridge was one of my favorite to look at because of the color contrast.  It looked so sharp.  I also loved the elegance of the design.

The ride down the river on the boat added a cooler breeze and it was refreshing to sit and take in the view of the city on both sides.  The lights on buildings started to come on as it grew dark.  It was beautiful and I had the best company.  The friends I have made on this trip are incredible.   You really get to know a person or 15 when you are with them 24/7 for a month.

5 am or 11pm, hot hot hot.  What struck me most about social life here is how many people came out at night.  I am a runner and would get up every morning to explore the city.  There were people out, mostly on tracks that could be found around the city, but nothing like the amount of people we would see at night.   People went out at night because frankly, who wants to cook in a small apartment with that humidity hanging around?  

People in China are very social.  The group is of immense importance.  A few blocks from our hotel in Chongqing was a city park of sorts, complete with the exercise equipment characteristic of all parks I saw in every city, a turf soccer field, indoor/outdoor basketball courts, and tennis courts.  There was a huge area in the center we participated in aerobics classes.  I teach a cardio kickboxing class in Maine and the workout that I experienced in the class here left me exhausted.  Non-stop movement for over an hour in 90 degree heat and humidity left me thirsty.  And of course I went back to the hotel and enjoyed a warm water.

A few of us also took the opportunity to participate in the dance classes being offered.  We were warmly accepted by the group and laughed together at our awkward moves.  We tried to keep up as best we could.  You could also join Tai-Chi classes going on.  There were literally hundreds of people in this square every night.

Well the grocery store was an experience of wonder and astonishment.  Nothing is packaged as far as meat goes.  I was surprised to see that one could attain a live rabbit right in the meat department.  Good to know.  I thought of those menacing bunnies from California I had seen.  They don't know how good they have it.  They don't care anyway those apathetic American rabbits.  According to Frederick Simoon, author of Food In China:  A Cultural and Historical Inquiry, since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, China has the largest population of domesticated rabbits.  It accounts for up to 40% of the international rabbit trade (for food).  It is cooked in China most similar to chicken.

It is time for a history lesson friends.  Once upon a time the Shang Dynasty's state of Ba had a capital here.  It was destroyed by the State of Qin and renamed Jiangzhou.  Chongqing had a lot of names after that including Chu Prefecture, Yu Prefecture, and Gong Prefecture.  It was named Chongqing by Emperor Guangzong, otherwise known as Prince Gong.  During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, merchants liked to gather in the city because of the port and customs houses that were set up.  Chongqing was declared a city in 1929.

During WWII, Chongqing was a target for terror bombing carried out by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service.  Citizens of Chongqing were subjected to over 268 air raids and more than 11,500 bombs were dropped on residential areas, schools, businesses, hospitals, and military targets.  In the first two days of the campaign in 1939, more than 5,000 Chinese civilians were killed.

We visited the General Joseph W. Stilwell Museum situated in the Yuzhong District of Chongqing.  It was founded in memory of General Stilwell who worked as Chief of Staff in the China Theater of Operations.  General Stilwell participated in a series of political and military affairs and cemented a profound friendship with Chinese people fighting side by side in China.

 Meeting room.

General Stilwell's room.

Buildings are even taller when built on hills . . .

Public transportation is awesome in this city.  It was very easy to get around.  One day we traveled to a water park to get a break from the constant heat that this "Furnace" offered.  

We Be Jamming. Chinese Horns, Drums and All Things Loud

Yongcheng Town has more than 70 folk percussion bands. They fashion themselves "Home of Percussion Music."

 We got off the bus in this charming town nestled high in the mountains.  Walking across this soccer field and up the stairs to the buildings you see was stifling hot.  You could feel the intense warmth permeate the feet.  My hair by the time we reached the building was hot to the touch and I was covered yet again in sweat from head to toe.   #sweatfest2014

What we saw inside made the unending journey from the parking lot totally worth it.  We met and heard the Liujia Band.  There are 20 members in the band, among whom the oldest is 87 years old and the youngest is only 16.   The band has over 300 years worth of history behind it, knowledge of playing the instruments has been handed down over 18 generations.  

The band plays a combination of Chinese horns, drums and cymbals.  It is intensely loud.   I loved every minute of it as I am a musical instrument junkie.  I already brought two instruments to bring home from China.  I looked for one of the gems below, to no avail.  

The horns are known as suonas or labas in China.  They are a sort of Han Chinese shawm, or oboe.  They have distinctively loud and high pitched sounds that will leave the ears ringing if listened to in close proximity.  This has been tested and confirmed.  It took awhile for my ears to recover.   The laba is an important Chinese folk music instrument.  It has long been used for festival and military purposes. Often they are also used in wedding and funeral processions.

Chinese drums are called Taggu.  Percussion in China is associated with celebration and pomp.  Chinese drumming, like most things Chinese, is a group activity, often involving 10 or more percussionists in a group.

In order to pass on national cultural heritage, members of the Liujia Band teach a special course to train teenagers in Yongcheng who have interest in learning how to play.  The members of the band teach skills in schools every week.  Check out the video below.

Drumming groups and bands like this often follow a very prescribed and choreographed routine.  Due to the celebratory nature of drumming, both instruments and musicians wear really ornate cloth and attention grabbing colors.  During the show the drummers chant, and move in ways to engage the audience.  

Usually performances like this are given outside due to the intensity of the sound of the band.  But due to today's heat, we were in an auditorium with all windows wide open.  We walked in and were told that we "might want to sit at the back."  The students however were up front and center.  This did not seem to bother them a bit.

Here is a clip for you.

Chairs and stands are used to balance the big horns.

Our artist Margy has an audience from the oldest member of the band.  He plays the Chinese cymbals and is 87 years old.

I love the excitement of these kids.  They love to play.  Really loud.

Did you think for one moment I would not try this?  Ya, right.  

Dear US Teachers With Less Than 50 Students In A Class, You Have Nothing To Crab About. Sincerely, Your Chinese Counterparts With Over 50 Kids In A Class.

Oh sleeping hotel watchman guard. I love how safe I feel with you on the job. I know no one could ever get past you coming through the wide open door at any time of night. I love the way you party down and smoke butts late at night with the guests and carnivorous mosquitos that gather in the lobby, the only place for available spotty internet. I also love the way you yell at me in Chinese and our relationship has grown into something so beautiful as my reaction to you is oh, so kind in return. The way you spit onto the clean lobby floor and clear your throat is mesmerizing and epitomizes cleanliness. Thank you Chuck. It was only appropriate that I named you this after muttering so many times to myself - 

What the F#@* Chuck!!

This day was truly one of the most special of the whole trip.  Besides hanging with Clara (she added this and I do have to agree), we also got a chance to go into schools.  Students, although most are out for the school year now, came in to hang with us.

Education in China is compulsory grades 1-9.  Students may or may not attend a pre-school voluntarily until age 6 depending on family preference or financial availability.  Parents pay.  Students move onto or start primary school covering grades 1-6.  They go onto middle school for grades 7, 8 & 9.  At this point depending on the student, about 50% of students will go onto an academic high school to help them prepare for China's national exam, The Gaokao, and hopefully after that, college.  The other 50% of students go onto skills based education and vocational education high schools specializing in arts or trades.  High school is not compulsory here although the government is taking steps to ensure that it will be by 2020.

The Gaokao is everything to students trying to get into colleges here.  It is a huge test.  9 million students take the test annually.  It is modeled after the historical Chinese Civil Service Exam System advocated by Confucius.  The idea of an exam like this was to afford everyone equal opportunity to improve themselves and their status in society if they worked hard enough in school and achieved a high enough score.  For students today, it is the only way to change their lives.  A good score is a ticket to prosperity.

The test is 3 days.  Students are tested on Chinese language and literature, a foreign language (often English), one or more of the student's choice depending on college aspirations (for example, Social Studies/Politics, Physics, History, Biology, or Chemistry). Students wait 20 days for their scores.  The best of the best scores get to choose where they want to go to college.  The government assigns colleges for the rest of the passing students. Students who fail the Gaokao can re-take the test after one year.

Many students do not have a choice if they fail and will return home and start jobs that require manual labor, sales, etc.

We were welcomed to Chongqing Municiple Qijiang High School with a large banner.  This high school was founded in 1910 and has over 110 classes offered to its 7000 students.  It is massive.
Part day school and part boarding school, it has a track and field stadium, academic buildings, science laboratories, and advanced IT teaching equipment.  The educational philosophy is centered around student research and innovation.  Problem solving strategies are emphasized.  Students here have made about 3,000 applications to China's National Patent Office.  388 have gained a national patent as a result of their work here.

I was told by one student that their day typically starts at about 5 am.  They get up and do some morning reading.  They eat breakfast at about 7:30.  They go to school and get out about 3-4pm.  Students will study some more or go to after school enrichment activities or clubs.  They eat dinner.    They go back to classes for another 3 periods until about 10 pm.  Students will go home or return to their on-campus apartment and many will study some more.

This campus is way older than the school I teach at and the conditions here are absolutely stunningly beautiful.   Everything is very orderly and everything is very well maintained.  Education is extremely important in this society and it shows in physical appearance.

This area is for the students to relax and gather and sit.  They use geography to promote communication, socialization and relaxation on campus.

These students were gathered on campus and welcomed the teachers of our delegation.  All Chinese students study at least one foreign language and many study more.  English is one of the subjects on the Gaokao.  The students practiced their English with us and were quite good.  We talked about music, sports, what they like to do for fun, summer activities, and Gaokao.  They kept apologizing for their "lack of English"which in reality, was quite good.  It is hard for anyone to speak another language and practice when not confident yet.  It takes an incredible amount of courage.  I have the highest level of respect for all of them.

 Teachers also joined us.  Their relationships with their students are just like ours.  They were helping them, laughing with them and offering information and translation to students when needed.

All meetings and briefings run the same way here.  We are welcomed in, and the speaker introduces themselves.  At this meeting our delegation was asked to give an introduction.  Our leader, Harold, Professor of Chinese History Extraordinaire gave it his best in Mandarin.  He did splendidly.

Time for lunch.  Along the way we got to see some of the campus.

This is student housing with a court yard for ping pong.

The lunch spread was impressive.  Typical dishes that are served to students were served to us too.  Although this day we had many more choices.  I could not help but wonder what providing lunch for 7000 students each day looks like.

I have eaten more watermelon here than at any time in my life.  I have it every single day and at almost every single meal.  It has been a lifesaver because when traveling for this long from home, it is nice to have at least one thing on the plate reminiscent of where you came from.

This is the Dean of Students.  He was our host for the entire day.  He accompanied us to our next site which was the Qijiang No. 1 Experimental Primary School.  We were going to see a performance.  This school is a private school for gifted students in the area of the arts grades 1-6.

Again, the facilities were beautiful.

Inside were students who had prepared to give us a performance.  The title of the performance:  The Story of Mulan.  This is a famous Chinese story that also is famous in the United States.  

The costumes were all handmade.  The students performed in English.  Their poise, pronunciation and fluency were spot on.

Individual students then stepped forward to show off individual talents.

This girl made her entire costume out of recycled materials.  China is notorious for its overly polluted huge cities of Beijing and Singapore.  However, I was surprised to see the extent of recycling within their society.  There is a very low amount of waste.  One bag of garbage for an entire week comes out of some family homes, especially in the cities.  The US environmental footprint is twice that of China's.

Below is a clip of girls playing the Guzheng, or Chinese harp.   The girl on the right is doing calligraphy, which is a high form of art in China.

At the end of the performance were given the chance to converse with the students.  They were very sweet and very enthusiastic.

Now when traveling of course you are introduced to the best schools and most innovative of programs. These schools are not reflective of all schools in China.  In many ways schools struggle with the same things as schools in the US.  Funding, feeding hungry kids,  resources, student motivation and conflicting philosophies about educational pedagogy.

Chinese teachers we spoke to wished their students were more creative.  Their students were prepared for years to simply give an answer.  There weren't a lot of opportunities for individual thought.  But then again, individual thought is not part of the Chinese psyche.  This is a collectivized society.  They think according to groups, they live in groups and they socialize in groups.  That is the way it is.

The Gaokao is a point of contention in Chinese education.  Some teachers I spoke with raved about it offering equal opportunities.  Others don't like it as it takes away from creative thought and students often miss out on other things like art, music and physical education due to the time it takes to prepare them for the test.  Their entire senior year is dedicated to nothing else and they test much more than US students in preparation.

The average teacher by the way, in Beijing, makes about $1500-3000 per month depending on credentials and experience.   That is city salary.  Teachers in rural localities make much less but the cost of living is much lower.  It was explained that teaching is a good solid job and that they make a comfortable living able to pay bills and afford some luxuries.   Chinese teachers think that US teachers work very hard, much harder than them.  They teach only a handful of classes everyday - but their load in classrooms can reach as high as 50 students per class!!  And to think there are some days that I think I have issues with 19 students.  Please!  #loveyourlifeitisallgood