David's Big Adventure in China

June 23 through June 26, Bonnie and I took a trip to some places in Northern Sichuan province called Jiu Zhai Gou and Huanglong. They are not far from each other in a fairly remote area. They are known for their natural beauty among the mountains with beautiful waterfalls, ponds and lakes. The color of some of the ponds/lakes are quite intense (see pic’s) due to calcification. Since the elevation is between 6000 and 12,000 feet the temperature ranged from mid 50’s to 80 F. We were lucky to have sunny days for most of the time. We did a lot of walking, a bit of horseback riding and took in a Tibetan Culture show.

Here’s parts of an article that was published recently in “The Economic Observer” about corruption in China……amazing! “Last week the Bank of China published a report entitled “How corrupt officials transfer assets overseas, and a study of monitoring.” The report quoted statistics based on research by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Since 1990, the number of Communist Party and government officials, public security members, judicial cadres, agents of State institutions, and senior management figures of state-owned enterprises fleeing China has reached nearly 18,000. Also missing is about 800 billion yuan (more than $120 billion). It is equivalent to China’s total financial allocation for education from 1978 to 1998. Each official stole, on average, an estimated 50 million yuan (more than $7 million). Precisely because this is only an estimate, one can imagine the real numbers are actually much bigger. Some media have reported that the wife of the Deputy Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Railways, Zhang Shuguang, recently caught for corruption, owns three luxury mansions in Los Angeles, and has bank savings of as much as $2.8 billion in America and Switzerland.”

Looking forward to my trip to the states next week…………until next time!

It’s now summertime in Nanning and the weather is hot and humid, Florida style. I’m so happy I have good air conditioning in both my office and home. I visited my girlfriend’s dormitory at the school for the first time a few weeks ago. She has 1 large room plus a bathroom with a very small washing machine inside. Otherwise, she has almost no comforts – no air conditioning or heat, no tv, and no refrigerator. She does have a slow internet connection. When she’s not working she normally stays with her mother and her mother’s place also does not have heat or air conditioning. These Chinese are tough! I’m a spoiled American…….I have to have heat and a/c.

Bonnie (my gf) has specialized in what’s called simultaneous interpretation which is doing oral translation as the speaker speaks. This is what you see on tv when at the United Nations someone is speaking in their native language and you hear the translated version of it in your language. Because of her skills in this area she often has part time jobs doing this for international meetings that are held here in Nanning. She can make more in a 2 day meeting doing this than she makes for her normal monthly salary. Normally she would spend 2 or 3 days preparing for a meeting like this, reviewing presentations in advance and learning any specialized vocabulary required. This week she is working as part of a 3 person management team overseeing the grading of the English portion of the gao kao (university entrance exam) for the 285,000 students who took the exam in Guangxi province. There are 200 English teachers grading the exams over a 9 day period and each exam must be graded at least twice. I have written about the gao kao before and its importance to a Chinese student’s future.

Well enough about her work and now for news about my job. I’ve agreed to continue working full time for at least another year at this job. It’s been a challenge and mostly fun so far. It’s gotten easier recently with having a full staff and getting them up to speed. I was in Shanghai with my boss visiting another division of the company 4 weeks ago then after I came back to Nanning, went to Dahua the next day. Of course Shanghai is very developed and has many western things. Dahua is where we have our pig farms so it’s a small town/rural area with no western restaurants. Quite a contrast between those two places! I’m looking forward to another break soon as I’m going to the states in July for my nephew’s wedding in Boston and to visit family/friends. Until next time………