三帆中学

Last week the High Flyers were immersed in a secondary school just next to the school we are visiting. We arrived at the gate and the Secondary One students were there to welcome and greet us. They took the boys on a tour around the school and then classes began. The first day I met some Geography teachers and we chatted about what teaching Geography was like. The next day, I sat in the class and learned from the Chinese teacher. She has to be an excellent teacher because the monitor of the class told me to sit in and she strongly recommended that I listened in. So I stayed without much persuasion. I introduced myself and then sat down for a whole hour lesson on a poem about a mirage. Bill stood up to recite two lines of the poem in Mandarin. He did it in 15 seconds. Bravo!

I then walked down to other classroom and took photographs of how my students were adjusting to the new classroom setting and if they made any friends.

Although the immersion only lasted three days, most of them enjoyed the friends they made in the school. Some even exchanged how they studied and found out what it was really like to be studying in Singapore or Beijing. This I leave to the insiders (aka Ng Liki) to write.

One of the things that fascinated me about the school was not just about the passionate teaching of the teachers but the special rooms they have for each subject. Take a look:

The English room looks like a log cabin.

It even has a fireplace. Beat that!

The Geography room is full of books and rocks.


The History room is a classic Chinese History lab.

Then this is my favourite, the Relax Bar 放松吧. This is a room for relaxation and for any student who feels stressed and wants to go and let it out. I was told that the student could hit the pillow to release stress or to scream out their stress. I wish we can have one like that.

There are also 4 special rooms that the students can take anyone they would like to tell their problems to so no one can hear. Indeed this is a school not about academics alone. It is a school that cares for the individual student and teacher.

Although the immersion was short, the boys enjoyed themselves thoroughly. They bought some gifts to share with the class they visited and all their friends in Sec One were just thrilled.

As for me, I bonded with the Geography Teachers in the school. I promised to bring the two textbooks I edited to share with them. I will be sharing more often with them when the next batch comes in December. The friendship with the Geography teachers is going to only get better as I share how to search for information for their teaching purposes.

Here's Esther signing off again.

CIP at 沙河

Community service at Sahe was a great experience for all the High Flyers. A week before the service, the boys were divided into groups. My assignment was they find a nursery rhyme, teach it and teach a moral attached to it. Boys who were confident of the various levels were put together to work. It was very interesting to watch how they all came together to work. These groups are made up of students from different programmes but because they have studied and lived together over the past one month, it has become easier for them to collaborate. They seemed to know which buttons not to push and which buttons they could push in order to get a laugh. All in all it was fun to watch them put to use their english skills. I tipped them about how to reward for good behaviour and what to reward.

The night before, they went to 物美 to buy the presents for their lessons. One group bought 30 eggs to "unegg". They were going to teach Humpty Dumpty. I fried all the eggs up and this group made many people happy because breakfast was different that morning. The early birds got the omelettes.

Once lesson was over at 1200, they went back to their dorms and got ready for lunch. We boarded the bus at 1300 and arrived Sahe around 1330. On the way there, three students decided to get off the bus because they heard "沙河到了". The bus conductor was kind to alert me with a loud yell across to the front where I was and told me to get off. If not for her, I would have left three of them down the bus. But they came up very quickly upon realizing they were wrong and so I have all 30 sheep.

Then the lesson began. Some of the boys had to work with American students while some actually held onto their own. I walked into the Pre primary class with a camera and I got their attention. It was easy to ask them to sit down because they were ready for a photo shoot. I did take a few shots. After which I was in the Primary two class. This time I had a packet of 汪汪 rice crackers and immediately got the attention of all the children. I told them to pay attention to my students because we will give them some rice crackers if they behaved. As I walked around, I heard laughter. Some had a little difficulty teaching the children but most were holding it out on their own.

On the whole the boys liked the experience. The American students found our help important. This was because we could communicate in both Mandarin and English. Please allow me to share some photos with all of you.

Here's Esther signing out.

Trip to Yiheyuan and Yuanmingyuan

Hi all, this is Bo Jun blogging from Beijing. On Tuesday 18 November, we went to the Summer Palace Yihe Yuan (颐和园) and the 'Old Summer Palace' Yuanming Yuan (圆明园). These Imperial Gardens in China has faced destruction by the British and French troops in 1860, and the Summer Palace was also attacked by the Eight Allied powers (Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-foreign revolution during the late Qing Dynasty.

Buildings of the Yihe Yuan are restored and rebuild, while those in Yuanming Yuan are left mostly in ruins, and the destruction of Yuanming Yuan is regarded as a symbol of foreign aggression and humiliation to China. Below are some of the pictures which I took =)

Yihe Yuan served as the summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, and it is composed of two main bodies: Lake Kunming (昆明湖) and Longevity Hill (万寿山). Above is the shot of Lake Kunming in the foreground, and the Longetivity Hill at the back.

This pagoda is Foxiang Ge (佛香阁）, which houses a statue of 千手观音, and it derived its name from the Buddhist incense that is burnt as prayer to the Gods. The pagoda sits on the Longetivity Hill and it is visible from across the lake.

This shot shows Lake Kunming, which is to the south of Foxiang Ge. The island in the lake is Nanhu Dao (南湖岛) and it is linked to the eastern shore of Lake Kunming.

The Seventeen-Arc Bridge, with ducks at the foreground. The bridge is tha largest stone bridge in Yihe Yuan, at it links the land to Nanhu Dao (南湖岛). The bridge is 150m long and 8m wide.

The Iron Ox (铜牛) sits on the Eastern shore of Lake Kunming, and it is said to prevent floods. The bull us said to be in the direction of the Forbidden City, protecting the Forbidden City from the Lake's floods.

This is Renshou Dian (仁寿殿), the 'office' of Empress Dowager Cixi, the place where the Empress listened to state affairs behind the curtains -- 垂帘听政. The Empress was the de facto ruler of China during the Qing Dynasty, though indirectly, as she exercised control over the nation through the emperors Tongzhi (同治) and Quangxu (光绪). There are 4 statues in front of Renshou Dian-- 2 phoenixes and 2 dragons. The phoenixes are closer to the center of the building's central axis, while the dragon statues are further. This was a deliberate attempt of Cixi to show that she is more powerful than the true emperors.

This is the Marble Boat (石舫) to the west of Longetivity Hill. It was restored in 1893 in order of Empress Dowager Cixi after the pavillion was destroyed by the Anglo-French forces. This is the only structure in Yihe Yuan to have European-style design incorporated into its architecture.

According to Wikipedia, the Marble Boat is often seen as an ironic commentary on the fact that the money used to restore the Summer Palace largely came from funds originally earmarked for building up a new imperial navy.

Lastly, before we left, we went to Suzhou Jie (苏州街). It is a waterway with shops on each side, selling items at relatively cheap price, though the shopkeepers offered to sell the items at almost half of the labelled price. There are souvenior shops as well as restaurants here.

The trip to Yihe Yuan was special to me, as I met my parents here on an unscheduled meeting. They are following a tour in China, before meeting me and my brother at the dormitory. The coincidental meet was not only a 'family reunion', but a fated encounter where we got ourselves a free tour guide =D

Next, after a scrumptious lunch, we headed over to Yuanming Yuan. Yuanming Yuan was where the Qing Dynasty Emporers resided in and handled government affairs. We went to 西洋公园, which is a place in the former Imperial Garden which houses buildings of Western Architecture, which are now sadly in ruins, after the Anglo-French army burning it down to the ground after ransacking the place of its valuables.

This is the first sight of the ruins which greeted us. The ruins shown used to be a fountain where the royals would watch the waterworks. There was a throne opposite to this fountain, where the Emperor would sit and view the display of the fountain.

This is another fountain in the Imperial Garden which used to have 12 statues of the 12 生肖 shooting out jets of water each 2 hours. Therefore this was also used as a clock. It was one of the largest European-style building in Yuanming Yuan.

This is the maze (万花阵), where during the Moon Festival, the Emperor will be present in the celebration of the festival.

This is Fang Wai Guan (方外观). These ruins used to be a mosque where the imperial concubine Rong(容妃), or the Fragrant concubine (香妃), attend religious services.

This poor lion statue was destroyed by the Anglo-French forces


That's basically a sum of our trip to Yihe Yuan and Yuanmin Yuan. *Cheers!!

慕田峪长城·定陵博物馆之旅

嗨！我是超宏。今天将是第一位用华文跟大家分享咱们的慕田峪长城·定陵博物馆之旅。

这个星期二早晨，我们乘搭了2个小时的路程到了慕田峪长城。八达岭长城，同样是长城的一段路，却是比较多旅客会到的地方。到了长城入口处，大家都已迫不及待想要登上久仰的万里长城。但光是要“步上”长城，对某些人就是一项挑战。要踏上长城前，我们都得走上百级的阶梯，而他们的阶梯都设得颇为窄小。要到达长城的路程中，咱们兵分两路，分别到长城的左右侧去。

瞧！这就是咱们刚到达长城脚下看到的一个场景。再跟大伙分享一张照片，这是咱们刚登上长城的场面。有人甚至因为终于登上了长城，情绪太激动而掉了男儿泪！









讨伐慕田峪长城的路途，崎岖陡峭。长城路面也有凹凸的地方，给咱们挑战长城的路程添加了点刺激感。同时，长城的路段也有十分倾斜的时候，时而给人一种无法克服的感觉。克服了一段又一段的长城，咱们时而停下脚步，回过头，放眼展望，会发现赏心悦目的风景远远超过了之前所经历的一切艰难。

长城有些凸起的建筑为烽火台。以前的人们会在发现敌人之际，立刻在烽火台上燃起一把火，通知在其他烽火台站岗的同志。这样一直传下去，最后皇上便会接到通知而准备军队与敌军交锋。

到烽火台上的通道即狭窄又难行，时时都只能够有一个人上下阶梯。长城尾端有一段还未修复的道路， 地上尽是些小石子，路的两旁失落了叶的树，城墙的砖块所剩无几，而且被侵蚀的痕迹显而易见。



要回到长城的入口处有三种方法：沿原本路程下山，搭缆车，或是坐滑道。想想坐滑道下山那种令人回味无穷的滋味，大伙儿选择了滑道，最后也没后悔做了这样的一个选择。




紧接着午餐，我们来到了定陵博物馆。在那儿，导游给我们深入地介绍了有关定陵的历史。

特别值得一提的是，在埋了明朝第13位皇帝，朱翊钧，以及两位皇后的地下宫里有着几口金井。金井是在棺床中间挖的一个小坑，里边应该装着刚开始挖地下宫时地面上的泥土。这口金井让朱翊钧皇上与两位陪葬的皇后能够与阳间沟通，起着阴阳沟通的作用。另外，摆在黄帝棺木周围的玉石确保皇帝的灵魂在阴间得到永远安宁。参观了定陵以后，咱们到神道走一趟。以前人们若要到十三陵都必须经过神道。甚至皇帝都得步行穿越神道，以向前几代的皇帝祖先表示尊敬。我们到了神道都已经是傍晚了。阴暗的星空，幽静的环境，阵阵的寒风，（甚至是阵阵从照相机发出的光）以及神道两旁的白石像都为神道增添了许多神秘感，让它更加迷人了…

从神道的一端走到另一端，大伙儿都已经疲惫了。大家上了返往宿舍的巴士，想着这天的一切美好经历，都呼噜呼噜地睡了。只有张雁龄老师在轻松地唱着一些怀旧的曲子……

精彩的一天吧！请大家继续追踪我们北京生活的点滴。这是梁超宏给您的分享。

The Great Wall and the Ming Tombs

Hi everyone, I am Alwyn from High Flyers, 翱翔 . Today I will be blogging about our trip to the Great Wall and the Ming tombs on the 11 of November. Personally, I have been to the Great Wall 3 years ago, when I came to Beijing then, but that was the badaling (八达岭 ) Great Wall. This time however, we will be going to the mu tian yu (慕田峪) Great Wall, which is not commonly visited by tourists, and is a bit more challenging.

After a 2 hour journey on the coach, we reached our destination. There were many shops at the foot of the path leading to the Great Wall, selling souvenirs. We were even lucky enough to see a camel!

The specialty about this part of the Great Wall is that unlike other parts like the badaling Great Wall, there is an amount of route to travel by foot before we can get onto the Great Wall. When we made it to the Great Wall, the sight was simply extravagant. We could see the other parts of the Great Wall put onto mountains stretching forward beyond our sight. It seemed like those footages that are constantly shown on televisions documentaries, very wonderful. The few of us then decided to go all the way to the end of the ‘opened’ area of the Great Wall. We had small picnics every 1 or 2 towers (烽火台), and we eventually reached the end of the area opened to tourists. However, being adventurous boys, we went beyond the sign, and saw for ourselves the real Great Wall. There were weeds and wild vegetation on the Great Wall itself, and we even saw for ourselves a collapsed and ruined tower. This is the real Great Wall, not the renovated and made for tourists’ one, and it was really a good feeling being able to experience this.

After we spent enough time on the Great Wall, we got to the cable car and toboggan station. Some of us decided to experience the toboggan, which is like a slide down from the Great Wall, while others chose the cable car. I chose the toboggan, and it was truly an enjoyable and unforgettable experience.

After lunch, we headed for one of the 13 Ming tombs, the ‘Ding Ling’. It is the tomb of the emperor Wanli, and the only tomb there excavated. The tomb looked like a palace, with red walls and grand doors. There was even carving of dragons and phoenixes on the staircases. We then got down into the underground tomb, and saw the layout of the tomb. What that interested me was how the door was locked on the inside and how the person who locked it got out alive. There was actually a beam that was put on the inside, leaning on the door and on the floor. It can only be guessed that the beam was leaning on the door when it was open, and there was a hinge on the door, thus when the door was closed carefully, the beam would be locked onto the hinge, locking the door.

After the ‘Ding Ling’, we went to another part of the Ming tombs, the spirit path. There, we saw statues of animals like elephants, lions, and after the whole stretch, we made our journey back to our dormitory.

It was a wonderful day, visiting amazing places, and it was an enlightening trip for all of us.

Bye,

Alwyn

Chinese Lessons - Chinese Economy

Today, we had another day of lessons. The Chinese teacher was very good, and she introduced to us the economy of China. She touched on the limitations of the Chinese economy. The explanation was rather insightful and I learnt a lot. Basically, after Premier Deng Xiao Ping implemented his policy of a free China (开放), the Chinese economy grew by leaps and bounds. There is also an increasing attention of the world towards China, termed as “China fever”. In 2001, China’s GDP doubled as compared to five years before. China’s economy has grown by 7.2% yearly from 1978 to 1997. In 2003, the economy has grown by 10%!

The main reason why China’s economy was able to grow so fast was because China is the world’s factory. Indeed, with low labour costs, many corporations are able to set up factories in China and this has helped boost the economy. However, due to mass production in China’s profit-driven factories, Chinese goods had the unfortunate reputation of being unable to last long and of low quality.

The average GDP of China is low because there are too many workers for a limited market. However, there is a need to provide jobs for everyone to maintain the stability of the Chinese society.

Despite these challenges, the Chinese are still optimistic. The government aimed to overtake America by 2015! I admire their never-say-die spirit and this is indeed something that we should learn.

How to shop at Xiu Shiu Jie?

9 November 2008

I went to 秀水街 today with Jordy, Leonard, Han Wei and Bill. 秀水街 is one of the largest shopping malls in Beijing for the tourists.

The sales girls at 秀水街 were multi-lingual. This is due to the fact that mny tourists visit 秀水街 every day. The sales girls were able to converse in Spanish, French, English and German, although most of them can only converse in English and Chinese. Research had to be done beforehand to find out the prices of the products that we wanted to buy. This incuded asking previous buyers about the price range for the product offered by different store owners. Once we found out the range of prices for the products we wanted to buy, we would quote the lowest possible price to the shop owners to see if they will sell it to us.

The general rule of thumb is that the shop owners will quote prices of around 10 times the price they bought it for. But if you stick to your price, you will most probably get it unless the price you quote is much too low.

If you do not get the price you want at first, do not fret. Many other shops will probably sell the same thing you want to buy. So you should just be patient and continue searching for the same object at other shops.You can say that previous shops have given you a low price and yet you didn't buy. This way, they might just let you have what you want at the price that you want. Choosing the goods you want to buy is also important.

You should not buy everything you see but instead prioritise what you want to spend on and plan your budget accordingly.

Here are some pointers for the prices at 秀水街. Prices for shirts should not go above 40 RMB unless it is a long sleeved shirt. Jackets should not go above 80 RMB also. Shoes should be bought for not more than 70 RMB. But then again, I am not Jiaquan!

Thank you!
Jonathan

Monday 10/11/08

After a long weekend, it is time for lesson again. First lesson is taught by one of our favourite teacher, 李煜晖老师, who teaches us literature. Today, he talked about 诸葛孔明 of the romance of the three kingdoms (三国演义). He told us how godly 孔明 is. Among the abilities that he has are to predict happenings (未卜先知), to be able to control the weather (呼风唤雨), to be able to position his army and outsmart the enemy (斗阵布阵), and lastly to be able to make machine that does not need energy to work (木牛流马). Besides his abilities, there are also some interesting happenings that he is involved in. Among the few are to scare away his greatest opponent, 司马懿, by his 空城计, even though he is losing the battle, and also by his 木像 after he is dead. Also, he had irritated 周瑜 3 times until he is dead. He had also scolded 王郎 until he is dead. Very unbelievable.

Next lesson is by 李文燕老师, who introduced us to the Chinese economy development from the perspective of the change of clothes that were worn by the people. It was divided into 5 sections. Section 1 is during 孙中山先生 era. During that time, most people wear 中山装 to work. Section 2 is during 新中国 era, which is from 1949 - 1952. During that time, China wants to follow the communism ideology. During that time, they wear 干部服 to work. Section 3 is during the time when China is isolated from the world, which is from 1958 – 1978. During that time, the people are very poor and they have to go for rationing due to shortage of food. Hence, during that time, the clothes they wear will have to wear it for more than 10 years, which will seem very old. Section 4 is during 文革, which is from 1960s – 1970s. During this time, old culture is banned. People cannot wear 旗袍 to the street as people will attack you. Section 5 is after 改革开放, which is after 1978. After that, clothes such as western coat and leather shoes can be seen on any streets of China.

Another interesting event is the 民歌. Today, we learnt about the songs from 2 different areas – the Northwest area and the Southeast area. The songs of the Northwest area have very high pitch and rough since they have to sing from mountains to mountains, hills to hills. There are 2 types – 花儿，信天游. In contrast, the songs from Southeast are softer and not very rough. There is a lot of lake in the Southeast region and hence the songs they sing do not need so much power. There are 3 types – 弥渡山歌，对鸟，幸福歌。Besides, today I finally know why some songs can be differentiated easily as a Chinese song. This is because Chinese songs only have 5 notes in a scale while western songs have 7 notes – do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti. The Chinese only has do, re, mi, so, la, which is known as 五声。

That's all for now. Bye.

Run Xian

Forbidden City and Jingshan Park

Today was truly a memorable Saturday for many of us, as we relished the opportunity to visit one of Beijing’s most popular historic splendors, the Forbidden City – 故宫. After that, we crossed over to the park opposite the Forbidden City, 景山公园, where the scenery was breathtaking with especially fresh air.

We first arrived at the entrance of Tiananmen where Chairman Mao’s large portrait was proudly displayed in front of the hundreds of people there. We started walking straight until the front entrance of the Forbidden City (午门) came into sight.

Adorned with intricate gold designs, it was indeed a majestic sight. As we walked through the enormous doors of the entrance, we noticed that it was dotted with similar golden balls, 81 in all. After which, we explored the entire landscape where we saw countless pavilions and courtyards, each of them having a specific purpose for the emperors who lived in the Forbidden City.

(ignore the CCTV.)

I found the emperor’s throne rather unique. The predominant color inside was golden yellow, which to me, made the throne look very grand, a place exclusive only for the person with the highest authority in the whole country. Pu Yi, who ascended to the throne at the age of 3, was one of the famous emperors who once sat on this throne.

Another place that was slightly more memorable was the 乾清宫 (Qianqinggong). Official meetings were conducted in this very pavilion. The words “正大光明” stood out just beneath the ceiling, reminding the officials to be fair in any decision they make. Just like any other pavilion, many precious ornaments were arranged in seemingly perfect symmetry inside.
I thought that these were the more outstanding places within the Forbidden City. Besides these two more prominent pavilions, others served different purposes for the emperor, such as the Hall of Union and Peace (where grand ceremonies were held).

We left the spectacular place with indescribable awe and satisfaction, not only because of its majestic beauty, but also because we were able to experience six hundred years of history right before our eyes.

We then crossed over to the Jingshan Park –景山公园, to experience the breathtaking scenery. As expected, we were not let down as we entered and explored the park. Along the way, we paused at a specific tree where the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty hanged himself. Also, at the peak of the hill, we were greeted by a panoramic view of the place where we left not too long ago, the Forbidden City.

Simply put, it was a very enjoyable day for everyone. How fun it must have been for the ancient emperors!

Thank you & brought to you by,
Edwin