Random reminiscences of China: Jilin and Kaifaqu

A view from our second apartment. There is always fascinating people-watching,

So many experiences we have had from our five years in China. It seems it will still require many more years to unpack them all. Here are a few glimpses from the two areas where I taught: Jilin in the province of the same name and Kaifaqu, one of the northernmost of the cities clustered around Dalian, Liaoning.

JILIN

Another view from our window in Jilin. Chinese chess. A favorite pastime, especially in Jilin. It was not unusual to have a crowd of spectators watching. a sidewalk game. In Dalian we saw this too, although cards seemed more common there. If you look closely you can see the wooden pieces here are well-worn, as is the board. A sign of heavy use. One of my students tried to teach me the rules of the game, but I did not do too well against him. I just could not wrap my head around this game.

Jiefang Street, Jilin. I liked this shot so much I made a poster of it. We did our shopping often in Walmart (on the left). Jilin.

Jilin. We often get out of our high rise and try to find some nature. These woods had some graves with offering of fruit and Baijiu (potent rice alcohol) for the deceased. In these woods I heard a fairly rare songbird. When I tracked it down I saw that it was in a cage hanging from a tree. Around the bird was a mist net. This is how they trap the few birds to sell in the market. Criminal! Further up the Songhua (the main river of Jilin City) I read an account of villagers stringing a net across the whole river!

One of my brightest students. She quickly went way beyond the usual boring textbooks. First we went through “1984” and then, after a false start with “Wuthering Heights” (too arcane!), we had several good lessons from Plato.

Da Dong Men School, Jilin. My students came in all sizes.

Dalian. I snuck this photo of this gentleman as we were exploring this city. What stories he could tell! He must have seen great changes in his country. I really wished I could have talked with him, but at this point I was basically at my “Where can we eat? Where is the bathroom?” level.

Dalian-Kaifaqu. View of our school – and of our apartment in the smoggy distance. We were just one floor under that leftmost “hat”. We were on the 25th floor.

Dalian-Kaifaqu, our school. Our second apartment while at this school is just outside the left edge of the photo. The foreshortening of this telephoto make sit look like the apartments are conveniently next to the campus, but we had trudge daily down a dirt road, often dusty dirty or muddy, to get to school.

Dalian-Kaifaqu. I am taking a breather before showtime. This was on the eve of our performance at opening of the school year. We sang and then performed a humorous skit.

Like I said, these are just random reminiscences. A lot of good experiences, maybe half as many bad ones. But I am a “glass half full” guy.