Orient
Experience
Introduction
For those who are new to blog following,
the main thing to know in order to preserve your sanity is that each new entry
in the blog appears on top of the
last entry.
Let me describe the NMIT- Melbourne
Polytechnic China program, what we will be doing and what I know of Chengdu and
Deyang. For much of my information I rely on my friends Mr Google, including
Wikipaedia and Trip Advisor but also on my teaching colleagues Trevor, Tony,
Scott, Greg and Bill, all of whom have been to Deyang to teach.
NMIT has had a teaching role at SCAT for
the last eight years. It is one of many
such programs throughout the college and indeed we are just one of the hundreds
of institutions world-wide who are delivering education in China. At SCAT, we
deliver the Building studies and last year was the first time that our students
went over. Four of our Building
Construction students went there for two weeks and worked on a project in
conjunction with some local students.
This year we are taking twenty students not
only from the building program but also from Civil Engineering, Building
Design, Building Surveying, Building Construction and Interior Design. Together
with Chinese students, they will work on a project to transform a floor in one
of the buildings of the SCAT campus so that it is purpose-designed for delivery
of the Melb Poly program.
The reason that I was so keen to join the
team this year, is that it will give me a great orientation to education
delivery in China in preparation for next year when I will be probably going to
Hebei Province (near Beijing) for up to twelve weeks to teach the Interior
Design program.
So, what will we be doing? Each day will involve a Chinese language
class before each of the disciplines breaks into their own part of the
project. The Interior Designers will be
specifying and documenting the furniture and fittings with local products and
those from Australian companies.
It won’t be all work and no play. The weekend in the middle of the two weeks
will be spent going to Chengdu. We will
be visiting the Panda breeding centre, the Dujiangyan irrigation project,
Wenshu Monastery, Tianfu Square and an innovative building complex, the Sliced
Porosity Block.
What do I know of Sichuan Province, Chengdu
and Deyang? Sichuan Province is in
central China, within the same timezone as Perth and on a similar latitude to Port
Macquarie (NSW). It is well known as the
home of the giant pandas and will also come to mind as the location of a bad
earthquake a few years ago. I know lots
about the pollution and that despite the weather forecast listing several
‘sunny’ days, I should not expect to be able to see the sky at all.
Chengdu, with a population of more
than 11 million, is situated on a fertile plain which is supplied with water
from two branches of the Yantze River. It has a wealth of natural resources,
thanks to the Dujiangyan Irrigation Project which was constructed in 256 B.C.
According to Trip Advisor, the history of the city can be traced back 2,400
when the first emperor built his capital there and named the city. It is famous
for handcrafts, including embroidery. It is where the bronze culture started
and also it was at the beginning of the Southern Silk Road. Can you just image how much I am keen to go
there?
Wikipaedia describes Deyang as a
wealthy, mostly industrial city. Ten years ago its population was 3.8 million,
so anybody’s guess as to what it is now. It was here in 2008, that the
earthquake of magnitude 8.0 occurred. The city goes back to 600 – the Tang
Dynasty. Since the earthquake, much of the city has been rebuilt but I am
grateful to learn that if I go looking for them, there are some pockets of the
old city still left in streets close to our hotel.
We will be staying at the Deyang
Hotel and it will be a 15 minute bus trip to the college each day. Apparently the college is so large that we
need to expect a 20 minute walk between two particular buildings we will be
studying in. We have been warned not to expect
doors on the squat toilets and that if we want toilet paper, we need to take it
ourselves. Our colleagues tell us that queue jumping is a way of life and that
we just have to expect and accept it. They have also warned that we will be
disgusted by the constant snorting and spitting. Thankfully such antisocial practices are
apparently on the wane as the region becomes more westernised. We have been
warned about scammers and about pick pockets and that counterfeit money is
prolific. In terms of the famously chilli-laden Sichuan cuisine, we have been
warned to beware of Sichuan pepper and the alcoholic content (42%) of rice
wine. We have been told that we must always leave a little food on our plates and
must leave chopsticks across the bowl, never sticking up in the bowl. I am very thankful that I have already made a
Chinese acquaintance on our recent WA bus tour, and he has written ‘no chilli’
down for me in Chinese characters. He
assured me that I will have no trouble asking for chilli-free dishes, nor
should I have trouble making myself
understood in English.
So now I have had my typhoid,
tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis A and flu shots, I have set up my blog, have
a new SD card ready for lots of photos and have only a few days before we set
off on this huge adventure. I intend to update the blog
daily and hope to have internet coverage adequate for posting it on a regular
basis.
Enjoy the trip with me – and spare a
thought for Roger who would love to be travelling too.
