Chengdu 5.28.07

Chengdu was the third city we visited. It has a population of 11 million and it is located in the Sichuan Province. After so much tourism in Beijing and Shanghai, it was nice to finally get to interact with Chinese people in Chengdu. There much anticipation as several Chinese people in Beijing and Shanghai informed us that Sichuan is famous for its spicy food and beautiful women (we weren’t disappointed in either area!). We stayed on the campus of Jincheng College for 2 weeks, where we spent time with Chinese students from dawn until dusk.


I spent most nights in the bar on campus talking or playing cards with my new Chinese friends. The guy in the middle and in the picture to the right is Duheng. We hit it off pretty well from the first day. And as friendship turned into more of attachment (on his part) and subsequent gay jokes by my American counterparts, we had a good time hanging out. Talk about an animated person though! Below is a link to a video where he sings one of his favorite songs (by Eminem).




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVYJh2nunl0






Religion:
At lunch one day I spoke with my friend Li Wen Bing (pictured right). After already asking a couple other students in conversation if they were Christian, Buddhist, etc, and hearing each respond along the lines of, “I believe in myself,” I thought I would engage him in conversation about the same topic. Of course, he too was atheist and told me the same story about how if he finds success it is because he has worked hard. Anyhow, I wanted to know why all the students I spoke to seemed to give religion or God little thought. Here, they don’t all live the life of luxury, in fact, most don’t even feel too strongly about going to school because it is so work intensive and competition for a job after college is still incredibly high. Yet, they still don’t seem to give much thought to the idea of a loving God (or any God at all).
When I tried to frame the question of God and religion in the context of how the Earth was created, Michael again seemed to pass right over the idea of God. He and the girl at lunch with us both offered ‘science’ as the explanation for how the Earth was created. Probing deeper I found that they admitted there were many mysteries in the world that could not be answered, but still no consideration for a higher power to explain such mysteries. Sensing that neither felt too strongly about the topic (simply because neither had given it much thought and apparently didn’t care to), I switched the conversation to politics, another great subject foreigners are advised not to speak about. But of course that didn’t elicit much of a response either.


Panda breeding center:
One of the days we were in Chengdu we visited the Panda Breeding Center. The breeding center in Chengdu is the biggest in the world, housing some 60 pandas and supplying the rest of China’s provinces with the endangered species. I took a lot of pictures and a couple videos. I’ll try to post the video soon, it failed the first time.


Education:
I found the education system in China to pretty interesting. Note also, pictured above is one of the main classroom buildings at Jincheng College. Here’s a synopsis of the education system in China:
1. Primary School: Grades 1-6: Free for farmers. Otherwise 100-200+ (yuan, current fx: 7.6yuan = $1) per semester (obviously nicer schools can run much higher)
2. Junior School: Grades 7-9: Free for farmers. Otherwise 100-200+ (yuan, current fx: 7.6yuan = $1) per semester (obviously nicer schools can run much higher)
3. Center School: Grades 10-12: 600-1000+ (yuan, current fx: 7.6yuan = $1) per semester (obviously nicer schools can run much higher)
4. College/University: 13-16: 3,000-10,000 (yuan, current fx: 7.6yuan = $1) per year on average

Higher Education Ranking:
1. Beijing University and Hong Kong University (5000 yuan per year for Beijing and 40,000 yuan per year for Hong Kong…(7.6 yuan = $1) ~$650 and ~$5200 respectively per year). Admittance into the university in Hong Kong also requires an interview. I don’t know how important English in either application process.
2. Smaller universities in Beijing
3. Shanghai University and Sichuan University (? yuan per year and 3000-4000 yuan per year)
4. Smaller universities in the big cities
5. Independent Colleges like Jincheng, which vary in quality of education. Admittance is still based on test scores for the quality of college. (10,000 yuan per year (7.6 yuan = $1) ~$1300 per year)

Thus, with the exception of Hong Kong University, higher test scores earn students a better education at a lower cost than other higher education institutions. In this merit-based system even the students with lower test scores such as those here at Jincheng College remain highly motivated to succeed. As mentioned in other parts of the journal, I have spoken to several students who do not/cannot date people because they feel obligated to devote the majority of their time to their studies. Moreover, two of the six majors offered at Jincheng are civil engineering and computer science. And these 6 majors were chosen because they are the most popular majors at more prestigious universities. Thus, a much higher percentage of a much bigger pool of Chinese students choose to study science and engineering and to do so requires exceptional test scores because of the overwhelming supply of highly motivated and intellectually gifted Chinese youth. That’s a little scary…



Hospitable Chinese:
The Chinese are extremely hospitable people. First, upon arriving we were greeted with banner over the entrance to the school that read, “Warmly Welcome the delegation from university of Missouri Columbia.” Three or four other big red banners said the same thing in Chinese throughout the campus. The president of the college also set aside the morning to welcome us to the college.
The second night of our stay at Jencheng, the school held its annual sing and dance competition. We were told that about 1000 students attend. Sure enough, all of the 700 or so seats were full and the side aisles were packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people. Now can you guess where were seated? Front and center. 1000 people and we are given the best seats in the house one day after our arrival (even professors and head masters were in the rows behind us). I thought that was pretty neat. By the way, if you are wondering why the firl singing has balloons in her hands...During just about every song, frineds of the performer would come on stage and give them flowers or balloons mid-song. I thought the balloons would be more of an insult than a compliment but they seemed to go over pretty well!


All in all, I loved the time I spent in Chengdu. It was great to sit down and talk with kids my age and learn about their lives, their beliefs, their aspirations. Just being a part of another culture and another way of life was incredible. If you haven't taken a look already I have posted some pictures of friends in a second note on Chengdu