Chapter Two Continued

Xian City Wall from early AD

I am now in the historic city of Xian,which is located west of Beijing. I am very happy at the moment because my tour guide found a wifi hot spot, which as it turns out is in an upscale coffee shop right across the street from my hotel.  This is actually the first time I have been able to use my I-Pad for e mails since I have been in China with the exception of when I was in the Shanghai airport.  I ordered a whole pot of coffee because I have a lot of updating to do. 

When I was in Beijing I was able to use the computer in the room one time and then it would not let me back on the AT&T web site.  So I will try to start where I left off. In Beijing I stayed at the Beijing Administrative Institute,which is a sister to the organization in Nanchang.  However, the campus in Beijing is much larger than the one in Nanchang and somewhat nicer. The hotel room was spacious, but had twin beds.  My feet did hang off of this bed.  Beijing is a city of over 20 million people.  The people who live there must be of more means than in Nanchang because there were far fewer bicycles and mopeds and a lot more cars. From what I was told just to get a license tag in Beijing costs 35000 US dollars, which is hard to believe.  They have so many cars they want to limit the number so they give a financial disincentive. However, i will say that traffic in Beijing is more like New York City than Nanchang.  Traffic in Nanchang is downright crazy. 

After we arrived Saturday in Beijing we went straight to the BAI, had lunch then were whisked away in a taxi to the Forbidden City.  Kristy, Bubba and I went together and since John had been here before he served as our unofficial tour guide. The Forbidden City served as the home for 24 emperors. From around 1400 AD to 1911. It has very much the Imperial feel to it and consists if several hundred acres.  The emperor lived there with his wife, several hundred concubines and thousands of eunuchs. If you are not sure of what a eunuch is ask me when you see me and I will tell you. It was very hot on Saturday while we were out and we had a lot of sun.  Although the sun was shielded some by all of the smog.  The air quality in China is terrible.  I drank three bottles of water walking through the place.  The buildings within the Forbidden City were very large and numerous. It is amazing at how precise the building methods were so long ago.  I am also amazed at how they possibly moved such large boulders and other material.   

Right across the street from the north end of the Forbidden City is Tienanmen Square. The square is huge and in the middle is the mausoleum of Mao. His body is embalmed and they raise him up at certain times each day. For a fee one can see him.  I decided to take a rain check on seeing Mao. I hope he doesn't mind!  We left this area and went to the "silk market". It is basically a place with u hundreds of vendors selling all kinds of clothes, shoes, etc. and my guess is most of it is counterfeit. It was wild. The vendors pulled on you and begged you to buy from them.  It was one of the biggest rackets I have ever seen.  We left this once in a lifetime experience (I hope) and went to a Indian Restaurant that John used to go to when he lived in Beijing and wanted to have another opportunity to go back.  The food was good and I had two cold diet cokes.  They were not on ice because you do not drink the water here. No one drinks the water here.  Even the Chinese have to boil their water.  I would think as progressive as China has become that they would have figured out a way to have clean drinking water.  I have even brushed my teeth with bottled water. I do not trust it.  So far I have managed to escape  any stomach problems and by God's grace I hope it stays that way.  I did have a little stomach issue after we had Indian food. In was told afterward that you never eat another countries food while in a different country. 

Sunday we left at 8:00 am to drive to the Great Wall of China.  Indeed it was great. It took us a couple of hours to drive there. Since it is built in the mountains, once we arrived at the base we still had a ways to go.  Fortunately we rode the gondola to the top.  It is hard to describe the awesome feeling standing on the Great Wall. I have always read about it, but I never imagined that I would be standing on top of it one day.  I was told that it is 2000 miles long.  The Wall follows the ridge of the mountain so as the mountain goes up the Wall does and so it goes down.  You have to have some physical ability to walk on the Wall. Although we were there in the morning it was still very hot and humid.  Unfortunately you could not see a long way because of the smog from Beijing. The steps up and down were not meant for Americans,like me, with big feet.  At the end our route our student guides bought tickets to ride a toboggan back down to the base. I can tell you that I was more than a little apprehensive, but it turned out to be very fun and I wish I could do it again. John was in front of me and there were two Chinese dudes in front of him that were going slow and messed it up for the rest of us. At the base we had lunch at Subway. Yes, hard to believe but there is a Subway at the base of the Great Wall.  It was nice to have a sandwich. On our way back from the Wall we stopped at the Birds Nest, the home of the 2008 Olympics. It is an awesome place and it was surreal being in the place that the opening ceremonies of the Olympics took place.

My route down from the Great Wall



The Bird's Nest- 2008 Olympic Stadium

 


The Bird's Nest- 2008 Olympic Stadium



After arriving back at the BAI we all freshened up and then headed out for dinner at a place called Hi Ho, which was about 4 miles away from the Institute. It was beautiful and consists of a lake surrounded by coffee shops, bars, shops and restaurants. The lake had beautiful flowers and attractive lights. It reminds me a lot of River Walk in San Antonio, but has a lake instead of a river.  We had a very nice dinner with Kristy, John, Paul Burks and his wife Vanessa and a student of Johns from a few years ago that has been an exchange student in Beijing for the last four months. Paul is Kristy's teaching partner this week in Beijing and is teaching performance measurement. It was nice spending a few days with Paul and his wife. They are a very nice couple and very enjoyable to be with.

Monday came quick and I was now on my home stretch. Still being in China at this point was bittersweet for me as I wanted to be back home with my family and also back at work.  There is never a good time to be away from the office, but this time was especially not good due to so many important issues being discussed. However, since this may be my one and only time to be in China I still had some more places to visit.  I had to go for it while I was in this far away place!  Monday morning a student escorted Paul, Vanessa and I to the Beijing pearl market. It was a very interesting place and my family will find out on my return if I looked at pearls, touched pearls or bought pearls :) Monday afternoon, while Paul was teaching, Kristy and I were escorted by two students to the Summer Palace, which is located outside of the city. The summer palace was built for the emperors mother and is a very expansive place.  It is actually larger than the Forbidden City and has a very large lake, many palaces and buildings all of a royal feel. Lots and lots of trees and gardens. In fact, before I forget to mention this the City of Beijing could also be called the city of flowers.  There are flowers everywhere and all are very beautiful.  The corridors and all of the main street are lined with gorgeous flowers. It certainly inspires me to find a way to beautify our main thoroughfares in Glynn County. If China can do it we should certainly be able to find a way.  Beauty adds to a community's quality of life and sets it apart from other places!  One of the things that most impressed me about the Summer Palace was a covered walkway along the side of the lake that was at least a mile long. Underneath the ceiling it had beautiful paintings that were numerous and all very beautiful. I am curious at how long it took the guy to paint all of the pictures.

Beijing has numerous tall buildings a lot of new construction and a very modern airport. However, as America has done they have over built in China and there is a lot of bad debt on the books of most every bank in China.

Monday evening I was invited to attend the opening dinner for Paul and Kristy with the President of BAI, which I thought was nice since I was not teaching there this week, but just staying on campus this week.  It was a wonderful dinner with great conversation, great fellowship and good humor. The food in Beijing is not as spicy as Nanchang and the eating mannerisms seemed more western than in Nanchang. I did not feel quite right spitting bones on the table although I had gotten pretty good at it.  They also did not seem to slurp their soup like they did in Nanchang. All of my new eating habits had to change while in Beijing. If my Mom was still alive she would give me a good talking to for my poor manners while in China. It would be hard for her to understand that while in China you do as the Chinese do!

After a good rest Monday night I packed my bags and headed to the airport for a flight to the city of Xian. Xian is a very historic city and was once the capital of China dating back to around 100 BC. Although our flight was delayed it was a fairly good flight with some bumps along the way.  I am convinced that due to the poor air quality in China all flights have some bumps. I was met at the airport by my tour guide while I am in Xian. His English is very poor, but he seems like a nice young man and has gone out of his way to help me.  I am glad that I had already had some time in China before I arrived in Xian. Since I am basically by myself it is good to have been exposed to the culture before I ventured out on my own. On the way to the hotel we stopped by a tomb of some emperor. Here in Xian there were at least two emperors that created underground cities out of clay concubines, eunuchs and buried live animals with them. They all believed they would come back to life after death and they created thousands of these clay figurines to be there for a new city once they came back to life.  The "new city" was created before the emperor died and then the emperor was buried with all of the thousands of figurines.  The figurines at the site I visited on Tuesday were very small. On Thursday, which is tomorrow morning for me (it is now Wednesday evening for me) I will visit the most famous site of all that has the "Terracotta Warriors". It should be interesting.

In Xian I am staying at a hotel that is somewhat dated. 30 years ago, by US standards it would be a four star hotel, but definitely needs an update. At least the bed is a king size, although all of the beds in China are very hard.  It will be very nice to sleep on my pillow top mattress when i return home.

Today or Wednesday I visited the 2011 Horticultural Exhibition. At first i was I was not sure if it was something I really wanted to see, but it turned out to be good as the grounds and flowers were stunning and beautiful.  I even saw panda bears that were housed there as well as monkeys. There was also a large sand sculpting exhibit that was very cool. I wonder if SSI ever considered hosting a sand sculpting contest. On our return to the hotel we stopped by the original city wall that was built in early AD and is about 75' high and 30' wide, surrounded by a large moat and and had a draw bridge as the only way in centuries ago.  Due to steady rain I did not walk far on the top of the wall but it would have been fun to walk all the way around the city.  Not a short walk though at 9 miles. It has been rainy here and a little cooler than Nanchang, but still hot and sticky. China beds to work on their ac systems. Even most places inside are warm and humid. I am looking forward to going to see the tomb of the emperor with the terracotta soldiers tomorrow.  Hopefully, the now two pots of coffee won't keep me awake. I think I may have try an ice cream before I leave the coffee shop to cool me off. Yum!



Fountain at the Horticultural Exhibit









Sand scuplture exhibit in Xian





Horticulture Exhibit



Me at the Great Wall of China

Statue to scare away evil spirits at the Forbidden City

Off to Beijing! Week 2 Begins...

We left Nanchang at 6:30 Saturday morning to head to the airport for a flight to Beijing.  Our bags were packed and we were ready to leave on a jet plane!  Kristy and Bubba were with me.  Kristy is scheduled to teach this week at the Institute in Beijing, while I am free to experience the sights and sounds of more of China.  We had no problem getting through the airport, but I did have a little trouble getting through security.  After you go through the metal detector they take a wand to each person to check for whatever they check for.  They have everyone stand on top of a six inch high box.  As soon as I stood up there the lady was telling me to get down.  She could barley reach my belt buckle.  Even when I was on the floor she could not reach everywhere she needed to.  It was quite a site and all of her comrades were laughing.

Although the flight was safe, it was very bumpy.  Since flying is not my favorite thing to do, I could have done without the bumpy ride.  A Chinese lady was sitting next to me and seemed to be very nice.  For the in flight meal they served porridge, bread and cherry tomatoes.  The lady next to me put a tomato in her mouth and worked it and somehow peeled the skin off of the tomato and then spit the tomato skin into her hand.  The precision that the Chinese can process food in their mouth is amazing.

We were met at the airport by staff from the Institute who escorted us to the City of Beijing.  Beijing is a city of over 20 million people and is so large it would take you a lifetime to go everywhere.  It is quite different than Nanchang.  While Nanchang is an emerging city Beijing is very international and very metropolitan.  The Institute in Beijing is ten times larger than the one in Nanchang and very modern.  Our hotel room is very large and very nice.  The bed here is shorter, but softer.  The beds in Nanchang were hard.  Every night I would wake up with my legs hurting and I was not sure why, but it must have been the bed because they have not hurt while in Beijing.  Ahh, the simple pleasures of life like a soft bed.  My immediate impression of Beijing was very good.  Within a short period of time I had a diet coke in my hand, which turned into three within minutes.

Part two of this update will follow later...

Last Day of Teaching...

Last dinner with my class.

I woke up at 3:15 am on June 17th and could not go back to sleep.  Since it was day time in the US I sent several text messages to friends and work associates.  I guess I had a lot on my mind.  I was sort of keyed up for the last day of class and I was interested in several items on the agenda for the Glynn County Board of Commissioners meeting that was scheduled for 6:00 PM Thursday evening, which for me would happen at 6:00 am.  Fortunately I had some colleagues at work that sent me text messages during the meeting to keep me informed of what was taking place.  Although I was not at the meeting I felt a part of it. 

Since I was up so early I went ahead and got ready for the day before the Commission meeting started so I would be able to receive the text messages.  I then walked to a famous square in Nanchang that is a memorial to the 1927 uprising.  It is a very large place and in the morning hundreds of Chinese are out doing their morning exercises.  I went back to the Institute for breakfast and had great success holding a fried egg with chopsticks :)  After breakfast Kismet and I went shopping at a nearby location.  While we were walking to the shops I saw a very unusual site.  A child perhaps 20 months old was walking with its parents and wearing a pant suit.  Although this was not your usual pant suit.  The back part was draped open exposing the child's naked bottom.  I asked Kismet about this and apparently when children are small this outfit aids them in using the bathroom.  I am not so sure about that because there is no way at the age of this child that they would have control.  But perhaps they do.  I have refrained from discussing the style of bathrooms in China and will continue to do so.  Lets just say that they are different than the ones in the US. 

I was interested in the porcelain, which is made in this province.  Unfortunately the boxes that each item is packed in are very large and would be difficult to fit into my luggage.  We came back to the institute about 10:00 am and I took time to prepare for class.  I also had to change my shirt from perspiration.  It was so hot this morning and muggy that my shirt was wringing wet when I returned to my room. 

We had a special lunch with the vice-president of the Institute and other officials.  The food was, as usual, plentiful, spicy and very tasty.  I did have to apply a couple of coats of chapstick to my lips after lunch since they were burning from the spices in the food.  It was a wonderful lunch and very special.  Typically a farewell dinner is held Friday evening with Institute officials, but several of them were going to be away this evening.  Since this was a more formal lunch it lasted longer than our other lunches this week.  After lunch I headed back to my room to gather my things and look over my notes one more time.  Then it was off to class.

To follow-up on our session Thursday on planning I showed slides that had been converted in Chinese on Glynn County's Altamaha canal restoration project, which they seemed to enjoy very much.  I tied this project back into planning aspects of a county and the importance of a vision statement and how everything needs to tie back to the vision for a community.  I then spent a while on the budgeting process for a local government.  I was able to show a lot of illustrations to drive my point across and I believe that the illustrations helped them connect the dots.  The budget process generated a lot of questions that were very perceptive.  The last 20 minutes we had another Q&A session, which they seem to enjoy.

For dinner the class hosted us at a very nice and upscale French restaurant.  They actually had forks and knives, which were a little difficult for our hosts to use.  We had a wonderful meal and there were lots of speeches and kind remarks from our students and from us.  We also had a very good kind of ice cream for dessert and somehow I ended up with two bowls.  I did not complain :)  The dinner was very unusual for the Chinese.  We sat at a rectangle table rather than a round table and our food was American.  Steak and french fries.  It was more than obvious that the class chose the place to please us, which was very, very kind of them.  I am also sure that the dinner cost the class a lot of money. 

Tomorrow we are scheduled to leave the Institute at 6:30 am to travel to the airport.  My flight was originally at 11:30, but John suggested that I change my flight to be able to fly to Beijing with him and Kristy.  John lived in China for 7 years back in the 1990's and knows his way around pretty well.  So after we arrive in Beijing tomorrow John plans to take us to the Forbidden City.  Sunday we are scheduled to go to the Great Wall.  Next week I will be on vacation and will see sights in Beijing and Xian before I return to the states on June 24th.  I do hope I can find wifi while in Beijing.  I would like to beam some pictures back home.

Signing off from Nanchang.

A History Lesson & a Taste of Home

As I write this new post my Thursday is concluding while Thursday is just getting started in Glynn County.  Our IT department has been working on streaming live video of our commission meetings on the Internet.  I wish we now had that capability so I could watch our Board meeting scheduled for Thursday evening.  That is one part that has bothered me by being in China.  In my fourteen years of being a county administrator this is the first board meeting that I have missed in the communities that I have served in. 

We started our day sharp at 7:45 a.m. for breakfast.  The people here are very punctual.  When it is time to eat, you eat.  When it is time to go, you go.  This morning we had a slight variation to our breakfast.  We were served hard boiled eggs.  I passed on that and instead chose another fried egg.  I am determined to master eating a fried egg with chop sticks before I leave.  I actually did pretty well today :)  That reminds me, one night this week we were served what is called an 1000 year egg.  It is a hard boiled egg that is very dark in color and has been wrapped in a special mud and placed in the ground for a month if not longer.  I have been willing to try a lot, but I chose to pass on that.  A friend of mine read that I had donkey and wanted to know if after I ate it I said "Hee Haw".  Very funny.  Another friend of mine said that the word donkey in Chinese had the same meaning as dog.  I hope not.  I would rather say Hee Haw than to start to bark :)  I did find out this evening from our student host Kismet that people in China do eat dog. But they eat a special kind of dog and it is rare that they eat it. 

Since I teach in the afternoon I usually go on some type of tour in the morning.  This morning I went to a museum that told the story of the cultural revolution that started in 1927 and was the beginning of the Communist Party.  It was very interesting and provided me with a very good understanding of the modern day history of China.  Apparently the group that was in power in 1927 was very mean to the peasants and killed thousands of them.  Leaders from among that group rose up and fought against the group in power.  It was basically an uprising of peasants that took on the government and eventually seized control.  This was the start of the Peoples Republic of China and it all began here in Nanchang on August 1, 1927.  The other group fled with all of the money and all of the jewels and went to Taiwan.  This is why there is such hatred among the two countries today.  The US backed the group in power in 1927 and Russia backed the group that mounted up from among the peasants.  The museum was very well done and was located next to the Nanchang Hotel that was used as the headquarters for the peasant leaders in 1927 after they over threw the government in Nanchang.  There were a lot of  paintings from the uprising and I took a lot of pictures of them.  The paintings help tell the story.

We left the museum ("we" was Kismet and I) and went across the street in to a shopping area that was very, very large.  On the way there as we were crossing the street a very large bus was coming right toward us.  Since it had been raining very hard my footing was not as sure as I would have liked for it to have been.  Vehicles in China do not slow down for pedestrians.  That bus came inches from smacking all 6'9" of me into a pancake.  It is basically like crossing over Altama Avenue while cars are still going in both directions.  You step or run in between vehicles as they drive down the road.  It is definitely bizarre and very scary.  On the way to the museum our driver, who is usually pretty good, misjudged a bus and the bus came within seconds of smashing through the side I was sitting on.  By God's grace I am able to write this update!  I have never seen so many stores in my life in one place.  There are at least five stores here to every one store in the US.  Of course in a city of 4 million there needs to be a lot of stores.  However, most of the stores were high end with very nice merchandise.  We ran late on time and had to hurry back for lunch. 

Today's lunch was my favorite so far this week.  They had a nice tomato and egg dish that was very good, rice, soup and an absolutely ugly fish, but the fish was tasty.  They also had a onion and beef dish that was good.  For being so small the Chinese people eat a tremendous amount of food.  It is unbelievable how much they eat.  So far no one has gotten sick, but it is no problem for everyone to put their chop sticks in their mouth then right back into the serving dish to get another bite.  You should see the skill in which they use their chopsticks.  Amazing!

After lunch I went back to my room to prepare for this afternoon's class.  I wanted to finish my slides from yesterday about Glynn County then I wanted to start with community planning and strategic planning.  Class today went very well and I really feel that I have been able to connect with the government officials who are my students.  I will actually miss them. They have been a great group to be with.  As part of their education they plan to come to the US this fall.  I have invited them to Glynn County, but it will be up to UGA officials as whether or not they can come.  They will definitely go to Atlanta and I at least hope to see them while they are in Atlanta.  

I have shared great things about Glynn County and I have shared pictures with them of our Board, our Management Team and county employees and I would love for them to have an opportunity for them to meet those I work with and hear from other county officials about how county government works.  I spent a little time on community planning and I also covered our strategic planning initiative.  However, since I felt like this might get a little boring for them I asked them for their vision of Nanchang in five years.  I then asked them to pretend that they were in charge of the process and what steps they would take to fulfill their vision.  I asked for a volunteer to come to the writing board and capture the ideas of the group.  It was very interesting to see the characters that were used to describe their process.  Apparently they do not have letters like we have, but instead they use characters to describe a number or place or thing.  One character could have several different meanings and is distinguished by the voice reflection.  We spent an hour on this process and they did an excellent job with outlining the steps that should be taken.  Their action plan was very close to the action plan that was recently developed by the strategic planning committee in Glynn County.  This group is very sharp.  It is very interesting to watch them discuss things among themselves.  Because of the pitch of the voice meaning different things I now know why they use so much expression when they talk.  The last 40 minutes of class was devoted to Q&A.  I told them they could ask me anything they wanted to about the Federal Government, State Government or about my family.  One guy who sits on the front row and was part of the group that took us to dinner on Tuesday evening wanted to know if my sisters and brothers or my parents helped support my family since I had so many children.  I told him no. He wanted to know if others in America helped support their family.  I told him that it was uncommon for siblings to help one another, but that often times children and parents helped one another. On Tuesday evening this guy and I developed a bond and he said that I was his little brother.  After I concluded my answer I told him that since we were brothers it was fine with me if he wanted to help support my family :).  The class seemed to enjoy that interchange!

After class a small group of us went to a Pizza Hut.  We had real pizza just like in the US.  It was great to have a change in our diet.  They even had sweet tea.  Now we are making progress!  Since Nanchang is in Southern China sweet tea must be truly a southern thing.  After dinner John Fey and Ms. Jeu went home and Kristy, Bubba, Kismet and I went to KFC for an ice cream.  YUM!!  Kismet's roommate joined us there and it was good to talk with her.

It is now bedtime for me.  Tomorrow is the last day of class and I plan to show slides of Glynn County's Altamaha Canal Restoration Initiative and discuss our budget process and county finance.  I hope to end on a very strong note.  Although it will be difficult to top today's class. As I end the day I look forward to tomorrow!

Introducing Glynn County Government

Just after breakfast we were supposed to go to a nearby lake that had some value.  Unfortunately, due to area storms we were not able to go.  However, that turned out good for me since I was not able to update the blog on Tuesday due to a very busy day and a late night.  I was also able to catch up on some e-mails and read the Brunswick News on line.  I also enjoyed my time to prepare for class today.  For lunch we had rice, tofu and peppers, soup, which is served at every meal, no fish at lunch today, a mushroom and egg dish,  a type of green in the shape of a green bean and very spicy, some type of noodles that had a fish taste and watermelon.  They usually serve some type of fruit at every meal.  With the exception of the watermelon I have no idea what type of fruit they are serving. 

At lunch we had a conversation about home ownership.  In the City a person buys a house and can live there for 70 years.  They only own the inside part of the house and the land is owned by someone else.  If you die before the 70 years are up your children can live in the house, but as a family your limit is 70 years.  Then either you have to buy the house again or someone else buys it.  In the country you own the house and the land and it can be passed from one generation to another.  We also discussed the ease or lack of for a Chinese citizen to get a visa to travel outside the country.  Apparently it is very difficult to get a visa to travel abroad.  You have to have a very sound reason for the travel without any hint that you may not return.

In class today I discussed Glynn County government.  They found great interest in our organizational chart.  I showed them a picture of the Board of Commissioners and they were interested to know what type of work each commissioner did.  They also wanted to know what type of qualifications one had to have to run for elected office.  They were surprised that most elected positions did not require any qualifications to run.  I also showed them a picture of the management team and they were interested in what each person did.  They wanted to know if county employees had a contract and if they had to have qualifications to be hired or could be hired like a person is elected without any qualifications.  My interpreter is doing a great job and we have developed a nice routine.  They were interested to know what were the priority services of the County.  When I showed them the organizational chart, I explained the difference between city and county government and how county government was far more complex than city government in terms of our multitude of boards, elected officials, etc.

For dinner we were hosted by the owner of a large construction company who has 20,000 employees and builds all over China.  The President of the company actually hosted us.  There were two round tables that sat ten.  The Chinese people enjoy meal times very much because that is their opportunity to build relationships.  The President brought in a private chef to his company who prepared 18 dishes for us.  One was a duck that had been cooked and laid on a platter head and all.  We had fish, soup, pork, veggies, rice, chicken, noodles and egg and 11 other dishes most of which I was scared to ask what they were.  14 of the 20 people smoked so the room was filled with smoke.  99%  of the time dessert is not served unless it is fruit.  Tonight Fey, who is from Carl Vinson Institute, celebrated his birthday so they had a cake for him.  It was very nice to have something sweet to eat.  I am looking forward to my wife's pound cake when I get home :)  I am amazed at the amount of food that they cook for a special dinner.  It is my understanding that they do not eat like this all of the time, but only at special dinners.  

The President of the company was a great host.  One of the members in the group had been to Brunswick before and I certainly invited him back.  Another lady indicated that she would like to visit our community, as well.  In class today I invited anyone with any friends who wanted to invest in the US to call me.  I told them I had extra business cards that I could share.  I think they appreciated me promoting my county.  The drive back to the institute from the construction company was very interesting; we had so many close calls with other vehicles and motor scooters.  You have to have a quick brake foot here.  Motor scooters are a big thing here.  We passed at least 30 stores all in a row where they were selling motor scooters and there must have been a hundred in each store.

On Thursday I will continue with information on Glynn County and then I will talk about planning and our strategic planning process.  I am scheduled to be taken on a tour in the morning, but I am not sure where at the moment.  Two days left here teaching then it will be off to Beijing!

Sightseeing and Teaching

Rural area north of Nanchung

On Tuesday, we started the day with our usual breakfast.  It is my understanding that fried eggs and bacon are not a normal item for them to eat and they prepared these just for us.  I will say it is difficult to pick up a fried egg with chop sticks as they are a little slippery.  To properly eat one you hold the whole thing in your sticks and bite off pieces at a time.  My new Chinese friends are very kind to not laugh at me while I am using the sticks.  I am sure to them I am quite hilarious.  After breakfast Kristy and Bubba went off to teach class and I was escorted on a tour of a pavilion that was built over 1300 years ago.  The one that I saw had been rebuilt a few times, but it still looked very old. 

What made it famous was that a poet wrote a poem about it.  In China if a poem is written about something, it makes it very special.  All school children in China are required to read the poem about this pavilion.  Because of that, young and old from all over China come here to see this.  It has eight floors and has beautiful tile paintings throughout.  It also has a place where the emperor sat.  While there, I saw a group from New Jersey and one from Pennsylvania.  They both commented on how hot it is here.  Even for south Georgia standards it is hot and sticky.  I wish all of this rain could be sent to Georgia.  There would be no problem with forest fires.

On the way to the pavilion traffic was again very heavy.  The main roads here, like Golden Isles Parkway, have traffic lights.  All other roads do not have traffic lights or stop signs.  It is drive at will.  When cars, motorcycles and people go through an intersection it is every man for themselves.  It does not matter what side of the street you are on you just find a path and go for it.  One has to be quick on the brake pedal here.  I saw one lady get hit by a motorcycle.  The driver of the motorcycle and the lady had a stare down for a few minutes then the motorcycle guy started laughing and went his way.  It did not appear that the woman was hurt.  People walking on the street are right next to the cars.  I am talking inches.  In fact, when I walked to the bank yesterday when we crossed the street cars whisked right by us when we were in the crosswalk.  Again inches.  The cars was so close I could have handed the driver a diet coke if I had one :(   I felt like I was playing dodge ball with the cars.

There are hundreds of speed bumps here and rumble strips.  Based on what we just went through with speed bumps in Glynn County, I think this is interesting.  Although I am not sure that they really have an effect on people driving.  With all of the traffic and playing dodge ball a car cannot go fast.  I am absolutely amazed at the number of stores here.  People are spending RNB right and left.  I have never seen so many electronic stores in my life.  Numerous shops all with the doors wide open.  There are also numerous cigarette stores.  Most everyone here smokes.  At dinner they have an ash tray at everyone's place and a pack of ciggs on the Lazy Susan.  People light up at will.  It is especially bad walking in the elevator.  When you are tall like I am you tend to get all of the smoke in the elevator.  I also noticed that they have a vibrant fruit market here.  They come from the country each day with their farm products. In reality, China may have a bigger capital market that the US.  Lots and Lots of things for sale with thousands of people buying and from what I understand everyone wants to gain more wealth.  Most cars are small and the average cost of a car in US dollars is 10k.  A basic cellphone plan costs $10 per month. 

At lunch we had a conversation about the Communist party.  Apparently one has to make application to be a member and there is a year waiting period while they check your background.  Most Chinese think Americans have the wrong impression of them.  I did see a lot of poverty when we drove to the lake on Saturday, but I will have to say that while this City (capitol of the province) is a very busy place, people work, shop and spend time with their family just like we do.  Family is very important to the Chinese.  They want to spend a lot of time with their family and they cherish their children.  They all want to work hard and have a better life.  They put others above self, which I think is good.  That is truly what County government is all about, serving others. 

The Chinese are concerned with the success of the group rather than the individual.  I do agree that for an organization to be successful the team (in our case) has to be strong.  For Glynn County to be successful we have to work together to provide our services.  If one department tried to do things on their own without consideration of how their actions affect other departments then we most likely will have problems.  However, if time is taken to consider the affects of our actions on others then I believe we can be more effective in accomplishing our goals.  Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to find time to think through all of the ramifications of an action or decision.  When an organization has to downsize because of less revenue it places more pressure on those who remain to take on more responsibility, which uses up more time and leaves less time to carefully think through issues or planning.  The Chinese think the American news media puts a twist on what their life is truly like and would like for America to leave them alone to live their lives and they would leave America alone to live their lives.

The people here are very friendly.  Our hosts have been wonderful and have gone out of their way to meet our every need.  The Chinese believe very strongly in service.  Certainly that is the purpose of county government, to serve others.  The culture here promotes service.  Individuals are not pressured to serve rather it is a part of society.  It makes me curious of how many county employees ( not just in Glynn, but in other counties as well) are truly committed to service or are just there for a paycheck.  How is commitment achieved?

They have assigned a young student to be our guide.  Her name is Kitzu.  She is 21 years old and speaks good English.  She has come here just for the next three weeks of the institute to be one of the hosts and guide for the groups from Carl Vinson.  She is an English major at the university, she is petite in size and very bright.  The women here dress very fashionably.  I have been impressed with how well dressed the women are.  Men on the other hand dress very simply and with the heat are wearing a pair of khakis and a knit pull over shirt.  Not a polo shirt from a brand standpoint, but that type of shirt. The people here use a tremendous amount of expression when they communicate and with over 2000 letters in their language they say a lot.  I think American women would like their husbands to show a little more expression when they communicate like they do here :)

I hope I am starting to make progress in my class.  On Tuesday I spent more time on state and local government.  I left off on Monday with the concept of Home Rule, which is a difficult concept for them.  I revisited that topic when I started class on Tuesday to make sure they understood.  Here home rule does not exist.  The Central Government hands down policy to the city governments.  My class is very attentive and their questions are very perceptive.  One question was if those running for office received campaign contributions from individuals and if so, once they were elected were they heavily influenced by those who contributed financially.  I provided some examples of where this has happened.  They wanted to know if a person had to have any qualifications to run for office.  They wanted to know if an elected official had a business if the business did better because of them being in office.  I told them it usually had the opposite effect.

Here the head of the City is called Party Secretary who is appointed by the Central Party.  They wanted to know who was in charge of negotiations between a city and county.  They were very interested in our web site.  They wanted to know if when a person runs for office if the county posted their bio and platform on our website.  They were very interested in what information our website provided and the overall purpose for it.  It sounds like we share a mutual purpose in having a website.  Although I gathered that the web sites in China are more advanced than those in the US.  I would like to learn more about the web sites here and how they use technology in their City.

The leaders of the class took us to dinner last night.  The food was not as exotic as the other meals, with the exception of goose liver and snails still in the shell.  I passed on the goose liver, but I did try a snail.  They provided a tiny fork to take the meat out of the snail.  Again most of the meat was surrounded by bone.  Although my wife would slap me if I spit bone out of my mouth onto the table, I am getting pretty good at it!

As I write this Wednesday has started.  It is 9:30 pm in Glynn County and when this is posted I will have finished my class for today, which by the way is focused on the the government of Glynn County, and I will have had dinner.  I wonder what will be on the menu for tonight?

The First Day of Teaching

Today (Monday) was our first day teaching.  We met for breakfast at the usual time and had the same food as the previous days.  I could really go for a real cup of coffee. Green tea is not my thing nor is the coffee that they have.  Both are very good, but I would prefer a Starbucks.  I had a light breakfast.  I have been on a diet for the past month and lost ten pounds.  I am afraid with all of the food that they are feeding us I may gain it all back.  I seem to be surviving with chop sticks, but barely.  Please don't ask me for a lesson on how to use them, because I do not have a clue.  I am just managing the best that I can.  I have been offered a fork twice now and I am sure it won't be the last time, but I am sticking with my vow.  

After breakfast we had an opening ceremony for the start of the institute.  Those in my class are mid-level government officials from this province.  After the opening ceremony we went to the classroom, which is a small room and might be typical of a US high school classroom 40 years ago.  It did have a small standup a/c unit in the back of the room, which was very nice since it is so hot and muggy here.  After the introductions I left and went back to my room.  Kristy is teaching the morning session and I am teaching in the afternoon from 2:30 to 5:30.  After I prepared some more for my class, an institute official offered for me to use his computer in his office, which was very kind of him to do.  Thus, I was able to provide the first blog update in a few days.  This afternoon they loaned me a computer which is right in my room.  They have been very kind and considerate.  I met Kristy and the others for lunch.  They provided 15 various dishes.  Rice, greens, squid, donkey, fish, cabbage soup, pork soup, dumplings with pork, beef, chicken w/ bones, duck with bones and watermelon.  I forgot what the other ones were. Unfortunately, I had donkey before I knew what it was.  It actually tasted good until I found out.  I was not going to try the squid, but our host insisted.  It was not bad either.  I did manage to consume something very spicey that caused my lips to burn the rest of the afternoon.  I am glad that I had some chapstick, which did provide some relief. 

This is the donkey dish. Hee Haw!

To start class, I provided some information about myself and my family.  I showed a picture of my family   With the one child rule in China they were all amazed that my wife and I have ten children.  I told them a few years ago that when the children were small I was buying 40 pairs of shoes a year.  I thought some of them were going to fall out of their chairs.  After my comments I went around the room and allowed each of them to introduce themselves to me and share where they worked, about their family and what they liked to do.  At least two said they liked basketball.  My slides today were centered on Federal government, state government and local government and how they each relate to one another.  With interpretation I do not have to worry about having enough slides.  There is no way that I will cover all of my material. 

I mentioned city-county relations and one in the class asked a question about an example of how the two might have conflicts.  I mentioned the jail issue between the City of Brunswick and Glynn County.  They found that quite interesting which led to 30 minutes of questions.  If I wrote what type of questions that they asked it might open up the entire issue again, which I know better not to do.  I will say that they are a very perceptive group.  They also asked me personal questions about how much I earned in money, how much I spent on food, housing, etc. and how much I saved.  I think they save quite a bit of their income in China.  They also asked my if I paid my wife a salary to be a stay at home mom.  It would be great if I could afford to do that :)  They also wanted to know if I was a happy man.  I told them I was very happy, I had a beautiful family and a job that I enjoyed going to each day.  I expect that before the week is up I will be asked much more about my family.  I found a stopping point in my presentation and we broke for the day.  During the first part of my presentation I showed them a video of the Golden Isles in Chinese that they loved.  I appreciate the Golden Isles CVB providing the video.  I brought a copy of the video, as well as my presentation on a thumb drive for each one in class, which total 22.

This evening we had dinner with the President of the Institute in his private dining room.  The Lazy Susan on this table was motorized and a staff member stood to the side and stopped the turning when you took an item for your plate.  She had a small remote control.  The most interesting item on the menu tonight was a complete goose that had been cooked and then cut up bone and all.  Head, feet, wings, etc were all right there. Fairly tasty, but processing meat and bones in my mouth is a very new experience.  I also forgot that at lunch we had chicken feet.  One ended up on my plate, but there it stayed.  It was a very nice dinner and no one went away hungry.  I will sign off now.  As you begin your day it is time for me to go to sleep to be well rested for my second day of class.

Chinese Driving 101 and A Trip to a Lake

The first side trip in Nanchung

I had a good rest Saturday evening and slept for close to ten hours.  I felt well rested on Sunday and for the most part was over my jet lag.  Our group met at 7:45 for breakfast.  Our group consists of Fey who is on staff at the University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute of Government and is a native of Shanghi, Kristy Lindstrom who is the Director of Communications for the office of the Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, her significant other John David who goes by "Bubba" and Kitzu who is a Chinese student here helping be our host this week.  We also have officials with the Jiangxi Administrative Institute with us.

The breakfast each morning is pretty similar to the day before.  After breakfast we boarded our van and headed to a very large lake.  Driving here is insane.  In the US I would be scared to death, but so far I have not been.  They say pedestrians have the right of way, but I have not witnessed that yet.  If you are near a car you better get out of the way or you will get run over.  Cars drive in the middle of the road, they drive on the left hand side of the road (their laws are the same as the US in terms of you are supposed to be on the right side of the road).  Here, if there is open blacktop you take it.  I cannot begin to say how many close calls we had.  There is no doubt our driver is a true professional.  He also has a horn that sounds like one on a large Mack truck.  He has  a smaller horn too that he just uses for motorcycles.  There must be a million motorcycyles in this city.  They are everywhere. 

We drove two hours to a very large lake that they say has over 1000 islands.  It was very pretty and reminded me of a James Bond movie.  There is a national park on the lake that we walked around in.  We walked on a swinging bridge high over the lake.  They had screened off areas in the lake by the shore to raise fish.  Little fish and very large fish.  Very few birds in China.  It is my understanding that many years ago they were considered unclean so most of them were killed.  It is also my understanding that they got rid of anything pretty, but that thought has changed now and we have seen some very pretty flowers.  The revolution started in Nanchang, which is the City in which I am teaching.  Nanchang is in the Jiangxi Provence, which is the same province that the sister city of Brunswick is located.  In fact we have one student from our sister city.  I think it is Gangzou.  After we left the lake we drove to a nearby resort and had lunch at a restaurant in the village.

These people, for being so skinny, eat a lot.  I do not know where they put it all.  By now, I have forgotten all that we had.  I know we had fresh whole fish from the lake, spicy veggies and a host of other dishes.  On the way back to the city we stopped by locals selling peaches by the roadside.  My guess is we were the first Americans to ever buy fruit from them.  They were all amazed at my height; of course everyone has been.  I expected to get comments, but not to the extent that I have.  It has been fun.  I usually do not stand up straight, but I have tried to stand nice and tall to provide the full effect.  In class today I rested my head on the top of the doorway.  You should have seen that reaction :)  When we returned to our dorm it was about 4:30 pm and we all took a rest.  It was good to have a nap after our lake excursion.  We met at 7:00 pm and took a walk down the street to Wal-Mart.

I can now say that not all Wal-Marts are the same. Wow!  For a Sunday evening I was amazed at how many people were out.  There must have been thousands.  The most interesting thing about Wal-Mart was the food section.  They had a fresh cooked section that to me smelled like a septic tank or worse.  You come down an escalator, turn right and you are hit with this odor.  I will never forget that smell.  I have no idea what they had cooked and what was for sale, but it was not going back home with me.  They also had live turtles, frogs and eels for sale.  I cannot imagine that in the grocery store back home.  We had frog for lunch yesterday bone and all.

Apparently the Chinese consider meat next to the bone good meat.  They put it all in their mouth, process the meat and bones, then spit the bones on the table.  It is totally opposite of everything my mama taught me.  But they say when in Rome do as the Romans do.  I tried it tonight at dinner and it was very odd spitting bones on the table.  It makes me laugh just thinking about it.  The looks I got in Wal-Mart were hysterical.  I think when I retire I will be a greeter at a China Wal-Mart :)  For dinner we went to KFC and got a spicy chicken sandwich.  No diet coke in Nanchang and I am having withdrawals.  However, KFC did have ice cream which was very much a treat.  Yum!  We left KFC and came back to the dorm to get a good nights sleep for our first day of teaching.

First Sights and Tastes in China

The flight from Detroit to Shanghai was long, but good.  We had a few periods of bumps, but not anything too bad.  I had a connecting flight  from Shanghai to Nanchang.  Nanchang is the city where I will be teaching.  The Shanghai airport was an amazing experience.  It is certainly the largest airport I have ever been in and, from the size of it, may be the largest in the world.  If China has a billion people I think half of them were in the airport.  I have never seen so many people in one place.  It is one of those things hard to describe.  Absolutely amazing!  What was supposed to be a three hour layover turned into six.  

At first, I guess for a couple of hours, I was in the upstairs main terminal, but then they said the gate was changed.  I gathered up my belongings and went on a long walk downstairs into a room that in Glynn County would be rated to hold a 100 people and that had close to 500.  Al Thomas, Glynn County Fire Chief, would not have been happy!  People were smoking and the air was thick with humidity.  Bad weather is what caused our delay.  The room had windows to the outside.  It was dark and dreary and very hot and sticky.  I felt like I was in an old movie.  So not having a clue about when my plane would leave I tried to make my way to the gate agent.  I initially tried to be a good southern gentleman and wait in line.  It did not take me long to realize that I had to take a different approach.  The Chinese at the airport were not very patient.  They were butting in line and talking so fast it would make a New Yorker out to be a slow talker.  In an aggressive manner I made my way to the gate agent.  I understood enough of what he said that my flight would board in twenty minutes.  I realized later that he just told me that to get rid of me.  He did not have a clue when my plane would arrive or leave to take me to Nanchang.  It was two hours later when we finally boarded our flight to Nanchang.  By the time I got to my room at the government institute in Nanchang I was ready for a long rest.  

While I was at the Shanghai Airport watching everything take place I was reminded of the virtue of patience.  The people I saw, not all but a lot, were not patient.  The next time I see someone at the Delta counter in the States complain I will think that they have nothing to complain about.  Obviously the poor gate agent could not do anything about the weather.  Rather than complain if people took the time to listen and understand there would be more peace and calmness.  I believe there is a lesson for local government in this.  Often times we press forward with a project without fully understanding the needs of the community.  I believe it is important to take time to listen and understand an issue.  I also believe it is important for the public to be more patient with their government and try to understand why a project is taking longer than expected  or why a certain project is needed.  Like with the weather delay at the airport, somethings are out of our control.  The gate agent was doing an awesome job controlling the situation, but a lot of the people did not want to understand. They just wanted to blame somebody.  

I think Glynn County employees do an awesome job, but sometimes things are out of their control and the public just wants to blame someone..  Based on this experience at the airport and my observation, I plan to work to be more patient and to take more time to understand the issues at hand and who will be affected by our decisions.  I think more thought needs to be given in this area not just by me, but all county officials.  Just like there is a delicate  balance with our coastal ecosystem we need to delicately balance each issue Glynn County faces.

I was able to get some rest Friday night.  I slept for about four hours and then it was time to meet our hosts for breakfast.  I was pleased to find the bed was long enough for me.  However, it is very hard compared to my bed at home.  When you are tired a hard bed works well.  I also was pleasantly surprised to find a tall shower.  My room is very small and has a bed, a desk, a chair and a small bathroom.  I cannot seem to get the door to close so when I am at the sink shaving the door hits me on my backside.  I have found out that I am 2.3 meters tall.  

Breakfast here is unusual.  It is funny watching me eat a fried egg with chopsticks.  A little slippery.  They have an orange drink with every breakfast and Coke.  They also have some type of instant coffee with sugar and milk already mixed in.  They have lots of other things for breakfast, as well.  Breads, rice porridge, spicy carrots, green steamed vegetables and bacon.

Saturday afternoon we took a trip to the mountains.  Unfortunately, I am not able to send pictures at this time.  We ended up at some trail that took us up the mountain.  It was made out of what we would call brick pavers and the labor to build this trail up the mountain must have been exhaustive.  Part of the trail was washed out.  It is the rainy season here.  Our shoes got wet through one part and then we were stopped by a very strong current of water washing over the trail.  We tried to use better judgement and turned back.  It was a very beautiful place and the park host, which was a woman, said that we were the first foreigners to ever come there.  

We stopped on our way back to the institute at a very nice restaurant in a new part of our city.  The Chinese people dine at round tables, which promote unity and better conversation.  My family purchased a round table when we moved to Glynn County for the same reason and it does seem to work well.  Each table has a Lazy Susan in the middle.  All food is placed on the Lazy Susan and individuals use their chopsticks to take off a small portion of food at a time.  Since I have been here I have not gone hungry, but they must have felt sorry for me because halfway through the meal I was provided a fork.  However, I took a vow before I came here that while in China no fork would touch my hand.

Lazy Susan

The dishes were plentiful and exotic.  Whole steamed fish, rice, veggies, cooked pumkin, dried fish.  It is amazing to watch.  Our driver sat next to me and he was an amazing guy to watch eat.  He would put a  whole small fish in his mouth process the fish and the bones then spit the bones on the table.  Absoultely incredible.  Not sure how he did that.  It was a great meal and the fellowship was wonderful.  Our hosts are very kind. Very kind and a true delight to be with.

Chinese Veggies

Whole steamed fish