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.
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!
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