English Alliance School, Dunguan, China.

An interesting Scotsman.

English Alliance School’s owner and head Dr William Soong is an interesting person. He was born in China but spent much of his young life growing up in Edinburgh, consequently you are faced with a person of obvious Chinese parentage who then addresses you in perfect English complete with mild Scottish accent. The obvious upside of this is that he also knows well the culture that most of his English staff come from.

This understanding is very apparent in the quality of the teaching staff accommodation as well as the extremely pleasant surroundings within the compound where the units are located. This is situated a short bike ride from the school.

Dunguan is mostly a very new city and as yet is lightly populated. The infrastructure is all brand new and in fact is still being created.

To reach Dunguan economically from Hong Kong involves a train ride north to Shenzen where you cross the border into mainland China proper. I had not actually ever really felt the weight of the Chinese population until going through an obvious choke point such as Shenzen. This is where the density of the population becomes very apparent as you queue to pass through immigration. From Shenzen fast efficient coaches travel to all parts and it’s a further couple of hours by road.

English Alliance run a school within a school. The main campus is a secondary school and students are time tabled out for English classes.

Classrooms are spacious and well appointed with full airconditioning.

As has already been said the teacher accommodation is of a very high standard and even includes a gymnasium and swimming complex for residents. Another point to note is the provision of a western style WC which makes the culture change just a little easier to get used to!

Wayne & Naomi in Southern China

Right now we are in a place called Zhongdian, in south west China. The govt has actually renamed the place Shangri-la, claiming it to be the location of the famous book about the last paradise on Earth. It’s a nice place but I think the claim is a bit of a stretch. We have been forced to extend our stay here as I was bitten by a dog while trekking (will come back to that), and have to undergo a series of injections so I don’t die a horrible death of rabies. Looks like I will live though.

Zhongdian is at an altitude of 3,200m, so even scaling a tiny flight of stairs leaves you stuffed at the top. The next stop is Litang which is at 4,100m, though the bus has to climb to 5,500m to get there, so hopefully I will be able to walk let alone climb stairs.

Had my b’day here yesterday, which ended up being a very good day (thanks to Naomi), and went to a really nice restaurant (talking 1 to 1, the meal cost $150, which is about 15 nights in a hostel, or about 150 bowls of noodles!).

We have been back on the road from Nanjing for about 3 weeks now, and loving moving to a different place every few days, and sleeping on trains, trying to talk with the chain smoking Chinese guys we share the compartment with. Nanjing was a great city, and we met some great people, and the ease of life will be missed. Teaching was a good experience, though not sure if I will be jumping at the chance anytime soon. Some of the kids were great and really made your day, but others deserved to be beaten (joking!). I feel sorry for any teachers I ever gave trouble to!

First stop after Nanjing was Huang Shan (yellow mountain), one of the most famous in China. It was absolutely spectacular, and I have never seen anything like it in my life. The hike up the stairs was a bit tricky though. After that was Yangshou, which has probably been our favourite place in China so far. You have probably seen photos of it (the area for hundreds of km’s has these hills jutting out of the ground). Great to ride a bike around in the country side, swim in the river and relax.
We caught a bamboo boat down river, and had a natural mud bath in a cave (see photo of my white ass). The local food markets were also great for atmosphere. Great food, but had some strange things on the menu, and has been the first place we have seen dog being served (apparently only common in south China and Korea). I was tempted to try, but not sure if I can. Plus Naomi wouldn’t be too happy.

After that was Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province (we are in the north of Yunnan now). Not much to say as it was a really boring city.

Yunnan is full of minority groups, so each town we have been to since has had different ways of life to the rest of China which has been very interesting to see.

Dali, centre Yunnan, is a very laid back place with an old town which looks good, but is basically a whole heap of shops selling tourist crap. We managed to get out of town for the day though, and had a personal tour through a traditional village (not any tourists at all which was great), and the local market, which sold everything you could think of (cows, horses, dogs, chickens, tobacco etc), and people were even getting their teeth and eyes looked at next to where they were selling chili and sugar. It was huge, and the most interesting thing we have done in China. Dali itself was full of western restaurants and bars, and hippy’s were everywhere. Little old ladies would walk up to you pretending to show you something, and whisper ¡®smokey¡­ganja¡­.hashy?’ The hostel we were at, while very good, was full of hippy’s who did nothing all day
but smoke, give each other massages, meditate, paint, and walk around the grass area very slowly. Some had been there months and barely ventured out of the hostel. Strange bunch.

Next was Lijiang, another old town with wooden buildings and cobbled lanes (no cars in the area was a very pleasant change), but was even more orientated towards tourists than Dali. Not as many hippy’s though. The main bar strip had bar after bar on either side of a canal, and staff and customers would yell at each other across the canal. The louder and more insulting your chant was, the better. Cool to see, but half an hour of hundreds of people yelling at each other in Chinese was enough. The hostel we stayed at was great, and had the cheapest food and beer we have had in China yet.

We then trekked the Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the deepest gorges in the world (4000m from the Yangzi River below to the snow capped peaks above). It was absolutely spectacular, and you feel dwarfed by the mountains. Unfortunately on the second day, a dog decided to have a go at my leg, so had to cut it short a little bit, and get to the next big town to get my rabies shots. It was stressful as you have to get the shots done within 24 hours, and our advice from doctors in Perth was to fly to Hong Kong immediately, but the town we are in had the stuff I needed. Big thanks to two Chinese guys we met on the bus (Ray and Eric) that helped us enormously.

That brings me up to the now. Got the 11 hour bus ride tomorrow (only 150 km, but up a very big hill), and Tibetan culture for the next week. Hope everyone is well back home (and friends we have made around the world).

If you want to see a lot more photos, and keep in touch a lot easier, go to facebook.com, register (very easy), and search for ’Naomiwayne shared’.

PS. This was written a couple of days ago, and we are now in a place called Litang (the high place I was talking about). The 2 day bus ride here was long and rough, but absolutely stunning scenery. 6000m high mountains, deep valleys and gorges, rolling green hills, tibetan villages, Tibetan nomad tents and herds of Yaks grazing (yak is quite nice by the way). It really was great. We had to stop at a small place overnight (it was a hole and not worth talking about), but when we got there, we had the usual people trying to get us to stay at their guesthouse. Two women starting fighting over our business, and it got very rough. The older woman had the younger ones hair in her mouth and wouldn’t let go, and they were both on the ground. Both were bleeding at the end. We were just sitting back watching, both amused and disgusted.

Litang is a real Tibetan town (long history and two Dali Lamas came from here). Tomorrow we are going to a horse racing festival (they have real cowboys here), and the day after a sky burial (Tibetan funeralsconsist of the dead being chopped upin front of a crowd, and fed to vultures). We have talked to locals and its ok to come, and they even encourage attendance (no photos though). Will not be getting too close though, as we have heard its very graphic.

Peoples’ Republic of China, Heenan Province

Sanmenxia Shoujun High School
Sanmenxia Shoujun High School is privately owned and caters for around 3000 students. It is situated in Heenan Province one of Chinas most populous and near the rural town of Louang.

Though the school is large it also reflects the rural conditions from which the boarding students come. In that beds have no mattresses, I was told that the students find them uncomfortable since they have always slept on a board bed. Ablutions in the dormitory blocks are very basic and students go to the nearby town bath house for a full body wash. Westerners may well be surprised but this reflects rural village life in China. The accommodation for the English teachers was clean airy and with hot showers. All meals were supplied and if you enjoy Chinese food these were terrific. Beds for the English teachers did have mattresses and were very comfortable. The western teachers only worked upto twenty hours per week and I say only since their Chinese counterparts worked considerably longer for much less money.

School started at 6am with morning Tai Chi, a light breakfast followed and first class of the day commenced at 7.30 am. Apart from a break of an hour and a half to eat and nap around mid-day, classes then ran continuously until 9.30pm seven days per week! Every four weeks they had a long week end so that students could travel home.

Teaching students from a strict Confusion grounding in respect for elders and especially teachers is difficult. I quickly found that they giggle when embarrassed by difficult questions, both sexes, and it would be extremely impolite and counter productive to press when this happens. You just have to find a different approach. Classroom discussions where many opinions are expressed and debated just does not happen. If addressing a student (even if you do not know their name don’t point!) they stand with hands clasped in front answer the question very politely then sit down. Do I hear experienced Australian teachers saying “I wish!” It is no gift really because the whole room hangs on your every word and gesture, don’t expect to get down from being the ‘Sage on the Stage’ these students are very very uncomfortable when confronted by a situation where they are both allowed and encouraged to express their own thoughts rather than regurgitate what they have heard you say.

Heenan is a picturesque area. In close by Louang are grottos that have been inhabited for thousands of years until quite recent times by Budhist Monks who keep the nearby White Horse Temple. We travelled around Heenan to several rural towns all of them were well kept and clean. The people dressed simply were clean and well kept and the food was simply terrific. If you ever get invited to a banquet eat slowly and don’t let your host fill you up on the first few courses. Be aware that you are settling in for a five or six hour marathon and the host won’t be satisfied until you are in an agony of over eating. Mastery of Chop sticks is a must, any thing else conveys too much food too quickly!

China is an experience that you cannot have enough of there is so much variation. English Explorer has an excellent contact in Beeijing who is an Australian with Chinese background and this sort of anchor point makes for stress free help if you need it.

English Alliance School, Dunguan, China

An interesting Scotsman.

English Alliance School’s owner and head Dr William Soong is an interesting person. He was born in China but spent much of his young life growing up in Edinburgh, consequently you are faced with a person of obvious Chinese parentage who then addresses you in perfect English complete with mild Scottish accent. The obvious upside of this is that he also knows well the culture that most of his English staff come from.

This understanding is very apparent in the quality of the teaching staff accommodation as well as the extremely pleasant surroundings within the compound where the units are located. This is situated a short bike ride from the school.

Dunguan is mostly a very new city and as yet is lightly populated. The infrastructure is all brand new and in fact is still being created.

To reach Dunguan economically from Hong Kong involves a train ride north to Shenzen where you cross the border into mainland China proper. I had not actually ever really felt the weight of the Chinese population until going through an obvious choke point such as Shenzen. This is where the density of the population becomes very apparent as you queue to pass through immigration. From Shenzen fast efficient coaches travel to all parts and it’s a further couple of hours by road.

English Alliance run a school within a school. The main campus is a secondary school and students are time tabled out for English classes.

Classrooms are spacious and well appointed with full airconditioning.

As has already been said the teacher accommodation is of a very high standard and even includes a gymnasium and swimming complex for residents. Another point to note is the provision of a western style WC which makes the culture change just a little easier to get used to!

Foshan, China

Max recently joined the staff of Lingdong School and is having a ball! He sent us this short report.

To English Explorer staff and students,

Dear Harry and Alan,

I have embarked on a wonderful adventure. The people in Foshan are very friendly and in general treat me like a celebrity.

I have been given three nicknames already, the president, the diplomat and the C.E.O. The students here are exceptionally eager to learn, although 15-16 y.o. are reluctant to speak, it can be like pulling teeth.

Eating here is a huge learning curve. Am practising eating with chopsticks on peanuts. It is literally cheaper to eat out, than cook for myself, (I'm in heaven!). Have eaten frog/toad, large intestine of beef or pork, and several other things my hosts seemed unwilling to divulge (very tasty) and I have developed a real liking for Chinese dumplings.

And finally a piece of advice for any students considering the E.S.L. experience, do it, do it now!

Regards Max.

Lingdong has openings for several teachers to commence in February 2007. They pay well, have great facilities and more to the point, their Australian and American staff speak highly of them. Are you interested in applying? Then get qualified soon.