It is 6 am on Saturday morning here in Beijing. I have now figured out that our hotel overlooks the Beijing Zoo.
This City is so huge and modernized - everywhere are very tall mixed use buildings with housing above and commercial space below, not just in the downtown center, but everywhere we have gone.
Displacement of older housing and neighborhoods is going on very quickly as the Nation prepares for the 2008 Olympics. The National pride of a strong and prosperous China is everywhere [including in my heart as well].
But the stark contrasts of the relatively younger yuppie middle class here with the extreme poverty of many, especially in the rural areas makes me uncomfortable. As one of my colleagues said yesterday, this is no longer a 'classless society' unfortunately.
I broke away from our tour group briefly to visit a 'Wal Mart'-like big box store across the street from the Hotel. I believe Wal-Mart has a number of stores in Beijing and there is a local big box chain called Wu Mart as well. Our visit has been limited to school visists and lectures and discussions on Chinese Culture and History.
On Friday morning we heard an eloquent speech from the Vice Chair of the National People's Congress, Dr. Xu Jialu, a professor at Beijing Normal University. The students who we met with there remind me of my students at San Francisco State University. Both institutions share the responsibility of educating the next generation of teachers and educational leaders for our futures.
In the afternoon we were fortunate to visit the Great Hall of the People. I met the Minister of Education Dr. Zhou [the rod paige/margaret spellings of China, I guess] and accepted a donation of books from the PRC's education division to our school district. I am one of 16 group leaders here among our 400 or so delegation from the US. Our group is visiting Jinan in Shandong Province on Sunday and Monday. The head of their education commission has been tagging along here in Beijing. We will get to see the schools in Jinan tomorrow.
The great hall and tiananmen square and everything around them are just completely awesome. I can't even think of the words to describe how i feel about being there. We had a rare opportunity to go room by room in the Great Hall building. If only the walls could talk...
The cultural revolution-era murals of Mao with the national minorities of China and other historical murals were the high point. The low point was my fatigue from the trip.
I need to save up energy for the walk up the Great Wall this morning.
Mao said you are not a 'true man' unless you've walked the Great Wall. We'll see how I do...
Lastly, one of the best parts of the trip has been learning from and bonding with my fellow educators from around the US. I was surprised to see my good friend Debbie Wei from Philly on the trip. She's a curriculum specialist in their school district and a longtime activist and a founder of Asian Americans United there.
I hope to break away from the group to see the Lu Xun museum, in addition to our planned visits to Tiananmen and the Great Wall.