A Teacher Goes Deep into China. (standard:non fiction, 1633 words)
Author: pjt	Added: Feb 23 2001	Views/Reads: 4403/2753	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
An account of what happened after I accepted an invitation from the Guangxi Education Ministry (China) to teach in the English Department of a Teachers' College in a remote mountain region: the only foreigner in a County of over half a million Chinese.

INTRODUCTION...February 1988: I set out to start on a teaching
assignment in a closed area of China where I was to be the only 
foreigner in Yishan County, population of about half a million Chinese 

PART 1...THE INVITATION: 

I had to get an invitation from the Ministry of Education in Nanning,
capital of Guangxi Province in order to accept an offer from the Hechi 
Teachers' College, Yishan County, Guangxi Province, People's Republic 
of China. Why? Because Yishan County was closed to foreign visitors due 
to a lack of adequate tourist facilities. The name of the county was 
changed a couple of years ago to Yizhou and thrown open to foreign 
tourists, but things were different back in 1988. 

From a background briefing which I had prior to departure I learnt that
the Hechi Teachers' College trains teachers in a variety of faculties 
and, after graduation, sends them out to the middle schools of Guangxi 
Province, mainly in poor country areas, to teach a varied syllabus,  
including English as a foreign language. 

My job was to introduce a method of teaching English known as "the
communicative approach" and not only to train the English Department 
undergraduates in this approach, but also to improve their 
communicative competence in the English language. 

I had quite a journey before I reached the College. I flew to Guangzhou
(Canton) via Bangkok and Hong Kong where I was met by Mr Ye, a foreign 
affairs official from the Guangzhou University of Foreign Affairs. He 
gave me the VIP treatment I was soon to experience as a "foreign 
expert" in the People's Republic. 

He ushered me past the sombre-looking customs people into a mini-bus and
on to the University. I was quite travel-tired by then and was grateful 
for the comfortable double room with an ensuite bathroom (Western 
style) where I was able to get a good night's sleep. 

Next morning after a tasty Chinese breakfast Mr.Ye told me that the
University was founded in 1965 and was the first institute of higher 
education in central and south China. It is set in a beautiful and 
tranquil part of Guangzhou's northern suburbs at the foot of a mountain 
called Baiyun (White Cloud). 

After breakfast I had a marvellous experience: a visit to the Flower
Market in Guangzhou, part of the Spring Festival when Chinese celebrate 
their New Year. The whole of the city's central area was closed to 
traffic and transformed into a gigantic pedestrian mall. This 
arrangement enabled citizens and visitors to wander through row after 
row of stalls filled with exotic flowers, small trees, fish and birds 
offered for sale by peasants from the rural regions of Guangdong 
Province. 

On the way into the city in a bus with Mr.Ye, his wife and a party of
foreign experts from the U.S.A., we drove slowly through milling crowds 
rushing through the streets on foot, on waves of bicycles, in buses and 
other vehicles. The sight was so unusual to my eyes that it left me 
breathless! 

For another two days I wandered around the University campus and climbed
Baiyun Mountain on the top of which is a fascinating lake. The scene 
was something from a delicately woven Chinese greetings card. At the 
other end of the lake was a restaurant of Chinese architectural design 
and along the shore to the right I saw small coloured boats swaying 
side by side waiting for someone to hire them. Time, unfortunately, 
prevented me from the pleasure of rowing out into the middle of the 
lake and enjoying the tranquil ambience from that vantage point. 

After a few days of these simple, yet unique pleasures, and in spite of
the wonderful hospitality, I was anxious to reach the destination where 
I was to live and work in the large county of Yishan. The thought of 
being the only foreigner in this county of over half a  million Chinese 
excited me and I wanted to get on with it. The ever-attentive and 
obliging Mr Ye assisted me to catch a train to the city of Luizhou in 
Guangxi Province where I arrived at 7am after a journey of 24 hours. 

Part 2...THE ARRIVAL: 


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