|
|
|
|
|
|
| Today, Zachary and Eric visited a private school in Chongqing. This is the school's bus.
Tina and Renée stayed at the apartment and had a slower-paced day. Tina was exhausted and Renée had developed a nice cough and runny nose - she was definitely fighting something.
|
|
The entrance to the school. It costs about 1100 yuan (US$137) per month to attend this school. Though not the most expensive in the city, our guide said it is one of the best schools. We did not tell our guide how much private schools cost in California.
|
|
The teachers at the school.
|
|
Upon arrival, this menu board shows the lunch meals for the week. Tuesday's meal looks really good but will bring my lunch on Wednesday...
|
|
First we visited the 3-4 year old class. The children were fairly well behaved, save a couple of "overly" curious boys. When they stood up, they pushed their chairs in.
|
|
The children said/sang Chinese poetry to the beat of the teacher's tambourine. This was three character poetry, where they would say three characters and on the fourth beat would pause and then start with another three characters.
|
|
This boy was really getting into it and was almost shouting it out.
|
|
Some tried to follow the teacher's lead... but it was just too tempting to watch these strangers. As with most other building in Chongqing, this school had no central heat so the rooms were quite cool.
|
|
Now it was time to sing a song and these children were clapping as they sang. There were four other adults (either teachers or parents helping out - I do not know which) helping the lead teacher. Three of them can be seen (one on the piano and two standing).
|
|
Many pictures like this one were in the hallways. We were told that 5 year old students at this school painted this and other pictures and wrote the calligraphy, which we thought was quite amazing. But even more brilliant is that if you look closely, you can see what appears to be a person taking a picture of this picture. Amazing!!!
|
|
| What is that on the chalkboard? I think has something to do with a cussing Abby... Oh yeah, an abacus.
Next we popped into the 5-6 year old class and the teacher was using the abacus to teach this addition and subtraction.
|
|
This teacher was really cool and energetic. It was obvious that she had connected with the children. Even with strangers there, they stayed focused on her.
|
|
After solving a problem using the abacus, she would give off a cheer. And all the children joyfully got involved.
|
|
This little girl was distracted by the strangers, while the rest of the class retrieved their abacuses. It was neat to see 20+ children performing a task while working together, having some fun while not being unruly or noisy.
|
|
Finally we visited the 2-3 year old class. Today's lesson was on taking a nap, thus the doll, pillow and blankets. It was the first day of school after the Chinese New Years break, so these youngsters were having difficulty being lined up. Even so, they were not overly noisy. Most of the adults in the background are parents, as many of them lingered a while so their child could adjust to life back at the school.
|
|
A close up of some of these children.
|
|
This little one came straight to Zachary to give him something and to greet him. His teacher was helping him. Zachary had a difficult time receiving this gift - for some reason, Zachary was very uncomfortable in this room. Best guess is that he was overloaded and was having difficulty deciphering reality by the time we visited the third classroom.
|
|
Then we ventured to the top floor in the building where there was a play area. The children in our group (including Zachary) seemed to really need it and jumped right in. This was a cool climbing apparatus, though one we will never see in the States as the footing gets much more difficult the higher one goes. Zachary won this race, though he had a head start... What was neat was that he completed the climb even though he started getting really nervous at the top!
|
|
| Houston, we have a problem... Those blue panels are easy to topple.
Zachary, Tucker and Kendyl built what appeared to be a fort in a manner of minutes.
|
|
Zachary and Tucker work to get the blue panel to stand up again. There was great cooperation between the children. No sooner had they built this, they had to tear it down. After a show of disbelief that they could not play with this anymore, they cleaned up. Here, we found out that Tucker and Kendyl also know the "Clean Up" song.
|
|
Wooah - slow down there!!!
Praisiah and Jeff are REALLY enjoying playing in the plastic balls. Actually, they seemed to enjoy watching the older children run around.
|
|
Across the street from the school was a guard and many workers. It looked like this cart was used for delivering news papers.
|
|
After the visit to the school, we boarded the bus and headed for the highest point in Chongqing called Eling Park. In this park is the home shown below. It has had many owners, the most famous being Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT - Nationalist Party), who lived in this house for 6 months. The KMT overthrew the last Chinese dynasty - the Qing dynasty - in 1911. When the Japanese Army invaded the heartland of China in 1937, Chiang was forced to move his capital from Nanjing to Chongqing. Chiang fled to Taipei Taiwan on December 10, 1949, when the KMT lost the Chinese Civil War to Mao Zedong and the CPC (Communist Party of China), who moved the capitol to Beijing.
|
|
Another view of Chiang Kai-shek's house. Before this area was a park, there used to be many consulates and government buildings here because of the areas beauty and as it was a place of wealth. But they all moved out when they realized this hilltop presented an easy target for Japanese bombers. After the war, this are was converted to Eling Park and people no longer live here.
|
|
| Honey, will you marry... ah... hello... I'm proposing now but will be there in 5 minutes.
Everyone in our group felt that this was a filming for a TV series and not a real proposal. For one, the lady ran here holding up her dress high - revealing blue jeans and nothing else (though I'll still get chewed out for saying this). It just seemed too staged. But the kneeling while on the phone was too much to resist. This "patio" outside Chiang Kai-shek's house overhangs the cliff wall overlooking Chongqing.
|
|
A view of the cliff on the north side of Eling Park. Chiang Kai-shek's house can be seen behind the people.
|
|
Facing northeast, a view of the Jailing river from Eling Park. We crossed the bridges multiple times. One has to cross this river to get to the airport and the Civil Administration Bureau (where we got Renée). The Jiangbei Rivershore Road is on the far side of the river. From our hotel, we could see that this road is lined with a row of colored lights - very clean and neat looking. On the near side of the river is the monorail tracks.
|
|
| Hey Zachary, let me hold you out past the cliff so you can take a cool picture... {not} Looking straight down. Though we do not know the height of this hill, it was tall enough.
|
|
A stone path through the park.
|
|
Zachary found a "kid's path" to play with Tucker and Kendyl. It is hard to be a kid in an adult "boring" park.
|
|
Our best guess is that these four men are playing Mahjong, though none in our group had played the game.
|
|
Zachary, Tucker and Tucker's grandpa Allen pose by the Mahjong game.
|
|
The park has some really beautiful architecture.
|
|
|
|
These two trees caught my eye.
|
|
Must...climb...wall.
Must...stay...off...easy...adult...path.
|
|
At the highest point in Eling Park is a pagoda. We climbed its 6-floors for a breathtaking 360 degree view of Chongqing, limited only by the fog and smog. This southwest photo shows our Wanyou Conifer Hotel - the rightmost skyscraper.
|
|
A close up on our hotel, still the rightmost sky scraper.
|
|
A view east showing the new Caiyuanba bridge being built over the Changjiang (Yangzi) river. Up until a few years ago, Chongqing only had a couple bridges. Since becoming its own municipality, the city (like the city of Fuling) has been building and expanding VERY rapidly.
|
|
|
