April 14, 2011

Today we attended a lecture at the Beijing Normal University on social and educational changes in China over the last 30 years. It was interesting to learn that China is having many of the same problems in educating their children as the United States. More students are going to college or universities and the universities are struggling to handle the huge increase in numbers. Beijing Normal University enrollment has grown from 8,000 students in 1999 to 20,000 this year. Along with those 20,000 students which attend on campus there are also 20,000 Internet students, and 20,000 correspondence students in night or weekend classes.

China is facing society problems as well which comes with a developing country. The young people are becoming more materialistic instead of embracing the hardworking and thrifty beliefs of their previous generations. The Internet is making the Chinese young people want to embrace the American culture they see in Hollywood movies/ Pop singers and video games. The number of Internet users in China has risen from 33.7 million in 2001 to 384 million in 2009!!! Coca-Cola is the most popular drink and the American food chains is growing very fast. Chinese children want to have their birthday parties at a MacDonald's restaurant. Chinese people also have much more disposal income which they never had before. The disposal income for people living in a city has increased from 1,374 yuan in 1989 to 15,781 yuan in 2008. And in the country, the disposal income has risen from 602 yuan in 1989 to 4,761 yuan in 2008. To translate the Chinese Yuan in to USA dollars you need to divide the Yuan by 6 and that will let you know about how many dollars that would be. Disposal income means money to spend on fun things like movies, games or more motorcycles;).

The afternoon was filled with a trip to the famous pearl market. They had many stores of genuine pearls ranging from all prices. The pearl market was not very interesting to me maybe because I just don't have an appreciation for their worth. I will say the number of pearls was impressive and they were very beautiful.

Our evening activities involved traveling to the Hutongs of Beijing. 20 or 30 years ago Beijing was filled with many of these Hutongs which were single story homes all connected together in very close proximity. Most have been torn down to make way for modern high rise apartment buildings. The Hutongs we visited were very interesting. We took a rickshaw ride around the area and even had dinner in one of the homes. Yes we had a family invite us into their home through our guide company. We sat down to an authentic Chinese meal in their home. The wife/mother cooked and the father served. The father was a Kung Fu master instructor and demonstrated a few moves for us. He has two sons and one is currently living in Houston, Texas as a martial arts instructor. The dinner was wonderful and they were so welcoming. After dinner the mother treated us to some Chinese opera on her karaoke machine. The father played a traditional string instrument as well. The highlight of the evening was when we saw on the Karaoke machine a popular American song “Take Me Home Country Roads”. I suggested we all sing that one and enough people agreed that we cued up the song and sang it together. 20 plus Americans singing about country roads in West Virginia on a Karaoke machine in a Hutong in Beijing, China. I don't know what else to say, but it was hard to describe. Another wonderful day. Tomorrow we tour the Great Wall so I am going to go to bed. Thanks for following my blog. Make sure you check out the photos today on my Photo bucket account. http://s1179.photobucket.com/albums/x391/jeibel/China%20trip%20day%204/

P.S. You get the night off from answering questions;)