International Education - Trip to China

Submitted by John Douglas on May 25, 2013.

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China Diary - Day One
May 21, 2013
On board the KD Air van to Qualicum Beach with our driver Heath and two long distance commuters, one heading to northern Alberta as an engineer for Suncor, the other to northern BC as a pipefitter. This underscores the need for us to develop our economy on the island so our people can work close to town.
Onto the plane to Vancouver on KD's Piper Chieftain, full with ten passengers - a long one hour trip for a short hop across the Salish Sea.
Next stop is the main terminal at YVR to find Alaska Airlines for the leg to Seattle.
Off to the Main Terminal - Alaska Air to Seattle. Two hours wait trying to get the phone email site up and running. The cashier at the breakfast kiosk taught me how to say thank you in Mandarin - Xiexie - sounds like ‘she she’ I think.
In Seattle safely! I shared a spot with a young fellow named Rob who works for a software development company based in Vancouver. He and a coworker are headed to Houston on what is a frequent business trip for them. They develop programs for ‘fracking’ procedures in the natural gas industry. Rob and his wife just moved to Vancouver from Alberta. His wife works for a company which is involved in testing core samples for mining operations. Whoa, people moving from Alberta to work in BC? Is there a trend here? Rob was very interested in hearing about Port Alberni's growing diversity and our Port potential. I invited him to bring his wife for a visit as he said in his field he can easily work at times from home and we have great property values here.
Seattle - - - what a hive of international activity here! I navigated my way from Gate B to S via many escalators and a short train ride. Staff were very helpful in this and on finding the appropriate airline (Hainan), the attendant even taught me how to say ‘hello, how are you"(neeha mah) and corrected my earlier "thank you” to "shayshay". So now I have two phrases under my belt.
I booked onto flight to Beijing. Told it will be about eleven hours and a fifteen hour time gain getting there around five p.m. tomorrow. Onto the jet getting teased - by being forced to wander through the spacious First Class Area - then we are into economy, squeezing in between Ethan on my left (who is from Beijing and returning for a family visit after studying computer sciences in Texas) and Simon on my right (a ski instructor from Northern Italy who has been studying for his Masters in Sports Journalism at Chicago). Simon tells me that Beijing is a great city with no crime. His girlfriend lives in Beijing and works for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Eleven hours (and one day) later we are pulling into Beijing airport to a sultry 38 Celsius.
I am met by Eric Gibb, who is working with our local School District and North Island College over here. Tomorrow we are visiting the Canadian Embassy and a representative of the BC Trade office. Then we hop on another plane and head south. Busy times here in the Far East. End of day one!

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China Diary - Day 2
May 23, 2013
Early start today with the BC Trade and Investment Office in Beijing hosting a meeting with myself , Eric Gibb (who has an established business here and is working in conjunction with School District 70) ,Kevi Tsui (Regional Manager),and Vicky Song (Educational Manager)to discuss the prospects for international students. The Trade office was also very interested to hear of Port Albernis' other initiatives, particularly of the port and of the potential for economic growth in that sector. I extended an invitation for them to visit our city on their next visit to BC.
Next we were off to the new airport at Beijing, a massive complex built for the Olympics where we’ll catch a flight to Wuhan, one of the larger cities of the area .
We were met by Serena and Mrs. Xiao, who are both involved in education in Huangshi, our final destination today. After a one hour drive through a flat and hazy atmosphere we were met by the Mayor and a delegation of about 12 for a media event. This was followed by a very honourable discussion on the potential for our communities to work together on not just education but other economic opportunities.
I meet with the Mayor of Huangshi again early in the a.m for some further talks. He appears to be a very sincere man and very serious about developing a relationship with Port Alberni.
Tomorrow we have some more local visits (Huangshi is known as an educational center in China) then it’s back to Wuhan for a flight to Enshi!
China Diary - Day 3
May 24, 2013
Began the day at about six am with a quick walk around Huangshi, being careful not to breathe too deeply. It is difficult to see the sun through the ever present veil of pollution. Apart from that it is a strangely beautiful landscaped city built on a river and around a number of lakes.
Breakfast with Mayor Yang, quite significant that he has devoted last night and the morning to our meeting as he is a very busy Mayor with a city of approximately two and one half million. Mayor Yang studied structural engineering in the United States and fortunately for me speaks very fluent English. I am still at the two phrase stage in my Mandarin language skills. He tells me that I am the first Mayor from Canada to visit. I am honoured. We discussed at more length his wish for Huangshi and Port Alberni to work together on international education then expand on this in other significant economic matters. We agreed to have our respective Councils discuss this and consider bringing the offer back to him after I return to Port Alberni.
Next was a presentation to a large group of students, parents and teachers at a local school in Huangshi. We were very well received, particularly the Alberni Valley Tourism Video bringing oohs and ahhs from the audience.
Back to the hotel for checkout. Then off to the next stop - a massive new educational centre. They feed, house and educate here. We had a meeting with School officials and Mrs. Susie, a Vice Mayor (they have five Vice Mayor's instead of Councillors) where we talked about the advantages of communities working together. I voiced our City's support of the School District's initiative, and Eric Gibb of Vancouver Island Schools signed an agreement with the local School Ministry for working together.
A very impressive tour of the educational complex followed .Now - on the road again back to Wuhan (only fourteen million people) and a flight to Enshi, a small city of only one million. The scope of this country is staggering.
From the new Wuhan airport we are flown to the old (but soon to be replaced with a new) Enshi airport, greeted by a number of educational delegates, including our own School District Superintendent Cam Pinkerton. Then we are whisked off to a formal conference with the local governor of the region - Mr. Qin Bin. They are very serious about joining in educational partnerships as well and also expanding on those partnerships into economic investments.
If what I have seen so far is occurring across the country ,then there is an enormous push by the governments here to educate their children so they can catch up to all of the very extreme changes that have developed here over the recent past. I heard a statement that the generation changes here are only every three years - in other words their whole world is changing at a very quick pace. This isn't a world of rickshaws and dirt paths over here...it is a world of new jets that are full of commuters, new freeways, new high speed trains, new airports and of course why we are here - new schools. In Enshi they are building a new foreign language school of three thousand students to be ready in September!
I met seven who are coming to Port Alberni in a few months from now and there was an auditorium of youth and parents there to find out whether they can get their children involved as well.
That's it for Day 3 from China.
China Diary - Day Four
May 25, 2013
Well the trip to China was a wrap so to speak - until we arrived at the Enshi airport to find all the flights canceled and all of the carefully laid plans for getting back to Port Alberni and our Council meeting thrown into complete disarray.
The end result - after booking back into a hotel, looked after by our local hosts, I am hopping on an overnight train across part of China to Wuhan, where the plan is to get re-booked flights to Beijing then Vancouver.
The train station is packed - being another very popular mode of transportation here , but fortunately a Vancouver Island Schools rep is escorting me through all the steps and making sure I get on and off at the right places. We have a sleeper compartment with four bunk beds, bathroom (just a hole in floor- be careful here with the passports and cell phones as retrieval will be very challenging) down the passageway.

One of the gentlemen sharing with us is a policeman from Enshi and we have a very friendly (but very broken) conversation in English, politely exchanging souvenirs before we pretend to sleep. The train is of the ‘lurching’ variety - every time you get close to a nod off it lurches you back to reality!
When we arrive at Wuhan it's into the cab with our new police friend and a long drive through this fourteen million plus city. After four hours of hurrying up and waiting, using Google translate to figure out the next steps, my very hospitable guide Mrs. Xiao bids me farewell. An Air China Airbus and two hours later I am into the super modern Beijing International. For the first time in what seems a long time, I hear English being spoken and kind of regret it for a brief minute.
Onto Air Canada flight #30 - I am sitting next to a young instructor from the Chinese University of Shenzhen (Shenzhen is a neighbour of Hong Kong). Ironically John Wu is on his first (this was my first to China) visit to Canada. He instructs in the field of Computer Science and will be attending a conference in Vancouver. John explains to me China's policy of one child per family, the reasons and implications of it. The government no longer criminalizes it but they make it more expensive for families of more than one child - you have to pay extra for schooling for one thing. Another interesting tidbit I learn is that you can only own property in China for a set time - I was told seventy years - now we know why people are coming over here to purchase property . We also discuss the phenomenal amount of air pollution- in my whole travels of two flights of over three hours plus a two hour freeway drive we never once were able to see through the smog (akin to being at the centre of a bad Alberni Valley slash burn).John states that the government is finally beginning to recognize the immensity of the problem .In fact the Mayor of the first city I visited (Mayor Yang of Huangshi) suggested that Port Alberni could perhaps help his City learn how to improve the health of their local environment - things have changed for the better from when Port Albernians had to dust off the Pulp Mill grime and ash from their cars in the morning!
Was this trip worth it? Even if only in supporting the work of Superintendent Cam Pinkerton and the School District in their educational partnership with Eric Gibb of Vancouver Island Schools, this trip will bear fruit, cultural and economic. Seven students will be coming here soon and from what I have seen there will be many more (barring any major global catastrophes) in the coming years. If this junket that your City Council voted for and sent me on allows our School District to generate some revenue and thus avoid closures - closures that have happened in other districts -then this small contribution of $2,000 towards the venture will have benefited the entire Alberni Valley.
In addition, my one visit to the Beijing office of Trade and Investment has already given our Economic Manager Pat Deakin a new and valuable resource, opening the window for direct contacts on the ground throughout China after our meeting this last week. It has also given us one more opportunity to promote our Port Authority plans of a Transshipping facility and regional distribution hub here in our Valley.
Other aspects of the China trip have touched more on what our Provincial and Federal Government may want to consider, and I hope to be able to offer my comments on that when I next see our Premier and also our MLA Scott Fraser and our MP James Lunney. They could be working more aggressively, forming more partnerships, investments, and cultural exchanges with China. China is behind us in their standards of living at the moment but at the rate I saw they will be catching up and surpassing us within decades.
Our country needs to work with them, particularly on education, health and government in general, so that our Canadian values of fairness and freedom become embedded in their country.
Well, that's it for me. I hope you have found these rambling China Diaries interesting.
Next stop India ----- just kidding!
John Douglas - the reluctant traveler - halfway over the Pacific, now May 26th, 2013.

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