Ni hao (hello) all,

In one respect it is hard to believe that we have only been in China for a little over two weeks. On the other hand, when I look back on the many experiences we have had thus far, it seems like it would have to be much longer. In such a short period of time we have done so many things and met so many new people. I’ll do my best to share some of our experiences.

I guess the best place to start is to say that there are 8 of us including myself. There are 3 from the Cambridge campus and 4 from Coon Rapids. Let me take a brief minute to introduce them all. The three students from Cambridge are Andy Johnson, Gabe Richards and Lena Beste (our lone female participant). Lena was a student at the U of M last year, but she has ties to the Cambridge campus so I consider her to be a member of the Cambridge delegation. From Coon Rapids we have Shane Gurek, Chad McCoy, David Durant and Jon Simon. As you read this and other e-mails, I’m sure you will get to know them all well.

On Sep. 5th we left Minneapolis, where we took a direct flight to Tokyo and then transferred to another plane bound for the exciting city of Hong Kong. Altogether, I believe our travel time was something like 18 hours. Sitting in an airplane seat for most of that time is anything but comfortable, but I did discover a great way to make the time go faster. If you are one of those who know me pretty well, you most likely guessed that I slept. Long ago, I developed the gift of sleeping just about anywhere and it really helped in this situation. After the flight, several of the students commented to me that they were surprised I could sleep so long, but it really came in handy when we arrived in Hong Kong.

The next morning, I got up early, took a walk to the harbor, exchanged money at an ATM, and discovered the visitors information center before any of them were even out of bed. We had 3 days to tour Hong Kong and we did as much as we could before we departed for Zhaoqing.

Before I left for Hong Kong, I had thought the city would be a completely foreign experience. There were definite differences from the States (like driving on the left side of the road and signs in Chinese), but it had the feel of a large American city. Every few steps we would stumble across another 7-11, we could buy the USA Today just about anywhere, almost everyone owned a cell phone (albeit much smaller than in America), there were skyscrapers everywhere, and the subway was quick and easy to use.

In the short amount of time we were there, I know we must have walked for several miles. There was never a dull moment as we tried to do and see as much as we could. I think one of our favorite things to do was just walk around and see what was there. There were so many interesting and beautiful things. One of my favorite parts about Hong Kong was the harbor. Our hotel was on the Island of Kowloon and we took the ferry across to Hong Kong Island several times. It’s a short ride and it only cost about $.25 each way.

On of the highlights of Hong Kong was taking the tram to the top of one of the hills in the city. I guess the real estate in the area is some of the most expensive in the world because of the spectacular view of the city. When you get to the top you are above the skyline and you can see the whole harbor as well as the city. It was so beautiful that I wanted to return once it got dark, but I was just too tired after we walked so much. We decided to walk down the hill instead of taking the tram. We followed a switchback trail that meandered through beautiful parks. It was a difficult walk, and it took a few hours and we were all quite hungry by the time we finally found a restaurant.

There are many islands which surround Hong Kong, so another day we chose to take a 45 minute ferry ride to Lantau Island, where we saw the “Big Buddha.” It is an enormous statue situated on the peak of a mountain. It really is a tremendous site. We also ate the vegetarian meal served at the monastery. It was hard to believe that such a remote place was situated so close to such a large city!

Hong Kong was of course an exhilarating experience, but the real purpose of our trip is to study in Zhaoqing. After our three days of running all over Hong Kong, we boarded another ferryboat headed for Zhaoqing. When the bus dropped us off at the ferry terminal, this is when I really felt like we were in a foreign land. No matter where we went in Hong Kong, we could easily find a person who spoke English or at least there was an English sign directing us where to go. We were just feet away from the ferry boats that took us across the harbor so easily, but all of a sudden it seemed that all the English signs disappeared and all those people who spoke English so well had taken the day off. I had actually expected such a scenario when we arrived in Hong Kong, but I was taken in by the past few days and I was caught a little off guard.

Eventually, we found our way to the ticket counter and we thought we were off to Zhaoqing. It couldn’t be that easy because this was meant to be a day of passport difficulties. As we started to go through customs, Jon realized that he has packed his passport in his suitcase. While he went back to the main counter to attempt to track down the passport, the rest of us passed through customs. This was the first time I began to worry a bit, because I really had no idea if he was going to make it to the boat on time. I had just given him all of our luggage claim tickets and I couldn’t go back through customs to see if he was going to make the boat on time. I was just envisioning us leaving without Jon and then arriving without our claim tickets and having his passport still tucked away in his bag. Jon potentially could have ended up staying in Hong Kong, his luggage and passport would be in Zhaoqing and no one could claim his bag because he had the claim ticket. If Jon didn’t make it to the boat, should I have sent the other 6 to Zhaoqing and then tried to come with Jon the next day (somehow hoping he had his passport), or should I leave Jon and then hope he got there okay the next day? ? ? ? ? I was beginning to think we were going have a crash landing before we even got off the runway! Luckily, that didn’t happen and we all made it to the boat on time. Jon had to give them a description of his bag and eventually someone found it and rummaged through it until they found his passport.

The ferry was different than the open boats we rode in Hong Kong. This boat was fully enclosed and sort of reminded me of an airplane. There was of course much more headroom and definitely not as much turbulence as our flight over. The trip up the river was beautiful, as the landscape was transformed from city to mountainous country. Along the way, we could see various cities as well as several smaller, less seaworthy vessels. It was becoming clearer and clearer that we were on the mainland.

On the boat, I had my first experience eating soup with chopsticks. I was hungry so I went to the counter and I asked for some food by pointing to the noodles. The woman asked me if I wanted them with ham and eggs. I wasn’t expecting ham and eggs, but I figured it might be my last chance at if for a while so I said yes. Well again, it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting (I’m beginning to feel a theme already). She served me a bowl of noodle soup, which happened to have a piece of ham and a cooked egg on the top. The next step was to use the chopsticks. I managed to put the food against the side of the bowl and use the chopsticks to cut it that way. It took some doing, but I was able to eat without getting too much soup on my lap. Once I ate all the solid food, I just drank the remainder like a cup of soup.

The next test was arriving in Zhaoqing. All I knew was that someone would meet us when we arrived. I really knew nothing more, but I remembered Gordy’s advice to me: “Trust the Chinese implicitly.” He said they will do nothing to harm us and everything to help us. I figured I’d have to go on faith with this one. Someone will meet us there and I’m sure we’ll stick out like a sore thumb anyway. We barely got off the boat and Vice President Wei (pronounced way) was there on the steps greeting us. We were the only foreigners on the boat, so they really had no problem identifying us. It was a very warm welcome and I thought they brought a cameraman from the school to get a few shots, but as it turns out, they brought the local news crew and we were on the news in town that night.

Our arrival all seemed too easy. We were getting sent through customs with a rubber stamp and all our bags were cleared without anyone having to get searched. It was just too smooth. But then I did say that this was the day of passport problems. Somewhere in the confusion of collecting luggage, Chad had taken his passport out, and he couldn’t find it. He was sweating it for a good ten minutes or so, and all of us were looking anywhere we could think of. The customs agents would have nothing to do with the photocopy I had of Chad’s passport. They wanted the real McCoy! Like Jon’s passport problem earlier in the day, things worked out. Chad had set his passport on some of the luggage and someone else must have put another suitcase on top of it. When he finally came through the door, he was greeted with a big cheer and a round of applause from the 20-30 Chinese students waiting just outside the door of the terminal. I’m not sure, but the story of Chad’s passport could have been on the news too. I was just happy that all of us had made in the country and we were on our way to the school!

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions you may be having about our experience. I’ll do my best to respond individually, but I can’t make any promises. If nothing else, I’ll try to address your questions in the group e-mails.

I’m sending this to Mark Widdel so he can distribute it to the campus. I am also attaching some pictures we have taken along the way and Mark is hoping he can post them to a web site. I’ll let him keep you all updated about that. Until next time,

Rob